Blog

  • Possible Thailand Civil War

    By Cliff Montgomery – May 16th, 2010Thai protesters are continuing their fervent protests in Bangkok, as troops loyal to Prime Minister AbhisitVejjajiva move in to quash the center of a…

  • Prisons Are Big Business

    By Cliff Montgomery – May 9th, 2010The Congressional Research Service (CRS) last month released a study entitled, Economic Impacts of Prison Growth. Its essential findings were telling:A.) America now has…

  • Bp Lobbying

    By Cliff Montgomery – May 4th, 2010A British Petroleum (BP)-leased oil rig located forty miles off the Louisiana coast exploded on April 20th,pouring gargantuan amounts of crude oil into the…

  • Obama Auto Force

    By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 30th, 2010No honest person liked the federal government’scorporate bailouts of 2008-2009. But we at theAmerican Spark feel the special animosity somepeople exhibited toward the bailouts…

  • Afghanistan Public Opinion

    By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 24th, 2010Wikileaks recently made available an interesting CIA analysis written in March of this year. It reveals just how governments work to shape issues in…

  • State Secrets Privilege

    By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 19th, 2010The Executive Branch’s ‘state secrets’ privilege continues to be a controversial issue for U.S. legal experts and all others interested in protecting our civil…

  • Why UNions Still Matter

    By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 14th, 2010The recent West Virginia mining disaster is a chilling reminder of why unions still matter.”Massey Energy Co., the company which owns the mine, is…

  • War Costs

    By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 10th, 2010The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the American taxpayer $1.05 trillion–so far. That’s the verdict of the National Priorities Project (NPP), which…

  • Us Cyberattack Policy

    By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 4th, 2010″The current policy and legal framework regulating use of cyber-attack by the United States is ill-formed, undeveloped, and highly uncertain,” according to a press…

  • Oecd Tax Havens

    By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 30th, 2010The Congressional Research Service (CRS) earlier this month released a study which discussed a major new international initiative against tax havens.The initiative has been…

  • DHS Hiding Records

    By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 24th, 2010When Congress passed the Privacy Act in 1974, it ruled that each person’s right to privacy is fundamental to aworking democracy and that this…

  • Health Insurance Problem

    By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 20th, 2010A Congressional Research Service study released in November 2009 reveals that the U.S. insurance industryis directly responsible for much of the explosion in America’s…

  • Declassification Does Not Work

    By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 14th, 2010Executive branch departments and agencies in recent years have spent over a billion dollars to declassifyfederal records–but have produced few tangible results.Two executive orders…

  • Feds May Kill Us Citizens

    By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 9th, 2010A Washington Post article printed on January 27th held a remarkable statement:”Both the CIA and the JSOC [Joint Special Operations Command of the Department…

  • FDA Lacks Oversight

    By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 4th, 2010The federal agency that oversees public health barely monitors its own investigative activities, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).…

  • Pentagon Sexual Assault Prevention

    By Cliff Montgomery – Feb. 27th, 2010The Defense Department and the U.S. Coast Guard need to further improve their prevention and response tooccurrences of sexual assault, according to expert testimony…

  • Market Crash In 2013

    By Cliff Montgomery – Feb. 22nd, 2010Corporate Debt accumulated during the George W. Bush years of eased regulation may create a secondeconomic crash by 2013, according to DailyFinance, a financial…

  • Military Suicides

    By Cliff Montgomery – Feb. 16th, 2010Service-member suicides are “definitely” higher than official U.S. Army stats suggest, according to the Soldier’s Advocacy Group of Disposable Warriors, a G.I. activist group…

  • Republicans Federal Debt

    By Cliff Montgomery – Feb. 11th, 2010America’s federally mandated debt limit has been raised numerous times over the last 10 years, reveals aU.S. government study released in January.There is only…

  • Obama

    By Cliff Montgomery – Feb. 5th, 2010To hear the corporate press spin the recent GOP victory in Massachusetts–in which Scott Brown defeatedDemocrat Martha Coakley to take the U.S. Senate seat…

  • Us Arms Exports

    By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 31st, 2010The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is a government watchdog group which “warn[s] the public and policy leaders of potential dangers from scientific and…

  • Derivatives

    By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 27th, 2010America’s economy has greatly suffered, in large part thanks to risky Wall Street speculation on future trends in volatile commodity prices, interest rates, foreign…

  • Stiglitz Testimony On Wall Street

    By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 22nd, 2010Today the House Committee on Financial Services held a full committee hearing on the Performance andIncentives of America’s Financial Sector. Perhaps the most engaging…