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Friday 11th May 2012

TSA: Tenth Anniversary of a National Nightmare

11:41 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Transportation Security Admin. | Comments: 2

From the February issue of Freedom Daily, posted online today by the Future of Freedom Foundation -
TSA — Tenth Anniversary of a National Nightmare
by James Bovard
Less than a month after the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush promised Americans, “We will not surrender our freedom to travel.” In hindsight, he may have been referring [...]

Sunday 26th February 2012

Damned Nuisance Fact for Iran Warmongers - from New York Times

The mainstream media has often been as craven regarding the warmongering against Iran as they were in 2002-03 on Iraq. But every now and then, a clear headline breaks through the claptrap.
New York Times February 25 2012
U.S. Agencies See No Move by Iran to Build a Bomb
By JAMES RISEN and MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON — [...]

Thursday 9th February 2012

Liberals Love Obama’s “Liberty Drones”

New Washington Post polling data reveal that liberals strongly approve of Obama’s drone assassination policy - even when it is used to kill American citizens. Overall, 83% of Americans approve of Obama’s drone killing policy.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is raising hell about the administration’s secrecy - demanding that they at least release the confidential [...]

Tuesday 22nd November 2011

Super Committee Was a Fraud from the Get Go

9:37 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Lying | wool | Comments: 0

From an interview with Press TV earlier today -
James Bovard, policy advisor for The Future of Freedom Foundation in an interview with Press TV’s U.S. Desk on Tuesday said that “a lot of folks had high expectations from the congressional super committee to reduce the federal deficit. I figured it would be a fraud from [...]

Tuesday 15th November 2011

Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism

11:46 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Lying | War crimes | Comments: 0

from the August issue of Freedom Daily (posted online last week)
Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism
by James Bovard,
On Memorial Day, the media do their usual sacralizing of war. Instead, it should be a day for the ritualized scourging of politicians. During the last 60 years, their lies have resulted in the unnecessary deaths of almost [...]

Saturday 29th October 2011

Whittling on an Epigram List for WikiQuotes

Spurred by feedback from that Daily Bell interview, I whittled out a list of my favorite epigrams from books gone by and popped them onto a page on Wiki Quotes.
I think this is the first time I added anything to a Wikipedia or WikiQuotes (at least as far as I can remember). I [...]

Friday 28th October 2011

MP3 of Playing Whack-A-Federal-Mole on the Brian Wilson Show

WSPD’s Brian Wilson and I had a hoot yesterday flogging hell out of the Patriot Act and its noxious progeny.
Dang, hard to believe this stupid act is 10 years old. It has almost outlived my idealism.
You can listen to or download the show by clicking here brian-wilson-patriot-act-bash-10-27-2011

MP3 of Antiwar.com Radio Interview on the Patriot Act

Scott Horton and I had fun on Wednesday hammering the Patriot Act on its 10th anniversary. That noxious law continues to spawn dreadful precedents…
You can listen or download the interview by clicking on this link antiwar-radio-11_10_26_bovard

Friday 12th August 2011

Latest Patriot Act Frauds and Follies

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online today the following piece from the May issue of Freedom Daily -
The PATRIOT Act in the Crosshairs Again
by James Bovard
The most controversial provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act are coming up for renewal this year. There is hope that Americans will finally learn more about how the [...]

Saturday 30th July 2011

MP3 of my Raging Bitch Tribute on Brian Wilson Radio Show

WSPD’s Brian Wilson and I had a rattlin’ good chat yesterday about Declan McCullagh’s excellent article on the House Committee vote to require Internet Service Providers to keep records of every website visited by every customer.
While this provision is currently the hobbyhorse of nitwit conservative Republicans, the Obama administration also supports this vast data [...]

Monday 25th July 2011

MP3 of Freedom Fest Panel Flogging the War on Terror

Jacob Hornberger, Sheldon Richman, and I had fun flogging the war on terror during a Freedom Fest panel earlier this month.
Since I was the token moderate on the panel, I went third. I started out my riff (@ 20 minutes into the tape) talking about how a TSA agent at Baltimore went [...]

Thursday 21st July 2011

Lies and Leviathan

The new issue of the American Conservative includes a review essay I wrote on John Mearsheimer’s Why Leaders Lie. Here’s the piece -
Leviathan’s Lies
Review of Why Leaders Lie: The Truth About Lying in International Politics, John J. Mearsheimer, Oxford University Press, 2011.
By James Bovard
Politicians nowadays treat Americans like medical orderlies treat Alzheimer’s patients, [...]

Wednesday 22nd June 2011

Wall Street Journal: Food Stamps for Millionaires

Wall Street Journal June 23, 2011
The Food-Stamp Crime Wave
By JAMES BOVARD
Millionaires are now legally entitled to collect food stamps as long as they have little or no monthly income. Thirty-five states have abolished asset tests for most food-stamp recipients. These and similar “paperwork reduction” reforms advocated by the United States Department of [...]

Fear-mongering and Servitude

from the July-August issue of the Freeman -
Fear-Mongering and Servitude
by James Bovard
In his 1776 essay, “Thoughts on Government,” John Adams observed, “Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be [...]

Tuesday 21st June 2011

Bush, Torture, and the Rule of Law

from the March issue of Freedom Daily….
Bush, Torture, and the Rule of Law
by James Bovard
Last November, George W. Bush’s memoir, Decision Points, hit the streets. And Americans could see firsthand the former president bragging about ordering torture. Bush wrote that when he was requested to approve the CIA’s waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he responded, [...]

Monday 6th June 2011

Barron’s: The Anti-Corruption Charade (full text)

Barron’s
Editorial Commentary
The Anti-Corruption Charade
by James Bovard
In much of the world, governing is a synonym for looting. Unfortunately, American and European foreign aid has a long history of accelerating the looting. Foreign aid created a generation of kleptocracies—governments of thieves—in Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. Mercedes-Benz automobiles became so popular among African government officials that [...]

Tuesday 31st May 2011

Supreme Court Again Absolves Nation’s Most Dangerous Criminal Class

The Supreme Court ruled today that John Ashcroft cannot be personally sued regardless of the crimes committed against American citizens thanks to his policies as Attorney General.
What a crock.
On the same theme, Tom Engelhardt has an excellent essay today on “Post-Legal America.”

Wednesday 25th May 2011

Three Cheers for Rand Paul on the Patriot Act

Sen. Rand Paul is doing heroic work on the Patriot Act. The fact that tomorrow’s New York Times has an article fretting that the FBI might have a perilous temporary loss of surveillance powers shows how desperate the establishment has become.
Paul has done a superb job thus far of slowing the bipartisan [...]

Tuesday 17th May 2011

Obama’s Unlimited Right to Kill?

from today’s Christian Science Monitor -
The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com
Assasination nation: Are there any limits on President Obama’s license to kill?
As part of its war against violent extremism, the Obama administration now claims a right to kill Americans without a trial, without notice, and without any chance for targets to legally object.
——————————————————————————–
By James [...]

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