Daily Articles

Farce at Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington April 6, 2009

In 2007, after four rounds of administrative reviews at Guantánamo, Hedi Hammamy, a Tunisian prisoner, born in 1969, was cleared for release, having satisfied the Pentagon that he no longer represented a threat to the United States or its allies and no longer possessed any ongoing intelligence value. He was not released, however, because, although the U.S. government had ...

Gold and Freedom, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Among the major threats facing the American people today is out-of-control spending at the hands of the U.S. government. It is a grave danger that people have faced throughout history from their own governments. After all, let’s not forget the oft-repeated claim by U.S. officials about ...

Hope Is No Substitute for Theory

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2009

Should libertarians hope that Barack Obama succeeds or fails in his presidency? The question comes to mind because conservatives got embroiled in the issue when their leading radio star, Rush Limbaugh, said he hoped Obama would fail. Some commentators thought that was a horrible thing to say. Radio stars need ...

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 ...