March 2011

There are disturbing trends developing at Louisiana State University. The first unnerving development was reported in The Reveille on March 9th. LSU’s Police Department has used federal tax dollars to purchase a License Plate Reader to scan for violations and mark the positions of cars on campus. I am all for police using constitutional means for law enforcement, but scanning all license plates until you find a criminal hardly seems to fit any interpretation of the Constitution.

Secondly, just yesterday, LSU announced it would be the first public university to partner with City Year. This may seem like a wonderful development for LSU, many of our classes already contain service-learning components. More importantly, federal tax dollars need not be spent to encourage volunteering.

Lastly, and perhaps most egregious of all, LSUPD is bringing Homeland Security's “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign to campus. We are now encouraged to spy on our fellow students for seeming out of place or running from a building. Watch out! That lost-looking freshman could be a terrorist! The student running to take a test or make it to class on time may be a criminal!

LSU already receives a red flag from FIRE for its restrictions on free speech. Now, LSU deserves a similar rating for its abuses of civil liberties and waste of money. Freedom lovers beware: You are no longer welcome in Baton Rouge.

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By Shaun Bowen at 9:36AM

Mar 31, 2011

The Problem with Public Sector Unions Part 2: The Political Circle

In my last piece about public sector unions, I discussed the reasons why the structure of a public sector union does not make sense in the context of the foundation of unionization. But as I mentioned then, that is just one of the many problems that come from the unionization of government employees. In this section, I would like to shed a little light on money which has kept this ball rolling for so long.

As I wrote before, public sector unions by definition do not work off the profit of a business; they are instead funded by taxpayer dollars. Since these unions are representing public sector worker and their union dues are coming out of these tax dollars, union bosses have an incentive to grow the state.

It's stereotypical but common knowledge that unions will break down a single job into multiple specialized positions, often to the point of absurdity. This is why when passing road construction you may see one guy working while four others stand around chatting and drinking coffee. They do this because every worker added to the pay roll pays dues to the union. The more workers means more union dues for the union bosses. This same principle is applied to the public sector just as much as the private -- if not more. So if you ever wonder why you see six workers and only one window open at the DMV, this is possibly the reason. Of course, this increases budgets with no increase in productivity.

More 'Visualize the Debt' Press!

From Utah State University:

In response to concerns with national debt, the Young Americans for Liberty will put a 40-foot-long display of the approximate amount of national debt on the TSC Patio in hopes that students will realize the severity of the number, which is climbing steadily toward $15 trillion.

The setup will be viewable on Thursday, March 31 and Friday, April 1. Students from YAL will be outside offering further information on national debt to passersby.

"We hope that the students, first of all, just understand the scope of national debt and realize that the most simple way to put it is the federal government has just grown so large it meddles in people's everyday lives on so many levels where it wasn't originally intended to," said David Nilson, USU's YAL chapter president. "The government has gotten way too big, and way too intrusive."

From Purdue Univerisity:

A group of Purdue University students want to focus on the federal deficit.

The Purdue chapter of Young Americans for Liberty set up shop on the Purdue Mall Tuesday, asking passersby about the deficit and encouraging them to sign a petition urging U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Indianapolis, to work on curtailing federal spending.

They brought their point home with a posterboard longer than 7 feet on which they wrote the size of the federal debt: $14,211,533,551,640. "And in that six hours we were out there, it grew by $4 billion," said Benjamin Gehlhausen, the president of Purdue's YAL chapter.

From Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College:

A banner stretched on the walkway between the library and science buildings at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College presents a simple message -- the national debt is more than $14 trillion.

The exact number posted is $14,249,512,315,999.16.

"We put it up Sunday night," said Corey Adkison of Hurley. "The numbers are from last Monday, so it is actually $8 billion to $9 billion higher. I think it goes up by $8 billion every five days."

Congratulations, all! YAL is in the news all over the place these days.

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By Matt Cockerill at 11:20AM

Mar 30, 2011

Bill Kristol Champions Obama's Libya Speech

And commends the President for joining the [rotten] "American foreign policy mainstream."

Writes the plumb line neocon,

The President was unapologetic, freedom-agenda-embracing, and didn't shrink from defending the use of force or from appealing to American values and interests. Furthermore, the president seems to understand we have to win in Libya. I think we will.

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By Matt Cockerill at 11:20AM

Mar 30, 2011

More Black Americans in US Prisons than were enslaved

This is shocking data.

I'm willing to bet that a majority -- if not most -- of these incarcerations relate to nonviolent "drug offenses" (i.e. non-crimes). If you aren't a pugnacious opponent of the breathtakingly racist War on Drugs -- no matter how politically correct you might consider yourself -- you are implicitly facilitating the most racist domestic policy of our time.

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By Andrew Sharp at 10:20AM

Mar 30, 2011

Ron Paul on Campus

Congressman Ron Paul is back on the road on his Spring Campus Tour hosted by Young Americans for Liberty and Campaign for Liberty. So far, Rep. Paul has confirmed 5 visits to American universities!

Click on each event for more details:

3/24 -- University of New Hampshire

3/28 -- North Carolina State University

4/20 -- Mississippi State University

4/21 -- Florida State University

4/28 -- University of Nevada-Reno

All events are free and open to the public, so spread the word and make plans to attend!

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By Andrew Sharp at 10:13AM

Mar 30, 2011

Headline Round-up: Wednesday, March 30th

Libya

Gadaffi forces retake key oil port

Obama signs secret order authorizing support for rebels

Al-Qaeda: US intervention helps us

Moscow "alarmed" at Al-Qaeda presence in Libya

Cameron echoes Clinton: Won't rule out arming rebels

Experts: That's illegal

Glen Greenwald: Like that's ever stopped us

Rep. Kaptur (D-OH): Obama's attack was "pre-meditated" and "irresponsible"

Opposition to launch TV channel from Qatar

Kristol: Obama is a born-again Neo-Con

Congress

Sen. Lee: I will filibuster any attempt to raise debt ceiling

House Oversight Committee releases report on FOIA abuses

Afghanistan/Pakistan

Rumsfeld: Kill team photos worse than Abu Ghraib

"They killed for entertainment" - Karzai comes out against Kill Team photos

12 killed in suicide blast in Pakistan

Iraq

Reuters journalist killed

Middle East

US "deeply concerned" over arrest of prominent blogger in Bahrain

Yemeni opposition gives list of demands as protests continue

Syrian President digs in his heels as new cabinet prepares to take office

2012

Ron Paul's busy April

TPaw: Fiat money leading us towards double-dip recession

Bachmann wouldn't have gone into Libya

Europe

Sixth of six major Irish banks now in government hands

Brazil considers bailing out Portugal

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By Julie Borowski at 9:44AM

Mar 30, 2011

Audit the Fed Video

I've just released a video on why we should audit the Fed. I'll admit that I'm new to making YouTube videos so it may not be the best quality. I'm just a 22-year old girl with a camera and a dislike for the Fed and I wanted to get the message out. Thank you, everyone!

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