TOC's Outreach Efforts

Edward L. Hudgins, director of the Washington office, managed to squeeze in quite a few media appearances in June and July, as well as delivering a lecture at the center's summer seminar. Many of the invitations came about when the federal government demanded more money to subsidize Amtrak, and threatened to shut down service if tax dollars were not forthcoming. In search of a response, the media turned to Hudgins, who argued that passenger rail service should be privatized.

On June 24, Hudgins spoke on KPFK radio in Los Angeles; KGO radio, the ABC affiliate in San Francisco; KTOK radio in Oklahoma City; the Cox Broadcast TV syndicate; and on CNBC's "Kudlow and Cramer Show," where he debated Senator Jon Corzine, Democrat of New Jersey. On June 25, Hudgins was back at it, speaking about Amtrak to WOOD radio in Grand Rapids, Michigan; to Kent Klein of the Voice of America; to Blanquita Cullum on her show, "The BQ View," syndicated by Radio America; and to Britt Hume on the Fox News Channel's "Special Report." On June 26, Hudgins spoke on CNN radio and was also interviewed on NPR's "Marketplace." The next day, he was interviewed on WAOA in Melbourne, Florida; on KCPW, the NPR radio station in Salt Lake City; and on KPAM radio, the ABC affiliate in Portland, Oregon.

Hudgins's other outreach efforts in June and July included an appearance at the Arizona Economic Forum in Flagstaff on June 20-21; a Radio Liberty interview concerning the state of the economy, on June 26; an op-ed for the Washington Times, "The New Intolerance," which appeared on July 6; and an appearance on a Web radio show, Web Financial News, to discuss the business scandals, on July 24.

Meanwhile, other staffers also contributed to the center's public advocacy program. Summer intern Malini Kochhar wrote an op-ed entitled "Capitalism and Financial Scandal," which TOC sent out on July 23. In response to Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's congressional testimony, and a New York Times article that suggested he had renounced the principles of Ayn Rand, Executive Director David Kelley wrote a letter to the editor that was published on July 28 under the heading "Ayn Rand and Greed." On July 31, Kelley's article on Islamism, "The War Against Modernity," originally published in the May Navigator, was republished on the spiked-online Web site, a British political-cultural webzine that shares many of TOC's Enlightenment views. (See http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000006D9B1.htm.) Lastly, on July 26, Atlas Society Director Robert Bidinotto spoke about the excessive amenities granted to prison inmates on "Judicial Watch Report," a syndicated radio show that goes out to some three hundred stations.

In a follow-up to the opening of the D.C. office on June 5, Congressman Bob Barr (who delivered the opening address that night) presented TOC with a commemoration of the evening: a U.S. flag that has flown over the Capitol Building.