Nothing Can Morally Justify the Killing of Even One Iraqi by Jacob G. Hornberger December 20, 2007 Neo-con supporters of the U.S. government’s war of aggression against Iraq are undoubtedly holding their collective breath in the hope that U.S. military forces have finally smashed any further violent opposition to their conquest of Iraq. The attitude would then be, “You see, this shows that we were right after all to invade and occupy ...
The Widening CIA Torture Scandal by Jacob G. Hornberger December 19, 2007 CIA torture-tape scandal is becoming more interesting. It now turns out that White House personnel played a major role in the decision on whether to destroy the tapes. While it is still unclear what everybody’s position was on the matter, according to the New York Times, the White House people who took part in the discussions ...
U.S. Soldiers Might Pay the Price for Torture by Jacob G. Hornberger December 18, 2007 Amidst all the debate in which President Bush and his neo-con supporters are trying to convince people that waterboarding, forced isolation, sex abuse, sleep deprivation, stress positions, freezing temperatures, and other “harsh alternative interrogation methods” do not constitute torture, there is one group of people who might well wish that U.S. officials had taken ...
Putin, Roosevelt, and Conservatives by Jacob G. Hornberger December 17, 2007 In its weekend edition, the Wall Street Journal carried an editorial criticizing Russian President Putin’s attempt to extend his power in Russia. Putin has rigged things so that one of his younger lackies will replace Putin as president, while Putin will assume the post of prime minister. However, to ensure that the real power remains ...
Immigration Controls and the Police State by Jacob G. Hornberger December 14, 2007 One of the things that fascinate me about the immigration debate is those people who say that they favor closed borders but simultaneously oppose the police-state programs that are necessary to enforce such a policy. For example, some in the anti-immigrant crowd say that they vehemently oppose a national ID card, a type of program that ...
Terrorist Suspects Belong in Federal Court by Jacob G. Hornberger December 13, 2007 The new chief judge of the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Marine Col. Ralph H. Kohlman, is being confronted with a paper that was written back in 2002 at the Naval War College criticizing President Bush’s and the Pentagon’s plan to use military tribunals to try suspected terrorists. The paper said that it would be better ...
Don’t Reform the CIA — Abolish It by Jacob G. Hornberger December 12, 2007 The latest CIA scandal will once again teach Americans a valuable lesson: It is the CIA, not the Congress, that is the ultimate governing authority in this nation. No one messes with the CIA, and the CIA knows it. That’s why it knew that it could destroy CIA’s torture tapes without asking anyone’s permission. And, ...
Gun Control Protects Murderers by Jacob G. Hornberger December 11, 2007 Let’s compare the two recent murder rampages in the Omaha, Nebraska, shopping mall and the Colorado Springs church camp. The shopping mall was a “gun-free zone,” a place where people, including murderers, are prohibited from carrying weapons. As we have long pointed out here at The Future of Freedom Foundation, there is one great big fallacy about rules, regulations, or laws ...
Tortures, Tapes, and Lies by Jacob G. Hornberger December 10, 2007 CIA Director Michael Hayden is saying that the reason that the CIA destroyed the videotapes of the CIA’s harsh interrogation of suspected terrorists was because he wanted to protect the identity of CIA agents from possible retaliation from al-Qaeda. That almost certainly has to be a lie. The more likely reason is that Hayden was trying ...
Bush’s and Musharraf’s Contempt for Judges and Lawyers by Jacob G. Hornberger December 9, 2007 The Guantanamo case heard by the Supreme Court on Wednesday raises an important constitutional conflict that the Court will have to resolve. On the one hand, the Constitution guarantees the privilege of habeas corpus for everyone, foreigners and citizens alike. The only way that can be changed is through constitutional amendment. On the other hand, the Constitution vests ...
Mussolini and the Mortgage Bailout by Jacob G. Hornberger December 6, 2007 President Bush’s “agreement” with the mortgage industry to freeze interest rates is a reminder of the point that Ludwig von Mises made about interventionism. It is also a reminder of Benito Mussolini’s government-business partnerships that inspired much of the regulatory aspects of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Notice, first of all, that President Bush and his federal ...
Educational Whackiness by Jacob G. Hornberger December 5, 2007 One of the issues that hasn’t surfaced in a big way in the presidential race is education, which is unfortunate given that it is such an important part of our lives. There are two primary sub-issues involved here: (1) whether to end all federal involvement in education, especially through the abolition of the Department of ...
