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Wednesday 10th March 2010

Kudos to Kucinich & 64 Other Courageous Congressmen on Afghanistan

11:04 pm | Afghanistan | Attention Deficit Democracy | Ron Paul | Comments: 2

Dennis Kucinich deserves credit for forcing the House to formally debate the Afghan war.
His comments - and those of Ron Paul and the other 63 folks who voted against perpetuating this war - will be part of the honor roll of our time.
On the Republican side, Rep. Paul was joined in opposing the Afghan war [...]

Friday 5th March 2010

The Material Witness Ticket to Servitude

The Future of Freedom Foundation put online my article from the December Freedom Daily….
It’s amazing to see what kind of legal crap the government gets away with these days.
The Material Witness Charade Freedom Daily, December 2009
by James Bovard
Last September, a federal appeals court ruled that former [...]

Wednesday 17th February 2010

Frightening Voters Into Submission

From the November 2009 issue of the Future of Freedom Foundation’s Freedom Daily…
Frightening Voters Into Submission
by James Bovard
Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge has a new book out that reveals that he almost resigned because the Bush administration was hustling bogus terror alerts before the 2004 election. Ridge’s revelation was not surprising to people who had [...]

Tuesday 16th February 2010

On Russian TV Talking About American Dictatorial Power

I was on Russian Television (the English language edition) last night talking about all the “emergency” declarations and power grabs by recent presidents. The interview on “The Alyona Show” starts about 6 minutes into this YouTube segment here.
It was ironic to be commenting on the danger of excessive presidential power on Russian TV….
Perhaps at some point the mainstream [...]

Thursday 4th February 2010

My Early Optimism on the War on Terror & Civil Liberties

I had forgotten about the following riff until stumbling across it a few days ago.
In late September 2001, Reason magazine asked a handful of folks “to discuss which civil lliberties they thought were most at risk in what has been called America’s first 21st century war.” They published the responses in an article entitled, [...]

Monday 25th January 2010

Dump Bernanke and Audit the Fed

12:21 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Obama | Ron Paul | Comments: 6

How much damage can one man inflict and still be treated like a saint and savior in Washington?
Ben Bernanke’s career answers that question. The Establishment media has rallied around the current Fed chairman as if his reign was the triumph of wisdom and goodness - instead of a debacle of bursting bubbles and [...]

Monday 18th January 2010

Gitmo Murders & Pentagon Coverup?

Scott Horton of Harper’s has a great piece online on how three detainees at Gitmo were killed during interrogations. The military responded with an elaborate coverup that claimed the three men committed suicide as an “act of asymmetrical warfare.”
The military’s story has been blow to bits in large part by former Gitmo guards who [...]

Friday 15th January 2010

Bogus Anti-Terrorist Crackdown on Financial Freedom

posted today by the Future of Freedom Foundation - from the October 2009 issue of Freedom Daily…
The Bogus Anti-Terrorist Crackdown on Financial Freedom
by James Bovard
In the post–9/11 era, federal officials are treating cash as they would a suspected weapon of mass destruction. They have created legions of new restrictions and reporting requirements for citizens’ money. [...]

Friday 1st January 2010

Thanks to All the Fine Commentors in 2009!

10:32 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Comments: 11

I want to thank the folks who added so many excellent thoughts and flashes of wit to this blog over the past 12 months. I’ve gotten a heap of insights from y’all! And it is fun to share the revelry when bad guys crash and burn, or when some federal agency has [...]

Friday 11th December 2009

How Bush Redefined American Freedom

Posted online today by the Future of Freedom Foundation - from the September issue of Freedom Daily…
HOW GEORGE W. BUSH REDEFINED AMERICAN FREEDOM
by James Bovard
George W. Bush is gone from Washington but his legacy, like an abandoned toxic waste dump, lingers on. Like President Franklin Roosevelt before him, President Bush helped redefine American freedom. And [...]

Tuesday 8th December 2009

Boy Scouts & a Pro-Freedom Reaction

7:42 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Uncategorized | Comments: 4

I appreciate the comments on the creek-crossing photo.
The Boy Scouts of America begin their 100th anniversary celebration on December 10, and I’m curious about the political impact of the Scouting experience.
I am wondering how many guys who were in the Scouts became more pro-freedom in response to the heavy-handed invocations of authority and [...]

Wednesday 2nd December 2009

John Brown: One Terrorist Who Deserved Hanging

8:38 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Comments: 12

This is the 150th anniversary of the hanging of John Brown. When he attacked Harper’s Ferry with a handful of followers, the butcher of Kansas helped sow the seeds of the Civil War. Few things would have made Brown happier than the thought of hundreds of thousands of people dying for [...]

Tuesday 1st December 2009

Will Obama Out-BS Bush?

Obama’s speech from West Point tonight may drive the final wooden stake into liberals’ hope that their guy would create a Brave New Order in Washington and the world.
The fact that Obama is following in Bush’s footsteps - talking to an audience of captive individuals who would be ruined for life by a single [...]

Sunday 22nd November 2009

Doonesbury: Torture Remains Prime-Time Entertainment

11:00 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Torture | Uncategorized | Comments: 2

Three cheers for Doonesbury!

Unfortunately, prominent half-wits take their own values from this TV show. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told an assembly of judges in the summer of 2007: ““Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles . . . . He saved hundreds of thousands of lives… Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?”
I [...]

Wednesday 18th November 2009

Dying for Crooks: US Troops in Afghanistan

10:37 pm | Afghanistan | Attention Deficit Democracy | Obama | Comments: 12

Transparency International reported yesterday that Afghanistan is the most corrupt nation in the world - except for Somalia.
Heckua achievement, if the only nation on earth that is more shady is one that is full of pirates… Karzai is making Marion Barry look like Mother Teresa.
The Washington Post reported today that one of Afghanistan’s top [...]

Thursday 5th November 2009

The Media as Enablers of Government Lies

Posted online today…
The Media as Enablers of Government Lies Freedom Daily August 2009
by James Bovard
Why do politicians so easily get away with telling lies? In large part, because the news media are more interested in bonding with politicians [...]

Friday 30th October 2009

Shocking! 400 Members of Congress Not Suspected of Wrongdoing

An online “security breach” yesterday disclosed a confidential House Ethics Committee document which revealed that dozens of members of Congress are under investigation for ethical lapses - i.e., being crooks, weasels, etc.
That means that more than 400 members are not being actively investigated by their peers for wrongdoing or all-round conniving.
This is the [...]

Thursday 22nd October 2009

Karzai Gets 2nd Chance to Steal the Election

So what am I missing in Afghanistan?
Isn’t this like catching a really dumb bank robber in the act (stealing almost a million votes) - and then, instead of booking him on charges, giving him another chance to rob the same bank?
The U.S. government and NATO are going to let Karzai take another swing at [...]

On Fox News “Freedom Watch” Friday (10/23) at @ 12:15 pm

Fox News’ Judge Napolitano interviewed me today regarding how the Patriot Act allows the feds to plunder the cash of innocent Americans. This is a damned outrage that Congress is definitely not fixing with the current Patriot Act “reform” legislation.
You can watch the program online here tomorrow (Friday). It airs between [...]

Tuesday 20th October 2009

Where do we Report the Terrorist Cops???

The Los Angeles Police Department has a new video out encouraging people to run squealing to the police practically every time some stranger asks directions to City Hall.
This is part of an orchestrated effort to keep people jumpy and clamoring for government to save them.
But where do we report terrorist cops? Los Angeles [...]

Monday 19th October 2009

The Feds and the Great Wall Street Heist

9:10 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bailout | Ron Paul | Comments: 3

Here’s a great cartoon from the new issue of the New Yorker:

Fortune columnist Allan Sloan explains how the feds are creating vast windfalls for Wall Street firms with its artificial suppression of interest rates - the same policy that is brutally punishing anyone who put their savings in Certificates of Deposit or other interest-rate sensitive [...]

Thursday 15th October 2009

The National Endowment for Democracy’s Forgotten Sordid History

11:26 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Congress | Lying | Comments: 2

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online today my piece from their July Freedom Daily issue on one of the biggest shams of modern American history…
THE EARLY HISTORY OF A WORLDWIDE NUISANCE
by James Bovard
Few federal agencies have as much bipartisan support as the National Endowment for Democracy. Created in 1983, NED’s stated mission is to [...]

Wednesday 14th October 2009

Dilbert Nails Washington Ethics

I suppose for this cartoon to perfectly capture contemporary Washington ethics, the senator would insist on a conjugal visit with the lobbyist’s wife. Or maybe that is only how Nevada senators operate.
Scott Adams has again laid out political reality far more cleanly than the vast majority of the nation’s editorial pages.
It is [...]

Friday 9th October 2009

8 Years of Big Lies on Afghanistan

And so now the Pentagon and the White House are going to tell the truth about Afghanistan?
Pshaw!
Here’s my 2 cents on the issue - distributed by the Future of Freedom Foundation and also appearing on Counterpunch today.
** I have a ‘reader survey’ question at the bottom regarding a specific line in the piece.
EIGHT YEARS [...]

Sunday 4th October 2009

YouTube version of the Glenn Beck interview

10:13 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | wool | Comments: 0

I finally came across a YouTube clip of the Glenn Beck interview on AmeriCorps.
You can watch it here.
I forgot the cigar.
[Suggestions are welcome... ]

Thursday 24th September 2009

Antiwar Interview on Ashcroft, Tyranny, etc. now online

Scott Horton and I had a rollicking good chat earlier this week on the post 9/11 roundup of innocent terrorist suspects, why John Ashcroft should receive “justice” (and hard), the outrage of sovereign immunity, and the bisexual congresswoman entrapped by a lesbian foreign agent.
You can hear it here.
[If that link doesn't work, hit this [...]

Thursday 17th September 2009

Civility, 2007-Style: Hanging George Bush

Some people who are outraged by anti-Obama placards have forgotten that, only a few years ago, many people were condemning George Bush in terms as harsh or harsher.
Here is a picture I took at an antiwar rally in Washington in January 2007. The sign - “What’s good for the goose….. gandar” - [...]

Thursday 10th September 2009

The Post 9/11 Round-up of Innocents: Ashcroft’s High Crime

The Post–9/11 Roundup of Innocents
by James Bovard Freedom Daily May & June, 2009
Many Americans have been lulled into a false sense of security by the end of the George W. [...]

Wednesday 9th September 2009

Obama and his “Leavening Hand”

10:47 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Obama | Comments: 5

Obama’s health care pitch on Wednesday night contained the usual howlers. One of the biggest hoots of the evening came in this riff -
“Our predecessors understood… that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies [...]

Monday 24th August 2009

Glenn Beck Transcript; Suggestions on Getting Video?

4:35 pm | AmeriCorps | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Comments: 9

Following is the transcript of the interview on AmeriCorps with Glenn Beck late last month.
I have not been able to track down a video of the interview. (Fox didn’t come through…) Is there someplace where it is possible to order a DVD/video of a Beck interview?
*****************
Copyright 2009 Fox News Network, LLC.
Fox News Network
SHOW: GLENN [...]

Torturous Betting Odds for Justice?

10:43 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Torture | Uncategorized | Comments: 4

So the Obama administration is moving forward with a plan to prosecute some CIA agents who went beyond the guidelines the Bush administration authorized for extreme interrogations. This is good news.
But will the torture policymakers be exempt from the law?
If so, maybe the pimp media will bring West Virginia’s Lynndie England, the star of the [...]

Wednesday 19th August 2009

Ginning Up Another Election Scam Abroad - Afghanistan

8:18 am | Afghanistan | Attention Deficit Democracy | Elective Dictatorship | Comments: 5

So the Afghan people will have the chance to prove they are free and self-governing this week.
Or at least that is the story the Obama team and most of the U.S. media are shoveling.
After the Bush team successfully carried off similar scams in Iraq, it is not surprising that the new regime in America would [...]

Sunday 9th August 2009

Iran’s Worst Barbarism: Honesty About Torture

The current government is Iran is a bunch of damn rascals and thugs, and there are boatloads of questions about the honesty of their last election.
The regime’s brutal crackdown on protestors reveals its true character. (But the Iranian government is not novel in this sense: the Syrians have been as brutal with their dissidents, [...]

Friday 7th August 2009

Obama and the Perilous Delusions of Democracy

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online today my article on “Obama and the Perilous Delusions of Democracy.” This was originally published in the April issue of Freedom Daily.
OBAMA & THE PERILOUS DELUSIONS OF DEMOCRACY Freedom Daily April 2009
by James Bovard
When Barack [...]

Thursday 6th August 2009

The Higher the Death Count, the Bigger the Lies….

3:13 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Comments: 1

This is the anniversary of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima.
In announcing the attack to America and the world, President Harry Truman declared: “The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing [...]

Saturday 1st August 2009

Zippety Political Satire at RedStateUpdate.Com

9:00 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Comments: 2

If you enjoy satire, take a gander at this. It is less than 4 minutes long.
This is the first RedStateUpdate video I have seen, and it is far better than most of the political humor out there.
I especially enjoyed the bit about the new conservative duty to gush over cops and welcome them [...]

Thursday 30th July 2009

Latest “Trust Us” Heap of Nonsense [Swine Flu Vaccine]

9:30 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Comments: 6

There’s a priceless headline on Reuters this evening:
“Is it safe? U.S. vaccine experts want to build trust”
The Centers for Disease Control are working overtime to assure people that they have nothing to fear from the new @untested new vaccines created in response to government proclamations on swine flu.
And the most important part of assuring that [...]

Wednesday 29th July 2009

Other Outrageous Terrorism Prosecutions

I appreciate the thoughtful emails on the Lackawanna Six article. Unfortunately, the proseuction in that case was par for the Bush-era domestic war on terrorism. Here’s a piece from the American Conservative during Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign…..
Undue Process
American Conservative October 11, [...]

Tuesday 28th July 2009

Martial Law and the War on Terrorism

The Future of Freedom Foundation is shotgunning out the following oped today….
***
Martial Law and the War on Terrorism
Or “One White House Memo Away From Dictatorship”
by James Bovard
The New York Times reported last week that the Bush administration considered sending in the U.S. military to arrest the so-called Lackawanna Six in 2002. [...]

Friday 24th July 2009

Washington Post Condemns Open Government [Audit the Fed]

12:45 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Ron Paul | Comments: 3

Today’s Washington Post contains an editorial that warns that Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” bill could end civilized life as we know it.
Well, they didn’t go quite that far - but the editorial reads like it was written in a puddle of sweat.
The Washington Post pretends to take the high ground - and ignores [...]

Saturday 18th July 2009

Barron’s: Obama’s Make-Work Jobs Harm Teenagers

Barron’s ran an article of mine on summer jobs boondoggles as a guest editorial in the issue hitting teh stands today. Here’s an outtake from the article (a subscription is required to see the full version on the online site).
Playing At Work Isn’t Productive Barron’s July 20, 2009
by James Bovard
LONG BEFORE [...]

Friday 10th July 2009

WHOOP WHOOP Quote of the Day - on War Crimes

3:46 pm | Afghanistan | Attention Deficit Democracy | War crimes | Comments: 0

“We believe that anyone suspected of war crimes should be thoroughly investigated.”
So claims an anonymous U.S government official, quoted in a story on the New York Times website today.
Of course, he was referring to an alleged massacre of Taliban prisoners by Afghan Gen. Dostum in Afghanistan in late 2001. (Despite Obama’s victory last November, the [...]

Thursday 9th July 2009

McNamara’s Other “Body Count” Debacle

9:08 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | dictatorship | Comments: 4

[an op-ed sent out this morning by the Future of Freedom Foundation]
McNamara’s Other “Body Count” Debacle
by James Bovard, July 9, 2009
Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, who died on July 6, was best known for ratcheting up the Vietnam War thanks to the false claims he provided to President Johnson, Congress, and the American people.
Despite [...]

Tuesday 7th July 2009

Porn and Attention Deficit Democracy + UPDATE

10:32 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Comments: 7

I knew that American culture was in trouble, but this New York Times front page article on the decline of plots in porn movies confirms my deepest fears.
The Times quotes porn actress Savanna Samson, who “said she took her acting seriously and used to prepare studiously for her roles.”
“I used to have dialogue,” said [...]

Monday 6th July 2009

Dead: A War Criminal, a Liar, and a Director of the Washington Post - McNamara

1:06 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | wool | Comments: 4

In its obituary article on Robert McNamara today, the Washington Post mentions that McNamara was a director of the Washington Post company.
Was that honor bestowed because of McNamara’s lies or because of his war crimes?
Or maybe he was just a really really great dinner guest at the homes of Post editors and owners.
And people [...]

Sunday 5th July 2009

Obama’s Latest Four-Star Howler on Freedom

Prior to his trip to Russia, President Obama issued an appeal to Russian president Dmitri Medvedev to “to strengthen the rule of law in Russia, which of course includes making sure that all those accused of crimes have the right to a fair trial and that the courts are not used for political purposes.”
Of [...]

Friday 3rd July 2009

My 2 Cents on the Tenth Amendment movement

10:16 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | dictatorship | Comments: 2

I spoke to Bill Thompson of the Ocala, Florida News earlier this week. He has a very thoughtful article today on the Tenth Amendment movement. Here’s part of his article:
The author James Bovard, whose writings frequently focus on the negative consequences of the growth of the federal government at the expense of individual liberty, [...]

Wednesday 1st July 2009

“Federal agents hunt for guns, one house at a time”

11:19 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Comments: 1

With headlines like this, why does the media wonder why so many gun owners are paranoid?
This headline is from a Houston Chronicle article about federal agents going door to door seeking information on guns that might have been transferred to Mexico. This front page article looks like it could have been written by government press [...]

Tuesday 30th June 2009

Mary Lou Forbes, RIP

2:44 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Comments: 0

Mary Lou Forbes, the Commentary editor of the Washington Times, passed away on Saturday less than 2 weeks after being diagnosed with breast cancer. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1959 for her coverage of school desegregation fights in Virginia.
Mary Lou was one of the most pleasant editors I have dealt with. [...]

Thursday 25th June 2009

Illegal Teenage Strip Search as Harmless Error

3:45 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Comments: 1

The Supreme Court ruled today that Arizona school officials violated the law and constitutional rights when they forcibly strip-searched a 13 year old girl to see if she was hiding painkillers in her underwear.
It is good that the Court did not sprinkle its holy water on the search. But the court’s refusal to hold [...]

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