United Liberty

In a move that caused them to have more fun than normal, Jason and Brett were joined by Andisheh Nouraee and Jeff Scott this week.

Their discussion covered:

Continuing our “Liberty Candidate Series” of interviews, Jason and Brett talk with John Dennis, discussing his opponent, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, liberty in San Francisco, and his candidacy.  Dennis is a “Pro-Liberty” Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in California’s 8th Congressional District.

This special edition podcast is the fifth in a series devoted to showcasing liberty candidates nationwide.  Dennis talks about his liberty-focused campaign against the Speaker of the House in California.

You can download the podcast here. The introduction music is “Silence is Violence” by the always lovely Aimee Allen.

You can subscribe to the RSS of JUST our podcasts here, or you can find our podcasts on iTunes here.

President Obama’s recruitment of Presidents Clinton and Bush to help in the process of raising funds for relief in Haiti brought to mind memories of the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia. Back then, President Bush recruited his father and President Clinton to take up a similar task.

At the time, the US response was certainly adequate, at least. Criticism was present, as President Bush couldn’t do much of anything without inciting outrage from someone, but the US response was robust and focussed just as the response to Haiti’s earthquake is.

However, when Hurricane Katrina hit, the US government seemed as if it didn’t care. For some reason, the undeniably horrible, delayed response by the Bush administration to Katrina has been compared to Obama’s Haiti. A more appropriate comparison would be comparing Katrina to the recent Ft. Hood and attempted Detroit attacks, in which the government which is there primarily to protect us seemed as bumbling and disconnected as it did under President Bush after Katrina.

That comparison leads to an important point, which is that the United States government and military seems better able to respond to disasters overseas than it is in its own country. This is undeniably a result of countless foreign wars and of being the world’s foremost superpower. We have military personnel at the ready to respond in Port au Prince, Kabul, Baghdad and Okinawa, but not on our very own shores.

Editor’s note: We apologize if the quality isn’t that great. We recorded this on our usual software, but it crashed. We used a digital voice recorder as a “just in case,” and we’re glad we did.

Jason and Brett had the opportunity to visit with Shana Kluck and Stephen Gordon, partners with Forward Focus Media, the day after Thanksgiving to record this week’s podcast.

Together, they discuss:

Jason, Brett, and Eric got together for this week’s podcast to discuss:

• Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize award.
• The ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• Update on Georgia pastor killed last month by police in Toccoa (mystery woman speaks out)
• America’s “War on Drugs”
• Kentucky police’s warrantless use of GPS devices to track locations and travels of suspects in ongoing investigations.

You can download the podcast here (just over 64 minutes/59 MB). The intro music is once again “Silence is Violence” by Aimee Allen.

Today marks the eight year anniversary of Operation Enduring Freedom, the United States led invasion of Afghanistan. Considering that it is seven months away from being the longest war this nation has ever fought, as Doug Mataconis notes, you have to wonder when it will end.

Recently ruling out a withdrawal of troops, the Obama Administration is determining whether additional troops are needed in the country to bring stability after increasing insurgency by the Taliban. Democrats in Congress are skeptical of the idea. Republicans are much more amenable and are working with president on an increase in troops similar to the “surge” in Iraq.

George Will, who may be one of the few reasoned voices left in the conservative movement, wrote last month that it is time to begin a withdrawal from Afghanistan, citing the corrupt government led by Hamdi Karzi, also noting that “[t]he war already is nearly 50 percent longer than the combined U.S. involvements in two world wars.”

It’s time to face some facts:

What if we wake up one day and learn that the terrorist threat is a predictable consequence of our meddling in affairs of others and has nothing to do with us being free and prosperous?

A recent news report asks an important question about Obama’s administration:

WASHINGTON (AFP) — President-elect Barack Obama’s pledge to change relations with Latin America will be tested in one key area — the future fight against illegal drugs, political leaders and analysts say.

From Ecuador’s decision to close a military base in Manta that the United States used for anti-drug activities, to Bolivia’s recent expulsion of US Drug Enforcement Administration agents, Latin America’s leftist leaders have put their defiance on display.

The current Grand Old Party is in despair and acknowledging some need for change. Since the end of the Reagan Administration it has slowly become the “Grumpy Old-White-Man’s Party” with little appeal to individuals outside of its traditional coalition, and even within that coalition there is little enthusiasm. So, most acknowledge there are problems; But what are they? How can they be fixed? These are the questions party insiders and loyalists are already attempting to answer.

What are the Problems?

While the mistakes made by George Bush’s Republican Party are so numerous one could probably never compile a completely conclusive book on the matter, most can be traced to fundamental root causes that desperately need to be identified and purged- below are a few of the broad policy mistakes committed by the Party.

One of my duties as Music Associate at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham, AL, is to play the organ for the annual Veterans Day service. The first of these for me was one year ago. The one part of the service that really struck me was the reading of the names of all U.S. military personnel who had died in all wars during the past year. A staggering 336 names were printed in the program and read, amidst the background of a snare drum roll, with the ominous boom of a bass drum after each name. With each boom of that drum, a penetrating, sinking feeling came over me as I thought of how the loss of that one life impacted so many loved ones. It was the longest part of the service, and it went on and on, for some 45 or 50 minutes.