Daily Articles

Missing the Point on Government Power

by Scott McPherson April 2, 2004

Opposition to the USA PATRIOT Act has spread throughout this country. Around the nation, Americans are joining together to send a clear message to Washington that expanding federal powers at the expense of personal liberty in the name of security in the post–9/11 world is not only unnecessary, ...

Resisting the Occupation (“Liberation”) of Iraq

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 2, 2004

Imagine that Chinese troops have invaded the United States with the stated goal of liberating the American people from the grips of the IRS, DEA, BATF, and the many other departments and agencies that violate the principles of freedom set forth by our Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence. ...

Rebuilding America: Domestic Policy

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2004

Almost everything the federal government has touched for the last several decades is in crisis. The war on drugs: failure and destruction. Social Security: fraudulent and bankrupt. Foreign policy: led to 9/11 and massive assaults on civil liberties. Medicare and Medicaid: caused health-care costs to soar. Education: public schooling is worse than ever. Monetary policy: a plunging dollar in ...

Is Free Trade Obsolete? Part 1

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 In the last several decades, areas of the developing world, particularly Asia, have become politically more stable and free, more open to foreign investment. The populations there are better educated and have access to modern technology, including the Internet. They are thus more productive. This sounds like something to be welcomed, not only in a ...

The Neocon War on Peace and Freedom, Part 1

by James Bovard April 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 The main problem with Bush’s war on terrorism is that he has not attacked enough foreign regimes and not sufficiently trampled the privacy of the American people. Such is the thesis of David Frum, former speechwriter for President Bush, and Richard Perle, currently on the Pentagon’s Defense Advisory Board, co-authors of the new book ...

April 19: Freedom’s Birthday

by Scott McPherson April 1, 2004

Americans revere a great number of dates that hold special significance for their culture and history. The Fourth of July, Veterans Day, the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. a quick glance through any calendar provides numerous other examples. Yet the one day of most importance, to both the nation and its culture, is the one that is conspicuously absent ...

America’s Empire of Bases

by Chalmers Johnson April 1, 2004

As distinct from other peoples, most Americans do not recognize or do not want to recognize that the United States dominates the world through its military power. Due to government secrecy, our citizens are often ignorant of the fact that our garrisons encircle the planet. This vast network of American bases on every continent except Antarctica actually constitutes a ...

Book Review: Drug War Heresies

by Paul Armentano April 1, 2004

Drug War Heresies by Robert J. MacCoun and Peter Reuter (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001); 479 pages; $28.00. In the ongoing debate over drug policy, professors Robert MacCoun and Peter Reuter are betwixt and between. On the one hand, government officials have assailed their empirical data documenting prohibition’s negligible impact on both drug use and perceived harm because it undermines ...

President Bush Owes Martha Stewart a Pardon

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 31, 2004

In my March 24 article, “I Don’t Remember,” I pointed out that President Bush and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice had to be lying when they said that they could not remember the September 12, 2001, meeting with former U.S. Counterterrorism Chief Richard A. Clarke. Recall that ...

No Wonder People Feel Disfranchised

by Sheldon Richman March 29, 2004

In a recent poll of cable-television viewers, only 20 percent said the general public has much say in what the government does. Maybe people are finally catching on. It’s about time. The poll by Peter D. Hart can’t be pleasing to those who make a holy shrine of the ballot ...

“I Don’t Remember”

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 24, 2004

Former U.S. Counterterrorism Chief Richard A. Clarke states that after he told President Bush at a meeting the day after 9/11 that al-Qaeda was responsible for the attacks, Bush responded, “I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he’s linked in any way.” ...

Health-Care Hilarity

by Scott McPherson March 22, 2004

Massachusetts’s U.S. senator and likely Democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry, is being criticized for boasting of foreign political endorsements he might not be able to substantiate. Hoping to paint Kerry as dishonest on this issue, Secretary of State Colin Powell even went on the Fox News Channel to demand ...