The Freedom Report

Did The President Break The Law In Releasing Sgt. Bergdahl? (PODCAST)

President Barack Obama is in hot water with members of his own party after Chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) complained that the president did not inform her of the planned prisoner exchange. Feinstein was "surprised" and "dismay" that the transfers went ahead without her consultation "totally not following the law" in notifying the senatorial committee that is tasked with oversight of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Did the president violate the law in trading 5 Taliban commanders for POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl?

Fox News Contributor Charles Krauthammer claims that the president does have the authority to act unilaterally to perform a prisoner exchange. He argues that the congressional notification clause was meant to prevent the president from clearing out the entire base, not to stop him from a simple transfer. But Senator Marco Rubio of Florida disagrees, claiming that the president is acting like a monarch or an emperor in not fulfilling his obligations to notify congress that he was releasing prisoners from Gitmo.

Sgt. Bergdahl's former squad members have been taking turns pillorying him in the media, claiming that he deserted them and that their fellow soldiers died searching for him. The New York Times is reporting that Bergdahl left a note which stated his intentions in leaving his post. Some news outlets are also reporting that Bergdahl renounced his American citizenship.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel gave a speech to soldiers at Bagram Air Force base trying to extol the prisoner swap, but members of the military sat grim faced and silent over the news, seemingly unhappy with the deal that saw an alleged deserter traded for high level Taliban prisoners whose release could jeopardize American national security. President Obama is now backing away from claims that Sgt. Bergdahl served with "honor and distinction" as previously claimed.

Meanwhile, the Taliban has released a video of the hostage swap showing the dramatic helicopter evacuation of Sgt. Bergdahl. The Afghanistan based terror group is calling the entire operation a great success and declaring it a great victory against the United States.

Just what is going on in Washington D.C.? Find out on this exciting episode of the Freedom Report podcast!

Hero or Deserter? The Curious Case Of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

Freed Prisoner of War Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl is slated to be promoted, fueling speculation about whether or not he will be court martialed after it was revealed by the New York Times that he left a note that allegedly confirms he deserted his platoon. Fellow platoon members have been speaking out against him, claiming that men died in the hunt for Sgt. Bergdahl and suggesting that he should be put on trial. 

Opponents of the Obama administration are rushing to condemn the president over the prisoner swap that saw five high-ranking Taliban commanders go free. Did Obama release Bergdahl to shield himself from the scandal at the Veterans Affairs administration? Has the president put the U.S. in danger by negotiations with terrorists? Did Obama break the law? 

All that and more on the Freedom Report podcast. 

Libertarianism 3.0 - Which Way Are We Headed? (PODCAST)

The Washington Post dissected Reason Magazine editor-in-chief Nick Gillespie's article titled "Libertarianism 3.0," which analyzed three distinct epochs in the movement's history. 

Gillespie posits that the first wave spans the 1960's and 70's, when groups were deciding what it really meant to be a libertarian. Then the second wave, libertarianism 2.0 was the last thirty years, when the movement became its own separate ideological entity, distinct from a conservative movement that saw it as something of a red-headed step child. 

Now Gillespie sees the modern day movement as the third iteration, libertarianism 3.0, which he sees as following two distinct paths. The first path is the movement against identifying with a major party, which gives movement libertarians the ability to form short term coalitions with people who are of like mind on important issues. One example he draws is the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the senate version, the Protect Intellectual Property Act. Both of these initiatives were defeated by progressive/libertarian alliances. 

The second path is the infiltration of the GOP by liberty-loving types who are infusing the party with more socially tolerant views on issues. Gillespie believes that soon libertarians could be driving the agenda on social and fiscal issues in the future. But is he right? Could a libertarian/conservative alliance work alongside a progressive/libertarian coalition? Can we set aside our differences on a variety of issues to be able to team up in the important areas where we actually agree? 

All that and more on the Freedom Report podcast! 

Homeowner Convicted of Premeditated Murder For Shooting Burglars (PODCAST)

Homeowner Byron Smith was convicted of premeditated murder and given two life sentences without chance of parole for shooting and killing two thieves who had repeatedly burgled his residence over the course of a summer.

Smith was convicted after a jury listened to an audio recording of the incident that the man had captured which revealed him laying a trap for the burglars and shooting them both after they broke into his basement where he had been hiding. Smith's rants after the shootings appear to paint him in a bad light due to the manner in which he first shot one burglar, then hid their body in a tarp, and then shot the other, finishing them off with extra shots and stating openly that he did it to make sure they would never come back to hurt him later.

So was his shooting of the burglars justified? And if not, what should have been the sentence? Surely not premeditated murder? All that and more on this episode of the Freedom Report podcast.

Was Obama's Foreign Policy Speech Targeted At Rand Paul? (PODCAST)

President Obama gave a speech at West Point recently where he discussed his administration's foreign policy agenda. The Washington Post wrote that the President's speech was a 'takedown' of Senator Rand Paul, claiming that the veiled messages were pointed jabs at 'isolationists' and 'realists.' 

Although he never mentioned Paul by name, Obama chastised those who claim that it's not our business what happens in places like Libya and Syria. The president acknowledged that the American public was war-weary, but cautioned that it should not stop us from continuing to engage in foreign entanglements. 

So is the job of the United States to forever play Team America: World Police? Or can the growing libertarian trend in America reign in the beast of the ever-growing federal government? 

All that and more on the Freedom Report podcast!

Misogyny, Men's Rights & Mass Murder - Elliot Rodger Edition (PODCAST)

Was mass murderer Elliot Rodger a "kissless virgin" because he believed his "white male privilege" as a "nice guy" made him entitled to sex with a beautiful blonde girlfriend? Or was it because of his introverted, misanthropic life spent wasting away in video games and online forums that perpetuated his anti-social personality? 

The Freedom Report podcast today takes on the case in California where a disturbed 22-year-old  man murdered his roommates before driving to the University of California Santa Barbara to kill three more people. The media reaction has proven predictably insane on the level of the killer himself, with leftist rags proclaiming that the killer was motivated by his "white guy rage," while conveniently ignoring the fact that Rodger was half-Asian, and identified himself as more Asian than white. 

Meanwhile, the usual suspects of the feminazi community are engaging in their regularly appointed rounds of blood libel, aimed at Mens Rights activists in order to paint their activism as somehow responsible for the misogynistic hatred that Rodger displayed for blonde white women. Ignore the fact that the killer murdered more men than women and hated sexually active men just as much. You can always count on the feminist community to ignore the facts in order to confirm their irrational biases. 

So what caused Elliot Rodger to go postal in California? Listen to the Freedom Report and subscribe to us on iTunes for a fascinating discussion about Misogny, Men's Rights and Mass Murder. 

Editor's Note: In the podcast we speculate about reports that claimed that Rodger was seeing a therapist and was a high-functioning aspergers sufferer. The Libertarian Republic has learned that Rodger was never officially diagnosed with Aspergers, but his parents believed that he was. 

Chipotle Bans Guns Thanks To A Fat Neckbeard & A Hispanic Dude Bearing Assault Rifles

Chipotle announced that it would be disallowing the carrying of firearms on their premises, reversing their earlier trend of allowing peaceful gun owners to exercise their right to bear arms. The Bloomberg-backed Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense reacted to a photo of a fat neckbearded dude and a shorter hispanic guy bearing assault rifles on private property. The public relations disaster was a perfect storm for gun grabbers to paint the caricature of gun nuts, shoving their weapons in everyone's faces.

Marxist radical Saul Alinsky and his progressive followers successfully infiltrated the system by crafting a strategy aimed at bringing the middle class onboard. He argued against crude language, a defiant demeanor or a menacing appearance that suggested radicalism. That's why he disliked hippies and the counterculture of the 1960's.

Author Richard Poe wrote: “Alinsky scolded the Sixties Left for scaring off potential converts in Middle America. True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism, Alinsky taught. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within.”

Alinsky wrote that successful “Tactics must begin with the experience of the middle class, accepting their aversion to rudeness, vulgarity, and conflict. Start them easy, don’t scare them off.”

Are fat, neckbearded activists scaring off the middle class from those principles of liberty that so many others have fought and died for? All that and more on the Freedom Report podcast!

Should People Be Able To Abort Gay Babies? (PODCAST)

The Libertarian Republic hosted a poll yesterday asking our readers what their position on abortion would be if you could kill the baby on the basis of their sexual orientation. The results might surprise you. 

From the question, "Should a mother be able to abort a gay baby?", our readers responded overwhelmingly, "no."

Out of 473 votes, 112 people (23.7%) voted yes, that a mother can abort a child for any reason. The majority voted, "No, abortion is always wrong for whatever reason." While a very small minority of very confused people voted, "No, aborting babies over sexual preference is wrong," but they believed that "All other reasons are OK." 

What? 

The intent of the poll was to expose the hypocrisy amongst liberal democrats who believe that abortion is OK for any reason. A bill was proposed in California that would have banned abortion on the basis of gender. Democrats killed it in the crib. But would they still feel the same way if Christian conservatives were aborting babies because we could find out that they were gay? 

Needlessly divisive, or an important question to test people's principles? Listen to the Freedom Report podcast and leave your thoughts below. 

Is "Check Your Privilege" The New "Racist"? (PODCAST)

Have you checked your white male privilege today? 

In a new column by cis-gendered white male lawyer Kurt Schlichter, the white male says that he's checked his privilege, and it's doing just fine. Schlichter argues that liberals have a new word for what normal people call "success." They call it "privilege." He believes that liberals have concocted a fantasy wherein people are successful, not because of merit, but because of where their great-great-grandfather was born.

The Freedom Report podcast today features two cis-gendered white males with opinions discussing the tactics of the cultural Marxists of the left, and how libertarians and conservatives can use specific issues of congruence to take the moral high ground away from the social democrats.

Libertarian Battle Royale! Court Demands Man Stop Having Kids, Plus: Circumcision: Chop It or Stop It? (PODCAST)

The Freedom Report podcast delves into the issue of a court in Ohio that demanded a man stop having kids because he isn't paying child support. Asim Taylor owes $100,000 for his four children and an appeals court upheld the sentence which some are calling a violation of his right to happiness. 

TLR contributor Sarah Miller and Associate Editor Ian Huyett debate the issue of "deadbeat dads," and question whether or not a man really should be required to pay child support at all, considering that men have no right to decide whether a woman will have the child or not. 

Also, is circumcision ethical, or even medically necessary? A three year old boy is on the chopping block in Florida after a mother decided she changed her mind about having the procedure performed on him. The father is demanding that doctors snip the tip allegedly not for religious reasons. 

Associate editor Huyett argues it's a medically necessary procedure that parents should have the final say over, but male genital expert Miller decries it as a form of child abuse. What does editor Austin Petersen think? You'll have to listen to all that and more on this very special "Battle Royale" episode of the Freedom Report podcast! 

Associate Editor's Note: The empirical study cited by Huyett about the purported benefits of male circumcision is here. Also, in reference to the debate over whether Jesus was circumcised, Huyett would ask interested parties to consult the Bible, specifically Luke 2:21. 

Editor's Note: Arguments for the defense of female circumcision are here, here, and here.