"James Bovard has become the roving inspector general of the modern State." Wall Street Journal
JAMES BOVARD
HOME BOOKS BIO EPIGRAMS SPEECHES ARTICLES PHOTOS CONTACT
NEW MEMOIR : PUBLIC POLICY HOOLIGAN -
Bob Barr "Lessons in Liberty" #1: Pay Your Ghostwriter
USA TODAY: Oreos Expose Trump's Trade Folly
My Supreme Court Fashion Offense & Ejection
USA TODAY: TSA's Gitmo-Style Groin Gropes
TSA Portland Surveillance Videos of Me
USA TODAY: Obama Victims Deserve Empty Seats
USA TODAY: Budget Bill Leaves No Boondoggle Behind
Wash. Times: Obama Fearmongering & Freedom
USA TODAY: Beware Another Census Roundup
Wash. Times: TSA Bombs the Holidays
USA TODAY: End Federal Agents' License to Kill
USA TODAY: Congress's Freedom Foyer Farce
Barron's: Supreme Court vs. Liberty & Constitution
USA Today: Washington's Latest Hunger Charade
USA Today Board of Contributors
USA TODAY: Abolish the Sugar Program
USA TODAY: Disability Act's 25 Years of Legal Chaos
Wall Street Journal: Washington's Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron
USA TODAY: End the Coverup on 9/11 Attack
Tom Woods Podcast: Public Policy Hooligan
USA TODAY: TSA Has No Excuse to Continue Groping
Wash. Times: FDA's War on Cheap Cigars
Mises Inst.: The Washington Intellecutal Gravy Train
USA TODAY: "Hurricane HUD" & the Baltimore Riots
NPR Debate on Federal Job Training Follies
USA Today: Boy Scouts Should Hang Tough
Counterpunch: Will Vagina Voters Devour Democracy?
USA TODAY: A D.C. Devil's Dictionary
USA TODAY: Scott Walker, Stadium Socialist
My Ribald Speech to the Cogswell Society
Washington Times: The Mandatory Voting Panacea
Washington Times: ObamaCare and Supreme Hypocrisy
Barron's: FDA/Nanny State Hates Cigars
USA TODAY: Eric Holder's Lawless Legacy
Washington Times: Redneck Ethnic Cleansing Recalled
Counterpunch: Americans' Fatal Freedom Apathy
Washington Times: No Halo for Holder on Forfeiture
USA TODAY: Know Nothing Democracy - Cromnibus Edition
Washington Times: Gruber & Shenanigans of Leviathan
Washington Times: ObamaCare Deception of "Stupid" Americans
Washington Times: Fighting Extremism with Extremism
Counterpunch: The Civil War & Forgotten Atrocities
USA Today: AmeriCorps at 20 is a Wasteful Flop
Fox Business News Interview on Food Insecurity Charade
:
How
the Feds Distort Their "Food Insecurity" Numbers
USA Today: Eric Holder's Dreadful Record on Police Shootings
*TSA Chief John Pistole Denounces My Work
Washington Times: TSA Must End Its Lies, Crimes, & Extortion
Ecologist (U.K.): Obama's Aid Ravages Third World Farmers
Washington Times: Bill Clinton's Body Snatching Legacy in Kosovo
:
Sheridan's
1864 Torching of the Shenandoah Valley
Washington Times: Americans' Fading Love of Freedom
USA Today: An FDA War on Cheap Cigars?
Washington Times: Obama's Democracy Flim-Flam
:
Judges
Approve the Great Raisin Robbery
Washington Times: Obama's Toxic Secrecy-Censorship Combo
Washington Times: Obama's Betrayal of Brown vs. Board of Education
Washington Times: Obama's Cynicism Racketeering
USA Today: Obama's Racial Profiling in the Classroom
Washington Times: Obama's War on Govt. Watchdogs
Washington Times: "Truth Will Prevail" - Costliest Political Fairy Tale
Washington Times: Cluster Bomb Congress
NH Liberty Forum Speech Video - Libertarian Hooliganism
NH Liberty Forum Video: Obama's Constitutional Terror
Barron's: Reform Food Stamps for Good Health
Washington Times: Obama and the Obesity Epidemic
Washington Times: Why Everyone Scorns the TSA
USA Today: Don't Trust White House on Syria Claims
USA Today: Drug Lessons from a Convict Road Gang
AmeriCorps
- the Folly of Feel-Good Government
Washington Times: The Voting Rights Mirage
A
Brief History of IRS Political Targeting
Washington Times: Time to End TSA's Freedom to Molest
Washington Times: End the USDA Dictatorship
How
"Food for Peace" Hurts Foreign Farmers
Washington Times: The Postal Sevice/Lance Armstrong Double Standard
Washington Times: The 'You are the Government' Canard
USA Today: Time to End USDA's Crazy Raisin Regime
USDA's
Bizarre Billion Dollar "Discrimination" Payout
Washington Times: Busing Tyranny by Boston's Best & Brighest
Newest
Federal Crime - Not Hiring Ex-Convicts
Washington Times: EEOC's Vendetta Against Freedom and Common Sense
Washington Times: Let's Start by Controlling Police Violence Against Americans
"Dairy
Cliff" Proves Need to Abolish Farm Programs
American Conservative: Rand Paul - a Work in Progress?
USA Today: Why Expand School Free Food Programs?
Barrons: Potomac River Blindness - Why Govt. Waste is Invisible in DC
American Conservative: FBI: A Stasi for America
Wall Street Journal: Don't Trust Feds with "Happiness Index"
Wall Street Journal: The Wrong Way to Help the Disabled
Los Angeles Times: Ludicrous Constitutional Linchpin of Obama
FFF: The EEOC'S Forgotten Racial Racketeering
Wall Street Journal: Confessions of a One-Season Santa Claus
Los Angeles Times: The Postal Monopoly and the Great Mail Slowdown
Counterpunch: Dying to Corrupt Afghanistan
Fox News: Drunks and Foreign Aid
Wall Street Journal: Federal Job Training Wrecks Work Ethics
Wall Street Journal: Raising Hell in Subsidized Housing
George Mason Univ. Speech on Obama vs American Freedom
American Conservative: Leviathan's Lies
Wall Street Journal: Food Stamps for Millionaires
Forgotten Failures of the Peace Corps
Counterpunch: Idolizing Absolute Power
Wall Street Journal: My Summer Road to Perdition
Freeman: Fear-Mongering and Servitude
Barron's: Governing as Looting (Foreign Aid & Afghanistan)
Christian Science Monitor: Obama's Unlimited Right to Kill?
America's Know-Nothing Foreign Policymakers
Your Tax Dollars at Work and Play
CPAC Speech Trashing the Patriot Act
Interview on Conservative Leviathan Lovers
TV and Radio Appearances and Speeches on YouTube
NEW: BOVARD ARTICLES IN PORTUGUESE
The "Of Course" Curse (1983, New York Times)
Our Know-Nothing Foreign Policy
The Right to Resist Government Power (2000)
How Washington Protects Your Privacy and Liberty
Why Tea Party Members Should Despise George W. Bush
Rep. Hoekstra Receives CIA Bootlicking Award
Make Bill of Rights Day Our Anti-Politician Day
Abolish the Phony Privacy Board
De-Sacralizing Democracy to Save Liberty
How Democracy Breeds Political Idiocy
Worldwide Downfall of Democracy
Welfarization & the Capsizing of Democracy
Obama and Attention Deficit Democracy
Tea Party Movement: Pro-War, Pro-Torture, Pro-Freedom?
Contact Jim Bovard jim[at]jimbovard[dot]com
Bill Clinton's Lethal Hypocrisy on Government Violence
The Slippery Definition of Extremism
Christian Science Monitor: Don't Trust the Census
Russian TV interview on Danger of Dictatorship
The Material Witness Ticket to Servitude
Fox News FreedomWatch Interview on FBI Crime Wave
Frightening Voters into Submission
Bogus Anti-Terrorist Crackdown on Financial Freedom
How George W. Bush Redefined American Freedom
The Media as Enablers of Government Lies
Interview with Glenn Beck on AmeriCorps
National Endowment for Democracy's Sordid History
Eight Years of Big Lies on Afghanistan
Fox News Freedom Watch Interview with Judge Napolitano
Jamaican Radio Interview on Torture
Post 9/11 Roundup of Innocents: Ashcroft's High Crime
Barron's: Obama's Summer Jobs Program Farce
McNamara's Other Body Count Debacle
REAL ID and the Danger of Government
Celebrate International Torture Day by Prosecuting Torturers
"Expanding the IMF to Bail out Tinhorn Dictators"
"The Latest Torture Coverup Scam"
"AmeriCorps and the Peril of Mandatory National Service"
"Obama's Great Medical Records Roundup"
"How Abu Ghraib was Politically Defused"
Bovard Photos from Various Demonstrations on FLICKR
+
Prior design of this web page:
Epigrams from Attention Deficit Democracy
** Bush Betrayal Now Available in Arabic
Bovard articles & Interviews:
Ripon Forum: The National Service Illusion
FFF: Warring as Lying in American History
American Conservative: Latest Twists on the Torture Scandal
Counterpunch: Are Presidents Entitled to Kill Foreigners?
FFF: The FBI's Right to Threaten Torture
Freedom Daily: Drunk Driving Checkpoints vs. Freedom
American Conservative: Will Torture Finish Off Bush?
Freeman: Deliberative Democracy Dementia
FFF: What do Citizens Owe the Government?
American Conservative: Congress Rubberstamps Martial Law
Boston Globe: "The 'Terrorist' Batting Average"
American Conservative: The Torture Ticking Time Bomb Beneath the Bush Administration
Los Angeles Times: Your Right to Torture the Truth out of Your Congressman
Editor & Publisher: The Washington Post Makes Dictatorial Powers Mundane
FFF: Government Lies vs. Self-Government
Globalist: The Torturous Servility of Washington Think Tanks
Baltimore Sun: Bush's Illegal Covert Financial Surveillance [also in the China Post, Salt Lake Tribune, Bergen Record, & other papers]
Freeman: Democracy versus Liberty
Freedom Daily: The Bush Torture Memos
FFF: The New Hungarian Uprising's Lessons for America
American Conservative: "All Your Balls Belong to Us" - my Review of John Yoo's Torture manifesto
FFF: Bush's Operation Founding Fathers Fraud
American Conservative: Conservatives' Treason on Free Speech
LRC: Israel's Forgotten Record in Lebanon, 1982+
American Conservative: Bush's Dictatorial Signing Statements
Fox News's Hannity & Colmes, June 23, 2006, debating Bush abuses
MSNBC, June 23, 2006 - debating Bush's illegal financial surveillance
American Conservative: "Reach Out & Tap Someone" (NSA wiretapping)
Video of National Press Club Talk - FFF MAY 2
The AL-JAZEERA Television Interview Transcript from London May 17
FFF: Bush's Wiretap Crimes & the FISA Farce
FFF: The Most Absurdities Per Kilo (the Chong Bong Bust)
Sunni's Salon Interview - April 2006
American Conservative: Bush's War on Democracy
Baltimore Chronicle: Bush's Bogus Theory of Boundless Power
Los Angeles Times: A Terrorist on Every Corner?
Orange County Register: Defining Freedom Down
Newsday: We're Losing in the Government Game
American Conservative: The NSA Spying Scandal
Orange County Register: Forgotten Dangers of Illegal Surveillance
American Conservative: Lawless Dick Cheney Strikes Again
Chicago:
Patriot Act and Attention Deficit Democracy
O Estado de São Paulo: "A ignorância está afundando a democracia" (Brazil's third largest circulation newspaper)
Editor & Publisher: Fact-Checking the Feds on Airport Killing
Antiwar.com: Killing in the Name of Democracy
Baltimore Chronicle: The Farcical Definition at the Core of the War on Terror
FFF: Unleashing the Federal Surveillance Machine
Reason: TSA Killers & Their Apologists
Freedom Daily: How the Feds Took Over Farming
O Estado de São Paulo: Um terrorista em cada canto [Brazil]
Washington
Times: Setting the Record Straight
Wisconsin Public Radio interview with Joy Cardin (1/25)
Other 2006 publications:
Salt Lake Tribune, Anniston Star, Las Cruces Sun News, Dodge City Globe, Southern Utah University Journal, The Peninsula (Qatar), Manchester Union Leader(NH), Albany Times Union, Myrtle Beach Sun News, Montana Standard (Butte), The Colombian (Vancouver, WA), Pasadena Weekly, Central Oregonian, Islamic Broadcasting Network, Glencoe News (Minnesota), Daily Sun News (Washington), Northwest Arkansas News, Willits News (California),
Comments & Reviews on Attention Deficit Democracy:
"A lively attack on politicians, voters and government. Bovard's indictment of an ineffective but ever-expanding federal government would make any libertarian proud." Ari Melber, New York Post
"Bovard is a partisan of neither major party, only of liberty... Bovard has done his research and nailed the case against the administration, whose officials, all the way to the top, clearly authorized... torture... The American people must start paying attention, and thus start being more outraged. Reading Attention Deficit Democracy is a perfect place to start." Anthony Gregory, Freedom Daily
"Our modern-day Thomas Paine has done it again. In Attention Deficit Democracy, Bovard bombards us with the same high level of unfettered Common Sense' perspective on freedom that we've come to expect from him." Joe Fondren, WRJM, Alabama radio
"Bovard explains how supposedly free citizens have bought into the lies and frauds offered by the political class.... Bovard offers wise counsel and sage advice. But if he is right, the voters will be sure to ignore it." Steve Greenhut, Orange County Register
"It is fantastic. I could not stop thinking about it. It is the unheard truth behind whatis happening in the United States." Liz Skrobiszewski, WRIR Richmond, Virginia.
"Its a wonderful book. It is really thought provoking. Anyone who wants to think out there is in for a treat with this book." Bill Borst, WGNU Radio St. Louis
"Bovard is an an iconoclast's iconoclast. While much of the western world unquestioningly accepts democracy's pretense... Bovard not only questions those pretenses, he proves them false.... Bovard yanks the curtain off the voting booth." Becky Akers, Counterpunch
"Playing fast and loose.... Bombthrower... A grating tone... Overheated.... Shopworn dissident rhetoric... Character assassinations... Such smearing is all in a day's work for Mr. Bovard...." Washington Times
"Attention Deficit Democracy is Bovard's best book. You can open up this book anywhere, start reading, and every paragraph will smack you upside the head. For those concerned about the future of our Republic, ADD is as compelling as the most intruiging novel. Unfortuntely, it is not fiction." Brian Wilson, WSPD Toledo
"Spectacular... Attention Deficit Democracy displays Bovard's emergence as a formidable prose stylist. Relentlessly incisive and epigrammatic, Bovard at his best reminds me of Nock and Mencken. And in the course of nearly 300 pages, he very rarely - if ever - descends from that exalted level." Will Grigg, Editor in Chief, New American
"In his latest book, Bovard has put his literary finger on one of the critical factors that will determine not just how, but if America is to survive as a nation bearing a semblance of similarity to that envisioned by our Founding Fathers. Attention Deficit Democracy warns us in no uncertain terms that unless we reverse the accelerating trend toward a country populated by a people largely ignorant of history, civics, and politics, we will wake up one day - soon- and find we have no freedom left; because we didn't even recognize it when we had it." Former Rep. Bob Barr
"Bovard is one of my favorite authors... Attention Deficit Democracy is kind of a painful read." Jan Mickelson, WHO Iowa radio
"Bovard... is one of very few journalists who are both pro-freedom and willing to dig... The dry wit is vintage Bovard, and is plentiful throughout Attention Deficit Democracy. Such Menckenesque touches are much appreciated... " Sunni Marvillosa
"Attention Deficit Democracy not only diagnoses our national malady, it provides a remedy as well. If you care about the loss of our liberty, have people read this book. Once Bovard gets their blood boiling, they start paying attention!" Charles Goyette, Air America
"Government, can only be as crooked as the public and media allow it to be, Bovard argues, decrying voters who vote for a candidate because he 'wears a cowboy hat'and the media for not being vigilant enough in calling out wayward politicians.... Readers looking for a rousing refresher on the merits of skepticism will find it here in spades." Publishers Weekly
"This is an amazing book... A fantastic job... Bovard is one of the best writers for freedom in the world today." Gardner Goldsmith, WNTK New Hampshire radio
"Bovard takes no prisoners in his argument that we, as a nation, have lost sight of the very tenants of freedom and democracy that the Founding Fathers wanted to establish." Tampa Tribune Online
"It is a great book. People should not read this book unless they are willing to have their arms twisted to think for themselves." Ron Smith, WBAL, Baltimore
"A fascinating read. I encourage you to get it" Peter McCandless, Radio Missouri
"Attention Deficit Democracy is a wake-up call to the American people. As Bovard reveals one ridiculous lie after another, you won't know whether to laugh or cry." Laissez Faire Books
"James Bovard has hit another one out of the park... Americans may suffer from an attention deficit when it comes to their government, but your attention will be riveted on this book. By the time I reached the final page, my copy bristled with Post-It notes marking Jim's brilliant observations, startling facts, and wickedly witty statements." Claire Wolfe, author and renowned hell-raiser
A Portuguese language review (translation of Counterpunch essay review)
For Review Copies & Interviews - contact Joseph Rinaldi, St Martin's Press 212 674 5151
January 21, 2006- Bovard at the Manhattan Libertarian Convention - NYC
PAPERBACK - SEPTEMBER 2005:
#2 Bestseller in India - October 2004
TOP TEN FARCES OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
Bush's Betrayal of American Conservatives
Spinoffs, Excerpts, et al.:
The Millennium Challenge Foreign Aid Fraud Barron's February 21, 2005
The Pentagon's Growing Threat to Homeland Liberties Alternet December 10, 2004
TSA's Nationwide Looting Epidemic New York Times August 18, 2004
Ashcroft's Antiterrorism Antics -American Conservative October 11, 2004
Bush Lies & Thrives Alternet September 17, 2004
The Bush Administration's Wrecking Ball Benevolence Barron's August 23, 2004
Bipartisan Repression of Freedom of Speech Baltimore Sun, August 6, 2004
Thwarting Terrorists with a Kosher Meal Registry Boston Globe, August 16, 2004
The Latest Farm Policy Fraud Washington Times, August 15, 2004
Saddam as the Twentieth Hijacker Freedom Daily October 2004
The No-Fault No-Fly List October 13, 2004
For publicity, contact Emily Gewitz at St. Martin's Press/Palgrave MacMillan - 800 221 7945 ext 267
COMMENTS AND REVIEWS ON THE BUSH BETRAYAL:
"All in all The Bush Betrayal is a devastating indictment of a failed presidency, thoroughly documented, easy to read, and laced with Bovard's trademark humor. Anyone who is inclined to be even a little charitable toward a president obviously in over his head would do well to read it.
Orange County Register senior columnist Alan Bock
"With The Bush Betrayal, Bovard cements his claim as America's journalistic superman -- fighting for truth, justice, and the American way of freedom and limited government. We may have been stuck with George W. Bush for four years, but at least we have Bovard on our side.
And that evens the odds just a bit."
Bill Winter, LP News
"The importance of Bovard's book goes far beyond an analysis of the Iraqi War or even the response by this administration to the terrorist attacks of 9/11... With the thoroughly researched and footnoted style that has become his forte, and with the heavy doses of relevant anecdotes and dry humor that have become his trademarks, the author has compiled a virtual almanac of American political abuse... We ignore Jim Bovard's work at the risk of being repeatedly seduced - 'betrayed' by the siren songs of presidential candidates of both parties." Former congressman Bob Barr, American Conservative
"In his new book, James Bovard presents a succinct, cogent, and compelling analysis of how Bush has betrayed America's founding principles of liberty and limited government in ways that impact all areas of our lives. ... Bovard provides us with a pleasantly readable and detailed account of the Bush administration's collectivism and dishonesty on every policy issue... Bovard stays on target throughout the book, laying out the details of Bush's follies, but he sneaks in important lessons for the reader how the answer is liberty, and the general problem is government power." Anthony Gregory, Liberty magazine
"The Heroic Bovard....Jim Bovard is a one-man policy think tank.... The Bush Betrayal is the handbook of our revolution."--Lew Rockwell, www.lewrockwell.com
"Jim Bovard is an awesome author. If you have a great need to feel exasperated in your life, read the Bush Betrayal - it is as funny as it is disturbing. I thought I knew how well I had been betrayed until I had read this book." Scott Horton, Republic Broadcasting Network
"Bovard is sort of a cross between James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Michael Moore..... A really surly book."
Jan Mickelson, WHO Radio IowaThis is a very hard hitting book... a pretty mighty tome.
Gardner Goldsmith, New Hampshire radio"It's a great read. It ought to be required reading for those of us inside the Republican Party. "
Jeff Katz, Liberty Radio Network"This book is bound to be banned. It obviously violates several federal statutes. It's rapid-fire, high-capacity, equipped with bayonet-sharp wit, and loaded with politician-piercing ammo... If you already believed the Bush administration was a bit scary, perhaps even a bit mad, you'll have more evidence than you ever imagined after finishing The Bush Betrayal... Bovard's wit... is at its sharpest here." Author & Columnist Claire Wolfe
"Bush Betrayal is terrific, another blockbuster... Bovard is the finest muckraker working today in American journalism." Ron Smith, WBAL Baltimore
"James Bovard, the great libertarian champion of our freedom and civil liberties..."
Syndicated columnist Paul Craig Roberts"Bovard packs a lot of stuff into a book - his recall is encyclopedic. I really recommend the Bush Betrayal." Charles Goyette, KFNX Phoenix
The book's greatest strength lies in the juxtapositions of Bush's policy and rhetoric with the corresponding facts. Much like his previous book Terrorism and Tyranny, such an approach leaves thereader infuriated and sometimes laughing out loud in disgust." Michael Ewens, Antiwar.com
"Pitiless dismantling of the Bush era." Jeffrey St. Clair, Counterpunch
"A finely crafted and thought-provoking book"
Greg Berg, Wisconsin Public Radio"Writing from a libertarian perspective, Bovard (Terrorism and Tyranny, etc.) offers a fierce critique of the presidency of George W. Bush , focusing on restrictions on liberty and expansion of government... It is notable as a comprehensive attack on the administration from a less-often-heard place on the political spectrum." Publishers Weekly
"This is a terrific book about how George Bush said one thing and did another."
Sam Greenfield, WWRL New York radio"It is a fascinating book. I encourage people to get a copy."
Geoff Metcalf, Liberty Broadcasting Network"It is a quite provocative and well-written look at the misdeeds of the Bush administration."
Peter B. Collins, All American Radio (Sirius Network)"This is required reading. There is a lot of truth in here and it is something you have to face head-on."
David Gold, KMSR Dallas radio
"Books keep pouring off the presses on the subject of why George W. Bush should not be reelected... The best of the bunch by far is The Bush Betrayal, by one of my favorite writers, James Bovard... Bovard, in addition to being a fine writer... can still see the humor in much of the mayhem, goofiness and outright stupidity that characterizes so much of government bureaucracy." Charley Reese, Syndicated Columnist
"One American - a true patriot in my opinion -who has not been hoodwinked or bamboozled by Bush Administration propaganda is James Bovard.... The Bush Betrayal is the best book for an introductory course on what patriotism really means, and it will certainly help awake a comatose public before all its rights are trampled by future Bushes."
Former CIA analyst Jim Grichar, www.lewrockwell.com
NOW AVAILABLE - SPANISH EDITION OF TERRORISM & TYRANNY
NOW IN PAPERBACK!
Winner of the first Annual Lysander Spooner Award - "The Best Book on Liberty in 2003"
PURCHASE THE BOOK AT
Table of Contents of TERRORISM & TYRANNY
BOVARD INTERVIEW ON C-SPAN BRIAN LAMB'S BOOKNOTES - NOVEMBER 2, 2003
Reviews & Comments on Terrorism & Tyranny:
American Lawyer: "Bovard's take is ... a far more detailed and wide-ranging assault on the Patriot Act and the Bush administration, dense with example after example of governmental oppression, folly, and ineptitude in the wake of 9/11... Bovard is a superb reporter... He has apparently read just about everything published, in both the traditional and alternative media, about the egregious conduct of government officials, investigators, airport screeners, and bureaucrats everywhere in the last two years... Bovard offers far more than an infuriating record of government misconduct. His is a libertarian critique of any government's-including ours-inherent tendency to aggrandize and abuse its power."
Boston Globe: "Terrorism and Tyranny is a scathing account of the war on terrorism... Bovard is a bipartisan scourge... His lively fury at government incompetence keeps the pages turning quickly... Most riveting." (Edmund Carlevale, February 1, 2004)
Karen De Coster, Mises Institute: "Jim Bovard is, without a doubt, the best political researcher-writer in politics today.... He provides an encyclopedia's worth of timely quotes laid out in chronological fashion, to funnel the reader through an extensive framework of US government double-dealing, coercion, corruption, and propaganda milling... Bovard has mastered the art of uncovering deception and spin when and where it is buried beneath a stack of establishment posturing, legally binding decrees, and walls of near-impenetrable propaganda."
Washington Times: "Bovard, one of the most trenchant and effective critics of the runaway growth and abuse of big government during the Clinton-Gore years, has now turned his heavy guns on the even greater expansion of government power after 2001... Bovard's new book comes as an important counterweight to the cult of secrecy and big-government empowerment that has run amok over the past two years... The author has synthesized and organized a vast amount of information, yet he presents it in an accessible, reader-friendly way. It is rare to read such a well-documented study that flows so smoothly.... Terrorism and Tyranny" is a timely, troubling book, exhaustively and impeccably researched and documented." Martin Sieff (chief political correspondent for United Press International)
Washington Post: "Bovard has the virtue of ideological consistency.... Government - whether in the form of the tax man, the G-man or the OSHA inspector - is a Leviathan to be feared and restrained.... He ties his libertarian critique of the domestic war on terror with a critique of the Bush administration's foreign policy.... To Bovard, our problems stem from our foreign policy. To stop terrorism, he advises, we should cease meddling in the affairs of almost every foreign nation on earth.'" (September 28, 2003)
American Conservative: "No one is spared in Bovard's merciless review... Bovard's chronicle of the whole sad history of the war on terrorism, from Reagan to Bush I and through the Clinton years, is a tale of appalling incompetence." (Justin Raimondo, September 22, 2003).
LP NEWS: " Terrorism and Tyranny is not just the best book you'll ever read about the War on Terrorism. It's not just the best Libertarian book of the year. It's one of the most important books of the decade. Whether you support or oppose the War on Terrorism, you owe it to yourself to read it." (Bill Winter, December 2003).
"Bovard takes on the Ashcroft-Ridge-Bush 'security'apparatus, rips into it, and rips it apart. His weapon is facts, not mere rhetoric and opinion... If the world has any sense, Terrorism and Tyranny should reach the millions who've supported Bush while closing their eyes to what this holy crusader for the police state is actually doing to their country." Claire Wolfe, author of The State vs. The People
Antiwar.com: ""The most important book since 9/11... Anyone interested in the War on Terrorism must read James Bovard's newest book... He has constructed with precision and scholarly excellence a narrative of all that Bush has done since 9/11 in the name of fighting terror." (Anthony Gregory)
Syndicated Columnist Charley Reese: "If you want to know what is really going on in President Bush's War on Terror, read "Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil," by James Bovard. What is so valuable about Bovard's work is that it is just plain, fact-based, footnoted reporting. He is not a polemicist, and you will find no shrill arguments, no straw men, no rants, no name-calling such as you find in most of the quickie political books that people grind out these days. Instead, you get a sober recitation of the facts set within a philosophical framework that exactly matches that of the Founding Fathers." (September 8, 2003)
"Invaluable....the best one-stop source I've seen for what various officials actually said at various times, suffused with intelligent analysis." Alan Bock, Orange County Register
Publishers Weekly: "Bovard... looks at the post-September 11 policies and actions of the government and finds them sorely lacking.... Meticulously documented... May well leave readers as angry as its author." (August 25, 2003)
"Bovard's new book, Terrorism and Tyranny, is like his many other exposés of government power and corruption: clear, dispassionate, factual, and heavily documented. He is the Joe Friday of political analysis: Just the facts, maam. And the facts will make your blood boil." Richard Ebeling, The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, November 2003
Bookreporter.com: "The gallows humor of James Bovard, a bright fellow with a sharp wit, helps to underscore the more outrageous blunders and miscalculations that have been committed by the several intelligence communities and law-enforcement agencies, the opportunistic power grabs by high-ranking bureaucrats, and the heavy damage inflicted on the Bill of Rights not by terrorists, but by friendly fire from both the Justice Department and the White House, all under the banner of defending freedom. Bovard finds much that he considers ridiculous and he does not shrink from ridiculing it.... The chief value of this book rests on the author's reporting, not on argument or interpretation..." His sources are credible and his presentation, except for an occasional sarcastic comment, is objective and straightforward. Every item of information is properly declared and accounted for in 68 pages of endnotes." (Prof. Harold Cordry)
"The book is so provocative, in so many ways, and so right on target.... It is a wonderful book... I think this is Bovard's best by far."
David Brudnoy, WBZ Boston"A treasure trove of information." Laura Flanders, KALW Public Radio San Francisco
"Bovard is an investigative journalist nonpareil. You won't find speculative flights into unsupported conspiracy theories, only hard reporting of documented facts gained through indefatigable legwork.... Bovard's got the goods... The only thing to be said is: Read the book!" Sheldon Richman, Foundation for Economic Education
"Never content to follow the mass media and focus solely on the minutiae of an important question, Bovard explores and analyzes the bigger picture... namely how Americans let themselves get dragged into what appears to be a never-ending war on terror, how politicians have used fear of terrorism to dangerously expand the power of the federal government, and the extremely serious threat to life, liberty, and property that the exercise of this power poses to citizens of the United States and to those of other countries." Former CIA analyst Jim Grichar, LewRockwell.com
"This is an awesome book.... There is no filler - every page is need to know information.'" Doug Basham, KLAV Radio, Las Vegas
"I really like [Terrorism & Tyranny] because it describes how utterly inept the U.S. is in sustaining a war on terrorism." Jan Mickelson, WHO Radio, Des Moines
Denver Post: "Claiming allegiance to no political party, the author has taken on big government, former Presiden Clinton and now is after President Bush, the war on Iraq, homeland security and what he calls the end of liberty. He asserts the government is exploiting the terrorist
threat to deprive us of our personal liberties." (November 30, 2003)"It is a good read. It leaves you scratching your head. It puts you between a rock and a hard place." Nationally-syndicated talk show host Ken Hamblin
Terrorism & Tyranny Spinoffs/Excerpts:
San Francisco Chronicle: Quarantining Dissent - Protecting Bush from Free Speech, Jan. 4, 2004
Reason Magazine: Cover story defaming the Transportation Security Administration - February 2004
The Freeman: COINTELPRO: The Model for the FBI's New Crackdown? - Jan. 04
American Conservative: Bush's War on Freedom of Speech December 15, 2003
USA Today: Bush's Biggest Lie on Iraq August 14, 2003
American Conservative: The New Post 9/11 Surveillance State May 19, 2003
Baltimore Sun: America Fights for Freedom to Read August 18, 2003 (also in Newark Star-Ledger, Hartford Courant, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, and other papers across the U.S.)
Washington Times: Bombing Sudan - Deja Vu Five Years Before Iraq August 31, 2003
Washington Times: FBI Incompetence the Key to Moussaoui Case September 7, 2003
Washington Times: Concrete Lessons of the Sniper Case October 3, 2003
Investors Business Daily: Patriot Act vs Financial Freedom October 8, 2003
Counterpuch: The Reagan Roadmap to Antiterrorism Disaster October 8, 2003
FFF: The Folly of Invading Iraq October 18, 2003
Washington Times: The TSA Keystone Kops October 23, 2003
LRC: 20 Years after the Beirut Bombing: More Soldiers Will Die for Empire October 23, 2003
Freedom Daily: President Wilson's Crusade and President Bush's Crusade November 2003
Playboy: Terrorizing the Bill of Rights April 2002
Articles mentioning the book:
Claire Wolfe, Backwoods Home Magazine: Ashcroft v. Bovard (January 2004)
Laura Flanders article on the Frum-Bovard clash on How to Fight Terror
Debate between Bovard & David Frum, co-author(with Richard Perle) of End of Evil: How to Win the War on Terror on KLIW Public Radio - (audio link)
SPEECHES, FORUMS, ETC.
Libertarian Party National Convention, May 28, 2004
FreedomFest, Las Vegas, May 13-15, 2004
Speech at New York City Junto, February 5, 2004
Cato Institue: War on Terrorism vs. Civil Libeties (with Harvard Law Professor Philip Heymann), December 10, 2003 (click here for taped web broadcast)
University of Lueneburg, Lueneburg, Germany, November 25, 2003
Western Book Tour November 2003:
San Francisco area, November 12, 2003 Speech for the Pacific Research Institutes
Oakland, Cal. - November 13, 2003 - at the Independent Institute for panel discussion on the Patriot Act I and II. [Oakland Tribune column on Independent Institute forum ]
Portland, Oregon, November 14, 2003 - Luncheon Debate with Federal antiterrorism prosecutor Charles Gorder (Cascade Policy Institute)
Portland, Oregon, November 14, 2003 - Speech at Portland State University (sponsored by Portland Spectator magazine)
Portland Oregonian - David Sarasohn Column
Denver, November 18, 2003 - KOA Mike Rosen Show
Portland, Oregon, November 14, 2003 - Speech at Portland State University (sponsored by Portland Spectator magazine)
Denver, November 18, 2003 Fiery debate with US Attorney John Suthers on the Patriot Act, Independent Thinking, Colorado Public Television (broadcast on November 21) (Independence Institute)
Book Tour Report #1 (American Spectator Online)
Book Tour Report #2 (American Spectator Online)
Foundation for Economic Education, New York, August 14, 2003
Institute for Humane Studies, lecture to current interns and recovering ex-interns, Washington, DC, July 2002
Mises Institute, Mises Scholars Conference, Auburn, Alabama, March 2002 (audio tape on the web)
assorted blurbs:
"Bovard is... a one-man truth squad who is more than a match for legions of protectionists in American government and industry." Washington Post Columnist George Will
Information & Sales Links for Earlier Books:
Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion And Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (St. Martin's Press, 2000)
Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen (St. Martin's Press, 1999)
PURCHASE!@!
Lost
Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty
(St.
Martin's Press, 1994)
Shakedown (Viking Penguin, 1995; paperback, 1996)[For bulk purchases, contact author]
The
Fair Trade Fraud
(St. Martin's Press, 1991)
Introduction Reviews PURCHASE
The Farm Fiasco (ICS Press, 1989) Reviews [out of print ]]
Other writings:
Playboy, Wall Street Journal, New York Times articles
Policy Review: The Great Hunger Hoax (1983)
Freedom Daily// Future of Freedom Foundation articles
Think Tank Pieces
"Sic Semper Tyrannis"