Hornberger’s Blog, January 2008 by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2008 Thursday, January 31, 2008 An All-Abiding Faith in the Welfare-Warfare State by Jacob G. Hornberger Among the more amusing political mantras in the presidential race is that of Mitt Romney. "Washington is broken," he declares, inevitably bringing cheers from Republican audiences. It's as amusing as the popular mantra employed by the Democrats: "Change!" They still just don't get it. It's not "Washington" that ...
Bhutto, JFK, and Conspiracies by Jacob G. Hornberger December 31, 2007 It’s interesting to compare the attitude of the U.S. mainstream press toward the assassination of Benazir Bhutto with its attitude toward the assassination of President John Kennedy. The immediate reaction of the American press (and U.S. government officials) to the Bhutto killing has been a presumption of a conspiracy. Equally important, among the prime suspects are ...
Blackmailing the NFL by Jacob G. Hornberger December 29, 2007 If you want a good example of the real purpose of the regulated economy, watch the Patriots-Giants game tonight. It will be broadcast on both NBC and CBS, compliments of the strong-arm tactics of government officials who use economic regulations to threaten and blackmail people in the private sector into obeying political orders. The NFL planned ...
Stop Meddling in Pakistan by Jacob G. Hornberger December 28, 2007 In the wake of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the New York Times is calling on the Bush administration to intervene in the Pakistani crisis to “fortify Pakistan’s badly battered democratic institutions.” I’ve got a better idea: the U.S. government should butt out of Pakistani affairs — as well as the affairs of Iraq, Iran, Korea, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and ...
The New York Times “Retracts” Its Ron Paul Smear by Jacob G. Hornberger December 27, 2007 The New York Times is now admitting that Virginia Heffernan’s article about Ron Paul, which I blogged about yesterday, “contained several errors.” The Times also says, “The original post should not have been published with these unverified assertions and without any response from Paul.” See the Times’ retraction here. Wrong! The problem is not just that the article “contains errors” or that Paul ...
Shame on the New York Times for Its Smear of Ron Paul by Jacob G. Hornberger December 26, 2007 I couldn’t help but be struck by the vicious smear of Ron Paul by a Virginia Heffernan in the New York Times. You can read it here. Sure, politics is a nasty business but I just couldn’t help but wonder why the New York Times would publish garbage like this. Here’s the thrust of Heffernan’s attack: that Ron Paul has ...
Nothing Can Morally Justify the Killing of Even One Iraqi by Jacob G. Hornberger December 20, 2007 Neo-con supporters of the U.S. government’s war of aggression against Iraq are undoubtedly holding their collective breath in the hope that U.S. military forces have finally smashed any further violent opposition to their conquest of Iraq. The attitude would then be, “You see, this shows that we were right after all to invade and occupy ...
The Widening CIA Torture Scandal by Jacob G. Hornberger December 19, 2007 CIA torture-tape scandal is becoming more interesting. It now turns out that White House personnel played a major role in the decision on whether to destroy the tapes. While it is still unclear what everybody’s position was on the matter, according to the New York Times, the White House people who took part in the discussions ...
U.S. Soldiers Might Pay the Price for Torture by Jacob G. Hornberger December 18, 2007 Amidst all the debate in which President Bush and his neo-con supporters are trying to convince people that waterboarding, forced isolation, sex abuse, sleep deprivation, stress positions, freezing temperatures, and other “harsh alternative interrogation methods” do not constitute torture, there is one group of people who might well wish that U.S. officials had taken ...
Putin, Roosevelt, and Conservatives by Jacob G. Hornberger December 17, 2007 In its weekend edition, the Wall Street Journal carried an editorial criticizing Russian President Putin’s attempt to extend his power in Russia. Putin has rigged things so that one of his younger lackies will replace Putin as president, while Putin will assume the post of prime minister. However, to ensure that the real power remains ...
Immigration Controls and the Police State by Jacob G. Hornberger December 14, 2007 One of the things that fascinate me about the immigration debate is those people who say that they favor closed borders but simultaneously oppose the police-state programs that are necessary to enforce such a policy. For example, some in the anti-immigrant crowd say that they vehemently oppose a national ID card, a type of program that ...
Terrorist Suspects Belong in Federal Court by Jacob G. Hornberger December 13, 2007 The new chief judge of the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Marine Col. Ralph H. Kohlman, is being confronted with a paper that was written back in 2002 at the Naval War College criticizing President Bush’s and the Pentagon’s plan to use military tribunals to try suspected terrorists. The paper said that it would be better ...
