Archive for Congress

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Tuesday 29th November 2011

MP3 of Brian Wilson Show Interview on Senate Vote for Military Crackdown on the Homefront

10:27 pm | Congress | Elective Dictatorship | Rule of Law | Comments: 4

Brian Wilson and I had a good time lambasting the Senate for voting to empower the U.S. military to seize and indefinitely detain American citizens on the homefront. It is amazing to see 44 Republican senators race over a cliff to give absolute power to a president they claim to abhor. [...]

Friday 12th August 2011

Latest Patriot Act Frauds and Follies

1:14 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Congress | Democracy | Elective Dictatorship | FBI | Justice Department | Obama | Patriot Act | Rule of Law | Surveillance | Comments: 2

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

10:22 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Congress | Elective Dictatorship | Justice Department | Obama | Surveillance | Uncategorized | Wiretapping | wool | Comments: 2

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 [...]

Wednesday 27th July 2011

Debt Limit Talks: “Squeal Like a Pig,” the Establishment Said

9:52 pm | Bailout | Congress | Democracy | Elective Dictatorship | Obama | Taxation | Uncategorized | lese majeste | wool | Comments: 2

Tom Toles’s excellent cartoon below captures the soul of the debt limit talks. Anyone who is not cynical is probably heading for the chopping block.
My good friend and talk show hellraiser extraordinaire Brian Wilson has an excellent article tomorrow at LewRockwell.com on the real meanings behind the key terms flung around in [...]

Wednesday 25th May 2011

Three Cheers for Rand Paul on the Patriot Act

9:01 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Congress | FBI | Obama | Patriot Act | Rand Paul | Wiretapping | Comments: 1

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?

10:18 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Congress | Elective Dictatorship | Obama | Rule of Law | War crimes | dictatorship | Comments: 5

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.
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By James [...]

Thursday 12th May 2011

Latest Pro-War Power Grab

2:28 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Congress | Obama | War crimes | dictatorship | wool | Comments: 2

I was interviewed this morning (pre-coffee, unfortunately) by Press TV on a provision in a House bill that could make it even easier for presidents to start new war. Here’s their summary of the interview:
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The House Armed Services Committee has expanded the Bush-era “war on terror” bill, with amendments that would allow any president [...]

Tuesday 19th April 2011

MP3 of Interview with Antiwar’s Scott Horton on Idiot Libyan Policymakers

7:19 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Congress | Democracy | Elective Dictatorship | Obama | Rule of Law | Uncategorized | War crimes | lese majeste | Comments: 0

From Antiwar.com: “James Bovard, author of Attention Deficit Democracy, discusses his article, “Uncle Sam’s big plans for your hard-earned tax dollars;” the two-party “consensus of rascals” on US foreign policy; the “best and brightest” government policymakers who are blinded by arrogance, tunnel vision and echo chambers; and the confusion about whether disastrous foreign policy decisions [...]

Thursday 14th April 2011

Your Tax Dollars at Work and Play

8:14 pm | Afghanistan | AmeriCorps | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bailout | Congress | Democracy | IRS | Obama | Transportation Security Admin. | wool | Comments: 8

Washington Times, April 15, 2011
Uncle Sam’s big plans for your hard-earned tax dollars
by James Bovard
Congratulations - your tax payment is probably your biggest purchase of the year. The federal tax burden now amounts to more than $20,000 per household, according to Internal Revenue Service data. Your contribution to the Treasury coffers will permit Uncle [...]

Monday 21st March 2011

MP3 of Interview on Libyan War with Katherine Albrecht

9:00 pm | Congress | Elective Dictatorship | Lying | Obama | War crimes | Comments: 2

Katherine Albrecht and I had a fine time thrashing Obama & crew for their Libyan fiasco.
You can listen to the @ 20 minute interview by clicking on the following:
20110321_mon_albrecht2
It was great to hear Katherine in such high spirits and full of vim and vigor today. She is going through some very [...]

Friday 25th February 2011

Obama Advisor Sunstein’s Peril to Freedom

2:14 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Congress | Democracy | Elective Dictatorship | Freedom | Rule of Law | Taxation | wool | Comments: 8

from the Future of Freedom Foundation’s Freedom Daily (November 2010)
Obama Advisor Sunstein’s Peril to Freedom
by James Bovard
Cass Sunstein is the chief of the Obama administration’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. As Salon’s Glenn Greenwald noted earlier this year, Sunstein “has long been one of Barack Obama’s closest confidants.” His values are probably guiding the [...]

Tuesday 15th February 2011

Video - My CPAC Patriot Act Bash (and Jacob Hornberger’s Speech)

1:23 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bush | Congress | FBI | Freedom | Justice Department | Obama | Patriot Act | Rule of Law | Surveillance | Terrorism | Torture | Transportation Security Admin. | Wiretapping | Comments: 4

FFF “Repeal the PATRIOT Act!” Roundtable from CPAC 2011 from The Future of Freedom Foundation on Vimeo.
Here’s the video from Saturday’s CPAC forum, sponsored by Campaign for Liberty.
Ivan Eland did an excellent job of moderating. My speech was probably about 15 minutes. Hornberger followed and gave the best speech I have ever seen [...]

Video - Me & Jacob Hornberger Thumping Conservative Statists

1:06 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bush | Congress | Democracy | Elective Dictatorship | FBI | Freedom | Justice Department | Obama | Patriot Act | Rule of Law | Surveillance | Torture | War crimes | Wiretapping | Comments: 2

Jacob Hornberger Show from CPAC 2011 with James Bovard from The Future of Freedom Foundation on Vimeo.
From the Future of Freedom Foundation: This edition of the Jacob Hornberger Show was recorded at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 11, 2011. Jacob and special guest James Bovard discuss “Why Do Conservatives Support Statism?”
The Jacob [...]

Thursday 10th February 2011

Clinton’s Forgotten Dictatorial Tendencies

9:13 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Clinton | Congress | Democracy | Elective Dictatorship | FBI | Impeachment | Justice Department | Rule of Law | Secrecy | Surveillance | Wiretapping | dictatorship | Comments: 0

… posted online today by the Future of Freedom Foundation
Freedom Daily October 2010
Clinton’s Forgotten Dictatorial Tendencies
by James Bovard
It seems like a century since Bill Clinton was president of this country. Unfortunately, the abuses of George W. Bush and the pratfalls of Barack Obama are causing many people to raise their [...]

Thursday 3rd February 2011

Patriot Act and Attention Deficit Democracy

12:30 pm | Ashcroft | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bush | Congress | Elective Dictatorship | FBI | Justice Department | Lying | Patriot Act | Rule of Law | Secrecy | Surveillance | Wiretapping | Comments: 0

The Campaign for Liberty reposted this 2006 article of mine today, so, what the heck - I’ll pile on.
The Patriot Act and Attention Deficit Democracy
By James Bovard
The American political system failed when Congress and the media recently rolled over in favor of extending the most onerous provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. Despite stark [...]

Wednesday 26th January 2011

My 2 Cents on Obama’s State of the Union Address

8:52 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Clinton | Congress | Democracy | Lying | Obama | Uncategorized | wool | Comments: 13

The following riff is part of an American Conservative forum on Obama’s speech.
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The State of the Union address has long since become “hip boot” time. Shortly after the speech finished, the CNN webpage showed a large photo of Obama giving the speech along with a brief outtake: “CNN BREAKING NEWS: ‘What Comes of This Moment [...]

Monday 24th January 2011

Our Know Nothing Foreign Policy (full text)

1:41 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bush | Central Intelligence Agency | Congress | Democracy | Freedom | Iran | Iraq | Lying | Obama | Terrorism | Torture | War crimes | Comments: 0

The American Conservative placed online today the full text of my review of Magic and Mayhem.
Worst and Brightest
Review of Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy From Korea to Afghanistan, Derek Leebaert, Simon & Schuster, 336 pages
By James Bovard
In the decades since John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, foreign-policy experts have become Washington’s leading con [...]

Thursday 20th January 2011

JFK+50: Our Know-Nothing Foreign Policy

9:26 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Central Intelligence Agency | Congress | Lying | Terrorism | Torture | War crimes | Comments: 4

I received a copy of the March issue of the American Conservative in the mail today. Here are some brief outtakes from a book review (totaling @ 2000 words) I wrote in that issue on the general theme of Our Know-Nothing Foreign Policy :
*In the decades since John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, foreign policy experts [...]

Thursday 13th January 2011

Speaking on the Patriot Act on a CPAC Panel Next Month…

2:37 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Congress | Democracy | FBI | Freedom | Justice Department | Lying | Obama | Patriot Act | Rule of Law | Secrecy | Surveillance | Wiretapping | Comments: 0

I will be paying my respects to the Patriot Act at a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Saturday, Feb. 12, from 10 to 11 a.m. The panel is sponsored by the Campaign For Liberty. C4L will be having lots of stout events at this year’s CPAC. [...]