Official Washington has long embraced “free-market” mantras, whether bank deregulation or fast-track trade bills promising prosperity for all. But the promises have been hollow, hollowing out the Middle Class and now causing problems for President Obama’s Pacific trade deal, write Bill Moyers and Bernard Weisberger.
Because of the excessive secrecy exercised by the U.S. government, whistleblowing has become a necessity for American democracy, a reality that struck home to former FBI official Coleen Rowley and other whistleblowers as they encountered Benjamin Franklin’s words in Germany.
In a rare rebuke to the powerful Israel Lobby, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a congressional encroachment on presidential powers regarding the official status of Jerusalem. Even some right-wing justices turned on each other, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R.…
Over-classification of U.S. government information is a grave threat to the Republic, giving politicians and bureaucrats the power to hide facts that aren’t really sensitive but are vital to a meaningful public debate, such as the IG report on President Bush’s surveillance program, says ex-NSA…
The right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court claims to believe in “originalism,” what the Constitution’s Framers intended. Yet, partisanship often trumps this supposed principle, including a case that could redefine “representation” to apply only to “voters,” as William John…
In the 1960s, the U.S. government as well as state and local authorities waged a war against the Black Panthers and other militants who were challenging white racism. The repression included sabotage and outright murder, a grim reality recalled in…
Some civil liberties groups praised the USA Freedom Act for its modest nips at the Surveillance State, but whistleblowers from inside the U.S. government were more skeptical about the law’s very slight accomplishments, writes Norman Solomon.
While former U.S. officials continue to deny torturing “war on terror” detainees and President Obama fails to enforce any meaningful accountability countries from the old Soviet bloc are confronting their complicity in the CIA’s crimes, writes Nat Parry.
The Framers of the U.S. Constitution envisioned an activist federal government that would help build the new country, including transportation infrastructure, but that history has been lost amid Tea Party revisionism that treats all constructive government actions as bad, a…
Decades of letting neocons dictate a hawkish foreign policy have put the American Republic in profound danger, just as presidents from George Washington to Dwight Eisenhower predicted, warnings that Americans must finally take to heart, says ex-U.S. diplomat William R.…