Daily Articles

Government Is the Systemic Risk

by Sheldon Richman April 28, 2009

The Obama administration and congressional leaders assure us that the government can protect us from the “systemic risk” posed by big banks, insurance companies, and hedge funds. But who will protect us from the government? In light of all we’ve learned about the national government’s conduct in both domestic and ...

Jackie Chan’s Misguided Concept of Freedom

by Scott McPherson April 28, 2009

“He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” — Thomas Paine Of all the great things ever said in regard to human freedom, the above quotation makes perhaps ...

CIA Torture Began In Afghanistan Eight Months before Justice Department Approval

by Andy Worthington April 27, 2009

Last December, in a typically bullish defense of the Bush administration’s conduct in the “war on terror,” Vice President Dick Cheney stated, On the question of so-called “torture,” we don’t do torture, we never have. It’s not something that this administration subscribes to. e proceeded very cautiously; we checked, we had the Justice Department issue the requisite opinions in ...

Milton Friedman Was Wrong on Vouchers

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 24, 2009

In an article I wrote in September 1990 entitled “Letting Go of Socialism,” I pointed out how public schooling is a model of a socialistic program. I also addressed the issue of school vouchers: But the real tragedy is that so many freedom devotees in America also won’t let go ...

End the Cuban Embargo!

by Sheldon Richman April 23, 2009

Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro have nothing to talk about. While they do their diplomatic dance, the Cuban people are suffering because of the American trade embargo. It should end forthwith. The idea that trade between Americans and Cubans must await an American president’s say-so is an insult ...

Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos, Part 4

by Andy Worthington April 23, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files, analyzes ten particularly disturbing facts to emerge from the four memos, purporting to justify the use of torture by the CIA, which were issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in August 2002 and May ...

Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos, Part 3

by Andy Worthington April 22, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files, analyzes ten particularly disturbing facts to emerge from the four memos, purporting to justify the use of torture by the CIA, which were issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in August 2002 and ...

Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos, Part 2

by Andy Worthington April 21, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files, analyzes ten particularly disturbing facts to emerge from the four memos, purporting to justify the use of torture by the CIA, which were issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in August 2002 and May ...

Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos, Part 1

by Andy Worthington April 20, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files, analyzes ten particularly disturbing facts to emerge from the four memos, purporting to justify the use of torture by the CIA, which were issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in August 2002 and May ...

Clueless Obama

by Sheldon Richman April 17, 2009

If President Obama doesn’t understand why the economy tanked, he surely won’t know what recovery requires. And if he doesn’t know that, he’s surely part of the problem, not the solution. In his speech on the economy at Georgetown University this week, Obama again showed that he hasn’t a clue what ...

FDR and Compulsory Unionism Destroyed Jobs

by Jim Powell April 16, 2009

For decades, labor unions struggled for power, but until the 1930s they had made little headway. Unions were based on force and violence, which repelled a substantial number of employees as well as employers.  The aim had been to raise the wages of members above market levels, but this was only ...

The Story of Ayman Batarfi, a Doctor in Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington April 13, 2009

Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files, tells the strange story of Ayman Batarfi, a Yemeni doctor held as an “enemy combatant” for over seven years, whose release from Guantánamo was approved by the Obama administration’s Guantánamo review board on March 30. No one in the U.S. military ever doubted that Ayman Batarfi, a slim and articulate Yemeni, who ...