The Freedom Bulletin

It’s the end of 2010. Guess what that means here at the Freedom Bulletin? It’s time for my roundup of the top 10 most important, influential, and interesting people of the year (formerly the Imperial Awards, but now the Freedom Awards since I changed the name of my blog from the Imperial Bulletin to the Freedom Bulletin).

The list includes people good and bad, local, national, and international. For some reason, this year, at least to me, was much busier than most in terms of newsworthy, brave people who stand up for freedom…and people who are newsworthy for other reasons. As a result, it was extremely difficult to narrow it down to 10 people. But here goes:

10. Evgeni Plushenko – In the world of sports, it was Plushenko, a Russian figure skater, who stood out to me. Although he only won the silver medal in the Vancouver Olympics, he showed that he truly cared about the future of his sport by speaking out fearlessly against what he saw as unfair judging and an unfair scoring system.

9. Thomas Mortimer IV - The quadruple murder case of this Winchester, MA man, accused of killing his wife, children, and mother-in-law, was one of the most interesting, sad, and shocking crime stories of the year.

8. Philip Markoff – The alleged “Craigslist killer” will remain just that forever. One of the nation’s most notorious murder defendants, he committed suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial, leaving unanswered questions and mysteries in his wake.

7. Ron Paul – As always, this Congressman from Texas spoke out for liberty on many fronts this year, from WikiLeaks to health insurance to airport security. He was also awarded the chairmanship of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy.

6. Rand Paul – Not only the son of Ron but a libertarian / conservative leader in his own right, Rand defeated establishment candidates in the Republican primary and went on to win a Kentucky Senate seat this November, giving the Tea Party movement, and liberty in general, a great victory. I’m excited to see what he does once he takes office.

5. Scott Brown - Back in the beginning of the year, he was elected Senator, becoming the first Republican from Massachusetts elected to either part of Congress in recent memory. Although this trend did not continue in November (at least in his home state), a Republican Senator from Massachusetts is something special indeed.

4. John Boehner – Now the Speaker-Elect of the House of Representatives, Boehner was the Minority Leader when the Democrats forced their health non-reform bill through Congress. He condemned the bill in a moving speech, as well as getting all Republicans in the House to vote against it.

3. Ken Cuccinelli – As the Attorney General of Virginia, he sued the federal government over the health non-reform bill and its individual mandate and triumphed when the mandate was declared unconstitutional earlier this month.

The top two people of the year are both great in different ways. They are both worthy of being person of the year, so it was only right to do just that. The following brave freedom fighters are tied for person of the year 2010:

1. Julian Assange – Before 2010, hardly anyone had heard of Assange or WikiLeaks, but he became one of the world’s most talked-about people when his website published the “collateral murder” video and later thousands of secret diplomatic cables. Loved by many and hated by many, Assange faced death threats, attacks on his website, rape accusations, and the possibility of espionage charges because of his work for government transparency. He is truly an admirable person because he stands up for his beliefs no matter what the cost.

1. John Tyner – Many people don’t recognize his name, but almost everyone knows his famous words to TSA agents, which he captured on video: “If you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested.” Tyner had the courage to stand up to the TSA’s truly despicable policy of requiring people to either be seen naked or have their private parts patted down in order to board an airplane. This November, he helped to spark a long-overdue popular uprising. So this award goes not only to Tyner but to everyone who has protested, in any way, against the TSA’s attacks on our freedom and dignity.

Runners up:

• Jan Brewer – the Governor of Arizona who signed into law the controversial illegal-immigration crackdown.
• Jason Chaffetz – the Utah Congressman who was one of the first to protest full-body scanners and contined to speak out against them this year.
• Carla Howell – the Massachusetts small government activist who led the campaign to cut the state sales tax.
• Bill Hudak – a Massachusetts candidate for Congress who showed courage by sticking to his conservative, anti-Obama beliefs despite liberals’ ridicule.
• Judge Henry Hudson – the federal judge who ruled the individual health insurance mandate unconstitutional.
• Chris Liu – the “Patriot Pilot” who posted YouTube videos exposing the flaws in TSA security procedures.
• Bill McCollum – the Florida Attorney General who sued the federal government over the individual mandate.
• Meg McLain – a radio host who was handcuffed after refusing to submit to the TSA’s full-body scans and pat-downs.
• Michael Merlina – the Massachusetts man who sued the state for fining people who do not buy health insurance.
• Sarah Palin – this year, she toured around the country with the Tea Party Express, starred in a reality show, wrote a book, and campaigned for many conservative candidates.
• Michael Roberts – the pilot who encouraged his colleagues to boycott full-body scanners.
• Steven Slater – the Jet Blue flight attendant who quit his job by telling a passenger off, grabbing some beers, and sliding down the emergency slide.

Remember Aiden Quinn, the MBTA subway driver who crashed a green line train while allegedly texting? He pled guilty today to a misdemeanor charge of “gross negligence by a person in control of a common conveyance,” according to the Suffolk County D.A.’s office. He was sentenced to 2 years of probation and 100 hours of community service, although prosecutors had argued for six months in prison.

D.A. Dan Conley criticized the judge’s decision, saying,

“What kind of message does this send to others? This defendant caused $10 million in damages, sent 64 people to the hospital, and shut down the Green Line on a busy spring evening. Why? Because he was trying to send a text message while pulling 80 tons of steel and glass and human lives. The riders on the train trusted him with their safety. This wasn’t an accident. It was the foreseeable consequence of his actions and he should have been punished accordingly.”

I think that probation is a reasonable punishment for Quinn…but shortly after the crash, the MBTA decided to punish all train operators by banning them from even carrying cell phones while on the job, a policy that I think is excessive.

More from the Globe, Herald, and NECN.

It’s been a while since I did one of these. Here is a collection of TSA-related news and opinion articles I’ve noticed from the past few days…

• Chris Liu, a pilot for American Airlines, revealed that he is the ”Patriot Pilot” who created a YouTube video in which he criticizes security procedures. The TSA rewarded him for his brave actions by suspending him from a program that allows him to carry a gun in the cockpit.
• Iain Murphy of the Competitive Enterprise Institute writes, “We need to scuttle the TSA’s equal-risk policy in favor of one that concentrates on genuine potential risks.” (The Herald also has a pretty good editorial.)
• Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, to the surprise of no one, defended strip-search machines and pat-downs on Sunday, saying, “Everything is objectively better than it was a year ago, particularly in the aviation environment.” Umm, not if you place any value on sexual innocence, privacy, dignity, freedom, or constitutional rights.
• Darrell Dawsey wrote in a great opinion piece, “The scanners soil our Constitutional rights, pose a potential cancer risk and get the job done about as effectively as a screen door on a submarine.”
• Auditors and security experts question the TSA’s emphasis on advanced technology.
• A rape survivor was forced to undergo an invasive pat-down and then pushed to the ground, handcuffed, thrown in jail, and charged with criminal trespassing and disobedience to police and TSA agents (didn’t know that was a crime) after arguing (correctly) that she has the right to board an airplane without being molested. Disgusting!
• Pilot Patrick Smith argues for a proposal by the International Air Transport Association that would divide passengers into three groups, with the highest-risk group undergoing procedures that are as invasive as those that everyone is forced to go through now.
• The TSA announced right before Christmas that people carrying thermoses and “insulated beverage containers” may be subject to extra scrutiny. Oh joy.

Time magazine did an excellent profile of Virginia’s (mostly) awesome and freedom-fighting Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli.

Just as Sarah Palin harnessed Facebook as a medium to inveigh against Beltway elites, Cuccinelli has leveraged his niche at the nexus of politics and the law to stir up supporters. This is the paradox of the perch: he is an unabashed partisan elected to an office that prioritizes public service over politics, a defender of the Constitution eager to rewrite parts of it. His 14 seasons as a youth-basketball referee, he says, were a perfect preparation for the controversies he’s weathered, “because every time you blow the whistle, half the people are mad at you.” It tends to be the same half.

He has hardly soft-pedaled his principles. “For all the criticism of me, there’s one thing you won’t hear anybody say, and that’s that I’ve pulled the wool over anyone’s eyes,” Cuccinelli tells TIME. “One of my unique features as a politician is that I am so blunt and so forthright, and I put my cards on the table to such a degree people aren’t used to that there’s nothing left to hide.”

Read the rest here.

In case you missed it, the Globe did a story yesterday about Ward Bird, a New Hampshire man who is in jail for allegedly threatening to shoot a woman who was trespassing on his property. I must admit, I had never heard of Ward before reading this article, but count me as a supporter.

Three and a half years ago, a woman named Christine Harris trespassed on Ward’s land, which is marked with “no trespassing” signs. She says she was lost and that he waved a gun at her and angrily told her to leave. He says he never took the gun from its holster. He was charged with felony reckless conduct, there was a mistrial, and the district attorney tried him again, this time on reckless conduct and felony criminal threatening. He was convicted of the latter charge, which carries a mandatory term of 3 to 6 years (which even the judge considered too harsh), the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld the conviction, and he was thrown in prison last month.

Ward could have taken a plea deal and avoided prison, but he refused to give in, explaining, “I was offered the opportunity to lie, and I wouldn’t do it.”

I believe that first of all, there is little evidence that Ward did what he was convicted of, second of all, that he did nothing wrong by defending his own property, and third, that even if he did something wrong, his sentence is too harsh.

Ward’s supporters are trying to get Governor John Lynch to pardon him. Read more about his case and learn how you can help at FreeWardBird.org.

Julian Assange has been keeping busy while he’s out on bail waiting for his extradition hearing. Here are three excellent interviews he did recently, the first with John Humphrys of the BBC, the second with Cenk Uygur of MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan Show, and the third with Sir David Frost of Al Jazeera. The interviewer is a little hostile in the first one, but Julian handled his questions with dignity and class.