A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues posted on Thursday. You can listen to it, and read a transcript, below. You can also find previous episodes of the show at Stitcher, iTunes, YouTube, and SoundCloud.
Listen to the new episode here:
Read a transcript of the new episode, including links to further information regarding the topics discussed, here:
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity welcomes you to Five Minutes Five Issues.
Starting in five four three two one.
Hello, I am Adam Dick, a Ron Paul Institute senior fellow.
Let’s start.
Issue one.
Speaking Wednesday at the American Legion’s national convention, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton proclaimed, “we can’t cozy up to dictators.”
Author James Bovard, with his great wit, responded, “Shocker! [Hillary Clinton] just repudiated half her work as Secretary of State.”
Issue two.
The national Libertarian Party leadership has adopted a resolution that makes clear their disagreement with Libertarian vice-presidential nominee Bill Weld’s support for outlawing from possessing guns any people who US government bureaucrats decide to put on a terror watch list.
The Libertarian National Committee resolution states that “the Platform of the Libertarian Party opposes all laws at any level of government restricting, registering, or monitoring the ownership, manufacture, or transfer of firearms or ammunition” and “affirms the right of due process and denies the legitimacy of ‘victimless crimes.’” With the use of terror watch lists to outlaw gun possession being viewed as in violation of these portions of the party platform, the resolution says that “the Libertarian National Committee opposes any policy which would deny access to any firearms or ammunition to any person simply for being placed on any government watch or no-fly list.”
Issue three.
A Reuters article reports that a United States Department of Transportation (DOT) proposed rule issued Friday would require equipping trucks and buses with devices to limit their maximum speed.
The article notes that the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has expressed criticism, but says that the industry trade group American Trucking Association petitioned for requiring speed limiting technology, praised the DOT proposal, and “has endorsed a national speed limit of 65 mph (105 kph) for trucks.”
Issue four.
Planet K is a chain of stores that, as stated on its website, features “central Texas’ best selection of imported and E-cigarettes, papers, pipes, vaporizers, incense, posters, erotica, and everything else your parents warned you about.”
Back in 2011 the Texas Department of Transportation said a Ron Paul for president sign outside a Planet K store in Bee Cave, Texas near Austin must be removed because it violated a statewide signs law. As Chuck Lindell reports in the Austin American-Statesman, Planet K owner Michael Kleinman refused to remove the sign.
Thus began a five-year free speech dispute.
Planet K initially lost in state district court. Then, Friday, Planet K won its appeal. The state appellate court, finding “unconstitutional content-based restrictions on speech” in the Texas statute at issue, threw out much of the state government’s limitations of signs near roads.
Issue five.
Steven Nelson reported this month at US News and World Report regarding the conviction and sentencing of Kristian Saucier. Saucier is being subjected to a year in prison plus other penalties. What did Saucier do? As a member of the US Navy, Saucier took six photographs inside the submarine where he worked. The photos, Nelson writes, “were deemed ‘confidential,’ the lowest level for classification.”
It seemed there could be some hope for Saucier avoiding prison when Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James B. Comey recommended in July no charges against Hillary Clinton despite Comey’s conclusion that there was evidence that, as Secretary of State, Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling information with the highest levels of classification.
Nelson points out one distinction that may help explain why Saucier is off to prison and Clinton is scot-free: While Saucier admitted he knew he was not supposed to snap the photos, Clinton “insisted she did not knowingly send or receive classified information.”
Saucier’s punishment also brings to mind a line from George Orwell’s Animal Farm: “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.”
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That’s a wrap.
Transcripts of Five Minutes Five Issues episodes, including links to related information, are at the Ron Paul Institute blog.
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