It is amusing to see the media’s hosannahs over the Bush administration’s agreement to accept the McCain amendment to purportedly prohibit U.S. government officials from torturing people. This will be only one more provision in the statute book. Unless someone can find a way to make the Bush administration to obey the law, then passing another […]
Author Archive | Jim
The Media & Another No-Cost Federal Killing
An article of mine on how the news media is whitewashing the Air Marshals shooting last week of Rigoberto Alpizar was posted today by Editor and Publisher The final paragraph: Perhaps if Alpizar had regularly attended Georgetown dinner parties, the media would show more curiosity about his fate. In the old days, Americans were taught that […]
More Subway Shootings?
Federal Air Marshals will begin riding on the Washington subway and other subway systems, traveling covert as part of a new program to “counter potential criminal terrorist activity in all modes of transportation,” according to an internal federal document reported in the Washington Post. Apparently, non-criminal terrorists have nothing to fear. David Adams, the spokesman […]
The Patriot Act Renewal Tramples Free Speech
The Bush team and their congressional allies are in the final stages of jamming a Patriot Act reauthorization act into law. The reauthorization bill will give the feds new power to suppress Americans’ speech. The Act contains a provision that will empower the Secret Service to forcibly expand the Free Speech Zones that have blighted dissent […]
Death Spiral of American Democracy?
Is American democracy in a death spiral? Do we now have democracy only in form – akin to the Soviet-era “People’s Democracies” where governments won every election? Will the combination of mass ignorance, lying politicians, and boundless government power be fatal to our remaining freedoms? These are some of the questions examined in my new book, […]