The Freedom Bulletin

Photo by Gage Skidmore

Most of the world, I’m sure, has already heard of Senator Rand Paul’s act of courage yesterday, but I must pay tribute to him anyway. At a Nashville, TN, airport, Senator Paul, after already being forced to go through a full-body scanner, was ordered to submit to a pat-down. He refused and was subsequently escorted from the airport by police.

According to Yahoo News:

In a telephone interview with the Associated Press, Paul said that the incident occurred after an alarm went off when he passed through a scanner at Nashville Airport Monday. Paul said the alarm had apparently been triggered by his knee, though “the senator said he has no screws or medical hardware around the joint,” the AP said.

TSA agents refused his request to walk through the scanner again to reconcile the anomaly, and he refused their demand for a pat-down, Paul said.

The Kentucky Senator said that “he asked for another scan but refused to submit to a pat down by airport security,” the AP reported. Paul “said he was ‘detained’ at a small cubicle and couldn’t make his flight to Washington for a Senate vote scheduled later in the day.”

Some may argue that refusing a pat-down isn’t enough to make someone a hero. In my opinion, Rand definitely qualifies for that title because of everything he has done to defend liberty in his life so far. Although what he did yesterday was a small, everyday act, it is things like this that little by little advance the cause of freedom and make the world a better place.

It looks like the Patriot Act is going to be extended for another four years. Both the House and Senate voted to renew some key provisions that were set to expire at midnight tonight. But the truly notable story from today is that of Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).

It started yesterday, when the freshman senator wanted to offer amendments to the legislation, including one to prevent warrantless access to some gun records. Although Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had promised a week of debate and an open amendment process, he chastised Paul, ”The national security of the United States is at stake, and the junior senator from Kentucky is complaining that he has not been able to offer amendments…When the clock strikes midnight tomorrow, we would be giving terrorists the opportunity to plot attacks against our country, undetected.” Paul called this a “scurrilous accusation” and said, ”To be attacked of such a belief when I’m here to discuss and debate the constitutionality of the Patriot Act is offensive and I find it personally insulting.” Then, Reid said, ”It’s hard to imagine why the senator from Kentucky would want to hold up the Patriot Act for a misguided amendment that would make America less safe.” Well, maybe because it would make America more free, which is anything but misguided.

Today Democrats in the Senate agreed to hold votes on two of Paul’s amendments. But Republican leaders tried to stop this, according to Paul because they did not want to alienate supporters of Second Amendment rights by voting down the gun-records amendment. During debate on this amendment, Paul said, “It’s very important that we are always vigilant, that we are eternally vigilant about the powers of government…Are we so afraid that we’re giving up all of our liberty for security?” Sadly, the amendments were defeated, the provisions were renewed, and the legislators left for their Memorial Day recess a few hours later than planned.

Senator Paul, I salute you for your courage. Although you inconvenienced a few people and did not ultimately stop the renewal of the Patriot Act, you succeeded in making individual liberty and the constitution subjects of discussion, and most importantly, what you said was right. Thank you for the work that you do.

The new members of Congress were sworn in today, including the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH). Before she handed over the gavel, former speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) gave a fairly classy speech, in which she complimented Boehner and congratulated him and the new Republican majority. Boehner’s speech (below), although not the most exciting I’ve ever heard, was short, sweet, and straightforward.

The representatives will read the Constitution aloud tomorrow, which I think is pretty cool.

Also, some of my favorite politicians were on the news to weigh in with their ideas for the new Congress:

Ron and Rand Paul discussed the national debt in a great interview with George Stephanopoulos of Good Morning America.

The father-son duo were also on Anderson Cooper 360 on Monday.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) talked about spending and the health non-reform bill on the Dylan Ratigan Show.

I hope that this new Republican majority can get some good things done!

More coverage of today’s events from the usual sources: CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and AP.

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.

Ron Paul did a great interview yesterday on CNN (videos above), in which he talks about the Federal Reserve, WikiLeaks, and his chances of running for president in 2012.

It was recently made official that Paul will be the chairman of the House Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee, part of the Financial Services Committee. Monetary policy is one of his favorite issues, and he plans to make the committee more active and influential, although he says that his goal of aboilshing the Fed might not be necessary because it will end up destroying itself.

Another fun fact revealed in the interview was that Ron and son Rand, who was elected to the Senate in November, will be sharing a condo while they are both in Congress

I’m happy for Rand that he will be serving in the Senate and for Ron that he has a more powerful platform from which to take on the Fed.