Ending the Drug War Would End the Violence by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2009 The news media are rife with stories about Mexican drug cartels operating throughout the United States and drug-related violence threatening U.S. cities near the border. Americans are becoming reluctant to cross into Mexican towns for fear of getting caught in the crossfire. Do we need another reason to end the abominable war on “drugs” (a ...
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. ...
Arrogance and Torture: A History of Guantánamo by Andy Worthington April 1, 2009 The mesh-wire cages, suitable only for animals, are empty now and overgrown, but they will stand forever as a symbol of the Bush administration’s brutal and destructive “war on terror” policies, implemented in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. mainland on September 11, 2001. This is Camp X-Ray, the first of the prison camps at the U.S. ...
The Fallacies of Another New Deal, Part 2 by William L. Anderson April 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In the latter part of 1920, the economy fell into a deep recession, which lasted well into 1921. As Murray Rothbard points out, it was the last downturn in which the government did not play much of a role. Newly elected President Warren G. Harding openly said that government should ...
How the New Deal Soaked the Rich, Middle Class, and Poor by Jim Powell March 31, 2009 The New Deal was paid for mainly by the middle class and the poor. This was because excise taxes were the biggest revenue generators for the federal government. They applied to beer, liquor, cigarettes, chewing gum and other cheap pleasures enjoyed disproportionately by the middle class and the poor. Until ...
Abu Zubaydah and the Futility of Torture by Andy Worthington March 30, 2009 Reinforcing claims made over the last few years — by FBI agents, by author Ron Suskind, and by myself — that the supposed senior al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah was less significant than he was made out to be, the Washington Postran a front-page story yesterday, in which, drawing on interviews with “former senior government officials who closely followed ...
A Terrorist-Producing Machine by Jacob G. Hornberger March 27, 2009 The following is a modified version of the opening statement FFF president Jacob Hornberger delivered at a recent debate in New York City on Afghanistan sponsored by the Donald and Paula Smith Foundation. With the possible exception of the war on drugs, it would be difficult to find a greater ...
How FDR Promoted Price-Gouging by Jim Powell March 24, 2009 During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Americans desperately needed bargains. But President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed laws that forced businesses to charge above-market prices for everything. He made discounting a crime! FDR did this even though antitrust laws provided penalties for private individuals who acted in ...
China: Don’t Buy Government Bonds! by Sheldon Richman March 23, 2009 An urgent message to the people of China: Don’t lend the U.S. government another dime. If you do, you will be hurting not only yourselves but also the American people. Invest in real productive ventures here or elsewhere. But — please — don’t buy any more government debt. That may sound unpatriotic, but I can’t think ...
Prosecuting the Bush Administration’s Torturers by Andy Worthington March 23, 2009 Its a sign of how much the Bush administration skewed Americas moral compass that we are currently facing the possibility that the only way to bring the torturers to account is through a Nonpartisan Commission Of Inquiry essentially, a toothless truth and reconciliation commission of the type proposed by Sen. Patrick Leahy, the ...
Drug-War Idiocy in Federal Court by Jacob G. Hornberger March 20, 2009 A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, Leonie M. Brinkema, recently sentenced four young people to terms in the penitentiary ranging from 46 months to 20 years. The four, whose ages ranged from 19 to 21, were convicted of drug-war crimes relating to the possession and distribution of heroin. Faced with what the Washington Post described ...
From the Trenches of the Drug War: A Street Cops Perspective by Howard J. Wooldridge March 18, 2009 The nine-year-old boys eyes went as big as saucers, as my 40-caliber Glock came into view and paused for a split second on his chest. Being the fourth officer through the door of the townhouse meant the woman and her three kids were already in a state of shock. We spent ...