News
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Selected Blogs
Our current income tax system, inaugurated in 1913 with the adoption of the 16th Amendment, began with a 1 percent tax on taxable income above $3,000 ($4,000 for married couples). A series of surcharges of up to 6 percent were applied to higher incomes, with the maximum rate being 7 percent on taxable income over $500,000. Less than 0.5 percent of the population ended up paying income tax.
From these humble beginnings, the income tax soon blossomed, thanks to World War I, into a tax with a minimum rate that doubled and a maximum rate that reached 77 percent on income of over $1 million.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
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The James Madison Center filed two federal lawsuits on Friday, April 3, 2009, to challenge the IRS definition of "political intervention," which has been used by the IRS to stifle the legitimate speech activities of many non-profit organizations.
For decades the IRS has applied an "all the facts and circumstances" test to the grass roots lobbying, issue advocacy and voter education activity of non-profits to determine if the non-profit has actually engaged in prohibited political activity. Furthermore, this vague IRS test has been exploited by some liberal groups to threaten and harass churches and other non-profits, causing many of them to be fearful of IRS retribution if they discussed moral or public policy issues. Non-profits have even shied away from legitimate grass roots lobbying activity in fear that it will be considered political intervention. As a result, the legitimate speech activities of many non-profits have been chilled and their free speech rights infringed.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
Over a period of time, I been hearing this phrase that there are "businesses that are too big to fail." Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey stated that of the automobile industry with regards to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford when he wrote me in response to an online letter that I sent him. Now it seems like that is the case with regard to every industry, particularly the newspapers.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
Washington DC - Effective September 1, 2009 the federal government shall be transitioning to four digit acronyms for all of its agencies. The current use of three digits only allows for only 1,692 combinations (accounting for unusable acronyms due to current usage). Transitioning to four digits will allow for over four hundred thousand combinations.
This change is necessary because with the current growth rate the federal government is expected to run out of usable acronyms by the summer of 2010. Existing agencies will have an A added to the end (unless such use conflicts with an existing usage).
The Office of Federal Registry (OFRA) shall shortly be publishing a list of all updated acronyms.
Heard on Off the Hook.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
Read the full article...The mother of the New Jersey girl whose death inspired Megan's Law is criticizing prosecutors who charge teenagers with child porn for distributing nude photos of themselves.
Maureen Kanka said Thursday that the prosecutors are harming the children more than helping them.
Her comments came as authorities in Passaic County charged a 14-year-old girl with child pornography for posting nude photos of herself on MySpace.com.
If she is convicted, she would have to register with the state as a sex offender under Megan's Law.
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- Written by: Sean Colon
- Category: Chair's Report
Hello Libertarians,
The NJ Libertarian Party Convention was a rousing success. It was wonderful to see other Libertarians who saw the future with as much optimism as I do. The speakers were fantastic, including Wayne Allyn Root, Jim Bennett, Howard Kupferman, and Walter Luers. I cannot imagine a better lineup than what we had at this convention. We have video of the speakers and when it has been posted online I will inform everyone. The elections also went well with the following results:
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Latest News
In an unpublished decision released today, the Appellate Division affirmed a trial court's dismissal of Doris Lin's First Amendment case against the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders. The decision is on-line HERE.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
The NJLP's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project has recently succeeded in getting two Salem County municipalities--Pilesgrove Township and Woodstown Borough--to repeal their loitering ordinances.
Pilesgrove finalized the repeal of their ordinance on March 19th, Woodstown repealed their ordinance on March 24th.
For more information, see LP Of Central NJ Loitering Page
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
In a March 25, 2009 letter, the High Bridge (Hunterdon County) Board of Education agreed that its committees (e.g. Policy Committee, Personnel Committee, etc.) will now take minutes of their meetings. This change was made in response to a March 6, 2009 request from the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project. The request and the response are available HERE.
Readers may wish to submit an OPRA request for the minutes of their local school boards' committee meetings. If they find that the committees do not take minutes of their meetings (i.e. if the OPRA request is answered "there are no responsive records") they may wish to send the correspondence at the above link to the board members and ask that they consider adopting the High Bridge Board's procedure.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
On March 19th, two Chicago Alderman (Anthony Beale in the 9th Ward and John Pope in the 10th) announced plans to propose an ordinance that would deputize private security officers working on the south side and elsewhere, to write summonses and tickets from speeding on down. This ordinance was inspired by an experiment that occurred in Marquette Park, Illinois where private property owners paid security to secure and police their areas. The experiment has proved to be successful.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Letters to Editor
Published in My Central Jersey
Don't always look for the negatives
It has been my personal experience that in every human being, there is the need to believe in the worst. This is especially true when it comes to other human beings.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Letters to Editor
Dear Editor,
It has been my personal experience that in every human being, there is the need to believe in the worst. This is especially true when it comes to other human beings. I find it fascinating and sad at the same time. For example, we want to believe the worst of a neighbor or another person when we have never talked to him or her or know them on a personal level. We ridicule and demean them. This habit is prevalent in every small town in the U.S. and my hometown of Kenilworth, New Jersey is no exception.
We want to believe rumors or innuendos about a group of individuals, when we have never had discussions with them or met with them personally at all. This has happens to be the case with groups associated with libertarian and conservative causes.
This is especially true about political figures as well; even before they take to the microphone. The mainstream press wanted to believe in the worst about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, particularly the rumor about how her Down syndrome infant was not hers. We want to believe that those who have differences of viewpoint or opinion from our own are ugly, morally inferior, uneducated and narrow minded. Often, the direct opposite is true.
What is needed in this society, and what is surely lacking because of political correctness, I believe, is open-mindedness. It is unfortunate that those in charge of the culture-i.e. the press, entertainment, television, etc-and those dominate in the community do not practice that at all. We are left to believe the ugly and the abominable and because of this, we close our minds to humanity and to the human good.
Sincerely
Alex Pugliese
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- Written by: Sean Colon
- Category: Selected Blogs
The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the deficit from 2010 to 2019 will be $9.3 trillion, 2.3 trillion higher than previously estimated by Pres. Obama's administration. What a big surprise, Obama underestimated his spending when he plans to increase the size government to the largest it has ever been in US history. This should have not been a shocking revelation to anyone. If you add up the costs of the bail out, continuing troop deployment, his universal health care plan, education reform, energy programs, blah de blah blah then it should be easy to understand why the deficit is going to be huge.
You can find the article here.
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- Written by: Sean Colon
- Category: Selected Blogs
President Obama has finally done something right. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced yesterday that the Justice Department will no longer be raiding Medical Marijuana dispensaries. The bad news is that this is being done to focus more on other aspects of the drug war such as going after the dealers who are selling Marijuana illegally (as defined by state and federal law). Pres. Obama took a very small step in the right direction but for the wrong reason. He should not be stopping the raids because he needs to redirect his Justice Department resources but rather because it was a flawed policy to begin with.
You can find the article on here.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
March 19, 2009
Office of Professional Standards
New Jersey State Police
810 Bear Tavern Road - Suite 310
West Trenton, NJ 08628 (via Fax only to 609-882-2033)
RE: Complaint against Troopers Locchetto and Howell
Dear Sir or Madam:
Today, I read the Appellate Division's unpublished decision in State v. Vernett Shaw and Paul Green, Docket No. A-4829-07T4, on the Judiciary's Internet site [Endnote 1]. After reading it, I came away with the conclusion that it's the policy and practice of the New Jersey State Police to conduct motor vehicle searches without regard to whether or not a search warrant is legally required.
As a life-long New Jersey resident, I was distressed at what I read and decided to file an Internal Affairs complaint against Troopers Lewis Locchetto and Howell [Endnote 2] for their actions arising out of a motor vehicle stop occurring at about 9:40 p.m. on February 24, 2007. Please accept this letter as my complaint.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
In a published decision released today (March 17, 2009), the Appellate Division held that the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) did not permit Monmouth County to withhold from the public an agreement that the county entered into to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit. The Appellate Division also ruled that the Asbury Park Press and I, who had filed separate OPRA lawsuits seeking access to the settlement agreement, were entitled to recover our attorney fees from the county. I was represented by attorney Walter Luers at both the trial court and the appellate levels.
The decision is on-line at NJ Judiciary website.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
The Mercatus Center of George Mason University has released a report studying the level of freedom in the United States. They rank each state based on economic, social, and personal Freedom. Unsurprisingly NJ ranked at the bottom.
New Jersey is a highly regulated state all around, #46 on economic freedom, #45 on personal freedom, and #49 overall. Taxes and spending are high. Spending on education is particularly high. Property taxes are among the highest in the country, and individual income taxes are also high. Gun control is extensive. Marijuana laws are subpar. New Jersey has primary seat-belt enforcement, motorcycle and bicycle helmet laws, a cell phone driving ban, an open-container law, sobriety checkpoints, and mandatory liability and personal injury coverage for automobiles. Fireworks are prohibited. Asset forfeiture is largely unreformed. Cigarette taxes are stratospheric, and smoking bans are as draconian as any in the country. On the positive side, alcohol is taxed fairly reasonably, and, like Nevada, casino and slots gambling are legal statewide. More importantly, private and home school regulations are surprisingly light, extending only to broad curriculum requirements. Civil unions are also recognized. On economic regulation, labor laws are predictably costly, statewide land-use planning (“smart growth”) is in force, and there is extensive community rating for private health insurance. On other issues, however, New Jersey is about average.