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Friday 12th August 2011

Latest Patriot Act Frauds and Follies

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

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

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 [...]

Monday 25th July 2011

MP3 of Freedom Fest Panel Flogging the War on Terror

Jacob Hornberger, Sheldon Richman, and I had fun flogging the war on terror during a Freedom Fest panel earlier this month.
Since I was the token moderate on the panel, I went third. I started out my riff (@ 20 minutes into the tape) talking about how a TSA agent at Baltimore went [...]

Thursday 21st July 2011

Lies and Leviathan

The new issue of the American Conservative includes a review essay I wrote on John Mearsheimer’s Why Leaders Lie. Here’s the piece -
Leviathan’s Lies
Review of Why Leaders Lie: The Truth About Lying in International Politics, John J. Mearsheimer, Oxford University Press, 2011.
By James Bovard
Politicians nowadays treat Americans like medical orderlies treat Alzheimer’s patients, [...]

Tuesday 28th June 2011

Idolizing Absolute Power: Assassination Bloodlust

From today’s Counterpunch -
Assassination Bloodlust
Idolizing Absolute Power
by JAMES BOVARD
The Christian Science Monitor published a piece I wrote last month wrote opposing allowing the U.S. government to kill Americans without a warrant, trial, or any judicial niceties. The article, “Assassination Nation: Are there any limits on President Obama’s license to kill?,” spurred [...]

Friday 24th June 2011

MP3 of Today’s WGN Interview on Food Stamp Article

4:22 pm | Bush | Obama | Comments: 0

WGN’s Cisco Cotto and I had a rattlin’ good chat about that WSJ food stamp article this morning on Chicago radio.
You can hear the show by clicking (or downloading) on the following link: wls-cisco-cotto-june24jamesbovard

Wednesday 22nd June 2011

Wall Street Journal: Food Stamps for Millionaires

Wall Street Journal June 23, 2011
The Food-Stamp Crime Wave
By JAMES BOVARD
Millionaires are now legally entitled to collect food stamps as long as they have little or no monthly income. Thirty-five states have abolished asset tests for most food-stamp recipients. These and similar “paperwork reduction” reforms advocated by the United States Department of [...]

Fear-mongering and Servitude

from the July-August issue of the Freeman -
Fear-Mongering and Servitude
by James Bovard
In his 1776 essay, “Thoughts on Government,” John Adams observed, “Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be [...]

Tuesday 21st June 2011

Bush, Torture, and the Rule of Law

from the March issue of Freedom Daily….
Bush, Torture, and the Rule of Law
by James Bovard
Last November, George W. Bush’s memoir, Decision Points, hit the streets. And Americans could see firsthand the former president bragging about ordering torture. Bush wrote that when he was requested to approve the CIA’s waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he responded, [...]

Thursday 9th June 2011

MP3 of Today’s Interview with Ron Smith on WBAL

11:48 am | Afghanistan | Obama | wool | Comments: 0

It’s always fun to raise hell with Ron Smith in Baltimore. Ron had me on his WBAL show today and we had a good time flogging foreign aid and the Afghan debacle. Ron is one of the best informed talk show hosts out there, and it was neat to see what his [...]

Monday 6th June 2011

Barron’s: The Anti-Corruption Charade (full text)

Barron’s
Editorial Commentary
The Anti-Corruption Charade
by James Bovard
In much of the world, governing is a synonym for looting. Unfortunately, American and European foreign aid has a long history of accelerating the looting. Foreign aid created a generation of kleptocracies—governments of thieves—in Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. Mercedes-Benz automobiles became so popular among African government officials that [...]

Saturday 28th May 2011

Dilbert Solves the Patriot Act Mystery?

We learned in the last few weeks that a secret ruling exists which permits the federal agencies to violate far more Americans’ rights under a twisted interpretation of the Patriot Act.
Are the feds using smart phones to track millions of Americans?

Wednesday 25th May 2011

Three Cheers for Rand Paul on the Patriot Act

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?

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.
——————————————————————————–
By James [...]

Thursday 12th May 2011

Latest Pro-War Power Grab

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 10th May 2011

Franklin Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” Fraud

From the February issue of the Future of Freedom Foundation’s Freedom Daily -
Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” Fraud
by James Bovard
President Obama has succeeded in seizing new power over health care and other swaths of American lives in part because previous presidents muddied Americans’ understanding of freedom.
Most of the past century’s debates over the meaning of [...]

Tuesday 3rd May 2011

Feds: Watch Out for Radicalized Individuals!

The Department of Homeland Security has warned landlords in the DC area “to be looking out for the radicalized individual,” according to Peggy Jeffers, of the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington Inc. DHS sent out the warning to apartment and building managers on Sunday evening, the same time that Obama announced [...]

Thursday 21st April 2011

Ted Rall Nails Obama on Spreading Democacy to Libya

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