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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 [...]

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 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 [...]

Thursday 29th July 2010

Excellent Interview with WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange by Antiwar’s Scott Horton

Antiwar’s Scott Horton did a superb radio interview with WikiLeaks’s Julian Assange yesterday. Transcript and the MP3 are here.
I have been amused to see the tut-tutting of some of the Washington press corps because the Afghan document disclosure was not as earth-shaking as the Pentagon Papers.
Folks, this game is only beginning. Assange confirmed [...]

Monday 26th July 2010

Three More Cheers for WikiLeaks!

The latest deluge of truth from WikiLeaks is a welcome novelty in American politics.
The New York Times, UK Guardian, and Germany’s Der Spiegel are simultaneously releasing articles today on more than 90,000 Pentagon documents that WikiLeaks posted on the web regarding the Afghan war.
These documents reveal the lies that have permeated U.S. Afghan [...]

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 [...]

Wednesday 14th July 2010

The New American Credo

Weren’t things supposed to be different after Obama was elected?
[cartoon from the New Yorker, 2002]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Tuesday 6th April 2010

Killing Journalists as Video Game Sport

Three cheers for Wikileaks. Their posting of a 38-minute video from an Apache helilcopter showing U.S. gunners killing two Reuters journalists (and ten other civilians) in 2007 is heroic. Naturally, the Pentagon had endlessly scorned Reuters’ Freedom of Information Act and other efforts to get the video.
The video and a transcript of [...]

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.”

Wednesday 31st March 2010

Federal Judge: Bush Administration Was Criminal Conspiracy

Federal judge Vaughn Walker ruled today that the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program was illegal.
This has been obvious ever since the New York Times blew the lid off of the National Security Administration’s massive surveillance operation in late 2005. It is amazing that the issue is still open to dispute.
Unfortunately, there is not a [...]

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 [...]

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 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 Postâ€“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. [...]

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 â€œOne White House Memo Away From Dictatorshipâ€
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. [...]

Tuesday 23rd June 2009

Celebrate Torture Day by Punishing Torturers

The Future of Freedom Foundation is shotgunning out this email today…..
Celebrate Torture Day by Punishing Torturers
by James Bovard, June 23, 2009
Since 1997, every June 26 has been formally recognized as the International Day of Support for Victims of Torture. Political leaders around the globe take the occasion to proclaim their opposition to barbarism.
On June [...]

Thursday 28th May 2009

The Campaign Reform Scam/Crime/Damn Outrage - Parts 1 and 2

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online today the second part of my analysis of the McCain Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act hokum. (This is from the February issue of Freedom Daily). I am reposting it here, along with the first part of the article (posted on this blog yesterday).
***
The Campaign Reform Scam Part [...]

Wednesday 27th May 2009

The Campaign Reform Crime (or Scam?)

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online today my article from the January issue of Freedom Daily on campaign reform scams. This is the first part of a two-part series on the McCain-Feingold act and related hokum.
********************************
The Campaign Reform Scam Part 1 [...]

Saturday 25th April 2009

Obama’s Double Standard on Atrocities & Evil

At a Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Capitol on Thursday, President Obama called for “fighting the silence that is evil’s greatest co-conspirator.”
On the same day, Obama decided to oppose creation of a truth commission to vigorously investigate and expose U.S. torture crimes.
This is another of those damn paradoxes of which Washington is full of.
Perhaps [...]

Friday 17th April 2009

Obama-Style “Nation of Laws”

Obama proudly declared yesterday that ours is a “nation of laws” at the same time he announced that CIA torturers would not be prosecuted for their crimes.
Life in Washington is one damn paradox after another.
Kudos to the American Civil Liberties Union for their lawsuit that compelled the disclosure of the torture memos yesterday. But [...]

Saturday 28th March 2009

Washington Post Shills for Terrorists

11:12 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bush | Terrorism | Comments: 5

Not all terrorists are equally damndable, apparently.
The Washington Post has an article today on the Iraqi government’s plan to shut down the camp of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK.Â This is a violent Marxist organization that was designated by the State Department as terrorists in 1997 because of their long record of killing civilians (they [...]

Friday 13th March 2009

Part 2 of “How Abu Ghraib was Politically Defused”

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online today the second part of my analysis of “How Abu Ghraib was Politically Defused.”
It is amazing how little attention was paid to the heap of evidence of torture-as-official-policy until long after Bush snared a second term.
Here is a link to a permanent web page with both articles on [...]

Thursday 30th October 2008

My 2 Cents on the 2008 Elections

Reason magazine posted yesterday their responses from various libertarians they sent a set of questions on the 2008 election. Following is the response I sent them last week. (Their initial article did not include my responses, but they added them in after I sent a YO DUDE! email their way.)
** I will [...]

Wednesday 24th September 2008

The Highway Robber State

The Night Watchman State has been replaced by Highway Robber States - governments in which no asset, no contract, no domain is safe from marauding bands of politicians. (from Freedom in Chains, 1999)
If you voted in the congressional elections two years ago, were you ceding the right to the [...]

Saturday 30th August 2008

Torture & Liberty

This piece from the July issue of The Freeman is now online here (in PDF) and here (in ASCII - paragraph breaks amended slightly in the version below).
Â
TORTURE & LIBERTYÂ Â Â Â Â FreemanÂ July 2008
by James Bovard
Is torture compatible with liberty?
Unfortunately, this is no longer a hypothetical question. Many Americans who claim to support individual freedom also [...]

Wednesday 27th August 2008

Federal Attitude Police

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online today my article from the June issue of Freedom Daily.
TSA is an agency that never gets enough of what it deserves. But it’s fun to try anyhow.
FEDERAL ATTITUDE POLICE
by James Bovard
The Transportation Security Administration has created more gantlets at American airports than most travelers realize. It has continually [...]

Monday 30th June 2008

The Capsizing of American Democracy

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online today this piece from the April issue of Freedom Daily -
THE CAPSIZING OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
by James Bovard
American democracy is capsizing as a result of the vast increase in the number of government dependents and government employees. This has created a voting bloc that overwhelms every other potential force. [...]

Tuesday 17th June 2008

Bush Slanders Freedom Again

In a Tuesday interview in Britain, Sky News editor Adam Boulton asked George W. Bush:Â “There are those who would say look, lets take Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Ghraib, and rendition and all those things and to them that is the complete opposite of freedom.”
BUSH: “Of course, if you want to slander America.”Â
This is the [...]

Monday 26th May 2008

No Justice on Memorial Day

11:03 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Bush | Comments: 6

Here is a greatÂ Washington PostÂ photo of BushÂ strutting at the White House as he receives visitors from the Rolling Thunder veterans motorcycle group.
It is obscene how the same politicians who send Americans to die in unnecessary wars are treated like heroes on Memorial Day.
One would hope that this day, above all others, would be a time [...]

Wednesday 14th May 2008

Now Online: Podcast of BMW Horse**** Interview!

Talk show host Brian Wilson and I had a rattlin’ good chat on WSPD in Toledo today.Â Â We kicked hell out of the Homegrown Terrorism and Violent Radicalization BS Act now before the Senate.Â Â Â There were wine, beer, and cigar jokes, as well as expressions of condolence to the Israeli Prime Minister who might be [...]

Thursday 8th May 2008

GoLeft TV Interview Now Online -Radio Broadcast on Saturday

5:31 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Bush | Comments: 0

Mike Papantonio of the “Ring of Fire” nationally-syndicated radio program “Ring of Fire”Â recently interviewed me regarding article on “The 9/11 Servility Reflex.”Â Â I just heard from his producer Farron Cousins: “Your interview is going to run on this Saturday’s program, at the top of the second hour. We air from 3p - 6p Eastern [...]

Wednesday 9th April 2008

Martial Law Act of 2006

Â The Future of Freedom Foundation today posted online my article from the January 2008 issue of Freedom DailyÂ on Martial Law.Â Without further ado…
The Martial Law Act of 2006
by James Bovard
Martial law is perhaps the ultimate stomping of freedom. And yet, on September 30, 2006, Congress passed a provision in a 591-page bill that will make [...]

Monday 24th March 2008

The 9/11 Servility Reflex

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online today my Freedom Daily piece on the tidal wave of groveling that swept America after 9/11.
THE 9/11 SERVILITY REFLEXÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Freedom Daily, December 2008
by James BovardÂ
Many citizens react to their rulers like little kids who recognize that a stranger is acting suspiciously and may be up to no good [...]

Thursday 20th March 2008

Now Online - My Radio Interview on Antiwar.com

7:17 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Bush | Comments: 7

Antiwar.com’s Scott Horton and I had a rattlin’ good chat yesterday regarding the 5 year anniversary of Bush’s invasion of Iraq.Â Â The interviewÂ includes accolades for Antiwar.com itself andÂ heaps justified abuse upon the media.
The MP3 is here.Â The interview is about 15 minutes long.

Tuesday 18th March 2008

Bush Earned Impeachment Five Years Ago Today

In a memo sent to Congress five years ago today, BushÂ decreed that he was attacking IraqÂ â€œto take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.â€
The Bush administration linked Saddam to 9/11 to justify [...]

Wednesday 12th March 2008

McCain Again Votes for Torture

John McCainÂ

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