Category: Constitution

Still Tolerating Torture

President Obama admits that U.S. authorities engaged in torture during the “war on terror” but he has taken no action to hold the torturers accountable and even elevated one of its defenders, John Brennan, to chief of the CIA, notes…

The Unfinished Drama of Watergate

Four decades ago, Richard Nixon resigned, making him the first U.S. president in history to quit the office, the result of two years of a spreading scandal known as Watergate. But many Watergate reforms aimed at limiting the power of money…

The Long Reach of Vietnam War Deceptions

America’s war in Vietnam, which was authorized by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution a half century ago, had lasting consequences for the nation, including deeper public distrust of government and government’s determination to restrict the people’s right to know, as…

GOP Madness Surfaces in Texas

The Tea Party extremism boiling from beneath the Republican Party bubbled to the top in the GOP’s Texas state platform revealing ugly bigotries and a frantic know-nothing-ism, writes Michael Winship.

Obama’s Failure to Rein in CIA and NSA

Despite Barack Obama’s promises during the 2008 campaign to reform the U.S. intelligence community, he has continued to tolerate its abuses, enable its excessive secrecy and indulge its bone-headedness, as ex-CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman explains.

An All-Seeing, All-Knowing Being

A decade ago, exposure of President George W. Bush’s Total Information Awareness scheme brought assurances that it had been shelved, but its Orwellian intent was only shifted to the NSA and it now gives the U.S. government nearly god-like powers,…

The Back Story of ‘Citizen Koch’

Exclusive: The documentary, “Citizen Koch,” was deemed unfit for PBS as the network sidles up to David Koch’s wealth, but the film’s weakness actually is that it doesn’t focus enough on how the Koch brothers have corrupted the U.S. political process,…

A Monte Python Circus of Money

The City of London is the UK’s Wall Street, not only in the sense that both are financial centers but they also serve as an intersection for money and politics, especially with the Conservative Party putting access to prominent politicians…

The U.S. Persecution of Sami Al-Arian

The neocon exploitation of the 9/11 attacks led to the disastrous Iraq War but  also unleashed anti-Muslim bigotry within the American political/media system and even within the U.S. courts, as the ugly persecution of Sami Al-Arian reveals, reports Lawrence Davidson.

Escalating Domestic Warfare

Between the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, the United States has witnessed a transformation of its law enforcement, from lightly armed neighborhood policemen to militarized units deploying weapons of warfare, including armored personnel carriers, as Brian J.…