Daily Articles

No Wonder People Feel Disfranchised

by Sheldon Richman March 29, 2004

In a recent poll of cable-television viewers, only 20 percent said the general public has much say in what the government does. Maybe people are finally catching on. It’s about time. The poll by Peter D. Hart can’t be pleasing to those who make a holy shrine of the ballot ...

“I Don’t Remember”

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 24, 2004

Former U.S. Counterterrorism Chief Richard A. Clarke states that after he told President Bush at a meeting the day after 9/11 that al-Qaeda was responsible for the attacks, Bush responded, “I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he’s linked in any way.” ...

Health-Care Hilarity

by Scott McPherson March 22, 2004

Massachusetts’s U.S. senator and likely Democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry, is being criticized for boasting of foreign political endorsements he might not be able to substantiate. Hoping to paint Kerry as dishonest on this issue, Secretary of State Colin Powell even went on the Fox News Channel to demand ...

Iraq: One Year Later

by Sheldon Richman March 19, 2004

Islamist terrorism, the eradication of which President Bush listed among his reasons for invading Iraq, has now made its way to Spain. Good show, Mr. Bush. When he says the world is safer one year after the war, one must wonder which world he means. The Spanish are being slandered ...

Warning: Obesity (and Lying about It) Could be Hazardous to Your Health

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 15, 2004

Lest anyone have any doubts that our federal daddy is carefully watching over his adult-children, the Food and Drug Administration has formally announced a campaign against obesity among Americans. You remember the FDA, right? That’s the federal bureaucratic agency that wrongfully leaked the information that ultimately led to the conviction of ...

Martha Down Under: Kangaroos in the Courtroom

by Candice E. Jackson March 15, 2004

For all of the supposed high drama the Martha Stewart case produced, in the end, it was all quite anticlimactic. According to Time Magazine’s version of the trial and verdict : Stewart was caught in a simple lie, the evidence so compelling ...

Martha Stewart Case: Where’s the Victim?

by Sheldon Richman March 10, 2004

We live in a topsy-turvy world. People may ask politicians to give them some of the loot taken from the taxpayers — and no one is even suspected of wrongdoing. Yet if someone’s stock sale piques the curiosity of government investigators armed with vague legal concepts such as insider ...

The Wrongful Conviction of Martha Stewart

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 10, 2004

So what’s wrong with the criminal conviction of Martha Stewart? She lied to federal officials, right? And it’s against the law to lie to federal officials, right? So what’s the problem? From the standpoint of the U.S. Justice Department, there is, of course, no problem at all. The law ...

Stay Out of Haiti

by Sheldon Richman March 5, 2004

Let’s just get it over with. Let’s make Haiti the 51st state and pump billions of dollars of welfare into it. Then at least the insertion of U.S. troops there, the third time in almost a century, won’t be an unconstitutional act of foreign intervention. But seriously, what the heck ...

How Hitler Became a Dictator

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2004

Whenever U.S. officials wish to demonize someone, they inevitably compare him to Adolf Hitler. The message immediately resonates with people because everyone knows that Hitler was a brutal dictator. But how many people know how Hitler actually became a dictator? My bet is, very few. I' d also bet that more than a few people would be surprised at how ...

Campaign Finance Won’t Square the Circle

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2004

The new restrictions on freedom that constitute campaign-finance reform raise some important issues in political philosophy. It would have been nice if the five Supreme Court justices who upheld the law had addressed those issues. They didnt even notice them. The majority said Congress violated no constitutional stricture, particularly the First Amendment, when it barred political parties from raising or ...

Trampling Aliens in the Name of Anti-Terrorism

by James Bovard March 1, 2004

Americans are still learning the details of some of the abuses that were committed against those rounded up as suspected terrorists after 9/11. The Justice Department inspector general issued superb reports in June and December 2003 detailing violation of rights, denial of due process, and, in some cases, physical brutality. Perhaps the best way to capture the flavor of the ...