Monthly Archives: August 2012

Photo by Matt Stensland

Hannah Giles, of the American Phoenix Foundation, speaks Saturday during the Freedom Conference at The Steamboat Grand.

Steamboat Springs Freedom Conference attendees on Saturday got to hear what drove Hannah Giles to investigate corruption at an agency that was supposed to be advocating for low-income families.

Giles was a 20-year-old aspiring journalist who had landed an internship in the Washington, D.C., area during summer 2009. While out for a jog, she ran past the housing barracks for the The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

It hit me, Giles said. I could do an investigation. Theyre right here.

She said she had written investigative pieces that were critical of ACORN and its political ties during college, but the articles did not change the national perception of the organization.

By the time Giles had finished her jog and returned to her apartment, she said she had formulated a plan to investigate ACORN.

She joined with James O'Keefe, who along with Giles is generally described as a conservative activist. Together, at a cost of $1,500, they produced a number of undercover videos that drew national controversy and led to the organizations downfall. One of the videos was shown at the beginning of Giles speech Saturday. It showed O'Keefe, posing as a pimp, and Giles posing as a prostitute. An ACORN employee was offering them advice on how to avoid paying taxes on their prostitution ring.

ACORN lost its government and private funding and declared bankruptcy in 2009.

Today, Giles helps lead investigations for the American Phoenix Foundation. According to its website, the goal of the foundation is to recruit and train select young potential leaders to transcend the traditional media by becoming independent truth-seeking journalists who relentlessly pursue truth with courage and creativity.

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Freedom Conference speaker emphasizes truth and justice

August 25, 2012 - Frontier League (FL) Florence Freedom Florence, KY-The Florence Freedom (51-38) continued their winning ways Saturday night as they put together clutch hits late in the game for a 3-1 win against the Washington Wild Things(38-51).

It was the Freedom's seventh straight win as they remain tied for the final wild card spot with Lake Erie, and Schaumburg with just seven games left in the season.

The Wild Things took a 1-0 lead in the 2nd on an RBI single by Jovan Rosa. The Freedom then tied it in their 2nd on a leadoff solo homerun from Eddie Rodriguez. It was Rodriguez's 14th homer of the season and his seventh in his last seven games.

The game remained 1-1 until the 8th inning. Pierre LePage led off with a single against reliever Chandler Barnard. David Harris then drove a pitch to deep center field which scored LePage from first on the RBI double. Peter Fatse also contributed in the inning with an RBI single of his own to make the score 3-1. Fatse drove in his team high 65th RBI of the season.

Andres Caceres started for the Freedom and turned in a quality start. The lefty went 7 innings allowing 2 hits on 1 earned run. He also matched his career high in strikeouts with 6 as he walked 5.

Caceres earned a no decision as Matt Kline(3-3) earned the win out of relief. Kline retired the only batter he faced Darian Sandford in the 8th on a pop out to second base.

Jorge Marban nailed down his 14th save of the year and his fourth in as many games.

The Freedom will go for the series sweep Sunday night against the Wild Things. Washington will feature RHP Casey Barnes(5-7, 3.70)as the Freedom will counter with RHP Andy Clark(1-1, 1.90).

The games can be heard starting at 5:50 with Steve Jarnicki on Real Talk 1160 AM and realtalk1160.com.

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Freedom Rally in Eighth to Keep Win Streak Alive

24 August 2012 Last updated at 13:15 ET

We've come to believe that freedom is the natural human condition, which only tyrants prevent everyone from enjoying - but when a tyrant is toppled, we can't know what will come next, says John Gray.

In February 1917, a young boy was reading a Russian translation of one of the books of Jules Verne in a street in St Petersburg (at the time called Petrograd) where a bookseller had laid out his stock in the snow.

The boy heard a commotion and, looking up from the book, saw a terrified man being frog-marched down the street. The ashen-faced figure was one of the city's policemen, who were among the last functionaries of the Tsarist regime to remain loyal.

Discovered hiding on the roof of a building, he had been brought down to be taken to what he evidently feared would be his end. What happened to the man cannot be known, but his deathly white face as he was marched away made an enduring impression on the boy who witnessed the scene.

Aged seven at the time, the young boy went on to be the philosopher and historian of ideas Isaiah Berlin, who spoke of the episode repeatedly in conversations I had with him towards the end of his life. He often contrasted the mood of optimism that accompanied the February revolution with the darker atmosphere that followed the Bolshevik coup in October of the same year.

Yet the incident occurred during the first of these upheavals, and it was clear that the impact it had on him had nothing to do with any differences between the two revolutions. As noted by his biographer, the episode left Berlin with a dread of violence that stayed with him after he left Russia in 1921 with his mother and father for a life in England and right up to his death in Oxford in November 1997. But I believe there may have been a subtler effect on Berlin's thinking, which has something important to say to us today.

Not long after the start of the 21st Century, we like to tell ourselves an uplifting story in which freedom expands whenever tyranny is overthrown.

We believe that freedom and democracy are inseparable, so that when a dictator is toppled the result is not only a more accountable type of government but also greater liberty throughout society.

This belief forms the justification of the repeated attempts by Western governments to export their own political model to countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. In this simple and seemingly compelling story, freedom and democracy are a package that can be delivered anywhere in the world.

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Does democracy always equal freedom?