Legislators want to drug test welfare recipients but not themselves – Surprised?

Do you ever have a moment where you see a headline and you just laugh? I had this moment today when I read the following headline:

 Welfare Drug Testing Bill Withdrawn After Amended To Include Testing Lawmakers

It’s not always Republicans who want welfare recipients to be drug tested, (although recently we discussed Rick Scott, of Florida, who declared that it was time for mandatory drug testing and just happened to use his own company to do the drug testing) but this article happens to be about a Republican who planned to introduce a bill.

  Rep. Jud McMillin, a Republican member of the Indiana General Assembly, took back his drug-testing bill after one of his helpful Democratic colleagues amended it ever so slightly.

The amendment was introduced by Rep. Ryan Dvorak, a Democrat.

 ”There was an amendment offered today that required drug testing for legislators as well and it passed, which led me to have to then withdraw the bill,” said Rep. Jud McMillin (R-Brookville), sponsor of the original welfare drug testing bill.  ”I’ve only withdrawn it temporarily,” he told HuffPost, stressing he carefully crafted his original bill so that it could survive a legal challenge.

Many people are frustrated by the current welfare system and feel that it needs reform.

 ”After it passed, Rep. McMillin got pretty upset and pulled his bill,” Dvorak said. “If anything, I think it points out some of the hypocrisy. … If we’re going to impose standards on drug testing, then it should apply to everybody who receives government money.”

I should clarify how I feel about Rep. Dvorak’s statement “if we’re going to impose standards on drug testing, then it should apply to everybody who receives government money”.  I love this sentiment, but Rep. Dvorak should realize that it’s not the government’s money. It’s our money.

Rep. Jud McMillin made the following statement:

“Give me the cup right now and I will be happy to take the test.”

I hope someone gave him the cup…

Lawrence Reed, Mike “RinoRemover”, & Angel Clark talk Privatization tonight!

Privatization vs Public Property. What’s the difference, and which do you prefer? Do you base your opinion on an economics, politics, property rights, taxes, liberties, or even transportation purposes?

Tonight on the Angel Clark Show on Radio Freedom we have our weekly Liberty Panel. Every Thursday we have a round table discussion where we talk about a different topic from a Liberty perspective.

Lawrence Reed

The Liberty Panel tonight will include Lawrence Reed, thePresident of the Foundation for Economic Education, MichaelRinoRemover of Facebook’s Capitalism, and myself. We will be discussing privatization in regards to the many aspects of life, including roads, bridges, etc.

Michael RinoRemover

Listen live tonight! The fun starts at 7pm EST

 

(You can also listen through iTunes later)

Listen to the FREE to air podcast

Visit the Radio Freedom News Network to find other great interviews.

Lamar Smith, the sponsor of SOPA, would never hide anything in a bill titled “Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers”, would he?

Many people came together to protest SOPA and PIPA last week, in fact, it was the largest online protest in history and helped lead to SOPA and PIPA being tabled (for the time being). Of course, with these bills being tabled should not come peace. The most obvious course is for legislators to add the most offensive parts of SOPA and PIPA to another bill and quickly pass it.

Meet HR 1981 – “Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011″

We all want to protect children from internet pronographers, right? Despite the underlying argument of the age of consent, we can all agree that there is an age in which children cannot legally comprehend enough to agree to sexual acts. So wouldn’t we all want to protect these children from internet pornographers?

Of course!

No one wants to be that guy, you know, the one who votes against the children. So what’s hidden in the “Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011″?

(I should add by the way that this bill was sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith, the same representative who sponsored SOPA.) 

 It’s their solution that appalls me: under language approved 19 to 10 by a House committee, the firm that sells you Internet access would be required to track all of your Internet activity and save it for 18 months, along with your name, the address where you live, your bank account numbers, your credit card numbers, and IP addresses you’ve been assigned.

Tracking the private daily behavior of everyone in order to help catch a small number of child criminals is itself the noxious practice of police states. Said an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation: “The data retention mandate in this bill would treat every Internet user like a criminal and threaten the online privacy and free speech rights of every American.” Even more troubling is what the government would need to do in order to access this trove of private information: ask for it.

In other words, if you use Verizon for your home internet, Verizon will be legally required to keep 18 months of your activity saved on file. Guess what else:

 As written, The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 doesn’t require that someone be under investigation on child pornography charges in order for police to access their Internet history — being suspected of any crime is enough. (It may even be made available in civil matters like divorce trials or child custody battles.) Nor do police need probable cause to search this information. As Rep. James Sensenbrenner says, (R-Wisc.) “It poses numerous risks that well outweigh any benefits, and I’m not convinced it will contribute in a significant way to protecting children.”

Probable cause is not needed. You don’t have to under investigation for child pornography charges. You just have to be suspected of ANY crime.

Looks to me like Rep. Lamar Smith has forgotten what his job is… representing the people and protecting their Constitutional Rights. Maybe he thinks he has to take your rights to protect them.

Carl Person to be on Radio Freedom tonight!

Carl Person, a Libertarian running for President, to be on Radio Freedom tonight!

LIBERTARIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE CARL PERSON

Carl Person is a nationally recognized attorney who has spent his career fighting for Libertarian causes. He is the only presidential candidate who has experience creating not just jobs, but new career fields to meet market needs. He is a pioneer of the paralegal profession and founded one of the first schools in the country to train paralegals. He worked with the City of New York to create another field which he called “assistant to small business owner,” in an effort to get people off welfare.

In his legal practice, Carl has been a leader in fighting government subsidies to large corporations, as well as corporate and government monopolies. He has been involved in several high-profile ballot access cases and is an outspoken critic of prosecutorial abuse. He currently is one of the leading foreclosure defense attorneys in the country.

Carl has been active in the New York Libertarian Party for nearly a decade. In 2010, he ran for New York State Attorney General and came in third, with the highest number of votes ever received by a Libertarian Party candidate for that office.

Carl served in the U.S. Army and is a graduate of Long Island University and Harvard Law School. He worked for three Wall Street law firms after graduating, including Mudge Stern Baldwin & Todd, which later accepted Richard M. Nixon as a partner. He has owned his own firm since 1968.

LISTEN LIVE! Starting tonight at 7pm EST!

Rick Newman of U.S. News & World Report to be on Radio Freedom

Tomorrow night (1/10/12) Radio Freedom will feature Rick Newman, Chief Business Correspondent for U.S. News & World Report!

Background: Rick Newman, who has written for U.S. News for more than 15 years, covers corporate and consumer trends from the magazine’s New York bureau. He is also the magazine’s car reviewer. Newman frequently writes about bellwether firms such as General Motors, Yahoo!, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, The Carlyle Group, and the nation’s major airlines, focusing on issues that impact consumers. He has also played a key role in the expansion of the magazine’s online business coverage at http://www.usnews.com.

From 1995 through 2001, Newman was U.S. News’s chief Pentagon correspondent, covering wars in Bosnia and Kosovo and reporting from military bases, ships, airplanes, and submarines around the world. He helped anchor the magazine’s 9/11 coverage and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition to his work for U.S. News, Newman has penned satire for the Washington Post and the New York Times. Newman received a bachelor’s in English and economics from Boston College in 1988 and started at U.S. News as a fact checker shortly thereafter.

Honors: Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense | Society of Professional Journalists Award for Public Service | National Press Club Consumer Journalism Award | Finalist, National Magazine Award | Finalist, Livingston Award for Young Journalists | Best Story on a Web-based News Site, International Association of Firefighters

Publications: Coauthored with Patrick Creed Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11 (Ballantine, 2008) | Coauthored with Don Shepperd Bury Us Upside Down: The Misty Pilots and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail (Presidio Press, 2006).

Media appearances: Newman appears regularly on many major networks, including CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. He is also a monthly commentator on the PBS program Nightly Business Report. In addition, he has been interviewed on numerous national and major market radio programs.

We’re going to be talking about the economy *duh* and maybe a bit on the primaries since tomorrow is New Hampshire’s primary.

 

Listen to he free to air podcast

Check out other great interviews at the Radio Freedom News Network

Lawrence Reed, President of FEE.org (Foundation for Economic Education) to be on Radio Freedom tonight!

Lawrence Reed, the President of FEE.org is the scheduled guest tonight!

Lawrence W. (“Larry”) Reed became president of FEE in 2008. Prior to that, he was a founder and president for twenty years of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Michigan. He also taught Economics full-time and chaired the Department of Economics at Northwood University in Michigan from 1977 to 1984.

He holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Grove City College (1975) and an M.A. degree in History from Slippery Rock State University (1978), both in Pennsylvania. He holds two honorary doctorates, one from Central Michigan University (Public Administration—1993) and Northwood University (Laws—2008).

A champion for liberty, Reed has authored over 1,000 newspaper columns and articles, dozens of articles in magazines and journals in the U. S. and abroad. His writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, Baltimore Sun, Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, among many others. He has authored or co-authored five books, the most recent ones being “A Republic—If We Can Keep It” and “Striking the Root: Essays on Liberty.” He is frequently interviewed on radio talk shows and has appeared as a guest on numerous television programs, including those anchored by Judge Andrew Napolitano and John Stossel on FOX Business News.

Reed has delivered at least 75 speeches annually in the past 30 years—in virtually every state and dozens of countries from Bulgaria to China to Bolivia. His best-known lectures include “Seven Principles of Sound Policy” and “Great Myths of the Great Depression”—both of which have been translated into more than a dozen languages and distributed worldwide.

His interests in political and economic affairs have taken him as a freelance journalist to 78 countries on six continents. He is a member of the prestigious Mont Pelerin Society and an advisor to numerous organizations around the world. He served for 15 years as a member of the board (and one term as president) of the State Policy Network. His numerous recognitions include the “Champion of Freedom” award from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the “Distinguished Alumni” award from Grove City College.

He is a native of Pennsylvania and a 30-year resident of Michigan, and now resides in Newnan, Georgia.

Look for a discussion about Monetary Policy, Adam Smith, and maybe even the Great Depression (depending on time)!

Make sure you LISTEN LIVE tonight! Starting at 7pm EST

We’re also going to be talking about Mitt Romney and his treatment of his pets…

I see a difference between dogs putting their heads out the window and being strapped to the top of the car (most likely at over 60 MPH) for 12 hours. Do you?

Making Lemonade out of Lemons! What happens AFTER you get fired through Facebook…

I have decided to make the best out of the situation I now find myself in. It can be quite scary to suddenly lose your income, especially with the current high unemployment rates.

I have recently found myself without my usual income so I now have to sell more ads for my podcast. I don’t need to make a lot, so every little bit helps. My podcast is growing in popularity and is aired on numerous stations throughout the country.

Most terrestrial stations charge thousands a month for advertising. But thanks to technology people are listening to podcasts! Smartphones and computers allow listeners to listen when they want, not just when you’re live!

I don’t need that much, so I can put out a call for my readers and listeners. Do you know anyone who may have any interest in affordable advertising which reaches a liberty-minded audience?

We have advertising packages starting at as little as $100 a month! Live reads can be done for as little as $25! If you don’t have a business, but you want to promote a politician or company that you like, we can do that too! (but I draw the line at Newt Gingrich ads, a girl has to have her standards!)

A package with advertising on either of my websites is also available!

RadioFreedom.us

SussexCountyAngel.com

So, can we get the word out? Also, since Facebook has been turned into a way to lose money for me, I’d like to turn it into a way to make money! In other words, share this on Facebook!

 

If you’re interested in an ad, give me a call! My studio number is 302-569-9992!

Meghan McCain would “slit her wrists” if her dad had endorsed Rick Santorum.

I didn’t say it, she did!

“If he had endorsed Santorum, I mean, I would be like slitting my wrists on the table right now,” Meghan McCain said about her father’s endorsement of Mitt Romney.”

Meghan goes on to say that she didn’t think it would be appropriate if her father had not endorsed anyone.

I say that it’s not appropriate to make jokes about suicide over your daddy’s endorsement. Every year almost 35,000 Americans commit suicide.

“I think in New Hampshire the McCain name is very strong. If my father could run for Governor of New Hampshire right now, he’d probably still win. He has a strong relationship with New Hampshire; I feel like I have a strong relationship with New Hampshire and understand the people there and I think it will carry a lot of weight,” McCain said about the amount of influence her father’s endorsement of Romney brings.

This just made me laugh. McCain’s endorsement means nothing other than what we already knew, Mitt Romney represents the establishment.

Lastly, as someone who was recently fired from a talking gig, do you think grammar is important when you’re a commentator?

I just got fired THROUGH Facebook

Yes, you read that correctly, I just got fired through Facebook. Not because of something I said on Facebook (as has happened) but through a Facebook message.

I can understand wanting to “take your programming in a different direction”, but is there a reason why employees no longer deserve a even a phone call when you cut off their income with no warning?

Talk radio is a competitive field (as I have also learned through Facebook)…

but I would expect some kind of professional behavior when actually terminating someone’s employment as opposed to simply changing their schedule around.

Why am I publishing this? I’m upset, believe that, and I may regret hitting the “Publish” button after I do, but I want every business owner out there to know that firing someone THROUGH A SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE is extremely insulting.

I have worked for WGMD for almost a year without missing a single scheduled day. I was electrocuted on the air when the station was struck by lightening, I completed a 5 hour show with no phone lines and ringing ears because I couldn’t reach anyone higher up on the “totem poll” to tell me what to do. My boss answered one text message, but then ignored his cell phone. I worked Christmas Eve, New Years Eve, and New Years Day. I’m not whining, I just think I should have AT LEAST gotten a phone call.

So, to sum up, as far as I know, I did nothing wrong. I responded to my former program director on Facebook and asked why my termination did not deserve a phone call, no response as of yet (although that was just 30 minutes ago). My online show will continue (there will most likely be a time change coming up on February 1st, 2012 for syndication purposes) and I obviously have to sell more ads for it as my supplemental income has just vanished (of course, ads are available, contact me for rates).  And for me, Facebook is no longer about social networking and playing games, it’s also a place that I can get fired through.

Understand, I am upset over being fired, but that is not why I am being so vocal about this. Programming can be tricky and of course, everyone has the right to pick and choose who they like for their station. My problem is the manner in which this news was given to me.

If you’re a business owner, please do not fire your employees through Facebook. It belittles them. You need to take at least 10 minutes out of your day and at least give them a phone call (if you don’t have the guts to tell them to their face). I now feel like less of a person because I don’t even deserve a phone call. No one else should have to feel like that.

UPDATE – 1/6/2012 – I’ve been getting a lot of questions, people who think that I must have been a broadcaster who bought their air time (some people do that, they buy their air time and then sell ads to pay for that time) or my show was syndicated and aired on more than just this one station. I was not that kind of employee. I called the income supplemental because I was part time, but that was my only job. I went to that station every weekend and broadcasted directly from their audio booth. I would like to profit enough from selling ads from my podcast (which I started after the last Facebook communication from my boss in August [at least he had the decency to apologize for the way he gave that news) but I haven’t made enough money from that yet to pay the bills.

My previous employee responded and told me he was being efficient… I guess he was out of the office when he sent the message so didn’t have my phone number in his cell phone?

Isn’t it nice to get fired efficiently?

Austrian Economics: A brief background

I was surprised to see “Austrians” trending on based on Ron Paul’s statement last night “We’re all Austrians now!”

People seemed to think he was talking about the country…

In economic theory, the term Austrian School stands for liberalism and laissez-faire-economics (where economic performance is optimised when there is limited government interference).

The Austrian School of economics has its original roots in the work of Carl Menger from the University of Vienna . References to the topic were first published in 1871. Well-known followers of Menger included Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851 – 1914), Ludwig von Mises (1881 – 1973) and, perhaps most important, Friedrich A. Hayek (1899 – 1929).

Hayek, for example, strongly rejected any intervention by the state in the economy. For him, markets work perfectly in the sense that the market price balances supply and demand.  A perfect market is one characterised by easy access to information, no barriers to entry and with prices controlled by all participants.

Due to the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, the popularity of the Austrian School of economics has experienced a boost in recent times because it had predicted, a long time ago, that too much debt – due to too low interest rates – would trigger investment bubbles followed by a crisis after these bubbles burst.  For example, look at Ireland’s property bubble, which was fuelled by reckless lending by banks to property developers.

Here’s a rap video about some aspects of the Austrian school made by my friends at EconStories!

In Fear the Boom and Bust, John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century, come back to life to attend an economics conference on the economic crisis. Before the conference begins, and at the insistence of Lord Keynes, they go out for a night on the town and sing about why there’s a “boom and bust” cycle in modern economies and good reason to fear it.

 

Tom Woods sums up quite nicely a bit about Austrian Economics here:

An Introduction to Economic Reasoning
These books, all relatively short and available online or for purchase, are an excellent starting point for an education in sound economics.

**Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt; online here and here (.pdf)
Essentials of Economics by Faustino Ballve; online here (.pdf)
An Introduction to Austrian Economics by Thomas C. Taylor; online here and here (.pdf)
Lessons for the Young Economist (for younger readers) by Robert P. Murphy; online here,here (.pdf) and here (ebook)

Another easy-to-understand introduction to economic reasoning is Peter Schiff’s book How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes.

A useful companion to Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson is this series of videos, recorded in July-August 2008, in which various professors comment on each of the book’s chapters – explaining the argument, elaborating on it, and applying it to present conditions.

For more background check out this link!

The Austrian School