Revolution in Egypt and Hypocrisy in the U.S. by Andy Worthington January 31, 2011 For the United States and other Western countries, the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt (which threaten to spread to other countries, including Yemen and Algeria) are something of a nightmare. Just as the authorities in these countries are struggling — and failing — to cope with popular uprisings, so too the United States and other Western countries are ...
The Jacob Hornberger Show: The Income Tax Root of Evil by Jacob G. Hornberger January 28, 2011 The Jacob Hornberger Show broadcasts live Saturday nights at 7pm EST. Visit FFF's Ustream Channel to watch the show live. //
Ron Paul and Ralph Nader on Corporatism and War by Sheldon Richman January 28, 2011 What is American politics coming to? I just watched a joint interview with Ralph Nader and Rep. Ron Paul — and they were mostly on the same side! Nader has spent his life promoting government intervention in the economy. Paul has spent his life promoting the free market and minimal government. For the two of them to discuss making ...
The Gambling Question by Laurence M. Vance January 26, 2011 My state of Florida, like many other states, is facing a budget shortfall. Although our new Republican governor, Rick Scott, maintains that the budget gap is “nothing” compared with other large states, $3.6 billion is still a lot of money. Although some states are turning to tax increases to make up their budget deficits — like Illinois, which just raised ...
Obama’s Collapse: The Return of the Military Commissions by Andy Worthington January 25, 2011 For T.S. Eliot, April was the cruelest month, but for the prisoners at Guantánamo it is January — from the dashed hopes of January 2009, when President Obama swept into office issuing an executive order in which he promised to close the prison within a year, to January 2010, when, having failed to do so, he ...
Obama Has Nothing to Teach China’s Hu by Sheldon Richman January 24, 2011 “President Obama ... gently but pointedly prodded China to make progress on human rights,” reports the New York Times. The irony should not escape us. The head of the U.S. empire, which for years has committed a variety of atrocities abroad and widespread surveillance at home, lectured President Hu Jintao of China about human rights. You can’t make this stuff ...
The Nanny State and Baby Cribs by Laurence M. Vance January 19, 2011 The federal government is routinely condemned for being cruel, inept, paternalistic, evil, inefficient, and intrusive — except when it comes to the subject of child safety. Indeed, in the name of child safety the most flagrant violations of civil liberties, private property, and the Constitution are routinely accepted by those who might ordinarily have nothing but condemnation for the ...
Pentagon Propaganda on Gitmo Prisoners Releases by Andy Worthington January 18, 2011 For several years now, one organization in the U.S. government has persistently undermined attempts to have a grown-up debate about the perceived dangerousness of prisoners at Guantánamo, and the need to bear security concerns in mind whilst also trying to empty the prison and to bring to an end this particularly malign icon of the Bush administration's ill-conceived response ...
Government Spies on Americans by Sheldon Richman January 13, 2011 Most Americans seem detached from the U.S. governments military actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere. U.S. forces not only engage in wanton killing and harsh treatment of prisoners, but also surveillance and other intelligence activities that might appall the American people if they were used at home. Well, guess what: Technologies and techniques honed for use on ...
The Banality of Killing by Jacob G. Hornberger January 12, 2011 The standard explanations for the Arizona killings are now being set forth, such as widespread violence in America and right-wing extremism. I’d like to weigh in with another possible factor, one that I can’t prove but one that I think Americans ought to at least consider: the fact that killing has now become an accepted, essential, normal, and permanent ...
Noah’s Ark and the Sanctity of Private Property by Laurence M. Vance January 11, 2011 The subject of a proposed religious theme park in Kentucky brings up an issue near and dear to the heart of libertarians: the sanctity of private property. There is some controversy over the proposed construction of a $150 million Noah’s Ark theme park on 800 acres near Interstate 75 in Kentucky. The theme park — to be called