News
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- Written by: Guest Author
- Category: Latest News
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
- Category: Latest News
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
- Category: Latest News
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
- Category: Latest News
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
- Category: Latest News
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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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
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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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
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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- Category: Latest News
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
- Category: Selected Blogs
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:
Subcategories
NJ Libertarian Blog
Imported from NJ Libertarian News from the published feed
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This is a page of various videos that we have either created or found interesting. Be sure to check out and follow our YouTube page.
Open Government Advocacy Project
The Open Government Advocacy Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to ensure transparency and accountability at all levels of government. Articles posted here are a subset of the work of the committee. For more information visit the Open Government Advocacy Project blog.
If you would like to demand accountability and ensure that your local governing body or school board adheres to the Open Public Records Act we can help you request information from them. Contact John Paff, the project chair here.
Insight New Jersey
NJ government is huge and complex. Private industry is shrinking while the size and cost of government bureacracy continues to grow. The articles posted here provide a guide of the NJ State Government and can be used by citizens and candidates for office to evaluate what departments can be reduced drastically in size.
We'll start with just some of the departments and provide a breakdown on what they do (or purport to do), how many employees they have and how big their budget is.
Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
The New Jersey Libertarian Party's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project (“the Project”) seeks to get New Jersey municipalities to repeal loitering ordinances that should have been -- but were not -- repealed when the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice was enacted in 1979. The Project has successfully had loitering ordinances repealed in over 30 towns. For a summary listing of all the towns see Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project page.
Police Accountability Project
The Police Accountability Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to search out cases of police misconduct, file former Internal Affairs (IA) complaints when appropriate, and to publicize violations of rules and laws by the police. There may be other stories posted on the NJLP Police Internal Affairs Complaint Blog page.
If you would like to help or know of a case we should be looking at, contact the committee at
Legislative Affairs Committee
The Legislative Affairs Committee was created to allow a select core of Volunteers to take action on legislation and policies which directly affects the people of New Jersey.
[INTRO VIDEO - HOSTED ON NJLP STATE YOUTUBE AND EMBEDED HERE]
Staff
Legislative Director and Committee Chair
Volunteers: