The talk is in seven parts in the playlist below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=26B927B136BECA17

We arrived at the hotel around 11am, checked in and headed to the C4L booth to pick up our “credentials”. We then wandered around aimlessly for a bit looking for the “XPAC Lounge” to get good seats for the live Freedom Watch show set for 12:30pm.

Here are a few pics of the Judge preparing for the show. Click on them to see the larger versions.

Notice the backs of the Judge’s first guests, Tom DiLorenzo, Jacob Hornberger, and Tom Woods. The show began…

And at the end of the great show I met the producer George Szucs and the Judge. He thanked us for our work on FreedomWatchonFox.com and agreed to a picture.

We took a break for lunch and dinner then went to the Liberty Forum where Ron Paul and Judge Napolitano gave inspiring speeches. The Judge’s speech was amazing. They then took questions with Tom Woods moderating, going over the allotted time, of course. Interestingly, there were many questions on foreign policy from some that did not necessarily agree with Paul’s non-interventionism. He handled the questions well, but I’m not sure any minds were changed.

Following the forum, we headed down to the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) after party. While there we met Michael Maresco, aka the Ron Paul Rider, the man who rode a bike across America twice, spreading the liberty message. I use one of his pictures from his ride as my computer background. He thanked us for helping him spread the message about his ride from the beginning. What a nice guy. He was the one that did all the work and he was thanking us.

The Campaign for Liberty is everywhere here at CPAC. While we are definitely making a mark I still get the feeling we are the radical subversives of the conference. I’m really excited for the panel on Saturday at 2pm, “You’ve Been Lied To: Why Real Conservatives are Against the War on Terror”. The only problem is that it is scheduled for the same time as the speech by Newt Gingrich. Is it too much to hope that they mix up the rooms so the Gingrich-loving interventionists get a dose of the Old Right philosophy of non-intervention?

The first day/night of CPAC is now complete. Look for the 2nd day update sometime tomorrow night or early Saturday morning.

]]> http://libertymaven.com/2010/02/19/cpac-day-1-liberty-maven-judge-napolitano-and-the-ron-paul-rider/8984/feed/ 1 http://libertymaven.com/2009/11/10/one-big-monster-government/7991/ http://libertymaven.com/2009/11/10/one-big-monster-government/7991/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:59:10 +0000 Marc Gallagher http://libertymaven.com/?p=7991 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.

When the Judge is host of the Glenn Beck show, the show is no longer the Glenn Beck show. It becomes Freedom Watch, the Judge’s current online only show.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YHcOFzyyZo

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

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.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4711C77E638C14B8

Alvarez is quoted in the Wall Street Journal today (from his prepared remarks):

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.

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:

1. Measure
2. Move
3. Maintain
4. Multiply
5. Mention

The first portion of the book is an education on topics such as:

• How to evaluate your wealth by creating your own currency without using the fluctuating values of federal reserve notes as your only measure.
• Knowing what inflation is and how it affects your wealth.
• Why investing in precious metals like gold is a great way to help protect your existing wealth.
• How the government manipulates economic statistics to make us believe we are more prosperous than we really are.
• And much more.

The final part of the book gives us several case studies that demonstrate how we should think about investments. This portion is extremely useful because it shows how seemingly good investment ideas can end up being much more risky than you think. It’s an effective method to teach an investment mindset geared toward income rather than speculation-a running theme in the book.

The principles of freedom are apparent throughout the book. It becomes obvious, even before he is mentioned several times, that the authors are huge fans of Ron Paul. The book can be thought of as a no-nonsense guide to investing for libertarians and freedom-seeking individuals of all flavors.

The only negative regarding the book is that I found the transition between the first part and the case studies to be a bit like an infomercial, but once the case studies started that quickly disappeared. Jeff Nabers promotes the Solo 401K in the book, but he does so mostly by example and never tries to force it upon the reader. It is offered as a tool for those looking for an alternative, freedom-oriented investment direction.

The philosophy of liberty is an ongoing theme and applying that to investment decisions makes this book indispensable in today’s freedom-eroding world. I recommend it highly.

Purchase “5 Steps To Freedom” and be sure to visit the accompanying web site: 5StepsToFreedomBook.com for more information.  Your financial net worth will thank you later.

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.

Another excellent show. Watch it below.

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.

Here is an excerpt from Weigel’s article:

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.

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.

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.

Watch the entire show in the playlist below or watch it directly on youtube here.

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.

Watch Part 2 here.

(Thanks to Minnesota Chris for the videos)