Daily Articles

The Attack on Economic Liberty

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 17, 2009

Dear Friend of Freedom: I am writing to ask you to help us fund a special project that involves reprinting in booklet form an 11-part essay entitled Economic Liberty and the Constitution, which I wrote for our monthly journal, Freedom Daily, in 2003. This essay is a direct, frontal assault on the socialism, interventionism, and fiat-money ...

The Last Iraqi in Guantánamo, Cleared Six Years Ago, Returns Home

by Andy Worthington June 15, 2009

Last Thursday, while all eyes were focused on the arrival of four Uighurs from Guantánamo on Bermuda’s balmy shores — and while a few other commentators, myself included, noted that Guantánamo’s youngest prisoner, Mohammed El-Gharani, had been released to his family’s home country of Chad — only one journalist, James Warren of the Atlantic, noticed that ...

The Latest Torture Cover-Up Scam

by James Bovard June 10, 2009

The Obama administration appears increasingly devoted to covering up the worst crimes of the Bush era. On Monday, CIA chief Leon Panetta formally objected to federal judge Alvin Hellerstein, who was considering releasing detailed information on 92 videotaped CIA torture sessions of detainees. Panetta asserted that releasing the written information “could be expected to result ...

Obama Proposes Swift Execution of Alleged 9/11 Conspirators

by Andy Worthington June 8, 2009

In a leak that seems designed to gauge public opinion — and that of lawyers and other relevant parties around the world — anonymous officials in the Obama administration have told the New York Times about a proposal, in draft legislation to be submitted to Congress, which, as the Times put it, “would clear the way for detainees facing ...

Terrorism Is a Crime

by Sheldon Richman June 2, 2009

Contrary to the U.S. government’s position, acts of terrorism are crimes that have little in common with acts of war. The terrorists whom Americans worry about are not trying to overthrow the U.S. government or conquer and occupy the United States. Instead, they are trying to obtain vengeance for U.S. government intervention in the Middle ...

Gold and Freedom, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt were the two presidents most responsible for the abandonment of sound money in the United States. These two U.S. presidents opened the floodgates to the monetary debauchery under which today’s Americans have suffered for their entire lives. In waging war to prevent ...

Blame Republicans for Big Government

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2009

Government power is growing, and unless President Barack Obama and the majority in Congress have a libertarian epiphany, it will continue to grow for years. Obama’s 2010 budget will come in at more than $3.4 trillion, with a deficit of well over $1 trillion. Though the deficit will decline — if the administration’s dubious projections ...

A Child At Guantánamo: The Unending Torment of Mohamed Jawad

by Andy Worthington June 1, 2009

In all the recent hysteria about the supposed dangers posed by the remaining 240 prisoners at Guantánamo, it has been easy to forget that sensible appraisals of the number of individuals with any meaningful connection to terrorism have long indicated that no more than a few dozen of those still held should be regarded as any kind of significant ...

The Post–9/11 Roundup of Innocents, Part 2

by James Bovard June 1, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 In the weeks after the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration constantly misrepresented how much power it was seeking over aliens. In a September 25 speech to FBI agents, Bush declared, “We’re asking Congress for the authority to hold suspected terrorists who are in the process of being deported until they’re deported.... We believe it’s ...

The Unemployment Racket

by Laurence M. Vance June 1, 2009

Americans have many options when it comes to insurance. They can freely get health insurance, life insurance, cancer insurance, dental insurance, disability insurance, homeowners’ insurance, renters’ insurance, parcel-shipping insurance, et cetera. Although auto insurance is required by state laws, it is still obtained from a private insurance company of one’s choosing. One can even get insurance at the blackjack ...

Roosevelt’s Crusade against Gold

by Jim Powell June 1, 2009

Early in the New Deal, Franklin Roosevelt became convinced that to get America out of the Great Depression, the federal government must gain total control over money. The Federal Reserve seemed to have been powerless during the contraction, so Roosevelt asserted the power of the presidency. He began demonizing gold. Why gold? For centuries, people have viewed gold as the ...

Hamilton’s Betrayal

by George Leef June 1, 2009

Hamilton’s Curse: How Jefferson’s Archenemy Betrayed the American Revolution — and What It Means for America Today by Thomas J. DiLorenzo (Crown Forum 2008); 232 pages. There is a tendency among Americans to think of the nation’s Founders as a group of wealthy white men who owned property, didn’t like ...