Tag Archives | Congress

johnsontokin_r

Obama, NSA, Gulf of Tonkin, & Governing as Lying

This is the 49th anniversary of Congress’s passage of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, by which the Lyndon Johnson administration lied the nation into the Vietnam War.  The resolution was spurred by false assertions of multiple North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. ships.  At  a National Security Council meeting on the evening that the first report came […]

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Bravo Rand Paul – the only ‘No’ vote for new FBI Chief

Sen. Rand Paul was the only senator to vote against confirming James Comey as the new FBI director.  The final vote was 93 to 1 – so nobody was crowding Rand on the high ground. As the ACLU noted last month, “While Comey deserves credit for stopping an illegal spying program in dramatic fashion, he […]

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nsa

Three Cheers for Justin Amash and the Anti-Spying Coalition

  Three cheers for Rep. Justin Amash and colleagues who came within a whisker of reining in the NSA’s illegal surveillance tonight in Congress! (Final vote on his amendment was 217 to 205). This is a huge moral victory – and the sign of civil liberty victories to come. And the floor debate helped reveal […]

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N.Y. Times Snares Secret FISA Court Decrees – Fresh Hell for NSA and Obama

The New York Times published a long article today on secret rulings by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The article describes the FISA court as “almost a parallel Supreme Court” which has cast aside traditional understandings of privacy and the Fourth Amendment. Reading between the lines, it is clear that NYT has the actual decisions…. […]

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FEE

My 1998 piece: The IRS, Now & Forever

The Foundation for Economic Education reposted this as a “timely classic” last week. A few highlights: *In recent years, IRS agents have been indoctrinated to see taxpayers as a class enemy. *The only Americans who have legal rights, in the IRS’s eyes, are those who can afford to hire lawyers and topnotch accountants to fight […]

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Future-Of-Freedom-Cover

My 2006 FFF Articles on Surveillance Insanity

From the Future of Freedom Foundation website – BUSH’S WIRETAP CRIMES AND THE FISA FARCE by James Bovard March 1, 2006 President Bush proudly announced last December that he is violating federal law. He declared that in 2002 he had ordered the National Security Agency to begin conducting warrantless wiretaps and email intercepts on Americans. […]

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The American Spectator

My 2000 Article: The Rise of the Surveillance State

The American Spectator reposted online this morning a piece I wrote for them 13 years ago on the proliferation of government surveillance.  I included some of this in my 2000 book, Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years.  If memory serves, reviewers denounced my paranoia on surveillance issue […]

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