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Archive for Rule of Law

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Wednesday 18th August 2010

The Crime of Lying to the FBI???

Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is a four-star sleazeball. But the feds had their chance to put him away and they failed to convince a jury on all charges except lying to the FBI.
This is one of the “crimes” that best illustrates the mirage of the Rule of Law in the U.S. FBI agents and [...]

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 28th June 2010

Ron Paul Celebrates Justice Department’s 140th Anniversary

It’s almost always a shock when truth surfaces in the Congressional Record.
Madam Speaker, the House of Representatives recently considered H. Res. 1422, honoring the 140th anniversary of the Department of Justice. I voted against this resolution because of the Justice Departmentâ€™s history of violating individual rights.
It is the Justice Department that leads the ongoing [...]

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 3rd May 2010

Audit the Fed Dammit

Nation magazine columnist John Nichols has an excellent piece today on why Obama should reverse his position and support Auditing the Fed. Nichols mentions that Sen. Bernie Sanders will offer an amendment this week to attach ‘Audit the Fed’ to the so-called banking regulation reform bill:
The Sanders amendment would require the Fed to [...]

Wednesday 21st April 2010

My Culpability for the Oklahoma City Bombing

I almost forgot my role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
No - I’ve never been to Oklahoma.
But a 1999 Los Angeles Times review of one of my books made similar points to what Bill Clinton made in his New York Times op-ed on Monday. The reviewer, Anthony Day, was horrified at my rejection [...]

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 [...]

Bill Clinton’s Lethal Hypocrisy on Government Violence

from Counterpunch today -
Bill Clinton on Violence and Government
A Lethal Hypocrisy
By JAMES BOVARD
Yesterday, on the fifteenth anniversary of the attack on the federal office building in Oklahoma City, former President Bill Clinton had an op-ed in the New York Times headlined: â€œViolence is Unacceptable in a Democracy.â€ The article settles any doubts [...]

Thursday 15th April 2010

1994 Tax Day article: “The Growing IRS Dictatorship”

Tax Day is a time to pause to appreciate all that Washington does for us. Here’s a piece I wrote 16 years ago. Unfortunately, few newspapers or magazines are stooping to notice the danger of the IRS’s power these days.
The article was accepted by Wall Street Journal editorial features editor Amity Shlaes, and [...]

Tuesday 6th April 2010

Claire Wolfe’s Zesty New Freedom-Fighting Blog

Great News for Freedom: Claire Wolfe, one of America’s most eloquent and principled political writers, is again blogging. She is posting her thoughts on a near-daily basis at the Backwoods Home blog site here.
Claire’s first book, 101 Things to Do Until the Revolution , quickly became a cult classic. No [...]

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 [...]

Tuesday 16th March 2010

Bait and Switch Democracy at its Best

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that she may ram through the Democrats’ health care legislation through the House via a brazen fraud. The Washington Post reports:
After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate’s health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to [...]

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 [...]

Wednesday 17th February 2010

Frightening Voters Into Submission

From the November 2009 issue of the Future of Freedom Foundation’sÂ Freedom Daily…
Frightening Voters Into Submission
by James Bovard
Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge has a new book out that reveals that he almost resigned because the Bush administration was hustling bogus terror alerts before the 2004 election. Ridgeâ€™s revelation was not surprising to people who had [...]

Tuesday 16th February 2010

On Russian TV Talking About American Dictatorial Power

I was on Russian Television (the English language edition) last night talking aboutÂ all the “emergency” declarations and power grabs by recent presidents. The interview on “The Alyona Show” Â starts about 6 minutes into this YouTube segment here.
It was ironic toÂ be commenting on the danger of excessive presidential power on Russian TV….
PerhapsÂ at some point the mainstream [...]

Thursday 4th February 2010

My Early Optimism on the War on Terror & Civil Liberties

I had forgotten about the following riff until stumbling across it a few days ago.
In late September 2001, Reason magazine asked a handful of folks “to discuss which civil lliberties they thought were most at risk in what has been called America’s first 21st century war.” They published the responses in an article entitled, [...]

Saturday 30th January 2010

Justice Department Bans Justice for Torturers

The Obama Justice Department has apparently decided that, since torture is not a crime (at least not anything deserving of prosecution), then concocting legal doctrines that unleashed torturers around the world is also no offense.
A Justice Department internal investigation has concluded that John Yoo and Jay Bybee were gulity only of “poor judgment” in [...]

Monday 9th November 2009

Torture Update: Andy Worthington’s Excellent New Film

Andy Worthington, the author of The Guantanamo Files, is touring the U.S. with his excellent new film, â€œOutside the Law: Stories from GuantÃ¡namo.â€ He will be in California later this week. Tour schedule is here.
“Outside the Law” does a fine job of blending the legal issues and personal details to burn [...]

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. [...]

Wednesday 29th July 2009

Other Outrageous Terrorism Prosecutions

I appreciate the thoughtful emails on the Lackawanna Six article. Unfortunately, the proseuction in that case was par for the Bush-era domestic war on terrorism. Here’s a piece from the American Conservative during Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign…..
Undue Process
American Conservative October 11, [...]

Sunday 5th July 2009

Obama’s Latest Four-Star Howler on Freedom

Prior to his trip to Russia, President Obama issued an appeal to Russian president Dmitri Medvedev to â€œto strengthen the rule of law in Russia, which of course includes making sure that all those accused of crimes have the right to a fair trial and that the courts are not used for political purposes.â€
Of [...]

Tuesday 5th May 2009

My 2 Cents on Ron Paul, Surveillance, and the Republican Party’s Future

David Weigel has a good piece in the Washington Independent today on Ron Paul ’s rising influence in Washington. The articles mentions that Ron Paul has been bringing in some folks to have lunch and discuss ideas with some of his Republican colleagues. The article includes a quote from me: â€œThereâ€™s a [...]

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 [...]

Tuesday 10th March 2009

Dictatorship of Lawyers - or, Me and Law School

The Foundation for Economic Education reposted online a 2001 article of mine entitled “Dictatorship of Lawyers.”
The piece spurred some incisive comments on FEE’s website:
Comment by Bill on 10 March 2009:
Ah for the rantings of another who couldnâ€™t get into Law School; Neither could G. W. (W Gump) Bush. You can go to Iran; they [...]

Saturday 20th September 2008

Ron Paul Supporters Vindicated?

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

Sunday 7th September 2008

Introduction from FREEDOM IN CHAINS (1999)

Here’s another flash from the past.Â Â Freedom in Chains: TheÂ Rise of the State and the Demise of the CitizenÂ Â was hell on my moderate image.Â Â
Curious how the intellectual battle lines have shifted in the decade since I wrote this book.Â I recall some reviewers denouncing me as an extremist for focusing on government abuses such as [...]

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 [...]

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,Â 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 25th January 2008

Bush Does Abraham

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

Friday 11th January 2008

Stomping Freedom: The Martial Law Act of 2006

Counterpunch posted online my Freedom Daily January article on how Congress passedÂ law to give presidents push-button martial law power.Â 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 [...]

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.Â My favorite line from thisÂ piece:
Sometimes the threat of a noose is the best way to keep the peace.Â Â
ARE PRESIDENTS ENTITLED TO KILL FOREIGNERS?
by James Bovard
What is the common term for ordering soldiers to kill vast numbers of innocent [...]

Wednesday 29th August 2007

The “Terrorist” Batting Average

The Future of Freedom Foundation today posted online my article from the June 2007 Freedom Daily on the Bush administration’sÂ endlessly inaccurate terrorist accusations. Â The title of the piece is about as close to baseball as I have gotten in the last decade or so.
The â€œTerroristâ€ Batting Average
by James Bovard
For almost six years, the Bush administration [...]

Tuesday 28th August 2007

Hooray! The Federal Government is Clean Again!

Or at least that’s the message I’m picking up from reading some commentators on Alberto Gonzales’s exit.
Shizam, some of these people seem to think that the Justice Department will henceforth be in the justice business.
And some seem to think that Gonzo’s resignation proves thatÂ ”the system works.”
What a crock.
It has been over 15 years since the [...]

Monday 2nd April 2007

Libertarian Paternalism Hokum

A New York Times book review yesterday snidely commented that libertarianism was past its time - and that “libertarian paternalism” is the wave of the future.
Cass Sunstein was one of the proponents of “libertarian paternalism”Â invoked by the reviewer.
The notion of “libertarian paternalism” evokes sentiments not fit for a family-friendly blog like this one.
Sunstein has come [...]

Tuesday 20th March 2007

Gonzales’s Fall, Bush’s Impeachment?

Lew Rockwell suggested yesterday that I do a piece on the Gonzales meltdown and how it could affect Bush.Â Â Every now and then, I am not immune to good ideas, so I wrote it and he posted it on LewRockwell.com today.Â
I appreciate all the comments I received on the Gonzales blog entries in the pastÂ week.Â Â Â Â [...]

Friday 16th March 2007

Gonzo’s Final Straw?

Murray Waas, one of the best investigative journalists in DC, has a new piece on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s role in derailing a Justice Department investigation of his own possible criminality.Â Waas notes at the National Journal:
Shortly before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised President Bush last year on whether to shut down a Justice Department [...]

Wednesday 14th March 2007

Rising Odds of Impeachment

Attorney General Gonzales is dead meat.Â His exit is only a question of time.Â (I been wrong before, but….)
I think the Senate Dems will not confirm some obvious hatchet manÂ as the replacement for Gonzales.Â Â Bush has “benefitted” from two Attorney Generals who were profoundly dishonest and demagogic.Â No matter what the Bush administration did, they [...]

Monday 12th March 2007

Feds Shaft Historic Gun Maker

8:45 pm | Bovard | Rule of Law | Comments: 9

Federal gun experts have too often suffered from a shortage of expertise and an excess of spite.Â Â LenÂ Savage, the president ofÂ Historic Arms, a Georgia company, is being boarhawged bigtime by the G-men.Â Â He had an excellent commentary piece posted recently by the fine folks at Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.Â Claire Wolfe has been [...]

Friday 2nd March 2007

My Time in the Tower of London

Â The Future of Freedom Foundation today posted online an article of mine from the December Freedom Daily.Â Â I posted an excerpt of this piece here earlier; here is the full text.
MY TIME IN THE TOWER OF LONDONÂ Â Â Â Â
by James Bovard
I visited the Tower of London in May on an overcast, dreary Friday afternoon. The home of [...]

Monday 26th February 2007

My Favorite Liberal Review of Freedom in Chains

3:34 pm | Bovard | Elective Dictatorship | Rule of Law | Comments: 12

I appreciate the feedback on the National Review’s take on Freedom in Chains that I posted yesterday.Â
Here is my favorite liberal review of the book.Â (For the record, I have never even been to Oklahoma City).
Â Los Angeles TimesÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â March 4, 1999
A CHILLING INDICTMENT OF U.S. GOVERNMENT;
FREEDOM IN CHAINS, THE RISE OF THE STATE AND THE [...]

Thursday 1st February 2007

Lively Interview Online - Torture, Iran, Dictatorship, etc.

Antiwar.com columnist Scott Horton interviwed me today for an hour about Attention Deficit Democracy. We had a good olâ€™ time -Â I hope folks get lots of laughs from the show.Â Scott, who has done some excellent writing on the danger of war with Iran, had excellent observations on the latest developments in the Middle [...]

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.Â Unfortunately, I’m not adept at scanning and inserting the images into a blog.
The article closes with the following questions:Â “If Congress is not willing to look into such misconduct, who will protect the Constitution? Will Congress let the Justice Department [...]

Wednesday 2nd August 2006

Freedom Via Military Dictatorship

George W. Bush has apparently given up any aspiration of receiving an honorary award from the American Civil Liberties Union.
His administration is responding to the Supreme Court ruling striking down his military tribunals with a legislative proposal that would place far more Americans in peril of having their rights nullified.Â
The Washington Post reports today:
A draft [...]

Monday 27th March 2006

Orange County Register: “Defining Freedom Down”

The Orange County Register ran my op-ed, “Defining Freedom Down.”Â The page does not have a link, so I am posting the piece here.
The Future of Freedom Foundation today shotgunned out an op-ed of mine that is very similar to this article.Â Â
Orange County Register, March 17, 2006
“Defining Freedom Down”
by James Bovard
President Bush exploits the word [...]

Tuesday 21st March 2006

My Cheney Tribute is now online

The American Conservative has posted my piece on Cheney’sÂ revelation that he is exempt from federal law regarding national security secrets. Here are a few paragraphs from the piece:
The â€œmy wish is the lawâ€™s commandâ€? attitude towards disclosure and secrecy has permeated the Bush administration. From shortly after 9/11, the Bush team sought to drop an [...]

Wednesday 22nd February 2006

Orange Co. Register publishes my hit on Federal Surveillance

The Orange County Register published my hit on the dangers of federal surveillance. Here are some outtakes:
Americans seem to have forgotten why the Founding Fathers prohibited government from spying on them. Public opinion polls show a rising percentage of Americans approving of the warrantless National Security Agency wiretaps authorized by President Bush.
Many Americans seem to [...]

Wednesday 8th February 2006

L.A. Times: Are You a Suspected Terrorist?

The Los Angeles Times ran my op-ed today on the array of wacko definitions of suspected terrorists that the Bush administration has devised since 9/11.Â Â Here are some outtakes of the piece:
PRESIDENT BUSH and Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales insist that the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping of American citizens is a necessary “terrorist surveillance program.” [...]

Sunday 5th February 2006

Bush Now Entitled to Kill at Home?

The February 13 issue of Newsweek reveals that President Bush is entitled to order killings here in the United States, the same as he has been doing around the globe for the last few years. Newsweek notes that, “Steven Bradbury, acting head of the Justice department’s Office of Legal Counsel [the office which in 2002 [...]

Thursday 26th January 2006

On Friday morning with Iowa Icon & Freedom Champion Jan Mickelson

10:40 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Elective Dictatorship | Rule of Law | Comments: 1

I will be the Jan Mickelson show on Friday (1/27) at 11 a.m. Eastern time.Â Mickelson is the most popular talk show host in Iowa and has helped alert legions of folks to the perils of politicians.Â The show will be broadcast on Newsradio 1040 AM - a 50,000 watt station that should cover much [...]

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