The Campaign-Reform Crime, Part 2 by James Bovard February 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 We saw in the last issue how the McCain-Feingold Act — the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) — sought to fundamentally change the American political landscape. Politicians did not allow the Act’s power to lie idle in the first presidential election after its enactment. The BCRA’s issue-ad ban — the peril that Justice ...
Regime Change: Promise and Peril, Part 3 by Stephen Kinzer February 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 This article is a transcript of Stephen Kinzer’s speech given on June 6, 2008, at The Future of Freedom Foundation’s conference “Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties.” I talked about unintended consequences. In the period immediately following the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh (see Freedom Daily, ...
The Financial Crisis: 9/11 Redux by Michael Tennant February 1, 2009 Perhaps the one bit of shiny interior in the black cloud of the financial crisis is that most mainstream conservatives, heretofore bootlicking worshippers of George W. Bush and the Republican Party, have come to realize that there’s literally not a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties when it comes to their willingness to bail out their Wall ...
The Second Amendment: More Important than Ever by Scott McPherson February 1, 2009 The day after the November 4 election, Gun Owners of America (GOA), based in Springfield, Virginia, sent an email alert to supporters. With the subject heading “Gun Rights in Peril,” the message began, “Based on his voting record in the Illinois state senate and the U.S. Senate, President-elect Obama will be the most anti-Second Amendment president in the history ...
Hope for Economic Wisdom by Sheldon Richman January 30, 2009 Should people who disagree with Barack Obama hope he succeeds in his presidency? Conservatives are caught in this question because their leading radio star, Rush Limbaugh, said he hopes Obama fails. Radio stars need regular public controversy to keep their listeners tuned in, so there’s no point in analyzing what ...
U.S. Detentions in the War on Terror: What Was Old Is New Again (video) by Joseph Margulies January 30, 2009 On June 8, 2008, Joseph Margulies gave the following Speech at FFF’s conference Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties. The speech can viewed below in its entirety.
Refuting Cheney’s Lies: The Stories of Six Prisoners Released from Guantánamo by Andy Worthington January 26, 2009 In the Bush administration’s “war on terror,” the gulf between rhetoric and reality was always pronounced, and never more so than when Vice President Dick Cheney spoke out. Cheney’s lies and distortions were on open display in the last month before his departure from the White House, as he sought to leave his legacy of fear burnished on ...
From Checks and Balances to Executive Despotism (video) by Bruce Fein January 23, 2009 On June 8, 2008, Bruce Fein gave the following Speech at FFF’s conference Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties. The speech can viewed below in its entirety.
Bush Era Ends with Guantánamo Trial Chief’s Torture Confession by Andy Worthington January 20, 2009 Forget the president’s lame, reality-defying farewell speech and Dick Cheney’s last-ditch attempts to claim that the administration in which he served as vice president has never engaged in torture. The Bush era came to an end last Wednesday when, in one short interview, Susan J. Crawford, the senior Pentagon official overseeing the military commissions at Guantánamo — ...
The Peaceful Transfer of Violent Power by Sheldon Richman January 19, 2009 At the risk of raining on the parade, I suggest that the inaugural festivities are not what they appear. Barack Obama says the pomp and circumstance are not about him but are a celebration of democracy. “For the forty-third time, we will execute the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next,” ...
Stimulating Consumption Won’t Help Economy by Sheldon Richman January 16, 2009 Many politicians, economists, and pundits — under the influence of Keynesian “economics” — worry that Barack Obama’s stimulus package won’t be stimulative enough because too much of the money might go to people who won’t spend it. Typical is this recent editorial paragraph from the New York Times about the tax-cut component ...
No End in Sight for the “Enemy Combatants” of Guantánamo by Andy Worthington January 12, 2009 On the seventh anniversary of the opening of the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (on January 11, 2002), this is perhaps a rather bleak title, given that Barack Obama has pledged to close the prison, but recent events in a U.S. District Court — largely overlooked in the mainstream media — have demonstrated how difficult ...