BOVARD » Bush

Archive for Bush

The archive page you are viewing contains only excerpts of each post. To view the full post, click on its title.

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 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 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 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. [...]

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. [...]

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. 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).

TORTURE & LIBERTY Freeman 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: “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.”
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 great Washington Post photo of Bush 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. We kicked hell out of the Homegrown Terrorism and Violent Radicalization BS Act now before the Senate. 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” recently interviewed me regarding article on “The 9/11 Servility Reflex.” 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

The Future of Freedom Foundation today posted online my article from the January 2008 issue of Freedom Daily on Martial Law. 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 REFLEX Freedom Daily, December 2008
by James Bovard
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. The interview includes accolades for Antiwar.com itself and heaps justified abuse upon the media.
The MP3 is here. 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, Bush decreed that he was attacking Iraq “to 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.”
The Bush administration linked Saddam to 9/11 to justify [...]

Wednesday 12th March 2008

McCain Again Votes for Torture

John McCain voted to uphold Bush’s veto of the latest anti-torture legislation to pass Congress.
McCain also voted against the initial version of this law that would ban waterboarding by U.S. government agents.
McCain also voted for the final version of the Military Comissions Act in September 2006. By giving Bush boundless discretion to define torture, this law [...]

Tuesday 19th February 2008

My Favorite Cartoon (from Playboy 2002)

Clay Butler did this wonderful cartoon for Playboy for a 2002 article of mine bashing the Patriot Act. His cartoon was so good that I urged St. Martin’s/Palgrave to use it for the cover of Terrorism & Tyranny. Alack - my editors there did not share my mania for cartoons.
The full size of the cartoon is [...]

Wednesday 30th January 2008

Discussing Ron Paul Etc. Thursday Morning - LISTEN LIVE

I will be on the Charles Goyette radio show 8:35 AM Eastern time Thursday (1/31) discussing the Ron Paul campaign and other developments in the presdiential race.
Charles is one of the best libertarian hosts in the country; his political courage and humor have helped make him the most popular talk show host in Phoenix. He is on the dial [...]

Friday 25th January 2008

Bush Does Abraham

The intellectual bootlickers surrounding Bush have apparently persuaded him that he is the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln. Fox News recently had unprecedented access to Bush to produce a documentary to air on Sunday night: ““George W. Bush: Fighting to the Finish.” Fox reporter Bret Baier commented of his meetings with Bush: ”
We talked a lot [...]

Saturday 19th January 2008

Congratulations Ron Paul!

Ron Paul scored a big upset today, coming in #2 in the Nevada primary. It is bracing to see him whup McCain, Thompson, Huckabee, and Guiliani in convincing fashion.
The race between Paul and the winner, Romney, may have been closer with a little bit of luck. The Nevada GOP continually changed the rules and changed the locations for [...]

Friday 11th January 2008

Stomping Freedom: The Martial Law Act of 2006

Counterpunch posted online my Freedom Daily January article on how Congress passed law to give presidents push-button martial law power. Here’s the piece.
Stomping Freedom
Inside 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 [...]

Wednesday 9th January 2008

Why did Antiwar Voters Support McCain in NH?

CNN crunched the exit poll data from yesterday’s New Hampshire primary and found that “among the 34 percent [of Republican primary voters] who said they disapproved of the war, McCain had a wide advantage over the GOP field — even over Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the sole advocate of a U.S. withdrawal in the Republican [...]

Will a Drug Warrior Be Hanged?

So, after the primary results last night, I was looking for something uplifting to put on the blog.
Voila! The possibility that an evil politician could get hanged!
The Future of Freedom Foundation today posted online an article from their Freedom Daily on the Bush-blessed Thai slaughter of drug users and other people hated by the police. The American media [...]

Wednesday 2nd January 2008

Thanks for the Great Comments in ‘07!

I greatly appreciate the folks who added their thoughts and wit to this blog over the past 12 months. We’ve had a hoot of a time, despite the political BS flooding this nation.
Laughter might not be the best medicine, but it is a good antidote to the servility that pervades the media and contemporary political life. And I’ve learned a [...]

Sunday 16th December 2007

Before I was Certified as a ‘Bush Hater’…..

11:14 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Bush | Comments: 9

I’ve received bushels of emails over the past few years denouncing my pinko liberal tendencies. Here’s a collection of some of the highlights after Bush Betrayal came out in 2004.
I was rummaging through some old material yesterday and came across this fervent review of Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore [...]

Friday 14th December 2007

Bush’s AmeriCorps Fraud

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online today my article on AmeriCorps from the September 2007 Freedom Daily.
I admit: the first sentence is my favorite line in the piece.
Bush’s AmeriCorps Fraud Freedom Daily, September 2007
by James Bovard
Politicians have long used moral doggerel to make citizens docile. Though President Bush is often verbally inept, he has [...]

Tuesday 4th December 2007

Ron Paul Vindicated on Iran

7:29 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Bush | Comments: 18

Ron Paul is the only non-Armageddon presidential candidate among the Republicans. He is the only person who staunchly opposes a massive first strike against Iran because of its alleged nuclear program. He has long been ridiculed for his aversion to preemptive genocide in the Middle East.
The National Intelligence Estimate yesterday reported that Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons [...]

Saturday 24th November 2007

Another Bush Bootlicker Bites the Dust

10:41 am | Bovard | Bush | Comments: 15

Australian voters kicked Prime Minister John Howard out of office yesterday. Howard was even more of a groveler to Bush than Tony Blair.
One step Bush took to try to help Howard win reelection was to release Australian David Hicks from Guantanamo earlier this year. As part of the deal for his release, Hicks had to promise [...]

Wednesday 10th October 2007

Bush Stands Up for Genocide

3:10 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Bush | Comments: 11

Bush today vigorously opposed a congressional resolution to finally recognize the Turkish slaughter of more than a million Armenian Christians as genocide. Bush declared: “We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in 1915. This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings, and its passage would do [...]

Friday 5th October 2007

Are Presidents Entitled to Kill Foreigners?

The Future of Freedom Foundation is shotgunning out an op-ed I wrote about presidents’ right to kill. My favorite line from this piece:
Sometimes the threat of a noose is the best way to keep the peace.
ARE PRESIDENTS ENTITLED TO KILL FOREIGNERS?
by James Bovard
What is the common term for ordering soldiers to kill vast numbers of innocent [...]

Monday 23rd July 2007

War Lies & the 2004 Election

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online today my article from the April 2007 Freedom Daily on “War Lies & the 2004 Election.”
What sort of democracy allows rulers to perpetuate their power with brazen lies?
WAR LIES & THE 2004 ELECTION Freedom Daily April 2007
by James Bovard
Shortly after he was reelected, President Bush declared that American voters [...]

Friday 20th July 2007

My FFF Speech is Now Online at YouTube

This is the talk from the Future of Freedom Foundation conference last month.
I’m not sure how the segments of the talk are broken out, but it is probably in segment 5 or 6 that I pull the rabbit out of the hat.
The questions from the audience were superb - the Q & A was zippety.
Here’s the [...]

Thursday 19th July 2007

New Bush Dictatorial Decree

Just when my concerns about Bush were starting to subside….
Bush issued an executive order on Tuesday permitting the feds to seize the property of anyone who threatens “the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq” or who “undermin(e) efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq.”
Former Justice Department official Bruce [...]

Wednesday 18th July 2007

Deliberative Democracy Dementia

The Foundation for Economic Education posted online the pieces from the May issue of the Freeman. Here’s my two cents on Deliberative Democracy…. (There are a few extra line breaks in this text; I have cursed it quite thoroughly but the blog software remains recalcitrant).

“Deliberative Democracy” Dementia
By James Bovard
James Bovard (jim@jimbovard.com) is the author of [...]

Monday 11th June 2007

Paperback Attention Deficit Democracy Hits Stores This Week

The paperback version of Attention Deficit Democracy arrives in stores this week.
Hmmm…. Re-reading that…. Maybe I should say, “According to credible sources, the paperback version of A.D.D. is scheduled to arrive in stores this week.”
I have to be careful, since many people assume that I blindly trust anything a publisher says.
I will be curious what folks [...]

Wednesday 30th May 2007

Speaking Friday at FFF Conference

10:08 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Bush | Comments: 13

On Friday morning at 9 a.m. [redacted], I will be giving a spiel on “How Foreign Warring Subverts Freedom at Home” at a Future of Freedom Foundation confab in Reston, Va. The conference, “Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy & Civil Liberties,” will feature an array of liberal, conservative, and libertarian speakers - including a number [...]

Wednesday 16th May 2007

Ron Paul’s Radical Mix: Truth & Politics

7:38 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Bush | Comments: 82

Hats off to Ron Paul for another great performance in the Republican presidential debate in South Carolina last night.
For almost six years, politicians have acted as if it is federal crime to speak bluntly about 9/11. On the day of the attacks, George Bush proclaimed that the hijackers attacked because they hate America for its [...]

Sunday 13th May 2007

What Would Martial Law Look Like?

If they put a sign saying “Rule of Law” on the front of the howitzer, people might not notice any difference between this and other post 9/11 ornaments in DC.

“Nothing to see here, folks - move along….”
The full size photo for the above is at http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=495676211&size=l
The new Patriot System in DC:

Just another harmless decoration on [...]

books

information:

archives:

search:

info: