News
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- Written by: Lawrence M. Vance
- 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: Benjamin Martin
- 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: pugmaster
- 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: pugmaster
- 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: pugmaster
- 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
Subcategories
NJ Libertarian Blog
Imported from NJ Libertarian News from the published feed
Videos
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: