News roundup

Just a post to quickly round up all the straggling links, news stories, etc.

First up, the interview I did on CHQR AM 770 in Calgary Alberta Canada.  The show is The World Tonight with Rob Breakenridge.  I flubbed it a bit at the end, but I thought it went well.  The file is a 7.52MB mp3.

Next, an interview I did two weeks ago with Dave from Snarkbait, a great guy and someone who should blog more...he’s one of the people who truly understands the concept of liberty and small government.  We need more voices reminding us of what freedom and liberty really mean.

Lastly, another piece at Newsweek by Tony Dokoupil on the potential legal issues surrounding Moore’s Cuban visit.

NEWSWEEK has learned that Moore’s production company, Dog Eat Dog productions, credentialed the interviewees itself—in essence, knighting them as journalists—and then flew them from Miami to Cuba on a charter flight reserved for licensed travelers. Is that good enough? “Moore is not allowed to travel with companions unless they’re also licensed by the Treasury to travel to Cuba as journalists,” says David Cibrian, international trade attorney at Strasburger & Price. “ Journalists don’t bring people from elsewhere to interview in Cuba. People go to Cuba to interview Cubans.”

That’s true enough.  The article further mentions that Treasury says they have no record of issuing a license, but Miami customs officer Angel Marques says he would have been asked, charter flight trip or no.  Either Michael talked or bought his way onto a plane boat in Miami, or he got a license and the Treasury Department lost it.  On purpose or by incompetence.  Either explanation seems plausible.  No matter what, though, I am actually on Moore’s side here as far as the government investigation goes.  One, it would be a waste of taxpayer money.  Two, Moore has positioned this as a journalistic endeavor.  Let’s not let him off the hook for that by proving it wasn’t “journalism.”

We should hold him to the standard that he has now accepted: journalist.  He took the label for himself; we should hold his feet to that fire.