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The State of the Union is Still a State of War

January 27, 2012
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BURNET, Texas (Jan. 27) – A year ago, after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union message I wrote an op-ed entitled “The State of the Union is a State of War.” Lamentably, a year later, after his 2012 address I am compelled to write that the State of the Union is still a state of war. And there’s no sign that the wars will come to an end anytime soon, particularly so long as Democrats, Republicans, and their corporate and special interest supporters keep using our tax dollars to fund these wars so that they can benefit and profit.

President Obama used the word “fair” and “reward” several times in his speech. His vision of “fair” is to “fight obstruction with action,” by taking from those who produce and giving that money as a “reward” to those who produce nothing. His idea of “fair” is to “reward companies that keep jobs in America” by taxing companies that try to stay in business by outsourcing jobs overseas. His view of “fair” means “reward” schools that meet federally-imposed education standards by threatening to withhold money from schools that fail to do so. His concept of “fair” means forcing states to keep young people in school until they graduate or turn eighteen.

While piously declaring that there would be “no bailouts, no handouts, and no cop-outs,” the president’s address was full of promises and pledges, threats and offers of reward that are precisely some sort of bailout, handout or cop-out. His standard line was to demand Congress “send me a bill,” but threatened, “with or without this Congress I will keep taking action…” For some reason that old saying, “the blind leading the blind” comes immediately to mind when I hear our president say things like that.

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Hayes Runs for N.C. House

January 25, 2012
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Kevin Hayes of Mount Olive is running for state House of Representatives in District 4, which includes Wayne and Duplin Counties.

“I will work to restore our state to its founding principles,” said Hayes. “I will work to eliminate regulations and trade agreements which hurt our counties and the state. I will also work towards lowering the gas tax.”

Hayes said that he plans to run as an unaffiliated candidate. He has been the Wayne County Director of the N.C. Constitution Party since 2009 and a member party’s executive committee since 2010. The party is not recognized by the state.

Hayes is also secretary of Free the Vote North Carolina, a free-market based election law reform organization. Free the Vote has put together a 16-member coalition of groups from across the political spectrum to dramatically lower North Carolina’s restrictive ballot access barriers. A bill to reduce the number of signatures needed by new political parties and independent candidates to get on the ballot passed the House in June and is awaiting action in the state Senate.

He said that ballot access reform will be another of his goals if elected.

“I will fight for better election laws that will make our elections fairer and easier for people to run for office,” Hayes said. “Having already worked with Democrats and Republicans on the Electoral Freedom Act, I will be able to get to work with both sides on improving our laws, and thus our state.

Hayes promised to vote against all unconstitutional bills and spending.

Right now, he said he plans to run as an unaffiliated candidate if the reform bill passes in May. That will give him until June to file. If the bill does not pass, Hayes said he would run as Libertarian. He registered in that party in November.

This is a district where the redistricting plan passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly double-bunked two incumbent Republicans. Jimmy Dixon, in his first term representing the district, may have to face two-term Efton Sager, who currently represents district 11.

Hayes, 26 is an active member of Unity Baptist church in Mount Olive, where he serves as a video technician and works with children in the Master Club. He was born in Goldsboro.

For more information, please visit www.hayesfornchouse.com.

Hayes can also be reached at khayes@hayesfornchouse.com or 919-689-NC04 (6204).

N.C. Libertarians to Request Presidential Primary

January 23, 2012
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The North Carolina Libertarian Party will ask the State Board of Elections to conduct a Libertarian Presidential Preference Primary which may be the first in the state’s history.

The party’s executive committee directed Acting Chair J.J. Summerell to make the request which must be sent to the SBOE by February 7. The candidates listed will be R. Lee Wrights, who was born in Winston-Salem but now lives in Texas, Roger Gary of Texas, R. J. Harris of Oklahoma, Gary Johnson or New Mexico, Carl Person of New York, and Bill Still of Virginia.

However, the N.C. primary will be held three days after the Libertarian Party nominates its presidential and vice presidential candidates at a national convention in Las Vegas May 2 to 6. The North Carolina primary is May 8.

California will also hold a Libertarian primary after the party’s national convention, but the state party has no say in that decision under California law. That ballot will include nine names, according to Ballot Access News.

It is unclear what action the SBOE will take. The election law statute requires the chairs of political parties recognized by the state to submit a list of names for the primary ballot of those candidates “generally advocated and recognized in the news media throughout the United States or in North Carolina.” It also says the SBOE “shall” nominate as primary candidates all those names submitted.

The Myth of Defense Cuts

January 21, 2012
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BURNET, Texas (Jan. 21) – Despite all the hysteria, wailing and gnashing of teeth from Washington warhawks, there are no spending cuts proposed in the defense budget nor is there any change at all in our defense policy. Typical of the frenzy was the comment by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) that the “massive cuts” and supposedly new strategy “ensures American decline.”

But it’s all a charade. There is no change in defense policy, actually an offense policy, and there are no cuts in the defense budget. The actual defense budget grows steadily each year and will continue to grow. One way politicians hide this fact is that the “defense budget” does not include the actual cost of ongoing wars, which are all off-budget expenses. In a grand event staged at the Department of Defense, the president once again put on a show, employing large, grandiose words to describe small, insignificant shifts in policy in order to make it seem like there is “change.”

Anyone watching this presidential performance, or any presidential speech for that matter, might recall the scene from the Wizard of Oz when Toto pulls back the curtain: pay no attention to the man behind the podium. When you pull back the curtain, all President Obama announced was that there will be slightly less of an increase in defense spending over the next ten years. America’s foreign policy, a policy supported by both Democrats and Republicans, will remain basically nothing less than global military dominance. We will still police the world and we will still wage war wherever and whenever we please.

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The Fair Tax Isn’t Fair, It’s a Farce

January 10, 2012
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“There cannot be a good tax nor a just one; every tax rests its case on compulsion.” – Frank Chodorov

BURNET, Texas (Jan. 7) – The so-called Fair Tax is not fair; on the contrary, it is a farce based on fallacies and falsehoods. Sadly, some libertarians have fallen for the bogus arguments uttered by proponents of this national sales tax and bought into the idea that this is the “best we can hope to get.” This is a justification very similar to the flawed reasoning that induces some people to vote for the “lesser of two evils.”

One of the core values of libertarianism is the right of people to keep all the fruits of their labor. No taxes are fair. All taxes are, at their root, immoral because they involve the use of force to take money from people, money that rightfully belongs to them, and give it to others. That is why libertarians would fund most government services with voluntary user fees.

The most dangerous claim used by advocates of the Fair Tax is that it’s “revenue neutral,” that it will allow the federal government to collect just as much money as the income tax. Fair Tax supporters say this as if it were a good thing. It is not. The greatest danger facing our nation isn’t terrorism, global warming or the energy crisis. It is out-of-control, unbridled government spending. It is our $15 trillion federal debt, which grows every day.

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Most election laws are ‘flawed’

December 27, 2011
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Two of the major Republican presidential hopefuls are learning what third party and independent candidates have known for years, that ballot access laws in most states are rigged against offering voters any real choices in primaries and on election day, said Jordon Greene, president of Free the Vote North Carolina.

“If Newt Gingrich thinks it’s difficult to get on the Republican primary ballot in Virginia, he ought to try getting a new party or unaffiliated candidate on the ballot in North Carolina,” Greene said in a statement. “Then he’d understand how the major parties limit voter choice by imposing restrictive ballot access laws.

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