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WASHINGTON - Wes Benedict, executive director of the Libertarian Party, issued the following statement today:
The federal government and BP share the blame for the large oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
When the CEO of BP appeared at a Congressional hearing yesterday, Republicans and Democrats predictably engaged in finger-pointing and blame-ducking, trying to score political points. Their fingers should have been pointed at themselves.
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- Written by: Julian Heicklen
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FIJA Demonstration of 5/25/10
I arrived at the U. S. District Court at 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan, NY at 11:40 am on Tuesday, May 25, 2010. It was a warm and sunny day. Immediately a Homeland Security officer approached me and told me to leave. He was joined by officer Valenti, who told the first officer that I would be arrested. I continued to pass out the American Jury Institute pamphlet entitled “A Primer for Prospective Jurors” along with my handout which reads:
The judge will instruct the jury that it must uphold the law as he gives it.
He will be lying.
The jury must judge the law as well as the facts.
Juries were instituted to protect the citizens from the tyranny of their government.
It is not the duty of the jury to uphold the law.
The jury’s duty is to see that justice is done.
At 12:00 noon Officer Barnes and a sergeant approached. Officer Barnes asked me to put down my sign, so that I would not hit him on the head with it. I declined saying that: “I am not going to hit you. It is not my style.” Officer Barnes stood 5 feet in front of me and glowered. The sergeant stood 5 feet behind me.
I passed out literature, and Barnes kept staring at me. I said to Barnes, “Nice day isn’t it.” He replied “Don’t try to be friendly with me. I am not your friend.” I apologized for offending him.
At 12:25 pm, I moved about 20 feet into the shade so that I could see the face of my cell phone better. Barnes yelled that I could not move there, but I ignored him. He placed me under arrest. Immediately I fell to the ground, as I always do when placed under arrest.
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- Written by: Len Flynn
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Longtime NJLP activist Ginny Flynn must go to Germany to get special medical treatment to try and save her life. She was diagnosed with a rare and lethal cancer Leiomyosarcoma in January 2010. Thanks to the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other medical restrictions she and her husband (currently dormant NJLP Newsletter Editor) Len have to travel to Prien Germany for the treatment.
The treating physician Rigdon Lentz, MD is an expatriate American doctor driven out of the USA and prosecuted and fined by FDA for botching the clinical paperwork requirements for his cancer treatment device. The “immunepheresis” device removes blockers that cancer cells have to hinder the body’s immune system (Tumor Necrosis Factor [TNF]). It is approved for sale in the European Union but not here in the USA.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Today, June 11, 2010, Judge Kathryn Brock heard more argument in my OPRA and common law access case against the Borough of Garwood. At issue, readers may recall, is a DVD of former Garwood Police Officer Gennaro J. Mirabella, while in uniform, entering the locked office of Garwood's Chief Financial Officer and opening her desk drawers.
Background on the case can be found at OPRA Case To Be Heard In Union County and Interesting Friday In Judge Brock's Courtroom.
First, Judge Brock decided that Mirabella, since he has not contacted the court with a request to be heard, is not interested in the case and thereby has conceded that he has no claim that his privacy would be violated by release of the DVD.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
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Diner: "Waiter, theres a fly in my soup!"
Waiter: "Your soup? We don't respect private property anymore, its his soup too."
Unable to purchase an old Sears building in Camden using fair negotiations, Campbell Soup Company has asked the Camden Redevelopment Authority to use government force to acquire the property for them.
Campbell soup has begun a revitalization of the area known as the Gateway neighborhood. In 2007 the State of NJ named Campbell as the master developer of the area. Campbell has invested heavily in the Camden area, building a new headquarters.
The old Sears building sits in Campbell's redevelopment area. The current owner, Ilan Zaken, refuses to sell, so Campbells has resorted to using the guns of government to take this property. Campbell Soup wishes to tear down the building and turn the area into an office park. Mr. Zaken has slowly been fixing up the building with plans to turn it into a restaurant supply distribution center.
The threat of of eminent domain exists throughout the city. This past April, the Camden Redevelopment Authority sent threatening letters to four homeowners notifying them that their homes would be taken from them. The Abandoned Properties Rehabilitation Act of 2004 authorized the theft of private property.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
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The Soprano State Illustrated:
Assemblyman David P. Rible retired as a Wall Township police officer at age 31 with a bad back and a fat pension. He's collected $570,000 in disability payments since a state board decided he was "totally and permanently disabled."
Yet Rible competes in five-mile and five-kilometer runs along the Jersey Shore. He exercises at a gym, dances as a celebrity and hauls trash to the curb at his Monmouth County home. He commutes to Trenton to represent the 11th District in the State Assembly, where he holds a leadership position as Republican Whip and seeks publicity as a tax-fighter.
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It's been 75 years since the federal government, on the spurious grounds of fighting the Great Depression, ordered the confiscation of all monetary gold from Americans, permitting trivial amounts for ornamental or industrial use. This happens to be one of the episodes Kevin Gutzman and I describe in detail in our new book, Who Killed the Constitution? The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush. From the point of view of the typical American classroom, on the other hand, the incident may as well not have occurred.
From Thomas E. Wood's article "The Great Gold Robbery of 1933" in 2008. On June 5, 1933, congress, at the urging of Roosevelt, passed a resolution making it illegal to trade in gold.
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The 2010 Libertarian National Convention was held this weekend. I'm finally finding time to write about the convention.
The convention was very well attended. There were about 100 more delegates than the last non-Presidential convention. (I believe there were somewhere over 530 delegates attending) Unfortunately the New Jersey delegation was much smaller than what we were allocated. We had four delegates, myself, Kevin Ferrizzi, Dan Karlan, and Tim O'Brien. I strongly recommend that our members attend our National Conventions and regret that we had not started earlier in promoting the convention and finding delegates who would want to go.
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Julian Heicklen has been arrested for handing out Fully Informed Jury Brochures on Tuesday. Julian was arrested by Officer Clifford Barnes of the Federal Protective Service. He is currently being held at Riker's Island Anna M. Kross detention center. A court date is not scheduled until June 8th. He has been denied bail!
More information can be found on Bile's site, The Blog of Bile.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
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It bothers me tremendously whenever I hear a politician, a Hollywood celebrity or other refer to the United States as a "Democracy." While the U.S. may have some democratic traditions, it is not a "Democracy" whatsoever. The Founding Fathers had a great loathing and disdain for democracy. In fact, it was John Adams that said it best, "There is no Democracy on earth that has not committed suicide." What the Founding Fathers gave the United States was a Federal Republic. The U.S. did not start calling itself a "Democracy," until the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. From that time on, every elected official has followed suit.
A Democracy, while respecting the rights of the majority, has no respect for minority rights. In a Democracy, you can vote to raid the treasury without regard whatsoever to the fiscal health of the state. When I look at how Democracy is working in Europe and elsewhere, and in the United States, there is no question or doubt in my mind that we all are walking toward a slow and painful suicide. The trend, however, can be avoided if we go back to the wisdom of our founders and back toward constitutionally limited government.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Sometimes I receive questions that I believe may be of general interest. Here is one such question and my answer to it.
Question:
I have a question for you on OPRA and executive session minutes. My municipal council regularly meets in executive session. But, when I submit an OPRA request for those executive session minutes, my request is denied because the municipal clerk hasn't yet written up the executive session minutes even though several months have passed since the executive meeting was held. The clerk tells me that this doesn't violate OPRA because she's not required to give me records that don't exist. What can I do about this?
Answer:
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- Written by: Joe Siano
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I usually read a few verses before retiring each evening. Last night I came across this:
Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel next to the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria, Ahab said to Naboth, "Give me your vineyard to be my vegetable garden, since it is close by, next to my house. I will give you a better vineyard in exchange, or, if you prefer, I will give you its value in money."
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- Written by: Jeffrey Miron
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Jeffrey A. Miron is Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Harvard University and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. Miron blogs at http://jeffreymiron.com and is the author of Libertarianism, from A to Z, from Basic Books. |
Arizona's new immigration policy, which requires aliens to carry immigration papers and directs the police to detain "suspected aliens," has re-ignited debates over how to reduce illegal immigration. Most of this debate involves wishful thinking: the claim that stricter border controls or Arizona-like measures can make a real difference. The reality is that only four policies can significantly reduce illegal immigration.
The first is allowing more legal immigration. This point is obvious but worth emphasizing. The United States has an illegal immigration problem because it restricts legal immigration. So long as large wage differences persist between the U.S. and other countries, especially Latin America, the desire to immigrate will persist and occur illegally if it is not permitted legally.
Legal migration, moreover, is good for America and rest of the world. Immigration allows people in poor countries to seek a better life here, bringing ideas and energy with them, and it shows the world that many people still regard America as the land of opportunity. Many immigrants are far poorer than the poorest Americans, so helping them makes far more sense than operating a generous welfare state.
Restrictions on immigration are also costly, since they create black markets, generate violence, and spawn corruption. Fences and borders patrols are expensive, and they do not seem to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants. So any attempt to reduce illegal immigration should eschew enhanced enforcement and instead increase legal immigration.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
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The below article was recently published by Newsweek. I heard it being discussed on Free Talk Live this weekend. During their discussion they didn't seem to realize that it was written as satire in the vein of Jonathan's Swift famous article on how to deal with poverty. It shows how unlibertarian it would be to increase the power and size of government along our borders.
by Christopher Dickey
Immigration and IDs: A Modest Proposal
All Americans-whether brown, white, or black-should be required to carry a passport showing they are red, white, and blue.
"As an American, I cannot go to Arizona today without a passport," declared Los Angeles City Councilman Ed Reyes, one of the sponsors of a resolution to boycott Arizona's businesses because of its new immigration law. "If I come across an officer who's having a bad day and feels that the picture on my ID is not me, I can be…deported, no questions asked," the hyperbolic Reyes told the Los Angeles Times this week. "That is not American.''
As it happens, when I was in Arizona for a conference last month I carried my passport everywhere I went. Not that I really expected to be asked for it: I was born in Tennessee and my Scots-Irish, English, German, and Danish forebears got me an exemption from such tribulations, even in Arizona, simply because they were all white. The fact is, I always carry my passport. After years living and working in Europe, the Middle East, and Central America, I've grown used to the idea that cops can ask me for my "papers" any time they choose.
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By Carlos Miller
George Donnelly, the Pennsylvania videographer who was arrested last week for videotaping federal officers in front of an Allentown courthouse, is facing eight years in prison for his deed.
He is specifically being accused of striking one of the officers.
Anybody who has seen the two previous videos where Donnelly was confronted by federal officers in front of a courthouse will find these charges hard to believe.
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Whenever I see a public opinion poll, and it shows what the majority opposes and supports, I sometimes ask this question: Can a majority of the people be wrong? If one were to look at history, the answer would be at times "yes," the majority can be wrong.
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There was once a majority of people during the 18th and 19th centuries that believed that women should not have the right to vote. They further believed that women should not go to law school nor should they be allowed to inherit or buy property. It was not until the late 19th century and early 20th that the people realized the fallacy of this belief and worked hard to change it.