Counterpunch, September 6, 2019 9/11 and the American Orwellian Nightmare by James Bovard Next week will mark the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Politicians and bureaucrats wasted no time after that carnage to unleash the Surveillance State on average Americans, treating every citizen like a terrorist suspect. Since the government failed to protect […]
Tag Archives | George W. Bush
2008 Photos from Morgan Ashcom
Seeking to bring order out of the chaos of my hard drive, I came across these photos from a 2008 speech I gave for The Future of Freedom Foundation at George Mason University. (I had to get in one more thrashing of George W. Bush before he left office a few months later.) These pictures […]
FDR’s Worst Perversion of Freedom
Mises Institute, January 17, 2019 FDR’s Worst Perversion of Freedom: The “Four Freedoms” Speech by James Bovard Franklin Roosevelt did more than any other modern president to corrupt Americans’ understanding of freedom. Last week was the 75th anniversary of his 1944 speech calling for a second Bill of Rights to guarantee economic freedom to Americans. […]
Beltway BS on “Speaking Truth to Power”
Future of Freedom Foundation Beltway Baloney on “Speaking Truth to Power” by James Bovard Lying and piety go together in Washington like ham and eggs. After 9/11, a profusion of government falsehoods on Iraq and other topics ravaged official credibility. The political class responded with an endless profusion of promises to “speak truth to power.” […]
Needed: #MeToo for Political Consent
Mises Institute, November 1, 2018 We Need a #MeToo Movement for Political Consent by James Bovard The #MeToo movement is spurring millions of Americans to reconsider the meaning of consent in sexual relations. But there is another realm where far too much has been presumed because of often token gestures. Political consent is defined radically […]
Trump And the Presidential Fearmongering Tradition
The media is railing about Trump for fearmongering ahead of the midterm elections. Like this never happened before? Like this is not the job description of modern politicians? Like Obama, George W. Bush, and Clinton did not fearmonger whenever they could profit by spooking Americans? Trump is continuing a tradition that was firmly established by […]
Endless U.S. Government Lies on the Afghanistan War
The U.S. military tried to cover up the Taliban’s shooting of a U.S. general on Thursday in Kandahar. What other Afghan debacles is the Pentagon hiding? Here’s a 2009 piece I did for Counterpunch and the Future of Freedom Foundation on the lies that permeated the first 8 years of the Afghan war. The New […]