Let Freedom Ring (or, you know...not)

To hear an interview with Libertarian Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik, click the link below:

http://www.kuow.org/weekday.asp?Archive=08-16

Unfortunately, freedom seems to be in retreat in many "democratic" nations. Putin is becoming more and more scary with each passing week. He recently lashed out at Western critics declaring that Russian democracy does not have to look like American democracy. Apparently Russian democracy will be less about voting and representative governance and more about, well, crushing opposition and stifling dissent. Now Putin has turned his Jeffersonian zeal on that profound threat to freedom...the independent judiciary:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/10/01/002.html

Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is obviously a communist nut and now he is proposing selling oil prospecting rights to Iran:

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=10/2/2004&Cat=9&Num=2

Brazil's democratically elected leftist president Lula de Silva is engaging in some pretty dubious tampering with press freedom ahead of hotly contested parliamentary elections:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0409/S00344.htm

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/9807063.htm