Daily Articles

Guantánamo’s Refugees

by Andy Worthington February 9, 2009

The continued imprisonment of at least 61 prisoners at Guantánamo, who have been cleared for release after multiple military review boards (or, in recent months, after rulings in a U.S. court), was an affront to notions of justice when the Bush administration was in power, and is even more so now that Barack Obama, who has pledged to ...

The Twin Threats of Socialism and Gun Control

by Scott McPherson February 9, 2009

The confirmation of Eric Holder as the new U.S. attorney general is being celebrated as one more “historic” moment in American politics. Holder is the first African American appointed as the nation’s highest-ranking law-enforcement officer. He may also be the most anti-gun attorney general in U.S. history. Reason magazine called ...

Don’t Forget Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington February 6, 2009

At first glance, this might seem to be an unnecessary headline, given that Barack Obama has been president for only two weeks and that one of his first acts was to sign a presidential order declaring that the notorious “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay will be closed within a year. However, I believe it is appropriate, not ...

The Founding Father of Economic Statism (video)

by Thomas J. DiLorenzo February 6, 2009

On February 2, 2009, Thomas J. DiLorenzo gave the following speech at the “The Economic Liberty Lecture Series.” The speech can viewed below in its entirety.

Real Change on Cuba

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2009

A good place for Barack Obama to begin his program of change would be U.S. policy on Cuba. The change would move America toward three important principles on which our country was founded: economic liberty, civil liberty, and a limited-government republic. Economic liberty First, the Obama administration should lift the U.S. government’s 40-year-old embargo against Cuba. Not only has the embargo ...

The Wizards of Washington

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2009

Remember that telling scene in The Wizard of Oz when Toto reveals the “great and powerful wizard” as nothing but a homunculus operating an imposing thunder-and-lightning machine? “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” he bellows, not knowing enough to quit even when he’s exposed. The government’s response to the current economic turmoil reminds me of that scene. ...

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.