Houston Area Liberty Campaign

Posted by Walter Olson via Cato-at-liberty.org

Last week the New York Times reported on the story of Estrella Family Creamery, an award-winning, very-small-scale producer of raw milk farmstead cheeses in Montesano, Wash. The family faces a Food and Drug Administration ban on its products because the food pathogen listeria has been found in its facilities; when it expressed defiance, the FDA proceeded to stage a raid to seize its entire cheese stock. It’s not easy to sort out how large a health risk may be involved (listeria, a widely disseminated form of bacteria, poses a real danger of food poisoning, but no actual illness has been traced to Estrella cheese). I was struck, in any event, by these paragraphs from the Times account:

“If the F.D.A. wanted to shut down the U.S. artisan cheese industry, all they’d have to do is do this environmental surveillance and the odds of finding a pathogen would be pretty great,” said Catherine W. Donnelly, co-director of the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese of the University of Vermont, referring to the listeria testing at cheese plants. “Is our role to shut these places down or help them?”

Kurt Beecher Dammeier, owner of Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, an artisan cheesemaker and retailer in Seattle, said the F.D.A. needed to work harder to understand artisans like Ms. Estrella. “The F.D.A. comes from an industrial, zero-defect, highly processed, repeatable perspective, and she comes from a more ancient time of creating with what she gets,” he said. “I’m not sure they can really even have a conversation.”

What lends some urgency to these continuing debates is that that the Senate is expected to vote as early as this week on a bill that will conscript thousands of Read the rest of this entry »

By Benito Segovia

Newsweek, the quintessential mainstream media publication (not a compliment) embodying all things globalism and collectivism, recently published an article titled “The Triumphant Return of Hayek” by Ruchir Sharma. When this exciting headline popped up I was tickled but wary – determined to discover what twist, if any, the story held for the Austrian School and its leader Hayek.

To my delight the article correctly described the public’s growing criticism of Keynesian-backed policy and the growing favor of Austrian School ideas. Yet ultimately concluded that it was distortions of Keynesianism and monetarism that lead to the systematic failure of these policies.

“Keynes would probably never have supported big government deficits during boom times, such as those that led to our current debt crisis. Likewise, Friedman would probably not have backed the new Fed use of monetary policy as a tool to engineer expansion rather than merely cushion the pain in a downturns.”

Sharma also continues the national narrative that unchecked free markets and sound money caused the Great Depression. At least he points toward high-tax policy as a contributing factor.

“Faith in the market’s purging power served the U.S. well in the 19th century, when the economy emerged stronger after each recession, but was taken too far in the policy mix of tight money and high taxes that led to the Great Depression and the rise of the Keynesians.”

I’m disappointed that a more candid assessment of the Austrian School wasn’t given a lead role in this article but at least it’s entering into the mainstream discussion. As they say in show business; any publicity is good publicity.

By Benito Segovia

HOUSTON TX – Just days after more than 70 red-light cameras were turned off thanks to a voter mandate, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it will be installing “250 to 300 cameras at downtown intersections in an effort to prevent and fight terrorism and crime.”

Although the timing of this announcement was likely coincidental, it couldn’t look worse for city officials. Almost immediately after a public mandate that such cameras be removed, DHS swoops in to install hundreds more.

While it is still unclear when the original red-light cameras are going to be removed, more than 50 DHS cameras have already been installed, with many more scheduled for installation this summer. The cameras are currently installed around the George R. Brown convention center, Discovery Green Park, the theater district and Minute Maid Park.

Big Brother at Home

The camera footage can be monitored in real-time from multiple locations. This is touted as way to allow police to monitor events remotely instead of staffing events in-person. (It has yet to be seen if this high-tech measure will reduce the cost of city security fees and permits for those holding such events.)

This measure has received opposition from both privacy advocates and budget hawks. Privacy advocates oppose the move because it would give the State an unprecedented look into the daily goings-on of average citizens. While others counter that there is no expectation of privacy in pubic places.

Incrementalism and The New Surveillance Society

Barry Klein, long-time Houston property rights and liberty activist, argued that the cameras would move citizens “deeper into the world of the surveillance society.”  His point is well taken.

In the UK where citizens are accustomed to 24/7 surveillance measures, horrifying levels of privacy invasion are becoming more common. Last July Read the rest of this entry »

By Barry Klein

[In this essay I explain my view that traffic "gridlock" is an exaggerated threat because traffic is demonstrably a self-limiting problem. The discussions about traffic have for too long been dominated by civil engineers who have a vested interest in the policies adopted by the public sector. The good news is that another point of view is getting an audience. If it succeeds in displacing the current view on traffic it means fewer design and construction contracts will be let and the taxpayers burden can shrink.

In the article I argue that we do not need to plan for the future as much as road planners would have us believe. This was first emailed in September 2005 to transportation activists in the Houston region and then elsewhere because the analysis can be applied to every urbanized area. One fact I should have included is that the majority of new roads in the Houston region are built by the private sector. This includes new subdivision streets and sections of extended thoroughfares. Transportation agencies in the Houston area fail to point that out, probably because it is a fact that lowers the necessity of their function in the economy. I suspect this is probably just as true elsewhere.

I think Texans can afford to let all or most road building devolve to the private sector. Here is an essay that shows that policy makers can rely on private interests to expand the road system more than they do:
http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=43&articleID=544. It also explains how road building agencies can reduce their use of eminent domain. This approach obviously has implications for the TxDOT plan to crisscross Texas with the Trans-Texas Corridor (visit www.corridorwatch.org and www.TexasTurf.org to learn more about that boondoggle) and convert many existing roads to toll roads. You may also be interested to know that the methodology of the Texas Transportation Institute, which publishes an "Urban Mobility Report" that is relied on by advocates of increased road funding, is flawed. (See http://mobility.tamu.edu/mmp/) The problem is so serious that TTI skipped a year in its annual report until it can create a new formula. I have more information to offer to interested parties — Barry Klein] Read the rest of this entry »

A very interesting first-hand personal account of how it IS possible to get through “security” at an airport and not be felt up or irradiated by TSA pervs.

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By Matt Kernan
“You don’t need to see his identification.”

On November 21, 2010, I was allowed to enter the U.S. through an airport security checkpoint without being x-rayed or touched by a TSA officer.  This post explains how.

Edit:  For the sake of brevity, most of the quotes below are paraphrases.  I have uploaded the actual audio and it is available here.

This past Sunday, I was returning from a trip to Europe.  I flew from Paris to Cincinnati, landing in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. 

As I got off my flight, I did all of the things that are normally requested from U.S. citizens returning from abroad.  I filled out the customs declarations, confirmed that I hadn’t set foot on any farmland, and answered questions about the chocolates that I had purchased in Switzerland.  While I don’t believe that these questions are necessary, I don’t mind answering them if it means some added security.  They aren’t particularly intrusive.  My passport was stamped, and I moved through customs a happy citizen returning home.

But wait – here was a second line to wait in.

This new line led to a TSA security checkpoint.  You see, it is official TSA policy that people (both citizens and non-citizens alike) from international flights are screened as they enter the airport, despite the fact that they have already flown.  Even before the new controversial security measures were put in place, I found this practice annoying.  But now, as I looked past the 25 people waiting to get into their own country, I saw it:  the dreaded Backscatter imaging machine.

Read the rest of this entry »

By: John Jay Meyers ( recent Libertarian candidate for U.S. Congress, CD 32, Buckingham/Carrollton/Farmers Branch/Richardson/University Park TX area)

With all the naked viewing and groping going on, I wonder if this is the United States of America or the back room of an adult video store.  We have two major problems here, the TSA and their intrusive unconstitutional invasions of our rights, and the bigger question of why are we turning into a police state. 

Let’s start with the TSA.  How many passengers have I seen interviewed on TV who all share the notion that “If it makes us safer then I think it is a good idea. I just want to get to my destination in one piece.”  Not only does this presume that the government is more capable at assuring safety than private citizens, but it also illustrates an alarming trend in this country where we have become willing to so easily trade freedom for the illusion of safety (or prosperity, or charity). 

Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Blaylock: Body Scanners More Dangerous Than Feds Admit
Wednesday, November 24, 2010 9:58 AM
By Dr. Russell Blaylock

Dr. Russell Blaylock is a nationally recognized board-certified neurosurgeon, health practitioner, author, lecturer, and editor of  The Blaylock Wellness Report.

The growing outrage over the Transportation Security Administration’s new policy of backscatter scanning of airline passengers and “enhanced pat-downs” brings to mind these wise words from President Ronald Reagan: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.’” 

So, what is all the concern really about — will these radiation scanners increase your risk of cancer or other diseases? A group of scientists and professors from the University of California at San Francisco voiced their concern to Obama’s science and technology adviser John Holdren in a well-stated letter back in April. 

The group included experts in radiation biology, biophysics, and imaging, who expressed “serious concerns” about the “dangerously high” dose of radiation to the skin. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Back in May of this year, a male Wayne County (MI) airport cop and a female TSA worker both showed up at a Hartland Township, MI gas station to buy some booze in order to continue their little party. The two paid for the booze with a credit card but began arguing with the clerk for some reason.  The clerk then called 911. 

Then TSA worker Renee Zima flashed her TSA badge, said she was with the Department of Homeland Security, and stole two pieces of pizza, leaving the store with her airport cop boyfriend.   When the gas station clerk demanded payment for the two pieces of pizza that Zima nabbed, the felonious pair left the store and started to try to leave the gas station’s parking lot via their vehicle.  When the gas station clerk tried to read and write down the pair’s license plate number, the pair bent the license plate back in an effort to conceal the number. 

Both Zima and Richard Frederick, Zima’s manly man airport cop boyfriend, stood in front of the hatch of the vehicle to try to conceal the license plate number.  Zima then flipped the hatch of the vehicle up in further efforts to thwart the gas station clerk.

Then Frederick  hit the gas station clerk in the face with his fist.  Frederick claimed that he felt threatened by the “gang” of store employees who came out to confront him and Zima. (Check the video but the only gas station employee that confronted Frederick and Zima was the one clerk who Frederick punched in the face.  The other people in the video were people in the store at the time of the theft/assault and an off-duty Livingston County MI police officer who happened to be getting gas at the station.)

The pair then fled the scene in their vehicle, on US 23N, but were apprehended a short time later.  Only Frederick is facing a misdemeanor assault and battery charge for hitting the clerk.  Both the Wayne County Airport Authority and the TSA have started an investigation into the incident. Zima has been placed on administrative leave, and Frederick has entered rehab.

Addtional reading:
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/134213
http://www.copblock.org/1255/cop-tsa-agent-steal-assault-clerk/

A Houston group of concerned citizens from WeWontFly.com participated in today’s nation-wide “opt-out” day at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport, urging holiday flyers to opt out of the body scan machines and to resist the TSA’s “enhanced patdown” procedure. Jay Stang has been keeping us abreast of the situation via facebook. Below are his updates in case you missed it.

1:30pm – IAH Bush Intercontinental Airport
“I just had an enlightening conversation with a gentleman at the Houston Bush Intercontinental Security office. He said we were not allowed to be there, since we did not ask prior permission. I asked him which law we would be violating, and he said “Operational Instruction 95-05″. I asked him if OI 95-05 superseded the Constitution, he said no it did not.”

“I asked him how that could be, if it prevents us from peacefully exercising our 1st amendment rights to speech and assembly.”

“He accused me of playing word games, and told me we had to sign up to a pool, which handed out permission slips for 22 spots, free speech zones, essentially. I told him we were going to peacefully exercise our 1st amendment rights of speech and assembly. He grumbled a lot about how we did not follow the rules. I kept hammering the Constitution.”

“This can be done! The Constitution is a light that makes the rats scurry.”

2:30pm – IAH Bush Intercontinental Airport

“Here is the latest word from the airport: OI 95-05 supersedes the Constitution, because the Constitution gives us the right to free speech, and that we have to ask permission to speak at the airport. We will see.”

5:30pm – IAH Bush Intercontinental Airport

“We are at the airport. There was a brief but firm conference with the airport management. we were firm, polite and stressed our intention to assert our first and fourteenth amendment rights. we now have clearance throughout the airport.”

“It worked this time. It might not even work for us next time. I was fully prepared to get arrested.”

Via WeTexans.com

Only one day after the people of Texas sent a message to their Texas delegation that they wanted less government, lower taxes and freedom from the bonds of an ever increasing intrusive government, including paying for an unconstitutional federal Health Care Bill, the momentum seems to be gathering to once again impale the homeowner.

Yet the strong rhetoric we heard from Rick Perry, David Dewhurst and others candidates during the elections was that they would “stand up for our 10th Amendment rights”.  Read the announcement of this hearing and think about how this fits in with standing up for our Constitutional rights.  And think about why only “invited” testimony will be heard.  99% of the time this is from the “stateholders”; that is those that want your money – not the people who will lose their homes if this legislation is enacted.

The only way we are going to keep the leeches from sucking our blood dry is to outlaw property tax in Texas forever.  We have begun this process but we need your help.  Call committee members and let them know that paying for Obamacare through increased property tax is not acceptable, and tell Republican members to make good on their promise to stand up for our 10th Amendment rights in Texas and to just vote “nay” on any attempt to implement this in our state – much less on the backs of homeowners.

Here’s the Where and When

• COMMITTEE: State Affairs
• TIME & DATE:   9:00 AM, Tuesday, November 23, 2010
• PLACE:   E1.030 (House Appropriations)
• CHAIR: Senator Robert Duncan

See all of the State Affair committee members after the page break.

Read the rest of this entry »