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December 27, 2007

Digg Away!

As part of the ongoing efforts to renovate the Free Liberal site, I added Digg tags to the articles today. Please let me know if it works!

/KDR

Posted by KevinRollins at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

December 13, 2007

Eric Dondero and The Free Liberal

Eric Dondero, commenting on Steve Gordon's recent post about Nancy Pelosi, objects to being attacked daily by this publication and points out that he was once an editor here. Let me try to clarify some of his remarks.

He writes:

Free Liberal published two of my articles back in 2003: The Rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger and on Gene Simmons of KISS being a Libertarian.
Funny, the "Editors" if you can call them that, at the Free Liberal rag, forget to mention that little fact when they're attacking me on a daily basis.

Yes, The Free Liberal did publish his articles and they both were big favorites in print and online. We thank Eric for his contribution and we are pleased he wrote for us. Although I consider that my relationship with Eric broke down over our disagreements on the Iraq war, in no way has this publication engaged in daily attacks on him. Eric, if you believe this to be the case, please show me the links to pages on our site. Everything we have written is still accessible. I believe that at most there has been an occasional blog entry which mentions his name.

Further, he claims:

Now, that I'm criticizing Paul you all change your tune. Now it's bash Dondero. Call Dondero every name in the book. Blacklist him. Bash him mercilessly.

The Free Liberal has always had a policy of allowing different writers to take opposing positions. To clarify, The Free Liberal does NOT endorse Congressman Ron Paul, although several of our bloggers are very positive on him. We welcome criticisms of Dr. Paul, as well as any other material which appears on our site. In fact, I have defended Mr. Giuliani in the past, whom Eric Dondero supports.

While I personally think Steve's post needlessly dragged Eric into a comparison with Nancy Pelosi, as Nancy Pelosi is a big story and Eric Dondero is not (outside of the libertarian movement), Eric has made a name for himself in going after those he disagrees with. I would argue that he has done so in a rather obnoxious manner and has earned a great deal of rancor from other libertarians. This is unfortunate, because Eric does have some very good points and he often provides valuable news through his Mainstream Libertarians website. But, being controversial and aggressive is certainly inviting retaliation from those he attacks.

He also claims:

Well, well, well. I went into my garage this morning, and found an old issue of The Free Liberal from 2003.

Not only did they have my articles, they listed me as a "Senior Editor." Funny, I don't remember agreeing to that. Oh well.

This piqued my interest, as the only people who have ever been "Senior Editors" are Carl Milsted, Michael Ostrolenk, Paul Gessing, and Bob Capozzi (before he took over as Editor in Chief). Carl Milsted and I dug into his old copies of TFL to verify/falsify Eric's claim. We found that he was listed as "Contributing Editor" which is a title we gave to any author who wrote articles that were exclusively for our use. Senior Editor is a title we reserved for those who made major contributions to the publication ideologically as well as operationally (writing, editing, funding, etc.) Eric Dondero did not play this role in The Free Liberal.

I hope that Eric can look past some of our differences and see the positive areas in which we could work together. That would be far better than see ourselves as dangerous adversaries. What a waste of everybody's time that would be.

Kevin D. Rollins
Publisher, The Free Liberal


Posted by KevinRollins at 02:28 PM | Comments (10)

July 26, 2007

Changing of the Guard

RobertCapozzi07.jpg
Robert Capozzi
Free Liberal Editor
In the summer of 2003, four years ago, I made the decision to shut down The Beltway Free-Marketeer, which was produced by the George Mason University Students for Individual Liberty, and founded the The Free Liberal. I was publisher of the Free-Marketeer. In the transition, I added the role of editor to my responsibilities. I wanted to ensure that the publication I was raising money for – that I was logistically supporting – was in line with my own sensibilities and particular ideology. It is not an easy job. It is a desperate chase for good writing, while maintaining a strict line of defense against political screeds and half-baked ranting. Beggars can be choosers. Meet the non-profit magazine editor.

An associated problem, is not just choosing good writing, but finding individuals who have the right mix of free time, good judgment, and a willingness/desire to assist with the selection and editing of articles. In this, I have been extremely lucky, especially in meeting Bob Capozzi in early 2005.

Bob has been our most prolific blogger and has successively taken over more and more of the responsibilities of editing this publication. In fact, in the last year, there would have been no Free Liberal at all if it were not for Bob’s tireless efforts. Today, I’m pleased to announce that Bob Capozzi will be recognized for a role that he is already fulfilling, as Editor of The Free Liberal.

In taking this role, Bob is fully-responsible for the furthering the Free Liberal vision and message. I believe that I could not find someone who understands this vision in both mind and spirit better than he does. Bob is a true believer in peace – both in the political idea and in pursuing as a personal life goal. Bob’s sophistication in multi-dimensional thinking and free-market economics enable him to attend to the goal of peace with more than empty sloganeering. Ever a contrarian, Bob will certainly not fall victim to the traps of partisanship or other kinds of teamistic ideology. This openness in his character is essential to our mission which aims to bring classical and modern liberals together to jointly address public policy problems.

I will step back and focus my efforts on getting The Center for Liberty and Community fully-funded and organizationally fit. I will work in support of Bob to bring the resources needed to grow the publication.

For now, “All hail the editor!”

/KDR

Posted by KevinRollins at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)

June 09, 2006

Bob Capozzi, Senior Editor

Our frequent readers may notice some slight changes to The Free Liberal website this morning. On the masthead on the homepage, we now have a new Senior Editor at The Free Liberal. Joining the original Senior Editors, Paul Gessing, Carl Milsted, and Michael Ostrolenk, who helped found this publication nearly 3 years ago, is Robert Capozzi.

Bob joined The Free Liberal team early last year, and he began writing articles for us and attending our regular social hour. He quickly jumped into the role of one of the most reliable editors both of his own work and of others' work. I eventually asked him if I could call him Associate Editor and pass more editing responsibilities his way. He has taken on more and more of these important tasks and for nearly half a year has been managing the daily content presented on FreeLiberal.com.

But, perhaps even more important than all of his other fine work, have been his intellectual contributions to this project. Bob has helped define what we are as an organization -- what a "Free Liberal" is to the outside world. He has challenged many people's thinking, and often the thinking of other members of The Free Liberal team. We are stronger for it. And so, once again, we recognize his impact by naming him Senior Editor.

Consider taking a moment to review some of Bob's writings at The Free Liberal.


Martha Revisited: Why the Stewart Case Needs a Second Look

Media Review: Thomas Woods’ Revisionist Revelation

In Defense of John Lennon

And also take a look at his extensive list of Free For All blog entries.

-- Kevin D. Rollins

Posted by KevinRollins at 09:18 AM | Comments (0)

February 07, 2006

Corporate State and Medicine

The Bush Administration, their Republican and Democratic friends in Congress and their hi-tech contributors are pushing for (meaning mandating and funding with tax money) the creation of an electronic medical records national infrastructure. This effort follows an Executive Order from Bush that turned into bi-partisan legislation in the House and Senate. This new system is 'supposed' to save us billions in healthcare costs by making the system more efficient. The House bill is H.R. 4157, the "Health Information Technology Promotion Act." and has not passed yet. The Senate bill passed at the end of last year.

CBO estimated the cost of the health IT bill that passed the Senate to be $652 million over the 5 years 2006-2010 with no offsetting savings. The president’s 2007 budget has increased outlays for 2007 by another $6 million. So, more tax monies will be going to help create the system that is supposed to save us billions of dollars. Although it was touted as a plan to save us billions of dollars, the budget actually does not say it will save money. It says that,

"The Administration supports the adoption of health information technology
(IT) as a normal cost of doing business to ensure patients receive
high-quality care."

Further it states that "the Administration's goal is to promote conditions for a thriving free market."

Imagine a government mandated and tax payer supported system ‘promoting’ the conditions for a free market. This is just more Orwellian double speak from the Administration who is now famous for such creative use of language.

This is just more corporate welfare and anti-free market managed economic planning where the profits are privatized ( hi tech companies) and the costs are socialized (tax payers). Another example of the medical industrial complex at work.

For more information:

Uncle Sam Watch: Big Brother & Your Medical Records by Liz Moser, Town Hall
http://www.townhall.com/blogs/c-log/LizMoser/story/2006/02/06/185452.html

AAPS Letter in opposition to H.R. H.R. 4157, the “Health Information Technology Promotion Act”.
http://www.aapsonline.org/confiden/hr4157-letter.php

Michael D. Ostrolenk

Posted by michaeldostrolenk at 07:28 AM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2005

Testing, 1,2,3...

What are these evil spirits in this box? They confuse and frighten me! Does this actually work?

--The Caveman Blogger

Posted by CarlMilsted at 08:43 PM | Comments (1)

Introducing Free For All -- The Free Liberal Blog

Welcome to our new blog. As the name suggests, this will be our place for raucous fun and free-flowing debate. We intend to eventually have 20 to 30 bloggers in this space.

Right now, we are putting the finishing touches on the back-end code, so please excuse our mess for the moment.

Please try out the commenting system and see if you hit any bugs. Please let Leonard Harris, our webmaster, know if you find anything. His e-mail is webmaster [at] freeliberal.com.

Thanks for being a a Free Liberal reader!

Cheers,

Kevin D. Rollins
Editor, The Free Liberal

Posted by KevinRollins at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2005

Pre-launch Testing

We are still doing a shake-down on this blog. Please send feedback on its functionality to webmaster@freeliberal.com.

We expect the site to be up and running in the next few days...

Posted by KevinRollins at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)

Free-for-all (frfr-ôl) -- n. A disorderly fight, argument, or competition in which everyone present participates.

from Dictionary.com



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About the Free Liberal
The Free Liberal is an independent journal of transpartisan thought.

The views expressed herein are those of the writers individually and not necessarily those of the Free Liberal, the Center for Liberty and Community, or its board of directors.