The Pomona College Debate on Immigration by Jacob G. Hornberger November 12, 2007 What a great time I had at the immigration debate at Pomona College last Thursday! Since I was debating the president of the “Minutemen,” Marvin Stewart, the event was rife with controversy on campus. You’ll recall that when the debate was originally scheduled last spring, the then-head of the Minutemen, Jim Gilchrist, backed out, ostensibly because he was scared ...
Democracy Is Not Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger November 9, 2007 President Bush’s advice to Pakistani military dictator Pervez Musharraf is quite revealing. In the face of Musharraf’s brutal crackdown on civil liberties, Bush is telling Musharraf that he needs to have elections. Whoop-dee-do! Never mind that Musharraf’s military and police goons are beating up and rounding up lawyers and judges and other Pakistanis who believe in a ...
Paralyzing Silence Among the Neo-Cons by Jacob G. Hornberger November 7, 2007 One of the amusing aspects to the Musharraf crackdown in Pakistan is the air of silence it is producing among American neo-cons. The crackdown is an absolutely perfect model of dictatorship and tyranny. And the resistance being led by Pakistani lawyers and judges in the name of the rule of law and an independent judiciary ...
The Heroics of Pakistani Lawyers by Jacob G. Hornberger November 6, 2007 What a fantastic credit to the legal profession that lawyers and judges are playing the leading role in resisting tyranny in Pakistan. Thousands of lawyers are defying Pakistani military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of martial law by street protests all across the country. But Musharraf, in the finest tradition of dictators, is fighting back, sending his ...
Musharraf, Lincoln, and Bush by Jacob G. Hornberger November 5, 2007 Pakistan is providing another good example of the bankruptcy of the U.S. government’s foreign policy of empire and intervention, which has brought so much damage to our country. Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf has declared a national emergency and has seized emergency powers. His security forces have detained about 500 opposition party members, lawyers, and ...
A Federal Inanity in the Fourth Circuit by Jacob G. Hornberger November 2, 2007 One of the most inane arguments I’ve ever heard came this week from one of the 10 judges serving on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is reputedly the most conservative federal appellate court in the country. The judge is J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who was nominated to the bench by Ronald Reagan. The ...
Hornberger’s Blog, November 2007 by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2007 Friday, November 30, 2007 Drug-War Idiocy by Jacob G. Hornberger Mexican officials are all aglow over the seizure of a record 23 tons of cocaine, which they promptly burned in the hope of receiving $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer monies from U.S. officials. When will the American people finally demand a stop to this drug-war idiocy? Some 30 years ago, when I was ...
All Terrorist Cases Belong in Federal Court by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2007 As I have argued ever since 9/11, there was absolutely no reason to let the Pentagon hijack America’s criminal-justice system in the area of terrorism. Terrorism is a federal criminal offense, not an act of war. That’s, in fact, why many, but certainly not all, terrorism cases are still prosecuted in federal district court. The ...
Federal Blackmail, Privacy, and Conformity by Jacob G. Hornberger October 31, 2007 In today’s FFF Email Update, I have an article about the federal war on telephone privacy, the government program in which certain telephone companies allegedly turned over people’s private telephone records to the feds. A common bromide among some Americans is: “I don’t care what information about my telephone calls the feds get because I’m not a criminal. As far ...
The Free Market as Redistributor of Wealth by Jacob G. Hornberger October 30, 2007 Liberals and conservatives argue that the income-tax, welfare-state way of life is necessary to redistribute wealth so that people will be more “equal.” The free market, they have long suggested, results in enormous concentrations of power in which the rich get richer and poor get poorer. They might want to ask Stan O’Neal, who “retired” as ...
A Roll of the Dice Against Iran by Jacob G. Hornberger October 29, 2007 As most everyone knows, President Bush has now placed that dreadful label — “Terrorist!” — on the government of Iran — well, actually on a piece of the government. That’s the magic word that enables the U.S. government to attack, kill, torture, incarcerate, or destroy the recipient of the label. Unfortunately, it’s also the word ...
The Fraud of the War on Terror by Jacob G. Hornberger October 26, 2007 Immediately after he denounced Fidel Castro for being a dictator, President Bush unilaterally decreed new sanctions against Iran, moving the United States closer to war against Iran. Would someone please tell me how it is that Bush exercises such omnipotent power, without even a peep from both Congress and the mainstream press? How is ...
