A New Year Message to Barack Obama: Free the Guantánamo Uighurs by Andy Worthington January 5, 2009 The omens have never been good for the 17 Uighurs in Guantánamo, even though they have justice on their side. Refugees from Chinese oppression who had sought shelter in Afghanistan, only to be captured and sold to U.S. forces as “terror suspects”, the 17 men were the first Guantánamo prisoners to be cleared of being “enemy combatants,” after an ...
The Economics of War (video) by David R. Henderson January 2, 2009 On June 8, 2008, David Henderson gave the following Speech at FFF’s conference Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties. The speech can viewed below in its entirety. David R. Henderson is an associate professor of economics at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and a Research Fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. From 1982 ...
The Socialist Bailout of Wall Street, Part 2 by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 During the recent presidential race, Republican John McCain accused Democrat Barack Obama of being a socialist, owing to Obama’s belief in using the federal government to “spread the wealth.” Obama, for his part, expressed surprise at being accused of being a socialist. Apparently, he’s always believed that he’s a strong supporter of America’s “free-enterprise” ...
What Greenspan Missed by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2009 Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan made headlines around the world with this admission: “hose of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity (myself especially) are in a state of shocked disbelief. Such counterparty surveillance is a central pillar of our financial ...
The Campaign-Reform Crime, Part 1 by James Bovard January 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 In 2002, Congress passed and George Bush signed the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). The McCain-Feingold Act was supposed to create an era of clean politics — uncorrupt, untainted, and far loftier than what Americans had experienced in prior decades. If the 2008 election proved anything, it revealed that politicians cannot be trusted ...
Regime Change: Promise and Peril, Part 2 by Stephen Kinzer January 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 This article is a transcript of Stephen Kinzer’s speech given on June 6, 2008, at The Future of Freedom Foundation’s conference “Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties.” Let’s look at the case of Cuba. It’s another case of American intervention gone terribly wrong. When the United States ...
Paper Money and the Constitution by Rick Lynch January 1, 2009 Why do we have a Constitution? How and why did it come into existence? Just what, exactly, prompted the calling of the Constitutional Convention, which gave birth to it? Most Americans believe, logically enough, that with the passing of the British from the scene it was simply time to create a new government to take the place of the ...
America’s Anti-Militarist Heritage by George Leef January 1, 2009 Ain’t My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism by Bill Kauffman (Metropolitan Books, 2008); 284 pages, $25. Americans don’t have much historical memory anymore. That isn’t just because of the dumbing down of the educational system and the fact that most young people read very ...
An Interview with Guantánamo Whistleblower Stephen Abraham, Part 2 by Andy Worthington December 30, 2008 Part 1 | Part 2 In the first part of this interview with Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, Andy Worthington, the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, examined why the government’s allegations against the prisoners at Guantánamo are unreliable. A veteran of U.S. Army intelligence, Lt. Col. Abraham worked for OARDEC ...
Bush Shows that Politics is Theater by Sheldon Richman December 26, 2008 Politics is corrupt theater. Actors set the mood, and some members of the audience have their pockets picked. Exhibit A is President Bushs surprise trip to Baghdad on Thanksgiving. Whats important is not the secrecy or the collusion by anointed members of the news media. Its the use of ...
Madoff Scandal Exposes Government Failure by Sheldon Richman December 24, 2008 The common reaction to the Bernard Madoff $50 billion financial scam was wholly expected. As Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote, “The lesson is one that becomes clearer with each excruciating turn of the Wall Street screw. The long, bipartisan experiment with financial deregulation has failed utterly. The ...
An Interview with Guantánamo Whistleblower Stephen Abraham, Part 1 by Andy Worthington December 22, 2008 Part 1 | Part 2 Since the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, the closure of the “War on Terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba has become a hot topic. Throughout his election campaign, Obama pledged to close Guantánamo, and he reiterated his promise during his first TV interview as President-Elect, on ...