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 […]
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…. […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
The American Conservative posted online today my review of Jim Antle’s zippety new book, Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?. Antle recognizes the peril of Leviathan and is fairly optimistic on what Republicans can become and achieve. Here are a few of my lines from the review – which is posted in its […]
