Author Archives: Stephen Gordon

New Freedom Website

There’s a new freedom-oriented website out there: Freedom Politics. From their initial blog posting:

Lovers of liberty, rejoice. Today, we’re launching FreedomPolitics.com, a site dedicated to the pursuit and protection of freedom.

We’re not the only ones who think freedom needs a hand, but as a Freedom Communications site, we follow the model of an exceptional defender of liberty, R.C. Hoiles. [snip]

With the support of more than 25 newspapers across the country, including that flagship, FreedomPolitics.com will be a hub of news and commentary dedicated to spreading R.C. Hoiles’ vision and the ideas of liberty of liberty he loved.

Right now we’re just getting started (consider this our soft launch), and the website still has more features to come. We might bring in some website builder experts to help us along the way. So please don’t hesitate to let us know if something goes awry so we can iron it out. The site will go fully operational on Inauguration Day with a slate of commentary from the top minds in the freedom movement.

The first set of articles are great. My fave is from former co-worker Doug Bandow, who writes about our “Return to Liberal Interventionism.”

Barack Obama is nothing if not a unique politician. Despite his liberal background, he rushed to the center after the election.

Indeed, his foreign policy is starting to look like a slightly more reasonable version of Bush-McCain neoconservatism. The result may be promiscuous military intervention, but only after Washington takes the usual diplomatic steps and rounds up the usual allies.

The most disconcerting sign of the future is the appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. True, when testifying before the U.S. Senate she sounded like the model of responsibility: “We must build a world with more partners and fewer adversaries. Foreign policy must be based on a marriage of principles and pragmatism, not rigid ideology.”

I’m bookmarking the site and will be checking it out from time to time.

Why Are the Feds in My Little Hometown?

Here’s some embarrassing news from my small hometown:

The Hartselle Police Department has teamed up with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to figure out who put a Confederate flag on a church building earlier this week.

On Monday, Hartselle Police responded to Mt. Pleasant C.M.E. Church, in the 500 block of Bethel Street, in reference to a Confederate flag hanging on the church property. Officers removed a flag from the church buildin[g]. There were no other items with the flag.

Police assigned investigators to the case, who are currently looking for the person or persons who put the flag there. Police say they consider this a crime and will pursue charges.

“The City of Hartselle is a great place to live and we do not endorse or condone this type of behavior from individuals,” said Chief Ron W. Puckett. “We are a community of citizens united by our strengths in faith and love for each other. We do not threaten or treat others with disrespect and we will not tolerate desecration of our churches.”

Chief Puckett is correct in that the overwhelming majority of folks in Hartselle are very decent folks who (almost) always treat others with a great deal of respect. Aside from alcohol prohibition at the county level, it is a most wonderful place to live.

Hopefully they will find the person or people who placed a Confederate battle flag on church property and charge them with the appropriate crimes. Charge the suspect(s) with trespass, vandalism and perhaps some desecration charge which might be in the law books.

What I don’t understand, based on the information presented so far, is why the FBI should be involved. It seems to be a local matter that local police should be able to handle. In the meantime, there are much more serious crimes (i.e. kidnapping, corruption on Wall Street — or DC for that matter) that the FBI could be investigating instead.

Orwell Couldn’t Have Named It Better

From WaPo:

The George W. Bush Presidential Center will include a “Freedom Institute” focused on a broad portfolio of topics, including the expansion of democracy abroad and education reforms of the kind Bush implemented during his presidency, according to organizers.

Aside from a few really minor issues which defined the Bush presidency (i.e. torture, Gitmo, Patriot Act, NSA wiretaps, corruption, Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, gay marriage, the drug war — and of course, the Iraq War), I suppose we could call George W. Bush somewhat freedom oriented.

By the same token, we could call FDR a hero of small government, Nixon law-abiding, Johnson clean-mouthed and Kennedy true to his marriage vows.

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