Shared Sacrifice: Obama’s Demagoguery by Sheldon Richman July 29, 2011 The most offensive claim made during the debt-ceiling controversy is that there’s a moral equivalence between cutting government spending and raising taxes. President Obama asks for “shared sacrifice” to reduce the budget deficit. In his view, if the government spends more than it takes in — it currently borrows more than 40 cents of every dollar spent — the ...
The Collateral Is Us by Rich Schwartzman July 28, 2011 The witching hour is nigh and the threat of the U.S. defaulting on the federal debt is being bandied about as if it were the boogeyman. Fear mongers from the left and right both say the country will go belly up unless the debt ceiling is raised by the Aug. 2 deadline, that it will no longer be able to ...
The Budget Mess: A Crisis in Legitimacy by Sheldon Richman July 28, 2011 Reality has finally caught up with the ruling elite, and its members inside and outside of government are in a panic. They have freely spent the taxpayers’ money for generations, building a corporatist warfare-welfare state, and when that wasn’t enough to finance their projects, they borrowed just as freely. For a long while it paid off handsomely in power ...
Immigration Chaos by Fergus Hodgson July 27, 2011 The presence of illegal immigrants in the United States continues to generate ineffectual political initiatives, from employment verification mandates to referendums against in-state tuition access. These fail to resolve the underlying causes for the presence of illegals, such as the arbitrary (see the immigration lottery), expensive, and humiliating immigration process (and I speak from ...
Guantánamo and the Death of Habeas Corpus by Andy Worthington July 27, 2011 Last month, the third anniversary of Boumediene v. Bush (on June 12) passed without mention. This was a great shame, not only because it was a powerful ruling, recognizing that the Guantánamo prisoners had constitutionally guaranteed habeas corpus rights, but also because, after that bold intervention, which led to the release of 26 prisoners who ...
Liberty and License by Laurence M. Vance July 26, 2011 Same-sex couples in New York City can now apply for marriage licenses using online forms that feature gender-neutral terminology. This follows the passage of the Marriage Equality Act, the New York law that legalized same-sex marriage. The bill became law on June 24, 2011, and took effect thirty days later. Marriage licenses in New York City cost $35. The state ...
The Soviet Union’s Continuing Influence on America by James Bovard July 26, 2011 It has been almost 20 years since the Soviet Union officially dissolved. While the nation of that name no longer exists, its legacy continues influencing political thought and practices in many places in the world. The glorification of the Soviet Union by American intellectuals from the 1920s onwards helped spur the creation of federal programs that continue plaguing the ...
The War on Terrorism Is a War on Freedom (audio) by Future of Freedom Foundation July 25, 2011 On July 15, 2011, the Future of Freedom Foundation sponsored a panel at FreedomFest 2011 entitled "The War on Terrorism Is a War on Freedom." Panelists included FFF president Jacob G. Hornberger, FFF senior fellow Sheldon Richman, and FFF policy adviser James Bovard. The panel was moderated by American Conservative magazine editor Daniel McCarthy. Download the MP3 here.
Rupert Murdoch and Freedom of the Press by Wendy McElroy July 21, 2011 A scandal rocking the British Isles is slopping onto American shores. In its zeal to scoop the news, a British paper within Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire engaged in illegal and immoral activities. Specifically, the News of the World (the News) bribed police officers for confidential information and hacked into private phone messages. The well-founded accusations are currently ...
Low-Hanging Fruit: Farm Subsidies by Fergus Hodgson July 20, 2011 Toing and froing over the debt ceiling has delayed an extension of the federal Farm Bill, set to expire in 2012. Of all the wasteful federal programs, agricultural subsidies may be the most painless to eliminate, so bring on their expiration. The Farm Bill is actually an aggregation of 15 bills, and it includes a host ...
The Road to the Permanent Warfare State, Part 3 by Gregory Bresiger July 20, 2011 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 |Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 |Part 12 |Part 13 Why did the United States, in 1947, suddenly decide that it could no longer ...
Creating a Military State by Andy Worthington July 19, 2011 “Some issues,” the New York Times declared in an editorial on June 25, “require an unwavering stand. Preserving the role of law enforcement agencies in stopping and punishing terrorists is one of them. This country is not and should never be a place where the military dispenses justice, other than to its own.” Fine words, indeed, although the ...