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.
“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, imprisoned Soviet dissident and Nobel Prize winner
by Jake, the Champion of the Constitution Originally published Friday, May 1, 2009 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article6368.html
WASHINGTON, DC – In January, I wrote an Austrian economic proof that the Obama stimulus plan would fail, I noted that one of the many symptoms would be inevitable, unstoppable corruption. Well, I suppose it’s no surprise to any American that corruption in our government is already widespread. And it’s pretty sad to see the mainstream media freak out over a case of the flu. As fellow columnist Jonathan Cymberknopf writes in “Swine flu make for great ratings“, 36,000 died due to influenza in 2008, so there is no need for a mass freak out. (And yes, there is a possibility that it could become serious. A small possibility.)
After returning to the USA last month, I found that, perhaps paradoxically, the best news is being reported on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, a comedy show. Check out the “Your Government NOT at Work” excerpt from the April 28 episode 07:45 to 12:00. Stewart outlines a scandal involving my former Congresswoman, Jane Harman, of California. My residence used to lie in Harman’s district, she failed to reply to a single one of my attempts to write or be heard. I contacted her over one hundred times over two years without reply, but perhaps she was busy covering up. In Harman’s defense, she would like to release all of her wiretapped conversations to the public.
Yesterday’s Freedom Watch provided some fireworks on the torture memos. Fox News anchor Shepherd Smith replaced Glenn Beck on the show and had an abbreviated tirade at the beginning of the show. He shouts, “We are America, We don’t fu@$ing torture!” The Judge and Trace Gallagher continued on without acknowledging the F bomb. Since the show is broadcast internet-only there should be no problem with the FCC.
The Judge’s other guests were Ron Paul (naturally), James Bovard, Shell Roche, and Pastor Steve Anderson. Ron Paul and Napolitano had a chance to talk to each other about several topics without interruption.
They discussed the HR1207, torture memos, secession, and other topics. Shelly Roche again provided feedback and questions for the show from Twitter. This time she did so remotely.
Ron Paul was interviewed by Phil Hendrie recently. They discuss marijuana legalization, Somali pirates, torture, Rick Perry secession comments, and Obama releasing the CIA memos on torture.
Listen via youtube below in two parts. Thanks to Tim Peck for sending us the video links.
Ron Paul was a guest on the “Brian and The Judge” radio show this morning. Listen to the audio here. The interview is about 13 minutes long.
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The cruel beauty of having Barack Obama as President is how he can be used as an almost black and white litmus test for partisan nepotism (or hackery as some call it). Dip your favorite lawmakers (or special interest groups) in the testing solution and they come out pure red, pure blue, or some shade of purple. Here are a few examples:
Barney Frank: Under Bush he clamored for more transparency. Under Obama he’s mum on transparency = Pure Blue Partisan Hack.
Neo-con Tea Party Enthusiasts: Some under Bush supported the bailouts. Under Obama they scream for his head because of the bailouts = Pure Red Partisan Hacks.
Antiwar Obama Fans: They wanted to impeach Bush for getting us into the Iraq War on lies. They are oddly less enthusiastic about protesting Obama for relocating more and more troops to Afghanistan = Pure Blue Partisan Hacks.
Ron Paul: Under Bush denounced the Iraq War as unconstitutional. Under Obama still denouncing foreign interventionism = Pure Purple Principled Non-partisan.
Playing the game of partisan nepotism is quite easy. The rules are merely to compare the actions (and reactions) of various individuals and groups to the policies of George W. Bush in the past and Barack H. Obama right now. No doubt there are many other examples. Feel free to leave your own in the comments.
The goal of this game is to lose by showing your purple pride, revealing that you are a principled non-partisan. You believe in the rule of law and don’t change your views just because your team is in the lead. Sadly, I’d say that most Americans are either purely red or purely blue. Sometimes when you win, you really do lose.
This week’s Freedom Watch as another great one. Judge Napolitano interviewed British MEP Daniel “Devalued Prime Minister” Hannan to kick off the show. The rest of the show was pretty much dedicated to the TSA audio that Steve Bierfeldt captured as he was detained trying to fly back from the Campaign For Liberty event in St. Louis, MO 2 weeks ago.
In addition to Bierfeldt, joining the Judge for the discussion were Peter Schiff, Mike Ferguson, Lew Rockwell, Michael German (ACLU), and Michelle Muccio (Acton Institute). Apparently, Ron Paul was unable to participate this week marking the first time in 9 weeks that he’s been absent from the show.
Still it was a great in depth discussion surrounding the TSA and knowing your rights when flying. Watch it all below in the embedded playlist. You can watch all the previous episodes of Freedom Watch at FreedomWatchOnFox.com.
This 3 hour discussion consists of some of the best arguments for supporting free markets and limited government. Robert Higgs is truly a modern founding father. If you have any desire to learn the reasons why the free market is the best path out of our current economic crisis then this lengthy and lovely discussion is for you.
A few choice quotes from Higgs are below.
“Don’t just stand there, undo something!”
“The FDA is probably better than any other government agency as an example of fraud.”
“Government purports to help the little guy… but government is not beholden to the little guy. Government is beholden to all those interest groups organized for supporting politicians for office and keeping them there.”
“Government is organized coercion…. It’s like a loaded gun sitting there waiting for someone to pick up and use for their own purposes.”
On systemic risk (Too big to fail): “Systemic risk is a very very small risk, almost negligible risk. But it’s a very fine political lever..”
“I’m going to try to stay afloat in this world. I don’t like the shape it’s been put in, but I didn’t put it in this shape.”
“The corporations only have as much power as they wield through government.”
I could quote Higgs on and on, but you get the idea. I must say that I haven’t enjoyed listening to someone speak free market language this much since Ron Paul’s presidential campaign of 2007 and 2008. Higgs is a breath of fresh air as we lovers of liberty navigate through the socio-fascist flatulence cloud emanating from the Obama administration. Please find time to watch this. You’ll be glad you did.
On Monday a few of us here at Liberty Maven took the opportunity to attend a speech given by Bruce Fein at George Mason University as part of The Economic Liberty Lecture Series sponsored by The Future Of Freedom Foundation. I must admit I was surprised at how animated and passionate Fein was during his speech. I was expecting a more subdued speech after watching him testify on Capitol Hill and seeing him deliver the speech he gave at Ron Paul’s “Rally for the Republic” last year.
He spoke without notes and hammered home the ideas of foreign policy non-interventionism. The Q and A period following his talk was in some ways better and more passionate than the speech itself. Luckily the FFF recorded the entire event and has put it online for viewing.
It’s hosted at Vimeo which sometimes presents connection problems for me, but your patience with it loading will pay off in the end when you get to watch this foreign policy expert rip apart any notion of supporting the idea of American empire.
On my drive in to work today listening to Glenn Beck a caller from Florida thanked him for supporting their Tea Part protest over the weekend. Beck replied by telling the caller that when he saw the news coverage it looked too much like an anti-Obama rally and it was important that these “Tea Parties” aren’t about partisanship. I couldn’t agree with Beck more on this point.
Doug Mataconis (BelowTheBeltway) has been critical for the very same reasons. Apparently, there are many of us who feel that the Tea Party protest movement is becoming way too partisan rather than a true movement for limited government and restoring Constitutional rule of law.
It’s appearing more and more likely that the Tea Party efforts are being infiltrated and taken over by Obama-haters. Or was that the point all along? Of course Obama deserves some of the blame, but it shouldn’t be only about him.
Let’s call the “tea party” and “going Galt” nonsense what it is: unprincipled partisan hackery. If these were truly principled protests, they’d have been around all through the Bush and Republican-controlled Congress years, too.
I’m now officially on the Mataconis/Knapp Tea Party hypocrisy bandwagon. Where do I sign up?
Liberty Maven
After returning to the USA last month, I found that, perhaps paradoxically, the best news is being reported on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, a comedy show. Check out the “Your Government NOT at Work” excerpt from 
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