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- Written by: Joseph Dunsay
- Category: Latest News
On Tuesday I attended a presentation by Americans for Prosperity at the West Bergen Tea Party meeting. The speaker discussed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) which New Jersey joined in 2007. This program is a cap and trade system for limiting carbon dioxide emissions. It requires owners of coal, oil, and natural gas power plants to buy emission permits for every ton of carbon dioxide that they release into the air. The State of New Jersey collected $65 million through RGGI in 2009. Rather than use these funds on carbon sequestering programs, Governor Christie put them into the general state coffers. RGGI raises energy prices to fund our government's fiscal irresponsibility. It is time for New Jersey to withdraw from RGGI.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
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Atlas Shrugged Coproducer, Harman Karslow with NJLP Chair Jay Edgar and his daughter at the NYC Premiere |
This past week I got a phone call from screenplay writer, Brian O'Toole, inviting me to the New York City Premiere of Atlas Shrugged, Part 1. On Thursday, my daughter and I traveled into the city to view the movie.
Originally published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged is about the struggle of the productive class against a society that uses politics to limit the success of the productive for the benefit of those who are less capable. Communist laws such as the "Equalization of Opportunity Bill" force capable businessmen, engineers, scientists, and industrialists to withdraw from the system. The parasitic classes no longer have productive elements on which to feed. The "strike" forces society to fall apart.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
Whenever there is an argument about cutting spending and cutting the deficit, often times there will be those voices that will claim that the supporters are hurting a segment of the population, hurting children, hurting workers, etc, or engage in the fine art of denial. Recently, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) claimed that by cutting spending for things like public television, supporters wanted to hurt Elmo and Big Bird. In Wisconsin, there are protesters that are saying that by cutting spending deeply, it is tantamount to Nazism. Some people, like propagandist filmmaker Michael Moore, are even claiming that there is no budget crisis and that states and the federal government have tons of money available. All in all, when you hear the opponents of debt reduction and spending restraints talk, it is not only comical but tragic as well. It is as if they are alcoholics and drug addicts who do not want to admit that they have a problem.
States like New Jersey, Wisconsin, Florida, New York and others are facing big budget and state deficits; the federal government’s national debt is at $14 trillion and counting. Painful choices will have to be made and the days where we lived in blindness are very much over. This nation has to face reality, and while reality is not pretty, it is better than living in denial.
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Yesterday, Judge Andrew Napolitano discussed Julian Heicklen's FIJA demonstrations, arrests, and harassment on yesterday's Freedom Watch Show. See the Freedom Watch website for watch the Judge's comments. The good Judge also includes comments on the First Amendment issues like campaign speech laws and the suit against the Westboro Baptist church of racism as it pertains to freedom of speech.
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The Institute for Humane Studies produced a two-minute video featuring Harvard Professor Jeffrey A. Miron.
The video, "What it means to be a libertarian" does an excellent job explaining the difference between libertarians, conservatives, and liberals.
Jeffrey A. Miron is senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies in economics at Harvard University. He blogs at http://jeffreymiron.com and is the author of Libertarianism, From A to Z.
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Donald Trump was recently interviewed by Rush Limbaugh. During the interview Trump demanded isolationist foreign economic policies like huge tariffs. Professor Donald Boudreaux responded via an open letter on Cafe Hayek:
Mr. Rush Limbaugh
EIB Network
New York, NYDear Mr. Limbaugh:
During your radio interview yesterday of Donald Trump, you missed several opportunities to ask probing questions – questions that would have exposed the sheer ignorance that underlies The Donald’s economic pronouncements. For example:
- “Donald, you say that America ‘doesn’t make things any more.’ Are you unaware that, in 2009 (the latest year for which we have data), the value of U.S. manufacturing output was nearly 30 percent higher than that of China, the world’s second-ranking country in terms of manufactured output?”
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
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For over 40 years, every presidential administration has promised that by a certain date, the U.S. would be energy sufficient and would very much lower its dependence upon foreign oil. The administrations of Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43 and now Barack Obama have all stated by a certain date and time in the future, the U.S. would be independent when it came to energy. All these statements and all these promises have turned out to be untrue.
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- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
The Galloway Township online newspaper ran an article today mentioning the Open Government Advocacy Project and the role of the project in uncovering why the Township Manager was dismissed.
See Numerous Problems Led to Former Township Manager's Dismissal.
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- Written by: Joseph Dunsay
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New Jersey resident Chris Busche is being drugged against his will at the Essex County Hospital Center. This forced drugging is in violation of the advanced medical directive that Mr. Busche created before going to the hospital. Mr. Busche designated Al Galves to be his advocate, but his doctor and social worker refuse to communicate with Mr. Galves. Public pressure on behalf of Mr. Busche would be greatly appreciated. Please contact the Essex County Administrator, Mary Wilson Harley, to complain about the way the hospital is mistreating Mr. Busche. Contact information is on the Mind Freedom website.
Update, March 23, 2011: I just spoke with Al Galves. The hospital is cooperating with him now. Thank you to all who advocated for Chris Busche.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
I recently requested the minutes of the Galloway Township (Atlantic County) Council's December 14, 2010 and January 25, 2011 closed session in order to better understand the reasons why Galloway Mayor Keith Hartman and Council members removed Manager Roger B. Tees from his position in late January 2011.
The minutes, although still heavily redacted, do provide some details on the Council's reasons for removing Tees. They are on-line here.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
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There are many individuals that have this belief that politicians are a “smart lot.” That they know the law and what is just and unjust according to it. Over a period of five months now, I have heard, read and watched interviews and speeches that have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that when it comes to law, particularly U.S. Constitutional Law, politicians are ignorant. It does not matter if these politicians reside in local or state government, nor does it matter if they are at the federal level. The fact that these people have this belief that there are no limits to their power and that they can do anything to force their will upon people and individuals is not only frightening but also disgusting.
- There are politicians that believe that they have a right to restrict political speech using campaign finance laws and other legislation and force.
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- Written by: Joseph Dunsay
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Democratic politician Rev Al Sharpton joined left-wing groups in opposing a billboard in New York City. The group that sponsored the billboard took it down in response to their pressure. Sharpton said, "We have a right to our personal views, but we don't have the right to offend people." Sharpton's comment shows his contempt for freedom of the press. The very purpose of freedom of the press and freedom of speech is to allow offensive content. Content that does not offend anyone does not need legal protections. Offended people have every right to protest content that they don't like, but when a politician declares that we have no right to offend, it has a chilling effect on our civil liberties.
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An article covering one of our convention speakers, Brian Aitken, has been published on The Daily Caller.
Some men find religion in prison. Brian Aitken found liberty.
Convicted last year in New Jersey of illegally transporting firearms, Aitken spent four months in state prisons before Republican Gov. Chris Christie commuted his seven-year sentence to “time served” and let him go free. Now that he’s out, Aitken, once an aspiring entrepreneur, is a professional libertarian activist.
Read the full article here.
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- Written by: Joseph Dunsay
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Libertarians are often portrayed as Republicans who want to legalize pot. This is a gross simplification. We also want to legalize prostitution. We understand that a person has the right to do what he wants with his body and to manage his own economic transactions. Legalized prostitution is a natural ramification of these rights. Currently, Nevada is the sole beacon of liberty when it comes to prostitution. Each Nevada county can decide on prostitution's legal status within that county. It is legal in 10 Nevada counties and illegal in the other 7 counties. On Tuesday, Democrat Senator Harry Reid said that Nevada should ban prostitution to stimulate its economy, proving that the Left's fetish for centralized economic planning extends all the way to our bedrooms. Reid's suggestion is an assault on our liberties, and the available data suggests that his premise is wrong.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
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After hearing so much on the protests in Wisconsin, I have taken a look at the text of the law. The proposed law ends the ability of most public workers to collectively bargain. While I recognize that public sector unions have become way too powerful, this is not a law I could support.
Every individual should have the right to associate with whatever group they decide and to choose to allow others to negotiate for them. This law coercively strips away the rights of individuals.
The bigger problems with public sector unions is existing state coercion. As a Voluntarist, I find that more coercion is not the answer, rather less coercion is needed. Instead states should:
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
In an important ruling handed down today, the Appellate Division ruled that the routine sequencing of a five-minute open session, followed by a closed session of indeterminate duration, followed by the resumption of an open session, violates the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA).
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Student Rights
In 1670, William Penn and William Mead were arrested and charged with violating the Coventicle Act. This act forbade religious assemblies of more than five people, unless they were assembling on behalf of the Church of England. Using jury nullification, the jury acquitted Penn and Mead. As a result the judge demanded that the jury not be dismissed until another verdict is reached. After announcing a decision of an acquittal four times the judge fined each of the juror's for their decision. One juror, Edward Bushel, refused to pay the fine and was imprisoned. Penn and Mead were imprisoned anyway for not removing their hats in court.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
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In every human life, there are times when one must make tough and painful choices in order to move forward. These choices may come in matters concerning one’s health and welfare, one’s emotional and psychological well being, with regards to one’s family or regarding one’s financial, moral or economic well being. These choices are very difficult and are very tough to make. Nevertheless, these choices are made everyday to secure a better tomorrow and are done bravely with great consultation. When it comes to politicians, however, it is a very different story. Often times, politicians would like to take the easy way out or make no decision whatsoever in terms of issues, policy and when it comes to deficits and spending. These are people who not only want to have their cake and eat it too, but also want to keep what they have in terms of access, money, prestige and power, not to mention control of the purse strings.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Student Rights
Government education bureaucracy has been turning our schools into a police state. This past year several New Jersey schools have implemented random drug testing of students, even in middle schools. Students and their lockers are searched without reasonable cause. Zero tolerance polices are being enforced across the state. Instead of handling minor infractions internally, the police are called and criminal charges are being filed.
A seven year old brought a Nerf style toy gun into the Hammonton Early Education Center in Atlantic County. This menacing youth is now charged with a misdemeanor criminal charge for brandishing an imitation firearm on school property.