Mussolini and the Mortgage Bailout by Jacob G. Hornberger December 6, 2007 President Bush’s “agreement” with the mortgage industry to freeze interest rates is a reminder of the point that Ludwig von Mises made about interventionism. It is also a reminder of Benito Mussolini’s government-business partnerships that inspired much of the regulatory aspects of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Notice, first of all, that President Bush and his federal ...
Educational Whackiness by Jacob G. Hornberger December 5, 2007 One of the issues that hasn’t surfaced in a big way in the presidential race is education, which is unfortunate given that it is such an important part of our lives. There are two primary sub-issues involved here: (1) whether to end all federal involvement in education, especially through the abolition of the Department of ...
Bush and His Scary (Nonexistent) WMDs in Iran by Jacob G. Hornberger December 4, 2007 Well, well, well. It seems that President Bush might have to fall back on a democracy-spreading rationale for attacking Iran, just as he did with Iraq when those scary WMDs that Saddam was going to use to conquer America failed to materialize. The CIA and 15 other U.S. spy agencies (yes, 16 in all!) have issued a ...
Fight Despotism with Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger December 3, 2007 Donald Rumsfeld — you remember him, right? He was U.S. Secretary of Defense (sic) during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Well, he popped up in the news over the weekend with an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled “The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chavez.” Let me first give Rumsfeld some credit. In his op-ed, he does ...
Venezuelan Sheep and the Magic Word by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2007 Whatever else might be said about Venezuela’s president Hugh Chavez, no one can deny that he is an astute politician. For example, at election time he hands out federal grants to the voters, knowing that this will purchase their votes, just as President Bush and other American politicians do with American voters here in the ...
Hornberger’s Blog, December 2007 by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2007 Monday, December 31, 2007 Bhutto, JFK, and Conspiracies by Jacob G. Hornberger 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 ...
Drug War Idiocy by Jacob G. Hornberger November 30, 2007 Mexican officials are all aglow over the seizure of a record 23 tons of cocaine, which they promptly burned in the hope of receiving $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer monies from U.S. officials. When will the American people finally demand a stop to this drug-war idiocy? Some 30 years ago, when I was a young lawyer in ...
Musharraf’s and Bush’s Enemy-Combatant Power by Jacob G. Hornberger November 29, 2007 It is important that we keep in mind that military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s round-ups of lawyers, judges, and protestors in Pakistan are a logical consequence of President Bush’s “war on terrorism.” After all, don’t forget that under Bush’s “war on terrorism,” the head of a country wields the omnipotent power to round up citizens who are ...
The Feds, Not Wyatt, Should Be Going to Jail by Jacob G. Hornberger November 28, 2007 Federal prosecutors are undoubtedly celebrating the one-year sentence doled out to 83-year-old Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt by a federal district judge. Wyatt committed the heinous federal “crime” of violating the federal government’s infamous “oil-for-food” program by paying a $200,000 bribe to Saddam Hussein’s regime in exchange for the purchase of Iraqi oil under the program. Never mind that the ...
The Empire’s Dollar Debacle by Jacob G. Hornberger November 27, 2007 Neo-cons often complain that the American people haven’t made any sacrifices as part of President Bush’s much-vaunted “war on terrorism.” For his part, President Bush likes to say that he opposes tax increases to fund his military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq and the ever-growing expenditures of the military-industrial complex. Both the neo-cons and President Bush ...
Bush’s Support of Dictators by Jacob G. Hornberger November 26, 2007 According to the Washington Post, “President Bush yesterday offered his strongest support of embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, saying the general ‘hasn't crossed the line’ and ‘truly is somebody who believes in democracy.’ If that doesn’t encapsulate U.S. foreign policy, I don’t know what does. Here is a brutal unelected dictator — and a military one ...
Thanksgiving and Economic Liberty by Jacob G. Hornberger November 23, 2007 I would venture to say that most Americans have no idea of the economic roots of Thanksgiving. When the colonists landed at Plymouth Bay, they established a socialist system. Being highly religious, they believed that a moral system would be one in which everyone was forced to share the fruits of their earnings with everyone ...
