Politics

The Fraud of Big Picture Thinking

by James Bovard April 1, 2010

Politicians, pundits, and others perennially invoke the “Big Picture.” Recognizing the role of the Big Picture is vital to understanding how contemporary democracies are going off the rail. The Big Picture provides preemptive exoneration for almost anyone who wants to kowtow and cheerlead for political power. Fifteen years ago, there was a hullabaloo to denounce “politically correct” mandates and imperatives. ...

Hard Cases Make Bad Law

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 23, 2010

The issue in the Terri Schiavo case is not whether the Florida district court originally entered a correct judgment or not. The issue is whether this is a nation in which the American people are going to continue permitting their Washington politicians and bureaucrats to continue trampling on the Constitution and the rule of law, even while these people ...

Republican Witch-Hunters Embrace Dictatorship

by Andy Worthington March 15, 2010

Are there no depths to which conservatives will not sink in their ardent embrace of the war on terrorism? The latest monstrosity from the right came courtesy of Keep America Safe, a toxic organization headed by Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who recently put out a disgraceful TV ad, Who ...

The CIA and the Assassination of John Kennedy, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Among the reasons the CIA should have been made a specific target of a criminal investigation in the John Kennedy assassination were: (1) the CIA was the world’s premier expert in assassination and coups; and (2) the CIA was in a partnership with one of the most crooked and murderous private ...

Barack Obama: No Radicalism to Be Found

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2010

A portion of the American people believe that President Barack Obama is a left-wing radical bent on transforming U.S. society in his image. There’s an easy way to dispel that misconception: Look at what he does and what he says. In domestic affairs Obama has stayed within the narrow establishment zone. The health-care “debate,” for example, has featured no radical ...

The Folly of Blindly Trusting the Government

by James Bovard March 1, 2010

Democracy breeds gullibility. Lord Bryce observed in 1921, “State action became less distrusted the more the State itself was seen to be passing under popular control.” The rise of democracy made it much easier for politicians to convince people that government posed no threat, because they automatically controlled its actions. The result is that the brakes on government power ...

The Tumor in the War on Cancer

by Michael Tennant March 1, 2010

Gen. George S. Patton said, “Politicians are the lowest form of life on earth.” Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a group of people more eager to take advantage of others’ misfortunes to increase their own power and inflate their own egos than our so-called public servants. When it comes to exploiting tragedies, they are shameless. For a prime ...

The Disaster of Government-Run Businesses, Part 1

by Jim Powell March 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 Barack Obama defied experience everywhere when he stubbornly claimed he could make a government-run health program work. The standard practice of any government-run business is to provide favored interest groups with something for nothing, forcing other people to pay for it, and there always seem to be complications. If Obama really wanted to see how ...

Once Again, Democracy Is Not Freedom (and We Are Not the Government)

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 21, 2010

President Bush and his neoconservative supporters were practically teary-eyed on election day in Iraq. No longer did it matter that the weapons of mass destruction that had been used to scare the American people into supporting the war didn’t exist. Or that thousands of U.S. troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis were now dead or maimed. Or that ...

The CIA and the Assassination of John Kennedy, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 One of the strangest aspects of the investigation into John Kennedys murder was the reaction of federal officials. Whenever government officials are assassinated, the normal reaction of law enforcement is to pull out all the stops in an attempt to ensure that no one who was involved in the crime escapes punishment. Yet ...

The Bush Secrecy Legacy

by James Bovard January 1, 2010

Many Americans assumed that the Bush administration’s peril to their freedom ended when George Bush exited the White House on January 20, 2009. Unfortunately, the precedents the administration established continue to threaten Americans’ rights and liberties. This is stark on government secrecy. Shortly after the 2000 election, Vice President-elect Richard Cheney convened a task force on energy policy. After he ...

How a Rich and Proud Nation Went Broke

by Jim Powell January 1, 2010

Amidst a multitrillion dollar spending spree, President Obama apparently believes it’s inconceivable that a mighty nation such as the United States could go broke. Yet France, once the most powerful nation in Europe, went broke and was plunged into a revolution that consumed the king and queen. Germany was bankrupted by reparations following World War I as well as the ...