Today is the day we are supposed to celebrate the unitary executive — well not exactly, but unfortunately the celebration of Presidents Day has come to mean the iconization of the strong leader who takes the country into wars and takes charge of the economy. But might there be a better way to measure the greatness of a US president? How about their dedication to the Constitutional separation of powers and their promotion of peace, prosperity, and freedom? Today’s Liberty Report takes a look at the US presidents through the prism of Ivan Eland’s great book, Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty:

With the opening of all military combat roles to women, establishment voices like the New York Times are proclaiming that the next fight for equality is to force women to join men in registering for the draft. In what way is it a triumph of rights to have the threat of slavery, which is what the military draft really is, hanging over both men and women? Today’s Liberty Report is joined by retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski to discuss the role of women in the military, the role of the military, and the role she played in blowing the whistle on the neocons who lied us into war with Iraq:

According to press reports yesterday, Saudi Arabia is assembling a 150,000 man military force to invade Syria from Turkish soil and fight against Islamist terrorists in that country. But surely the rest of the world knows that for the past five years or more, Saudi Arabia has been the main source of support for those same terrorists. If the invasion goes forward — and it apparently has US backing — it would pit Saudi forces directly against Iranian, Syrian, and probably Russian forces. The Russians already said it would be a “declaration of war.” Is the US really ready to unleash WWIII over whether or not Assad stays in office? We ponder these questions in today’s Liberty Report:

It looks like the neocons and the Beltway military-industrial complex are going to get their way, as President Obama’s plan to scale back a few weapons systems has hit a brick wall in Congress. Meanwhile, citing the “Russian threat,” the Pentagon announced that it would be quadrupling its military spending in Europe next year and that NATO would be stationing 40,000 troops on the Russian border. What is the relationship between the neocon think tanks, the mainstream media, the military-industrial complex, and Congress? They all conspire to create constant new threats to justify enormous military spending that is running the economy into the ground. They are ripping us off. More on this today in the Liberty Report:

Neocon scribblers like Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin are crowing about the demise of non-interventionism with the departure of Rand Paul from the presidential race. We are all neocons now, say Rubin and her allies in the war party. But not so fast! When have they been right about anything? The struggle for peace and prosperity is a struggle of ideas, not a race to elect politicians to office. And even the departure of the most non-interventionist candidate in the race does not mean the end of non-interventionism. Despite the propaganda, given the choice the people don’t want war. No matter what Rubin or Kristol think. What is next for the non-partisan pro-peace movement? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report for Ron Paul’s take:

Today the Free State Project announced that they have reached the threshold of 20,000 people who have pledged to move to New Hampshire and participate in what they call the greatest political migration project in US history. Is geographic proximity in a relatively small space the answer to creating a more libertarian existence? Today’s Liberty Report is joined by Ron Paul Institute Senior Fellow Adam Dick to discuss these developments:

No matter who occupies the US presidency, it seems the neoconservatives always occupy positions of foreign policy power. A neocon like Robert Kagan, for example, is perfectly comfortable going from a senior position in the GW Bush administration to another senior post in Barack Obama’s State Department. When their failed policies wear out the name of one of their institutes, like Project for a New American Century, they simply change the name without losing a beat, in this case turning into the “Foreign Policy Initiative.” Filmmaker Robbie Martin has done a terrific job looking into the neocon domination of Washington in his three-part documentary film, A Very Heavy Agenda. Martin joins today’s Liberty Report to talk about his films and to talk about the neocons who star in them:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is being advertised in some circles as the heir to the Ron Paul libertarian movement, yet one look at his foreign policy and it is immediately evident that he is anything but. His advisors are Bill Kristol, John Bolton, James Woolsey, Elliot Abrams and other washed-up neocon has-beens. No wonder he screams about “carpet bombing” the Middle East and making the sand glow in the dark. The libertarian movement is essentially built around rejection of wars of aggression and against interventionism. Ted Cruz, neocon, in today’s Liberty Report:

It is not a conspiracy — it is out in the open. The permanent government behind the scenes ensures that foreign policy never changes, that endless wars continue to enrich the military-industrial complex, that the population is kept in fear to insure acquiescence, that civil libertarians are viewed as unpatriotic kooks. Voting has no effect on the secret government in Washington. Moving between government and pseudo-private sector jobs with ease, they always land on their feet. What can be done? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

The US Senate under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is poised to rush to the floor a bill that would give the president total war authority anywhere on the globe, perhaps even including on US soil. All in the name of fighting ISIS, Congress is about to crown the president with unlimited war powers. In today’s Liberty Report we discuss the dangers of the incredible shrinking Legislative branch of government:

Thanks in part to “mandatory minimum” laws starting in the 1980s, the US has the largest prison population — per capita and total — of any country on earth. Including China. Is that because Americans are that much worse than others? No, it is due to a completely dysfunctional justice system where, for example, jury members are not allowed to know the potential sentence of a defendant before they decide whether guilty or not guilty. If they were allowed to know, they would likely hesitate before sending someone away for life for smoking a marijuana cigarette. The Senate is expected to take up a mandatory minimum reform bill sometime in the next couple of months, which might be a step in the right direction to correcting the completely broken and unjust US justice system. Tune in to today’s Liberty Report for more:

Free trade — not corporatist, managed trade — is the best guarantor of peace and prosperity. Protectionism leads to trade wars which very often lead to hot wars. In the US presidential race the issue of tariffs and other taxes on trade have begun to enter the conversation. We should remember how dangerous this kind of isolationism is, especially to working and middle class Americans. In today’s Liberty Report, Ron Paul explains the importance of real free trade: