This great cartoon by Weyant from the new issue of the New Yorker explains the IRS far better than do most recent news stories.
Author Archive | Jim

MP3 of Scott Horton Show – IRS Interview
Now online – the MP3 of last Thursday’s Scott Horton Show interview on the Wall Street Journal IRS article. Here’s Scott’s summary of the show – “Jim Bovard, author of Public Policy Hooligan, discusses the IRS’s targeting of conservative nonprofit groups; a brief history of presidential administrations that used the IRS to combat political opponents; the […]

Counterpunch: My Supreme Court Fashion Felony
Counterpunch, May 20, 2013 Booted for Laughing at Drug War My Supreme Court Fashion Felony by JAMES BOVARD In March 1995, I visited the sacred burial ground of Americans’ rights and liberties – the Supreme Court. Working on an article for Playboy, I went to watch lawyers argue a case of great principle and tawdry details. […]

Richard Ebeling Amidst Soviet Crackdown
This is a photo of Ludwig von Mises’ historian Richard Ebeling “near the TV Tower in Vilnius, Lithuania, January 13-14, 1991, (Soviet tank and crew member in background) after the Soviet military seized government buildings and communication centers in an attempt to crush the Lithuanian freedom movement. Thirteen people killed that night resisting Soviet power,” […]

From Hooligan: How I Got Kicked Out of the Supreme Court
The @HLMenckenbot had a great Mencken quote on Twitter this morning: “The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.” It never occurred me that laughing in court could be a crime punishable by jail time. But maybe […]

MP3 of IRS Interview on Janine Turner Radio Show
I had a lively chat yesterday with conservative firebrand and former Hollywood star Janine Turner on her Houston KPRC (and XM/Sirius) radio show. She wanted to hash out the Wall Street Journal piece on the IRS, and we had fun jibing at Congress. Well, at least I did. I got the hunch that Janine’s confidence in […]

Perfect Artwork for IRS Tea Party Scandal
The IRS enjoyed using the tax exemption applications from the Tea Party for bureaucratic target shooting. But now the agency is finding itself in the wrong end of the political shooting gallery. [the great illustration is from today’s New York Times]