ISI is co-sponsoring Freedom Fest 2005 at the Bally's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV, this week, May 12-14.

On Friday, May 13, ISI is conducting a panel called "Bringing Conservative Principles to Your Campus," featuring Francisco Gonzalez, Director of Campus Leadership for ISI, and Brendan Steinhauser, Author of The Conservative Revolution: How to Win the Battle for College Campuses. The panel will take place in the Las Vegas 4 Conference Room at Bally's, at 11am on Friday. The panel is open to all Freedom Fest Conference participants.

Freedom Fest will feature Dinesh D'Souza, David Horowitz, Wayne LaPierre, Bob Barr, Ward Connerly, Nigel Ashford, John Fund, Charles Murray, and many others.

You can register on-site at Freedom Fest 2005. For more information on this conference, please visit: http://www.freedomfest.com

I'm impressed that Ward Connerly would agree to appear on a panel with Dinesh D'Souza. After the borderline-racist remarks D'Souza's made on a pretty regular basis, prominent black conservatives ended their association with the American Enterprise Institute as a protest over their continued support of him.

Unless Ward Connerly agrees with D'Souza that the 1964 Civil Rights Act should be repealed, that is. (A position D'Souza has explicitly staked out in the past) Or D'Souza's other arguments that slavery was not a racist institution.

"A bigot is simply a sociologist without credentials", D'Souza has written.

Cute. Not the kind of guy I'd invite to a conference, though.

I don't think Francisco said they were going to be on a panel together. I read his post as saying they would both be featured speakers and the weekend conference. I haven't read much by either man, but if the men have different viewpoints (as they apparently do), I would think that would make for a much more interesting and informative conference (or panel if indeed they are on one together) than one composed of people with exactly the same perspective or positions.

Right - they both appeared at the Freedom Fest conference, but NOT on the same panel. I did not get to hear Ward Connerly speak, but I will try to find someone who did so that you can hear what he exactly spoke on. I was within "hearing distance" of his talk and I swear I heard him discuss the 1964 Civil Rights Act. I'm not sure what position he took or why he brought it up, but it's interesting that he mentioned it, since you mentioned it in your post as well.

As for Dinesh D'Souza, I've never heard him make a racist (or even a borderline racist) remark. I have only heard him make some really great speeches and from the small amount of his writings I've read, I think most of his ideas are sound, well-informed, and perhaps one step ahead of the Left. In fact, I'd encourage every student to read his books and listen to his lectures.

I was finally able to meet Dinesh D'Souza for the first time at the conference. He stopped by the ISI booth and picked up a copy of Frank Meyer's classic, In Defense of Freedom.

I also talked with D'Souza for about 10 minutes before he debated Bob Barr. The debate was a conservative/libertarian debate over whether the war on terrorism has spread liberty or impeded it. Both men defended their positions very well, I thought.

Before the debate, D'Souza not only talked with me, but with several other students, to get our own opinions of the topic at hand, of Bob Barr, and how he could win. He was a VERY nice guy, and very cordial. I noticed he spent some time talking to a lot of people at the reception beforehand. He even signed my copy of his Letters to a Young Conservative, and wrote, "To Francisco, a champion of conservative principles!" I looked at it later, and I was very ecstatic (and still am) that D'Souza wrote this to me.