Scalia: ‘Torture Is Not Punishment’

In an interview on last Sunday's 60 Minutes, Leslie Stahl asked if the term "cruel and unusual punishment" applies to someone "being brutalized by a law enforcement person," Scalia replied: "To the contrary, has anybody ever referred to torture as punishment? I don't...

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Long WWII Tours Not an Issue?

I think highly of Ivan Eland as a person and as a foreign policy analyst. His piece on today's site on the danger of recruiting into the military people with bad records of behavior is on target. On the way to making his points, though, Ivan writes the following: One...

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More on the Likudist Fronts

Just to add a little to last month’s post, “Is the Pentagon Policy Shop Funding Likudist Fronts?”, on Devon Gaffney Cross’ London-based Policy Forum for International Security Affairs, Jeffrey Gedmin’s (?) Case for Freedom, and Anatol Sharansky’s...

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Speech at UT Austin

The Libertarian Longhorns have invited me to speak at their meeting this Monday, the 28th at 8:00 PM on the subject of America's biggest big government program: Empire. The room is Mezes 1.306 (the Mezes Auditorium). Here is the link to the campus map. Hope to see you...

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Finally – A Good Ron Paul Antiwar TV Ad!

The folks at American Liberty Coalition have crafted a powerful antiwar ad promoting Ron Paul for president. This minute long ad conveys Ron Paul's passion and his concern about the ruinous costs of the current wars and the peril of Bush attacking Iran. The Liberty...

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Did Israelis Leak New Spy Info to Thwart War?

Over at the American Conservative magazine's blog, Antiwar.com columnist and former CIA officer Philip Giraldi reports that Israeli sources have indicated to him that the recent leak to the FBI about the new-old Israeli spy case came from inside the Israeli government...

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John McCain: “I’m a Terrorist”

Well, OK, he didn't say that explicitly. But he did say it implicitly. A basic logic lesson and please forgive me if you think I'm talking down to you. I'm really not. It's just that I'm shocked at how many people, including McCain, don't seem to get logic. If I say,...

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I Lied and I’m a Coward

I'm not a big fan of the New York Times, but today's front-page investigative report on the Pentagon's managing of the news is absolutely first-rate. One of the Pentagon officials, Torie Clarke, the Pentagon's main propagandist, said her goal had been to achieve...

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ICasualties Is Returning

After an absence of a couple of weeks, ICasualties.org is coming back online. ICasualties.org is the best source for details on US casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. They have compiled an extensive database of this information, which is sortable by state,...

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Congress Quietly Repeals Martial Law Provision

In late 2006, Congress revised the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act to make it far easier for a president to declare martial law. Those changes were repealed at the end of this January as part of Public Law 110-181 (HR 4986), the National Defense...

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