Welcome to hungry minds speak of series with Steve Simpson speaking on cronyism and corruption in government power. Steve sampson is director of legal studies at Ayn Rand Institute in irvine california. A former constitutional litigator for the institute for Justice Steve has litigated cases in the u. S. Supreme court and lower federal and state courts throughout the nation. Steve was the lead lawyer in speech now versus sec, the case that created super pacs and he has litigated many many other campaignfinance and constitutional cases over the years. Steve has written and spoken on a wide variety of legal and constitutional issues. His writings have appeared in the wall street journal, the washington post, the Washington Times and many print and on line publications over the years. So lets will come Steve Simpson speaking on cronyism, corruption and government power. [applause] okay. First of all thanks very much hannah and doug and hungry minds for having me here. I have to say its a
What does each side have to do tonight . Bate caller there have been some Little Things being promoted. Tonight . Right now. W things Mary Landrieus campaign is focusing on bill cassidys time as a teacher. He has also been a congressman. How much work he was doing for lsu. Bill cassidy refused the allegations, saying he was doing a lot of work. Had people in d. C. He was working with. As far as the cassidy side, he has been only agreeing to a limited number of debates. This is literally the only debate between the primary and the runoff. For his campaign, it has really keep your head down and get through this. Story on the a teaching controversy. Askseadline, Mary Landrieu bill cassidy to bring records. The Keystone Pipeline has been an issue in the race. Especially the votes in the house and senate. What did the votes do for both sides . Caller the Keystone Pipeline han an issue in the at the end of t, iote was a lot more think it played better on tv and in d. C. Than it did here. Any
Concerned about . There is a real problem when people talk about cronyism. It signifies or gets to a real phenomenon with government but i think its widely misunderstood. Its worth starting with a simple question. We hear about cronyism all the time. We hear about corruption all the time, but what does this idea mean . And this is part of what i want to do. I want to explore with this idea means and what its implications are. I will say off the top of the issue that there is a problem here but if you think about it the wrong way it has very dangerous consequences. But in order to get into this issue we should first start with what people think of this issue. What is that people are talking about when they talk about cronyism and corruption . So i want to start by characterizing this issue and kind of giving you an example of what we often hear. Its an election season now and it makes sense to think about this in the context that perhaps something that you have heard and if you havent h
Havana for the first time in half a century, and sweeping aside the last vestiges of the cold war. The surprise announcement came ofthe end of 18 months secret talks that culminated in a Prisoner Exchange negotiated in canada. Republicans dial in. And democrats. An independents. Also, waiting on twitter. Eigh in on twitter. And on facebook. We will get your thoughts in a moment. But first, alan gomez from the usa today from miami. What is the reaction from the cuban population there . Mixed bag, as you can imagine. On one hand, you have that older generation of humans take a shortly after fidel castro came over in cuba who are just enraged. They feel betrayed. They feel this is a fight they have been fighting for over 50 years and the government down there was on its last legs. I doing this, by doing this, they feel that the president gave them a lifeline and allow them to maintain a little bit of power with all of the money that will be headed to cuba now. But there is a Younger Gener
Participatory democracy. All the rules are made by a School Meeting in which each student and each staff member has one vote and the rules are enforced by a Judicial Committee which is modeled after the jury system of our larger culture. A couple of teenagers in one staff member. Whether it is a staff member or student, if they violate the rules, they are brought up before the Judicial Committee. That is the way to school perates. The school offers no curriculum, no tasks, no grades, no substitutes for grades. It expects children to decide themselves what they want to it expects children to decide themselves what they want to learn, how they want to learn, what they want to do. If you were to go through the school at any given time of day, you might see scenes like on c1is slide. You might see scenes like on this slide. You would see children in the art room making various kinds of art projects. You might find somebody cooking in the kitchen. You might find somebody in the photo lab. C