American Conservative, October 19, 2020 The Voting Rights Mirage by James Bovard The most dangerous political illusion is that votes limit politicians’ power. Americans have been endlessly hectored in recent months to cast their votes in the presidential election. But trusting ballots to leash either Donald Trump or Joe Biden would be the ultimate triumph […]
Vox has a great chart today on the soaring rate of prison incarceration in recent decades. This is one of the most striking renditions I have seen of this particular seachange in the relationship of government to the American people. Hillary Clinton bemoans high incarceration rates but the Clinton administration plowed almost $8 billion into […]
So Playboy is becoming proudly birthday-suit free. Lots of jokes this week about how guys will now be able to honestly say “I only read it for the articles.” From 1994 through 2002, I wrote a bunch of pieces for Playboy on No-Knock Raids, Ruby Ridge, Waco, Janet Reno, IRS, Surveillance, Pork Barrel Prisons, the […]
USA TODAY Eric Holder’s police shooting record? Dismal: Column by James Bovard August 20, 2014 When the attorney general had the chance to be tough on police shootings, he did next to nothing. Attorney General Eric Holder arrives today in Ferguson, Missouri, in response to the unrest after a local policeman shot 18-year-old Mike Brown. […]
USA Today, August 13, 2013 Drug lessons from a convict road gang: Column by James Bovard Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday that the Justice Department would cease seeking convictions for possessing small quantities of illegal substances. Holder’s decision is a welcome reversal from decades of the feds brutally imposing mandatory minimum prison sentences on […]
Stephen Colbert deserves an Emmy Award for this 4 minute segment on the Bradley Manning case and trial verdict. And he beautifully ties in the NSA at the end of the riff. http://youtu.be/_TJDZax426I?t=18s
Maryland governor O’Malley was so busy laying plans to harass and disarm the state’s peaceful gun owners that he did not notice that a violent criminal gang had taken over a state prison in Baltimore. I look forward to seeing plenty of references to this when he O’Malley launches his presidential campaign. At least […]
