Frightening Voters into Submission by James Bovard November 1, 2009 Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge has a new book out that reveals that he almost resigned because the Bush administration was hustling bogus terror alerts before the 2004 election. Ridge’s revelation was not surprising to people who had closely followed the tactics Bush used to snare a second term. During the 2004 campaign, residents of swing states were under ...
The New York Times Shines a Light into the JFK-CIA-Joannides Scandal by Jacob G. Hornberger October 19, 2009 Last Friday, October 16, the New York Times, for the first time, shined a light onto the JFK-CIA-Joannides scandal with a story entitled “C.I.A. Is Still Cagey About Oswald Mystery.” The story soon began appearing in other mainstream newspapers and on Internet websites. Never mind that the scandal has been brewing since 1998, ...
Democratic Misrepresentation by Sheldon Richman October 1, 2009 If you want to know how representative government works not in airy theory but on the ground, contemplate these facts: (1) Except perhaps for the rarest exception, no member of Congress will have read the entire final 1,000-plus-page bill that seeks, in the New York Times’s words, to “reinvent the nation’s health care system”; and (2) in July the ...
Appoint a Special Prosecutor in the JFK-Joannides Matter by Jacob G. Hornberger August 2, 2009 While we’re discussing whether a special prosecutor should be named to investigate and prosecute CIA officials for violations of federal laws against murder, kidnapping, and torture, why not use the occasion to do the same in the matter of George Joannides? For it would be difficult to find a better example of obstruction of justice and fraud on the ...
Hamilton’s Betrayal by George Leef June 1, 2009 Hamilton’s Curse: How Jefferson’s Archenemy Betrayed the American Revolution — and What It Means for America Today by Thomas J. DiLorenzo (Crown Forum 2008); 232 pages. There is a tendency among Americans to think of the nation’s Founders as a group of wealthy white men who owned property, didn’t like ...
Socialism: Faith Trumps Reality by Ralph R. Reiland May 21, 2009 Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman got it right about a lot of things, but he was overly optimistic when he wrote in 1990 that socialism was dead. “Ten years ago, many people around the world believed that socialism was a viable, even the most promising, system for promoting material prosperity and human freedom,” wrote Friedman. ...
Obama and Perilous Delusions of Democracy by James Bovard April 1, 2009 When Barack Obama was inaugurated on January 20, there was euphoria across the land and millions of people cheered in the streets of Washington. Many people are convinced that American democracy has been redeemed and that the federal government no longer poses a peril to individual rights. Since the people’s choice is now at the helm of the U.S. ...
Boundless Ignorance versus Self-Government by James Bovard March 1, 2009 Modern democracy is based on faith that the people can control what they do not understand. As government has grown by leaps and bounds, “government by the people” has become one of the great fairy tales of our times. As the Founding Fathers feared, citizen ignorance often brings out the worst in their rulers. Contemporary ...
The Campaign-Reform Crime, Part 2 by James Bovard February 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 We saw in the last issue how the McCain-Feingold Act — the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) — sought to fundamentally change the American political landscape. Politicians did not allow the Act’s power to lie idle in the first presidential election after its enactment. The BCRA’s issue-ad ban — the peril that Justice ...
The Peaceful Transfer of Violent Power by Sheldon Richman January 19, 2009 At the risk of raining on the parade, I suggest that the inaugural festivities are not what they appear. Barack Obama says the pomp and circumstance are not about him but are a celebration of democracy. “For the forty-third time, we will execute the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next,” ...
The Campaign-Reform Crime, Part 1 by James Bovard January 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 In 2002, Congress passed and George Bush signed the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). The McCain-Feingold Act was supposed to create an era of clean politics — uncorrupt, untainted, and far loftier than what Americans had experienced in prior decades. If the 2008 election proved anything, it revealed that politicians cannot be trusted ...
Bush Shows that Politics is Theater by Sheldon Richman December 26, 2008 Politics is corrupt theater. Actors set the mood, and some members of the audience have their pockets picked. Exhibit A is President Bushs surprise trip to Baghdad on Thanksgiving. Whats important is not the secrecy or the collusion by anointed members of the news media. Its the use of ...