Daily Articles

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 ...

How FDR Promoted Racial Segregation

by Jim Powell March 17, 2009

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a reputation as a friend of black people, yet he signed laws that promoted racial segregation throughout the United States. The laws were supposed to promote “affordable housing.” Until the 1930s, buying a home required making a down payment equal to a quarter or a third of ...

The Nobodies Known as Former Enemy Combatants

by Andy Worthington March 16, 2009

Changing the names of things was a ploy that was used by the Bush administration in an attempt to justify some of its least palatable activities. In response to the 9/11 attacks, for instance, the nation was not involved in a limited pursuit of a group of criminals responsible for the attacks, but instead embarked on an open-ended “war ...

FDR, the Great Court-Packer

by Jim Powell March 10, 2009

FDR won the 1936 presidential election with more than 27 million votes, compared to 16 million for his Republican opponent Alf Landon. FDR won the Electoral College vote by an even bigger margin — 523 to 8. He concluded that he could do anything, and he over-reached, triggering a harsh reaction ...

Why the U.S. Under Obama Is Still a Dictatorship?

by Andy Worthington March 9, 2009

Two weeks ago, when the Obama administration announced that it was bringing to an end the disturbing isolation endured by Ali al-Marri, a U.S. resident who has been held without charge or trial for seven years and two months — and who, most worryingly, has spent the last five years and nine months as an “enemy combatant” in ...

The Cruel Isolation of America’s “Enemy Combatant”

by Andy Worthington March 2, 2009

Last Thursday, U.S. resident Ali al-Marri, the last “enemy combatant” on the U.S. mainland, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Peoria, Illinois, for providing material support for terrorism, bringing to an end the Qatari national’s disturbing imprisonment for five years and eight months without charge or trial in a state of solitary confinement that is unprecedented in ...

Spending Our Way to Wealth and Prosperity

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2009

One of the most ludicrous policy prescriptions issued by federal officials is the one that exhorts the citizenry to spend more money to get the nation out of a recession. That’s the key to national economic prosperity, government officials exclaim. “Go to the mall and shop,” they tell people. If people will just spend, spend, and spend some more, ...