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Tuesday 10th November 2009

Most Venal-Looking Congressman?

I have seen plenty of smarmy looking congressmen over the decades, but this photo of Rep. Bob Filner (D-Cal) probably takes the cake.
Who would vote for someone who looks like he might mug you and steal your wallet before your leave the polling booth???
Or is there somebody I missed or forgot? What other member [...]

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 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 [...]

Monday 1st June 2009

Supreme Court Justice Aids Torture Coverup

1:33 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Congress | Torture | Comments: 3

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg approved an Obama administration request to have an additional 30 days to submit their appeal to justify suppressing the photos of US troops torturing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. The administration can now dally until July 9 before submitting their brief arguing their case.
This is simply one more layer [...]

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 [...]

Tuesday 21st April 2009

Pity for a Constitution Stomper?

Congresswoman Jane Harman is indignant. A National Security Agency wiretap reportedly picked up her conversation seeking favors from a suspected Israeli agent in return for Harman lobbying the Justice Department to drop the lawsuit against AIPAC’s former top officials.
Harman denies the charge and swears that her good name has been defiled. (Har!). Harman sent [...]

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 20th September 2008

Ron Paul Supporters Vindicated?

[full size photo at my Flickr site here ]
And to think that many people thought that the Ron Paul supporters were too cynical about the Fed….
This monster bank/stock market bailout shaping up in Washington will probably be one of the greatest cons of the new century. This is simply letting politicians give themselves a blank check - or a [...]

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. [...]

Saturday 23rd February 2008

McCain’s Forgotten Drug Fix

Amongst all the media teeth-gnashing over the question of whether McCain did special favors for his blondie lobbyist, his wife’s sweetheart deal for massive narcotics theft in the 1990s has been forgotten.
If a poor black woman from Anacostia had committed the crimes that Cindy McCain committed, the black woman might have been sent to prison [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Wednesday 25th April 2007

Now Online - Radio Interview with Antiwar’s Scott Horton

Antiwar.com’s Scott Horton interviewed me yesterday about the American Conservative article on how Congress rubberstamped martial law.
As always, talking with Scott revived my idealism.
The mp3/audio file can be listened to or downloaded here.

Monday 23rd April 2007

The Martial Law Act of 2007

Congress rubberstamped martial law.
The American Conservative posted online my article on how Congress rolled out the red carpet for martial law. This piece vivifies how neither party in Washington gives a darn about the risks of dictatorship in America.
American Conservative April 23, 2007
Working for the Clampdown
What might the president do with his new power to declare martial [...]

Thursday 19th April 2007

Waco, R.I.P.

12:55 pm | Bovard | Congress | Justice Department | Comments: 19

Today is the 14th anniversary of the FBI’s finale at Waco.
This was the day that 80 civilians died as a result of a tank-and-toxic gas assault. I thought Waco might be the most important public education lesson of the 1990s, but it seems to have had scant impact.
Most Americans forgot or never undertstood Waco, paving the way [...]

Tuesday 3rd October 2006

The 1995 Playboy article on Ruby Ridge

Here’s the piece on Ruby Ridge mentioned in the prior post.
The article had magnificent artwork. Unfortunately, I’m not adept at scanning and inserting the images into a blog.
The article closes with the following questions: “If Congress is not willing to look into such misconduct, who will protect the Constitution? Will Congress let the Justice Department [...]

Friday 29th September 2006

Happy Dictatorship Day

The prize for the headline of the year goes to today’s Washington Post for the following gem:
“Many Rights in U.S. Legal System Absent in New Bill”
The Post article on the military tribunal bill the Senates passed yesterday details some of the legal and procedural rights that people seized as “enemy combatants” will not possess. (Amnesty [...]

Sunday 27th August 2006

How to Pry the Truth out of Congressmen

The Los Angeles Times ran a piece of mine today on fair play for our elected representatives. Online here (registration required?) and following:
Modest Proposal: Waterboard Congress
Maybe White House-favored interrogation techniques would coax lawmakers to tell the truth about U.S. anti-terror policies.
By James Bovard
JAMES BOVARD is the author, most recently, of “Attention Deficit Democracy” (2006).
August 27, [...]

Tuesday 8th August 2006

A Bootlicker Bites the Dust

… at least temporarily.
The defeat of Joe Lieberman in the Democratic senate primary in Connecticut is good news for anyone who dislikes pious warmongers. Lieberman deserved to lose for many reasons - not the least of which was his assertion that Democrats are obliged to swallow Bush’s lies in the name of national security. In [...]

Monday 10th July 2006

The Fraudulent Meaning of Elections

The Future of Freedom Foundation today posted online my Freedom Daily article on “The Fraudulent Meaning of Elections.”
Here’s the start & finish -
“Politicians strive to make Americans view elections as sacrosanct. Challenges to election results are portrayed as heresies that threaten to destroy the entire republic. After the 2004 presidential election, many Democrats went on [...]

Monday 3rd July 2006

1979 New York Times Satire on the All-Volunteer Congress

10:53 pm | Bovard | Congress | wool | Comments: 2

Twenty-seven years ago (or as they say in West Virginia, “years and years and years ago”), the New York Times printed my satire on the failure of the All-Volunteer Congress. This article was written at a time when criticism of the All-Volunteer military was at its height. Nixon had abolished conscription in 1973 and many [...]

Wednesday 8th March 2006

National Security Agency spying piece now online + Update

9:40 am | Congress | Surveillance | Wiretapping | Comments: 2

My review on James Risen’s A State of War is now online at American Conservative.
The spying scandal continues to show Washington at its best. Yesterday, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee agreed to support a legislative reform to the FISA law to legalize Bush’s actions.
One key change: Feds would be allowed to wiretap Americans’ phones [...]

Wednesday 18th January 2006

The Republican Abramoff Solution

11:56 am | Abramoff | Attention Deficit Democracy | Congress | Comments: 0

In response to the Jack Abramoff influence-buying scandal, Republican leaders are racing to impose new restrictions on the handouts that lobbyists can give to congressmen. Americans are being assured that the new rules will assure that their representatives are dutiful, high-minded, and devoted to nothing but the public good.
This makes about as much sense as [...]

Book Signing Thursday in Washington, Capitol Hill

9:59 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Congress | Comments: 0

Trover Book store on Capitol Hill (221 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Washington) will be holding a book signing for my new book, Attention Deficit Democracy, on Thursday at 12:30 pm.
The latest odds from Vegas are 37-to-1 against a Standing Room Only crowd.

Tuesday 17th January 2006

“Credo” from Attention Deficit Democracy

Credo for the New American Patriotism
I believe:
That politicians are more honest than they seem;
That government is more competent than it appears; That government is benevolent, regardless of how much
it wastes or how many people it harms;
That citizens must trust the government, regardless of how often it lies;
That democracy is a panacea, regardless of [...]

Wednesday 4th January 2006

Orange Suits Soon All the Rage on Capitol Hill

The Wall Street Journal reported today that superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, who copped a guilty plea yesterday, “says he has information that could implicate 60 lawmakers.”
This is the best news that the moribund prison building industry has had in years. If 60 lawmakers go down in the Abramoff scandal, this could mean that the U.S. [...]

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