… or at least he tried to butcher them. On this day 800 years ago, King John was compelled to sign Magna Charta, formally accepting a limit to his prerogative to ravage everything in England. But the ink on his signature was barely dry before he brought in foreign forces and tried to wipe out […]
Tag Archives | Elective Dictatorship
MP3 of Elective Dictatorship Interview on Al Korelin Show
I had a jovial chat with Al Korelin, the host of the hardline Korelin Economic Report, in his weekend report on the debility of contemporary democracy. Here are a few of my comments: *”The system that we now have is an elective dictatorship in which the president can dictate almost as much as he pleases and […]
USA Today: Eric Holder’s Lawless Legacy
USA Today, February 3, 2015 Eric Holder’s lawless legacy by James Bovard As Holder retires, Obama’s attorney general bulldog should be vilified, not praised Eric Holder is reaping applause as his six-year reign as Attorney General comes to a close. But Holder’s record is profoundly disappointing to anyone who expected the Obama administration to renounce […]
Counterpunch: Americans’ Fatal Freedom Apathy
COUNTERPUNCH, January 28, 2015 Surrendering Liberty America’s Fatal Freedom Apathy by JAMES BOVARD According to our civic folklore, Americans are more devoted to freedom than any other nationality on earth. But it is increasingly appears that this dogma is a relic of bygone times. A Gallup poll last July asked a thousand Americans: “Are you […]
Senate Torture Report – My Initial Two Cents+
I have not finished reading the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA torture. Following are some of my initial thoughts via Twitter @jimbovard – #TortureReport CIA interrogators often did not speak the language of detainees so they compensated by beating hell out of them — James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 11, 2014 #TortureReport With all the […]
FFF: America’s Cluster Bomb Congress
The Future of Freedom Foundation placed online today my article from the August 2014 issue of the Future of Freedom – America’s Cluster Bomb Congress by James Bovard Tens of thousands of Americans have been bushwhacked by a single arcane sentence in a 673-page law Congress enacted six years ago. The IRS is seizing both […]
Election Epigrams for Democracy’s Big Day
America is now an Attention Deficit Democracy where citizens’ ignorance and apathy allow politicians to do they please. The worst violation of voting rights occurs when election winners trample the law and the Constitution. Trumpeting the importance of voting deludes people into thinking that they have a leash on the government. Ballot Buffoonery: Modern […]