The Bush Torture Memos by James Bovard November 1, 2006 President Bush is proposing to medievalize the American legal code by permitting the use of coerced confessions in judicial proceedings. This is one of the most stunning proposals in U.S. political life since Franklin Roosevelt banned private ownership of gold in 1933. It is vital for Americans to understand the ...
Emergencies: The Breeding Ground of Tyranny by William L. Anderson November 1, 2006 When the New York Times recently reported that the Bush administration was routinely tracking international and domestic financial transactions, the president said he was doing these things under emergency powers granted to him by Congress. While many commentators have openly questioned the legality of Bush’s actions, there are deeper questions to be asked than simply “Is this legal?” Indeed, as ...
U.S. Immigration Debate Is a Road Well Traveled by Michael Powell November 1, 2006 They were portrayed as a disreputable lot, the immigrant hordes of this great city. The Germans refused for decades to give up their native tongue and raucous beer gardens. The Irish of Hell’s Kitchen brawled and clung to political sinecures. The Jews crowded into the Lower East Side, speaking Yiddish, fomenting socialism, and resisting forced assimilation. And by their sheer ...
The Federal Ripoff by George Leef November 1, 2006 The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money by Timothy P. Carney (Wiley, 2006); 285 pages; $24.95. Frédéric Bastiat called it legal plunder — the process by which people and organizations use their political connections to obtain wealth that doesn’t belong to them. When a government ...
Eminent-Domain Chutzpah by Sheldon Richman October 30, 2006 Talk about chutzpah! A development company is thinking about suing Florida and the city of Riviera Beach for refusing to use eminent domain to provide land for upscale condominiums and a marina. Viking Inlet Harbor Properties was assured the city would condemn a number ...
“Every Day is 1956”: The Hungarian Revolution Today by James Bovard October 27, 2006 Friends of freedom should doff their hats to the Hungarians this week. Fifty years ago, the Hungarian people bravely expelled Soviet tanks from Budapest and proclaimed their intention to create a democracy. Shortly thereafter, the Soviets returned with almost 5,000 tanks, killing thousands of Hungarians and chaining that nation back into serfdom to Moscow. But ...
Page Scandal: Political Corruption Precedes Sexual Corruption by Sheldon Richman October 25, 2006 For the sake of those vulnerable 16-year-old boys and girls who come to Washington each year, we should abolish the congressional page program immediately. I’m not referring only to the danger posed by the sexual predators in Congress. There’s a more widespread danger that hardly anyone cares about: the congressional page program encourages high ...
They Lied About the Reasons for Going to War by Jacob G. Hornberger October 23, 2006 In determining whether someone has lied, circumstantial evidence can oftentimes be as critical as direct evidence. For example, suppose someone says, “I was outside all last night and it did not rain.” A person who was inside might be tempted to conclude, “Well, since I wasn’t outside, I must assume that ...
The Superpower Myth by Sheldon Richman October 18, 2006 What does it mean to be the world’s only superpower? Like Gulliver in Lilliput, the U.S. government is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now faces the emergence of two new nuclear powers in North Korea and Iran. There seems to be nothing President Bush can do about it. He sent ...
Jose Padilla and the Military Commissions Act by Jacob G. Hornberger October 16, 2006 Anyone who hoped that U.S. military detention of Americans accused of terrorism expired with the transfer of American citizen Jose Padilla from military custody to Justice Department custody have seen their hopes dashed by the Military Commissions Act that the president signed into law yesterday. Although the act limits to foreign citizens the use ...
Al-Qaeda in Federal Court by Jacob G. Hornberger October 16, 2006 Ever since 9/11, U.S. officials have been telling us that the “war on terrorism” has made it necessary for the U.S. military to hijack America’s criminal justice system by taking suspected terrorists into military custody and punishing them, denying them the rights normally guaranteed to criminal defendants in the Bill of Rights. The feds have argued ...
Habeas Corpus: The Lynchpin of Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger October 11, 2006 In the recently enacted Military Commissions Act, Congress acceded to President Bush’s request to remove the power of federal courts to consider petitions for writ of habeas by foreign citizens held by U.S. officials on suspicion of having committed acts of terrorism. While it might be tempting to conclude that ...