Daily Articles

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 ...

The Material-Witness Charade

by James Bovard December 1, 2009

Last September, a federal appeals court ruled that former Attorney General John Ashcroft could be personally sued for the unjustified incarceration of innocent people as “material witnesses” in the wake of 9/11. The case involved a former college football star — Lavoni T. Kidd — who converted to Islam, changed his name to Abdullah al-Kidd, and was seized at Dulles ...

Guantánamo: Idealists Leave Obama’s Sinking Ship

by Andy Worthington December 1, 2009

Last week, lawyer, ex-Army Captain, and Iraq veteran Phillip Carter, described by Glenn Greenwald as “a very harsh critic of the Bush administration's detention and interrogation policies,” suddenly resigned his post as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Policy, which he had occupied since April. Carter claimed that he was leaving due to “personal issues,” which ...

The Evil of Sanctions, Part 2

by Brian Cloughley December 1, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 U.S. attacks on Iraq in the no-fly zones were carefully planned, especially in the months immediately before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion by the deluded “coalition” that Washington cobbled together by means of deceit and downright lies about “weapons of mass destruction.” On September 5, 2002, for example, some 100 coalition aircraft bombed and rocketed ...

Barack Obama’s America [Must] Serve Plan

by Scott Shields December 1, 2009

Throughout Barack Obamas campaign for president, he expressed his desire to increase community service in America. He outlined his plan, called America Serves, on change.gov, the website that provided details of his presidential agenda and transition. A screen-shot of America Serves is still available at www.politicallore. com/images/change.jpg. President Obamas plan for community service is now described as a part of ...

Alienating the Inalienable

by Hannah Hoffman December 1, 2009

The freedom movement is inspiring in many ways. It promotes a peaceful, liberated society in which people can be free to pursue their own ideas. Yet I find it ironic that while most involved in the freedom movement recognize the idea of personal liberty, many still hold an anti-liberty, anti-immigration view. When it comes to inalienable rights with which all ...

Government Caused the Meltdown

by George Leef December 1, 2009

Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods (Regnery, 2009); 194 pages. Thomas Woodss Meltdown is a truly radical book. That is to say, it probes to the root ...

Libertarianism Is the Only Way Out

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 30, 2009

The Future of Freedom Foundation is one of the most important organizations in the liberty movement. FFF does great work educating the public in the principles of free-market economics, individual liberty, and a noninterventionist foreign policy. — Congressman Ron Paul During the social hour after a recent meeting of our Economic Liberty Lecture series, a student posted a message on ...

Gold, Freedom, and the Fed

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 25, 2009

The following is a non-verbatim transcript of a speech I delivered on November 23, 2009, at the End the Fed rally in Philadelphia. With the possible exception of the Internal Revenue Service, the federal agency that is the greatest threat to the financial well-being and freedom of the American people is the Federal Reserve. This is the agency that has ...

Judge Orders Release of Algerian from Guantánamo (But He’s Not Going Anywhere)

by Andy Worthington November 24, 2009

On Friday, District Court Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the release from Guantánamo of Farhi Saeed bin Mohammed, a 48-year-old Algerian, after granting his habeas corpus petition. Her ruling has not yet been declassified, so the reasons for her decision are not yet clear, but it is significant that the ruling now brings to 31 the number of prisoners who ...