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. […]
Tag Archives | George W. Bush
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 […]
MP3 Interview on Former FBI Boss Comey’s Role in the Torture Scandal
Scott Horton of the Libertarian Institute and I had a rowdy 35 minute exchange on my article on James Comey’s forgotten linchpin role in the Bush administration torture scandal. After the photos from Abu Ghraib prison shocked Americans, Deputy Attorney General Comey rescued the Bush Torture Regime with shameless legal hair-splitting. Comey was sainted by […]
James Comey and the Bush Torture Scandal
Future of Freedom Foundation James Comey and the Unending Bush Torture Scandal by James Bovard The vast regime of torture created by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks continues to haunt America. The political class and most of the media have never dealt honestly with the profound constitutional corruption that such practices inflicted. Instead, […]