Judge Andrew Napolitano was the guest host on the Glenn Beck show again today, and he really knocked it out of the park with his introductory monologue.
Directly following his monologue he talks with authors, Tom Woods and Kevin Gutzman regarding the Constitution, enumerated powers, and nullification. This show is a must-see for all of us.
Watch the entire show below, but if you don’t have time then take 10 and watch the first segment. It makes me happy that Beck has obviously given the Judge near free reign about what guests appear on the show and the topics that are discussed.
Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve, HR.1207, was the topic of a hearing of the full House Financial Services Committee chaired by Barney Frank today on capitol hill. The hearing was quite revealing.
Glancing at the cosponsor list one would get the impression that this is truly a bipartisan bill. No congress person wants to let anyone get the idea that he/she doesn’t support transparency. However, the devil is in the details.
It was quite obvious that Chairman Frank and Congressman Watt are not in total agreement with HR.1207 as it is written. Also, both attacked Tom Woods quite ferociously during the hearing. You can watch Frank’s attack in clip #4 in the embedded playlist below (it is right after Ron Paul questions Woods). Their attacks didn’t have much to do with the actual scope of auditing the Fed, but rather some disagreement with Woods rhetoric.
It is pretty clear that the leading Democrats on the committee would like an audit, but want it to be part of a larger regulatory reform bill. No one, except for perhaps Tom Woods argued that the bill not be part of a larger bill, not even Dr. Paul. It is fairly clear to me from this hearing that HR1207 will not be passed as a stand alone bill. The big question is whether or not the bill will be modified so much so that it fails in its original intent. We’ll find out fairly soon I suppose.
I selected a few highlights from todays hearing and made them available on Youtube. I’ve included all of the times Dr. Paul spoke and added a few others. You can watch these clips below. Also, not included below, but posted earlier, don’t miss Alan Grayson grilling the Fed lawyer like an overdone salmon.
Ron Paul is bringing a friend to Washington DC tomorrow to testify during the hearing on Paul’s HR.1207. Thomas Woods, author of “Meltdown“, is on the list of witnesses. The only other currently listed witness is Federal Reserve General Counsel Scott Alvarez. What an interesting combination this is going to be.
Fed General Counsel Scott Alvarez, in testimony prepared for a Friday hearing, said legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives giving the Government Accountability Office greater leeway to examine the central bank could have a detrimental effect.
“These concerns likely would increase inflation fears and market interest rates and, ultimately, damage economic stability and job creation,” Alvarez said in the prepared remarks for the House Financial Services Committee hearing.
If I were on the Financial Services Committee I’d suggest to Alvarez that the Fed itself is the cause of economic instability and a full GAO audit will neither help nor hinder its “ability” to continue being the primary cause of economic instability. I’m sure Ron Paul and Tom Woods won’t hesitate to make this point.
It’s rare occasion when I can say this, but… this Financial Services Committee hearing is going to be fun.
The government would love nothing more than for you to believe that they have all the answers. They want you to believe that through their laws you somehow magically become more free or more equal. This notion is a fallacy. Government by its very nature is force. Over time many people have attempted to seek methods to minimize government’s force over our lives, but as time moves forwards more and more laws are created limiting our options.
One of the key ingredients in attaining some semblance of freedom is to become financially independent. A new book, “5 Steps To Freedom“, by Jeff Nabers and Phoebe Chongchua supplies us with some extremely effective tools to escape financial slavery. Take elements of Tom Wood’s “Meltdown“, Ron Paul’s “Manifesto“, and Peter Schiff’s “Crash Proof” all rolled into one and you come very close to describing “5 Steps To Freedom”.
The five high level steps are:
Measure
Move
Maintain
Multiply
Mention
The first portion of the book is an education on topics such as:
Here is the great Tom Woods debating all things Federal Reserve at FreedomFest in Las Vegas earlier this month. After you watch it be sure your representative is cosponsoring HR1207 or S604. If not, contact them and urge them to do so!
We liberty lovers went into a bit of withdrawal last week when Freedom Watch aired a “best of” show. Yesterday it returned in stellar form with guests Ron Paul, Daniel Hannan, Lew Rockwell, Tom Woods, Peter Schiff, Shelly Roche, and Tom Palmer (CATO) joining Judge Napolitano.
Ron Paul and Daniel Hannan united in a one two punch fighting for liberty. They spoke about nullification, secession, and then compared Europe and America on the road to socialism. Another topic that they and the other guests discussed was protectionism. Peter Schiff seems to believe the U.S. need not worry too much about protectionism. Tom Palmer disagrees. Woods and Rockwell delve into the prospects for liberty in our lifetime.
In an excellent article by David Weigel we get a peek into just how Ron Paul’s efforts to educate his peers in the ways of Austrian economics are going. It appears that Tom Woods great book “Meltdown” is one of the the more useful education tools Paul is using to win friends and influence his lawmaking peers.
No, there is no massive support among his GOP colleagues but he is winning over a few of them and building his own “Old Right” coalition of sorts. Many Paul supporters were critical of McCain’s buddy Lindsay Graham saying that Ron Paul is not a leader of the GOP (see video). However, isn’t it an indication of Paul’s growing support that Graham felt the need to make such a statement in the first place? The old tactic of “ignore Ron Paul and he will go away” is obviously no longer working for the neo-cons. Ron Paul isn’t going anywhere, and it’s about time the GOP recognized their true conservative roots, a time before the neo-conservatives incrementally hijacked the Republican Party.
And then there are the luncheons. The off-the-record talks have brought in speakers such as ex-CIA counterterrorism expert Michael Scheuer, libertarian investigative reporter James Bovard, iconoclastic terrorism scholar Robert Pape, and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. Perhaps the most influential guest has been Thomas Woods, a conservative scholar whose previous books include “The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History” and “Who Killed the Constitution?: The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush,” and whose current book “Meltdown” has inspired Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to question Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner about economic fundamentals.
No, Ron Paul won’t be ignored and he isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, there is a younger more charismatic version of Ron Paul preparing to make his own mark on the American political landscape. Meet Rand Paul.
Bruce Fein. Well, obviously this is just some wishful thinking on my part. It does rival some other wishful thinking from others that the choice will be Judge Andrew Napolitano. No, none of us liberty lovers will get our choice among the nine. Obama will certainly get his choice, much to our unpleasantness.
After watching Bruce Fein in person deliver a lecture a few weeks ago I walked away with the opinion that every person in America should pay attention and heed his words of warning. Luckily, Fein appeared with Bill Moyers on PBS last week discussing torture, American empire, and executive branch overreach.
Interestingly enough his consistent view regarding prosecuting Bush/Cheney for war crimes is now carrying over to the question about what the Obama administration should do about it. Fein believes in the prosecution, but he also suggests that Obama pardons Bush/Cheney once the prosecution occurs in accordance with the law. Watch a great 30 minute discussion here at PBS and the extra web only 17 minute follow-up discussion.
For foreign policy see Bruce Fein. For free market economics see Robert Higgs. For history and economics see Thomas Woods. To support all of the above see Ron Paul.
Another great “Freedom Watch” show today. Tom Woods, Ron Paul, John Stossel, Gerald Celente, and Peter Schiff joined Judge Napolitano.
Especially interesting was the segment with the exclusive audio of a Campaign For Liberty manager getting detained and harassed at the St. Louis airport seemingly because he had too much cash on him. You can watch that segment isolated here. It seems these guys didn’t get the word that the MIAC document was retracted. Yet more evidence that we live in the land of the unfree.
Ron Paul comes on during the final segment and discussed the G20 meetings and other topics.
The headline is a quote from Grover Norquist delivered during an appearance on Fox Business News discussing the vanishing American Dream.
Norquist appeared with Tom Woods, author of one of the best books I’ve read this year, “Meltdown“, and Ben Ferguson. All three had some harsh words for the Obama administration and support for the free market.
Woods uses his time wisely by attacking the Federal Reserve and plugging Ron Paul’s HR1207 (Fed Transparency Act). I’m curious if someone bet Woods that he couldn’t use the words “boob” and “discombobulated” during this interview. Tom won that bet. Watch the discussion below.
Liberty Maven
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“, by Jeff Nabers and Phoebe Chongchua supplies us with some extremely effective tools to escape financial slavery. Take elements of Tom Wood’s “
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” all rolled into one and you come very close to describing “5 Steps To Freedom”.
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