Here is a video of Representative Maxine Waters explaining that President Obama has put together a database that “...will have information about everything on every individual in ways that it’s never been done before.” Searching for the video, I only find it on “conservative” websites, the most “mainstream” of which is the Fox News...
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Why does the U.S. government go to such extraordinary lengths to discredit, punish, and ruin persons such as Daniel Ellsberg, Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, and—next in line, no doubt—Edward Snowden? The government alleges that these persons give aid and comfort to the nation’s enemies and endanger national security. In reality, however, these persons’ only...
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The United States government was founded on the principle of protecting individual rights. The Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights...” People have rights as individuals, and do not derive their rights from...
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In news of no particular surprise to anyone, agents at the Cincinnati IRS office from which emanates the scandal surrounding targeted scrutiny of Tea Party, conservative, and limited government non-profits, are declining to take the fall. In interviews with House Oversight Committee investigators, Cincinnati IRS employees revealed that (gasp!) orders to target such groups...
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I was mildly amused, and somewhat amazed, at last week’s Congressional hearings on Apple Computer’s corporate tax avoidance. Here is an article from the New York Times critical of Apple. While Apple has sheltered substantial amounts of income from taxation via offshore corporations, all sides agree that Apple was in compliance with US and...
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Americans need to stop picking the politicians they support based on how those politicians self-identify. Each of us needs to know what values we hold, and when all the evidence shows that the guy claiming to represent those values doesn’t, give up the party line. Conservatives are supposed to be for limited government—both in...
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The US Postal Service is selling hundreds of properties in prime locations across the country to help them deal with their financial difficulties. In the past, the USPS has used multiple real estate agents to sell their properties, but in 2011 the USPS signed a contract with CBRE Group to be the sole provider...
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At one time, President Obama noted similarities between his presidency and Ronald Reagan’s, but these days it seems his administration is more often compared with Nixon’s. The Benghazi coverup, followed by the IRS scandal that targeted right wing groups, followed by the revelation that the Department of Justice seized the telephone records of Associated...
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I had earlier posted about the SNAFUed boondoggle also known as the Eastern span of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge (here and here), but the bad news just keeps rolling in. Yesterday it was revealed that the tower supporting the entire self-anchored suspension bridge rests on bolts that are likely to fail, causing the...
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Barring legal maneuvers, a fringe party becomes part of a country’s mainstream politics for one of two reasons: because it sheds or conceals its extravagant views or because mainstream politics shifts in such a way as to make it relevant. The UK Independence Party, which won an average of 25 percent of the vote...
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