It's a heck of a note that Ashcroft was better on civil liberties than the top leaders of the administration, including the now-Attorney General Alberto Thumscrew Gonzales.

Check out my new article at the Northwest Meridian, a cool alternative print and online publication with a distinct libertarian editorial flavor, taking Oregon state by storm. In the article I reflect on the scandalous year of 2005 and hold out home for a continued revulsion against the government sector among the people. Also, over at LewRockwell.com, I defend our great president, pointing out that at least he didn't lie about sex!!

Thanks, Scott, for the kind plug. I have a couple points regarding some of the defenders of Bush's secret surveillance. Some defenders of the surveillance powers have argued that a FISA court decision from 2002 effectively conceded that the president has the general authority to conduct wiretaps without a warrant. But the FISA court simply does not have the constitutional authority to grant such sweeping powers to the president. We might wonder why the administration has not relied more on...

To have to root for a Rockefeller. In the article about NSA spying that Scott posted, I see that it says thatthe program's ramifications also prompted concerns from some quarters, including Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.), the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, and the presiding judge of the surveillance court, which oversees lawful domestic spying, according to the Times.

The Agitator has an update, with some corrections and clarifications to what has already been said and circulated on the blogosphere, on the Cory Maye case. Also see his archive of posts on it. I do feel horrible about the loss of life of agents carrying out the terroristic policies of the state. But if this guy hangs for shooting an intruder in his home in the middle of the night, I will lose yet another bit of faith in America's criminal justice system. And no, at this point I don't have...

I wrote in a recent article that "[y]our home is now as prone to be invaded by battle rifle

Back when I was a right-wing minarchist in the late Clinton years, I would recoil at the sight of those meatheaded slogans of the left, especially the ones that trumped up the Nanny State as some sort of preferable alternative to reactionary governance. One such slogan is the one about how it would be great if the Pentagon had to have bake sales to buy bombers, and schools had all the loot they needed. Another, which I had even less sympathy for, is the famous "Schools, Not Prisons" motto....