Beitler first to file for U.S. Senate
Posted by Brian in Elections, Federal government on February 8, 2010
Dr. Mike Beitler was the first candidate to file for U.S. Senator today. Beitler is seeking the Libertarian nomination. No other Libertarian candidate is expected to file, so Beitler will probably be in a three-way race in November.
He was joined by three Libertarian candidates for U.S. Congress at the State Board of Elections office in Raleigh. Thomas Hill filed for the 8th Congressional District and Thomas Rose filed for the 2nd CD.
Hill collected more than 300 signatures rather than pay the $1,740 filing fee. “That’s $1,740 I now have to run my campaign, rather than giving it to the government,” Hill said.
The third libertarian, Lon Cecil, is also collecting signatures in order to file for the 12th Congressional District seat. He was 40 signatures short of the required 200 certified signatures.
Beitler is business practice professor in The Bryan School of Business and Economics at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. He’s authored three business books used in MBA programs and hosts the internet radio show Free Markets With Dr. Mike Beitler on the VoiceAmerica Business Network.
It’s still the economy …
83% Blame Deficit on Politicians’ Unwillingness To Cut Spending – Rasmussen Reports™.
Most Americans get it, at least partially. It’s not about Democrats vs. Republicans. It’s about gutless politicians who refuse to cut government spending.
Unfortunately, this same poll shows that most Americans are still deluded by the duopoly’s subservience to the “military-industrial-welfare” complex. They can’t see through the sham of Obama’s proposed budget freeze, which will not affect the majority of the budget.
Annexation Law and Reform 2010
Posted by Brian in Annexation on February 4, 2010
StopNCAnnexation is holding an educational seminar on North Carolina Annexation Law and the legislative reforms being proposed and recommended March 5-6 at the Brier Creek Hampton Inn, Raleigh.
StopNCAnnexation is also planning their annual Rally for Reform June 2. This is always an interesting event, because it is the same day the taxpayer-paid lobbyists from the NC League of Municipalities schmooze with legislators.
Corporations already outspend parties
Posted by Brian in Campaigns, Corruption, State Government on February 2, 2010
From The Atlantic:
“For the first time in recent history, the lobbying, grassroots and advertising budget of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has surpassed the spending of BOTH the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee.”
Pot haze, payoffs, the moon base and missing flights
Posted by Brian in Corruption, Politicians on January 30, 2010
Some days, in fact most days, when I read the News & Observer some articles cause me to chuckle, either because they’re just funny or because they illustrate the absurdities and contradictions of real life. Often, it is because they highlight the hypocrisy and duplicity of most of the people people who purport to be our leaders, and if I didn’t laugh, I would scream. Today there were more than usual.
Pot haze invites raid on Nelson bus
It’s a good thing ALE agents are armed with Sig Sauer assault rifles. Pot smokers are a really crazy bunch. You know how many people those potheads have killed? (Trick questions. The answer is zero, zip, nada.)
The cash came from a benefactor in the rich part of the “two Americas” John Edwards always talked about.
Moon site named historic resource
In a state in debt up to its ears and which cannot pay its bills, conservationists want to save Tranquility Base. Meanwhile the Obama administration is cutting money for the space program and a return to the moon.
Perdue reports more flights and Easley’s campaign is broke
Governor Perdue can’t seem to keep track of her own travel and campaign expenses. So how can anyone expect her to keep track of the state’s budget? Neither could Governor Easley, so I supposed she learned that trait from him. Meanwhile, the governor just returned from a vacation to an undisclosed location. Presumably she flew there and back, but does she remember?
Obama is not a Marxist
Posted by Brian in Federal government, The Constitution on January 30, 2010
“Despite what some popular right-wing talk-show hosts claim, Obama is not pushing Marxism, revolutionary or otherwise. The threat is not from socialism in the sense of State ownership of the means of production, much less a proletarian uprising. Rather, he’s pushing good old American progressive-corporate elitism, or corporatism. (Some would simply call it capitalism.) It is anti-free market, but not anti-business.”
Read the full article by Sheldon Richman here.
President dismisses separation of powers
Posted by Brian in Federal government, The Constitution on January 28, 2010
The last time President Obama addressed the Congress the most controversial part probably occurred when Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie” when the president’s claimed that illegal immigrants would not get special treatment under health care reform.
Political pundits and the mainstream media talking heads called this an unprecedented breach of protocol (the most polite comment made).
Last night, the president himself committed an unprecedented breach of protocol when he claimed the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision would “open the floodgates for special interests –- including foreign corporations –- to spend without limit in our elections.”
“I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people,” the president said, looking straight at the Supreme Court justices sitting stoically in the front row.
Although he prefaced his criticism with the words “with all due deference to the separation of powers” he ignored the spirit of that principle by misinterpreting the courts decision.
The president, purportedly a Constitution scholar, expressed his disdain for the separation principle later in the speech as well. Since Congress blocked a bill to establish a fiscal commission to review the budget for “programs that we can’t afford and don’t work,” he said he would sign an executive order to set up the commission anyway.
Other than an opening remark noting the Constitutional origins of the State of the Union address, the president never cited a section or article of the Constitution to justify any of the programs he proposed.
Ron Paul’s State of the Republic Address
Posted by Brian in Federal government, The Constitution on January 24, 2010
Ron Paul won’t be the Republicans choice to give their response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. But this video series from the Campaign for Liberty is what the country really needs to hear.
“Dr. Paul argues that, contrary to establishment thinking, we are by no means out of the woods. Urging a return to common sense and sound money, Congressman Paul looks at what lies ahead for our country if we continue to spend beyond our means and rely on a fraudulence money system. Prosperity is waiting for our nation, but its return hinges on our ability to change our way of thinking in order to pursue liberty.”
Read the full text here.
Court decision may impact constitutional law beyond NC
The N.C. Appeals Court decision in the case of the LPNC vs. The State of North Carolina is a watershed decision for constitutional law with implications far beyond North Carolina, said Jason Kay, a senior staff attorney with the N.C. Institutional for Constitutional Law.
Kay was speaking about the Libertarian and Green parties challenge to the constitutionality of North Carolina’s election laws at a luncheon at the John Locke Foundation
“The very first issue the court had to determine was whether a fundamental right was involved,” Kay explained. If that is the case, he said the court should have applied the concept of “strict scrutiny.”
That means the court should have determined whether or not the state has a compelling interest in limiting ballot access and was using the most narrow and least restrictive measures in its ballot access laws.
“If it is a fundamental right, if the court says yes, then strict scrutiny applies,” he said, “which usually means the government loses.”
“If it is not (a fundamental right),” he said, “the rational basis applies, which usually means the government wins.”
The court ruled unanimously that there is a fundamental right at stake. But in a 2-1 split decision, they applied the presumption that any statue enacted by the legislature is constitutional.
“Let me quote the decision,” Kay said, “because the words are very powerful: This court presumes that any act of the General Assembly is constitutional and resolves all doubt in favor of its constitutionality.”
Big vs. bigger government candidates
Sarah Palin hasn’t shown up yet, but President Obama has visited Massachusetts to campaign for the Democratic Party’s anointed one. It’s amusing watching the Republicans salivate over the possibility of electing one of their own to the “Kennedy seat” in the U.S. Senate. It’s even more amusing listening to the mainstream media pontificate about how a GOP upset would destroy the Democrats super-majority in the Senate and doom health care reform.
Baloney!
Republican Scott Brown is as much a big government advocate as the Democrat Martha Coakley, and at least she admits it. Aa small government crusaders Michael Cloud and Carla Howell point out on their website, Brown spoke against referendum initiatives to abolish the Massachusetts state income tax and lower the state sales tax.
So pardon me if I don’t give a fig about which big government politician is elected to the Senate. Oh, by the way, there is an libertarian in the race, running as an independent by the name of Joe Kennedy. But even with that name he’s generally ignored by the media and accused of being a “spoiler” by the Republicans.
