It’s a big day in Wisconsin, a day of uncertain outcome. Not our first big day, not our last, but important just the same. In six senatorial districts across the state, thousands of citizens will cast votes, and those votes will make a difference in our history. No one’s required to vote; we would not…
Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Speech, Libertarians, Liberty
Forget the Tea Party: Is It Libertarianism That’s On the Rise?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s a press release for FreedomFest, a place to meet libertarians from across America: “Greatest libertarian show on earth” projected to hit record crowds LAS VEGAS – Move over Tea Party, libertarianism is on the rise. Combining much of the civil liberties perspectives of social democrats with a fiscally conservative philosophy, libertarian-minded voters want to…
Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty
Nat Hentoff: Anonymous Speech is Protected Speech
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Cato Institute filmed noted civil libertarian Nat Hentoff discussing topics of liberty in honor of his eighty-sixth birthday. Age has scarcely slowed Hentoff down, and he writes and speaks frequently on topics in law (and jazz, for which he is equally well-regarded). In this clip, Hentoff discusses the traditional American right to anonymous speech.…
City, Freedom of Speech, Law, Laws/Regulations, Liberty, Police
The Government’s War on Cameras
by JOHN ADAMS •
Photography and recordings do much to safeguard citizens’ rights and protect honest officers against false accusations. Places in which officials discourage lawful, constitutional photography are ones in which officials not only act outside the law but also imprudently. There will be fewer injustices, and better policing, in a word of expansive photographers’ rights. By the…
Freedom of Speech, Politics
The Impossibility of ‘Opinion-Making’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Someone asked me about opinion-making — whether it’s possible to create and control opinion. The question was about whether a newspaper or website could push a candidate to the front, and thus assure that candidate’s success. I’ve been writing for years, about sundry topics, but I don’t believe in opinion-making. People make up their own…
Freedom of Speech, Open Government, Politics, Press, Press Release
Tracking the Influence of Money in Politics
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has issued a press release with good news about new resources to track the influence of money in politics. Here’s the press release, with links to a new tracking website: The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and MAPLight.org, a nonpartisan nonprofit research organization, today announced a major initiative to…
City, Freedom of Speech, Politics
On Forward Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a new political group, Forward Whitewater, recently formed in the city. The organization has its own Facebook page. (Note: I’ve been a libertarian critic of Gov. Walker, but I have no connection to Forward Whitewater.) Here’s the description and mission of the group, from Facebook: Description — Forward Whitewater is a group of citizens…
Freedom of Speech, Liberty, Politics
Video from a Janesville Protest, 3.29.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Freedom of Speech, Liberty, Politics, Wisconsin
Scenes from a Janesville Protest, 3.29.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Beautiful Whitewater, City, Freedom of Speech, Liberty
What Democracy Looks Like
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last Friday, there was a protest rally in Whitewater, along Main Street, and over one-hundred fifty people attended. See, Scenes from a Whitewater Rally, 3.18.11. That’s a large number for Whitewater — especially on a Friday evening as work was ending — and larger in ways worthy of mention. First, the pro-union gathering was one…
Freedom of Speech, Liberty
‘Thugs,’ ‘Pickets,’ and Other Absurd Claims
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s tired, stodgy town fathers, and chief bureaucrat, aren’t really conservative or liberal: they’re simply reactionary. So when a few working people came to town, to protest lawfully near a politician’s house, one read about this as though Whitewater were besieged by barbarians by pickets(!) from Milwaukee. That’s Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Madison, Wisconsin — as…
Freedom of Speech, Liberty
Scenes from a Whitewater Rally, 3.18.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Freedom of Speech, Politics
Gadsden and Taunton Flags
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Tea Party found its banner in the Gadsden flag, but I don’t know whether the union protesters will come to adopt a flag of their own. I saw that protesters at the Capitol were flying the Tautnon flag, used by patriots in Taunton, Mass. The flag symbolized their hope for liberty and equal rights…