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Thursday 2nd September 2010

Government Online Surveillance and Your Bad Attitude

This great Dilbert cartoon perfectly captures how surveillance breeds distrust.
The feds are spying on us left and right, and yet politicians whine that we don’t trust the government.
At least not everyone’s a damn fool on that regard. (No - this isn’t the cue to recite the Pledge of Allegiance….)

Tuesday 31st August 2010

Will Obama Out-BS Bush on Iraq?

Popcorn sales are soaring across the nation because Obama will give a live Oval Office speech tonight on the U.S. victory in Iraq.
I’m disappointed that Obama will not be giving the speech after climbing out of a jet wearing a flight suit, like George W. did with his “Mission Accomplished” speech in 2003.
I expect that [...]

Wednesday 18th August 2010

The Crime of Lying to the FBI???

Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is a four-star sleazeball. But the feds had their chance to put him away and they failed to convince a jury on all charges except lying to the FBI.
This is one of the “crimes” that best illustrates the mirage of the Rule of Law in the U.S. FBI agents and [...]

Thursday 12th August 2010

How We Brought Freedom & Prosperity to Afghanistan

posted online today by the Future of Freedom Foundation, from the May issue of Freedom Daily -
BRINGING FREEDOM & PROSPERITY TO AFGHANISTAN
by James Bovard
The Obama administration is seeking to rechristen the Afghan debacle it inherited from the Bush administration. Obama’s efforts to legitimize the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan simply ignore the previous record of American [...]

Wednesday 11th August 2010

Government Lies Make Leaks Explosive

The Pentagon is caterwauling that the next round of WikiLeaks’ disclosures of US government documents will be even more damaging than the last round.
It is always touching to see the world’s most powerful military machine portray itself as a “pitiful, helpless giant” (the phrase Nixon used in his speech announcing his illegal invasion [...]

Wednesday 4th August 2010

My 2 Cents on WikiLeaks, the FBI, and Assorted Hokum - Antiwar.com Transcript

The good folks at Antiwar.com Radio added a transcript to the MP3 of last week’s interview. My comments on the Obama administration’s ploy to increase FBI surveillance power are excerpted here at the top. (The full text is below. My Kelly Girl past is now no longer secret).
Bovard:
National Security letters have [...]

Tuesday 3rd August 2010

New U.S. Government Motto: Controlling Us to Secure Us

“If you don’t have control of the population, you can’t secure the population,” according to Brig. Gen. Frederick Hodges, director of operations for the NATO regional command in southern Afghanistan.
The front-page Washington Post piece with the above quote deals with Kandahar.
But it is also the motto for the U.S. government’s approach to [...]

Saturday 31st July 2010

MP3 of My Interview with Scott Horton on the FBI, WikiLeaks, Etc.

Scott Horton of Antiwar.com Radio and I had fun tarring-and-feathering the usual federal outrages on Thursday. The MP3 is here.
Scott balked at the chance to reveal his deepest thoughts on Chelsea’s wedding. It could have been a great “Bill Hicks moment.”
Here’s Scott’s thumbnail of the interview:
James Bovard, author of Attention Deficit Democracy, [...]

Friday 23rd July 2010

The Fraud of “Big Picture” Thinking

11:48 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Comments: 3

From the April 2010 issue of Freedom Daily -
The Fraud of “Big Picture” Thinking
by James Bovard
Politicians, pundits, and others perennially invoke the “Big Picture.” Recognizing the role of the Big Picture is vital to understanding how contemporary democracies are going off the rail. The Big Picture provides preemptive exoneration for almost anyone who wants to [...]

Thursday 22nd July 2010

The Pentagon No Longer Awards This Medal

10:17 pm | Afghanistan | Attention Deficit Democracy | Comments: 2

Amazing how much has been forgotten since this 1988 New Yorker cartoon…

Wednesday 21st July 2010

The Media’s Attitude Towards Government Surveillance

This 1990 New Yorker cartoon perfectly captures the usual media attitude towards government surveillance in the post-9/11 world.
Happily, today’s Washington Post blockbuster does not show the same complacency.

Monday 19th July 2010

Best Comical Response to Wash. Post “Top Secret America” Series?

The Washington Post series on “Top Secret America” by Dana Priest and Bill Arkin is off to a great start.
I am shocked to learn that the federal government has little or no idea what the hell it is doing.
I expect some conservatives will want to indict the Post reporters and editors for treason….
What are [...]

Thursday 15th July 2010

What the FBI Does Best

It is unfortunate that few of the nation’s editorial writers have ever understood the FBI as well as Handelsman did within weeks after 9/11…..

Friday 9th July 2010

“Freedom & the War on Terrorism” - my Pennslyvania speech…

Now online here: the video of my “Freedom and the War on Terrorism” speech last month in Bernville, Pennsylvania. I want to thank Bob Bowers, who organized this libertarian supper club, for inviting Jacob Hornberger and I to talk there. The audience was excellent - lots of hardliners full of fire-and-brimstone. [...]

Thursday 1st July 2010

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan and Torture

3:14 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Torture | Comments: 1

Phil Giraldi makes an excellent observation on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan in his Antiwar.com column today:
New Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has described retired Israeli Judge Aharon Barak as her “judicial hero.” Barak is sometimes described as a liberal, but a review of his decisions reveals that he has always sided with [...]

Monday 28th June 2010

Ron Paul Celebrates Justice Department’s 140th Anniversary

It’s almost always a shock when truth surfaces in the Congressional Record.
Madam Speaker, the House of Representatives recently considered H. Res. 1422, honoring the 140th anniversary of the Department of Justice. I voted against this resolution because of the Justice Departmentâ€™s history of violating individual rights.
It is the Justice Department that leads the ongoing [...]

Monday 21st June 2010

Supreme Court’s Latest Constitutional Disaster of Biblical Proportions

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision upholding a federal law banning “material support” to terrorist organizations is a disaster for preserving free speech or limiting federal power.
Once again, the Obama administration proudly championed repression, and the court agreed with the Obama team.
Raw Story has a good collection of quotes bashing the decision here.
David Cole, the [...]

Thursday 17th June 2010

Congratulations, Ron Paul - Audit the Fed Triumph

2:12 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Ron Paul | Comments: 0

The House-Senate conferees on the financial reform bill have significantly tightened the bill’s mandate to audit the Federal Reserve.
This is a huge triumph for Ron Paul - and another vindication of his 2008 presidential campaign.
The bill’s provisions do not go nearly far enough - but they are a seachange in official Washington. It was [...]

Wednesday 16th June 2010

Obama Administration: Don’t Question Sincerity of Torturers

1:58 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Supreme Court | Torture | Comments: 9

The Supreme Court disgraced itself on Monday by torpedoing the appeal of Maher Arar, the Canadian who was kidnapped at John F. Kennedy International Airport and sent by the U.S. government to Syria for torturing.
The Canadian government has publicly apologized to Arar for providing false information to the U.S. government about Arar’s suspicious connections. [...]

Wednesday 2nd June 2010

Podcast: Brian Wilson Interview on Worldwide Downfall of Democracy

Talk Show mastermind Brian Wilson and I had fun today discussing the worldwide downfall of democracy.
This trend has gone so far that it might even affect Toledo.
Brian took the high road - preferring to discuss Berlusconi’s Italian corruption rather than Singapore culinary prohibitions.
You can download or listen to the @ 15 minute interview by clicking [...]

Tuesday 1st June 2010

Campaign for Liberty’s Review of Attention Deficit Democracy

Anthony Gregory has a generous review of Attention Deficit Democracy posted today at the Campaign for Liberty website:
There are few writers who pay more attention to the political follies of our time and who provide their readers with more meticulously documented reasons to be outraged than James Bovard, whose new book, Attention Deficit Democracy, presents [...]

Monday 31st May 2010

Memorial Day: Scourge the Lying Politicians…

9:05 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Lying | Comments: 3

This Memorial Day, the media is doing its usual sacralizing of war. Instead, this 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 a hundred thousand American soldiers and millions of foreigners.
And yet, people still get teary-eyed [...]

Thursday 27th May 2010

The Worldwide Downfall of Democracy

From the July issue of the American Conservative - my review of a fine new book -
Global Undemocratic Revolution

Freedom for Sale: Why the World Is Trading Democracy for Security, John Kampfner, Basic Books, 294 pages
By James Bovard
Freedom for Sale is the best synopsis of the recent collapse of restraints on government [...]

Monday 24th May 2010

Welfarization and the Capsizing of Democracy

Liberty Central just posted online my analysis of how government handouts subvert self-government…

WELFARIZATION AND THE CAPSIZING OF DEMOCRACY
by Jim Bovard
The Founding Fathers intended that America be composed of self-reliant individuals who would not hesitate to pull the reins in on their rulers. However, in the past 75 years, the soaring number of government dependents [...]

Friday 21st May 2010

Obama and Attention Deficit Democracy

for the Future of Freedom Foundation today….
OBAMA AND ATTENTION DEFICIT DEMOCRACY
by James Bovard
In his commencement address at the University of Michigan on May 1, President Obama warned that public ignorance subverts self-government. Obama declared: â€œWhen we donâ€™t pay close attention to the decisions made by our leaders, when we fail to educate ourselves about [...]

Friday 14th May 2010

Counterpunch: Operation Tarmac

From Counterpunch -
OPERATION TARMAC
by James Bovard
…..
Unfortunately, few people recognize the political racketeering involved in the postâ€“9/11 roundups of airport workers. That practically ensures that, if there is another major terrorist attack or some similar debacle, mass arrests will once again be used to burnish the governmentâ€™s image.

Thursday 13th May 2010

The Feds’ Post-9/11 Purge of Airport Workers

From the Future of Freedom Foundation’s Freedom Daily (February 2010)…
American travelers are at far greater risk from weasely cabinet secretaries than from fast-food workers. Operation Tarmac illustrated how â€œretailâ€ lying is dangerous and can result in a prison sentence â€” while â€œwholesaleâ€ lying is a steppingstone to fame and greater power.
The Feds’ Post-9/11 Airport [...]

Friday 23rd April 2010

Tea Party Pushback: Now I’m a Traitor, Racist, Communist, and Nazi

My Christian Science Monitor op-ed on the Tea Party movement is spurring some uplifting responses.
My article concluded, America needs real champions of freedom â€“ not poorly informed Republican accomplices.” A phalanx of Tea Party activists rushed to vindicate their movement and prove me wrong.
Following is their rebuttal to the article:
Comments [...]

Tuesday 20th April 2010

The Slippery Definition of Extremism

The Future of Freedom Foundation is shotgunning out this op-ed today….

The Slippery Definition of Extremism
by James Bovard
Americans are once again hearing of the perils of extremism. But the definition of this offense is slippier than a politicianâ€™s campaign promise. The definition of extremism has continually been amended to permit government policies that few sober people [...]

Bill Clinton’s Lethal Hypocrisy on Government Violence

from Counterpunch today -
Bill Clinton on Violence and Government
A Lethal Hypocrisy
By JAMES BOVARD
Yesterday, on the fifteenth anniversary of the attack on the federal office building in Oklahoma City, former President Bill Clinton had an op-ed in the New York Times headlined: â€œViolence is Unacceptable in a Democracy.â€ The article settles any doubts [...]

Monday 19th April 2010

Podcast of April 19th Interview with Ernie Hancock

Legendary hellraiser and freedom fighter Ernie Hancock had me on his radio show today. We talked about the meaning of April 19th - Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, etc.
He tried to squeeze out a few predictions but I pretty much took a dive.
You can hear the show by clicking radio-jpb-2010-04-19-ernie-hancock-a-pmhere. (The [...]

Thursday 15th April 2010

Podcast of Census-Bashing Interview on Free Talk Live

Mark Edge of Free Talk Live interviewed me yesterday on the Census, government surveillance, and other perils of our times.
The podcast is here. My interview is the final 20 minutes of the 2+ hour program.
I did not see the interview listed as a separate downloadable file. If I missed something [...]

Wednesday 14th April 2010

Kudos to the Libertarian Party of Ohio

The Libertarian Party of Ohio (www.lpo.org) held their annual convention last weekend in Worthington, Ohio. I was there for a Saturday night spiel, and it was a treat to meet so many folks gung-ho to fight for freedom. Many of their activists had a fervor about them which I rarely see inside the [...]

Friday 2nd April 2010

My CPAC Interview with Bill Jasper, Liberty News Network

When I visited the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year, I talked with Bill Jasper about the state of the Republic.

I was relieved to see that, according to the logo on that page, the interview was rated “G.”

Extremist Blogs Could be Next!!!!

From today’s Washington Post website -
“FBI warns extremist letters may encourage violence”
By EILEEN SULLIVAN and DEVLIN BARRETT
The Associated Press
Friday, April 2, 2010; 9:34 AM
….
The article ominously notes: ” In the past year, federal agents have seen an increase in “chatter” from an array of domestic extremist groups, which can include radical self-styled militias, white separatists [...]

Tuesday 30th March 2010

New York Times: My Two Cents on How to Respond to the Census

9:33 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Census | Surveillance | Comments: 0

The New York Times on Wednesday has a piece on the controversy over the Census. It includes my two cents on how to respond to the feds:
â€œThe census has become a lightning rod, and itâ€™s drawing peopleâ€™s attention to the danger of federal surveillance,â€ said James Bovard, an author and former census taker who [...]

Wednesday 24th March 2010

Christian Science Monitor: The Census is Untrustworthy

10:05 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Obama | Surveillance | Comments: 5

posted today (and in their national weekly print edition) by the Christian Science Monitor -
My 2 favorite lines from this piece - *A surplus of lies naturally produces a deficit of trust.
*Citizens are not obliged to pave the data highway for Leviathanâ€™s next intrusion into their lives.
*******
The 2010 Census: Will Your Answers Stay [...]

Wednesday 17th March 2010

Is the FBI Your Friend on Facebook?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released internal federal documents detailing how FBI agents are creating false or deceptive profiles online to gather more personal information on Americans.
From the Associated Press story:

U.S. law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate [...]

Tuesday 16th March 2010

Bait and Switch Democracy at its Best

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that she may ram through the Democrats’ health care legislation through the House via a brazen fraud. The Washington Post reports:
After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate’s health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to [...]

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’sÂ 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. Ridgeâ€™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 aboutÂ all the “emergency” declarations and power grabs by recent presidents. The interview on “The Alyona Show” Â starts about 6 minutes into this YouTube segment here.
It was ironic toÂ be commenting on the danger of excessive presidential power on Russian TV….
PerhapsÂ 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: 7

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 postâ€“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 citizensâ€™ 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 [...]

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