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 ...
A Lesson in the (Re)distribution of Wealth by Edmund Contoski January 1, 2010 Through the company where I worked more than 35 years ago, I had an opportunity to meet an unusual man. I had not seen him since, but his recent obituary caught my eye. His name was Wayne Field, a name I’m sure few, if any, of you will recognize. In his 87 years he accomplished a great deal. He founded ...
New Deal Charades by George Leef January 1, 2010 New Deal or Raw Deal? by Burton Folsom Jr. (Threshold Editions, 2008); 318 pages. The New Deal rescued the United States from the terrible depression caused by the instability of our capitalist economy. Thats the standard line peddled to gullible Americans by most history books, historians, and politicians. It was not surprising when Republican Speaker of the House Newt ...
Serious Problems with Obama’s Plan to Move Guantánamo to Illinois by Andy Worthington December 21, 2009 Last Tuesday, in a letter to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, five senior Obama administration officials — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, and Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano —announced. that “the president has directed, with our unanimous support, that the ...
What Does It Take to Get Out of Obama’s Guantánamo? by Andy Worthington December 14, 2009 On August 21, District Court Judge Gladys Kessler granted the habeas corpus petition of Mohammed al-Adahi, a Yemeni prisoner in Guantánamo who was 39 years old when he was seized on a bus in Pakistan. I described the broad outline of al-Adahi’s story in my book The Guantánamo Files as follows: Married with two children, al-Adahi had never left ...
There’s No Such Thing as a Free Mammogram by Sheldon Richman December 10, 2009 Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) holds the distinction of being the first senator to offer a successful amendment to the big Senate health-care overhaul bill now being debated in Washington, D.C. It is a perfect lesson in what’s wrong with the political mentality. According to Mikulski’s news release, the amendment would “guarantee women access to preventive health care screenings and care ...
Cleared for Release and Still in Limbo by Andy Worthington December 7, 2009 In the first detailed announcement about prisoners cleared for release from Guantánamo since September 28, when a military spokesman announced that a list of 78 cleared prisoners had been posted in the prison, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Senate hearing last Thursday that officials were “in the process of identifying detainees that we believe can be ...
Kill the Insurance Mandate by Sheldon Richman December 4, 2009 If Congress manages to pass a health-insurance bill in the next few weeks, it will undoubtedly require every person to have medical coverage or pay a fine. If someone’s employer doesn’t offer a policy, he will be obligated to buy one for himself no matter how expensive. (Subsidies will be available to lower- and middle-income people.) Coverage is not likely ...
Medical Marijuana Does Not Equal Freedom by Sheldon Richman December 3, 2009 The Obama Justice Department says it will no longer go after “individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.” In other words, if a state legalizes the production, distribution, and possession of marijuana for medical purposes, Attorney General Eric Holder’s troops will keep hands off. Considering that marijuana ...
The Liberal Assault on the Poor, Part 1 by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 Liberals say that they love the poor, needy, and disadvantaged. Unfortunately, however, the economic philosophy that liberals favor constitutes a direct assault on the economic well-being of the poor, along with nearly everyone else in society. Liberals claim to combat poverty in two principal ways. First, they use the force of government (e.g., income taxes) to ...
Obama’s Message to Schoolchildren by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2009 When President Obama announced last August that he would address American schoolchildren in a nationwide televised speech, the Right went bananas. August, of course, was the height of the health-care controversy, and conservative leaders and media commentators imagined that Obama was going to make an overt pitch for his quest for government control over medicine and medical insurance, as ...