Vows to switch registration to vote for Marco Rubio

Thomas Rhodes of the Citrus County Libertarian Party recently wrote a column on the official County LP website which he hosts, that for 2010, he's going Republican. His comments came in reaction to an editorial written by a fellow third-party advocate Henry Lamb, writing in World Net Daily, titled "Remove the Marxist Majority." From WND:

An objective analysis of the situation leads to only one conclusion: Republicans must regain the majority in the 2010 election.

The quickest way to political power is to take control of the Republican Party, in every precinct, in every county, in every state and, finally, across the nation.

There are many great candidates working hard to gain recognition, funds and ballot access in several conservative political parties. Most are working in vain. These candidates should run as Republicans in Republican primaries, and then all join in support of the winning candidate. Any conservative candidate who has any chance to be elected would have an even better chance of getting elected as a Republican than as a third-party candidate.

All conservative third parties should put their party-building on hold for a year and descend upon the Republican Party en masse, demanding that their county and every state adopt a strong, Constitution-based platform and offer only candidates whose life demonstrates respect for the Constitution. Send the mealy-mouthed RINOs packing, and present a slate of candidates who honor the Constitution and the American values that are being trashed by the Marxist majority.

Rhodes reacts with this posting at the official Libertarian Party of Citrus County website:

As much as I love the Libertarian Party, and am a libertarian at heart, and as much as I despise the big business Republican Party, ending the evil and socialist destruction of the country caused by the Democrats is more important than promoting a truly constitutionally minded libertarian that cannot win. Because Florida is a closed primary state, and because the Libertarian Party candidate cannot win, as distasteful as it is, I'm going to swallow my pride and until after the primaries next year I'm temporarily registering as a republican, to support Rubio in the primary, although not a Libertarian, his views are closest to libertarian views, and he is the most libertarian candidate running who has any reasonable chance of winning. The socialist in republcian clothing Christ must not be sent to Washington. There are enough wishy washy republicans with no principle except the dollar there already.

Sidenote: Popular Libertarian syndicated radio talk show host Neal Boortz recently moved to Florida. On his website Neals Nuze, he announced that upon becomming a Florida resident he switched his registration from Libertarian Party to Republican Party, so that he could vote for Rubio.

Editor's Note - I believe Mr. Rhodes meant to say "Charlie Crist," not Jesus "Christ," must not be sent to Washington... Quite a difference there.

Rand was libertarian Republican, before libertarian Republican was cool

Carlos Lazada of the Washington Post recently reviewed two new biographies of Ayn Rand's life. In the review he brings attention to Rand's brief stint as a libertarian Republican activist. She was even a volunteer campaign worker on the streets of New York for GOP candidates.

From the Austin American-Statesman, "Two new biographies of Ayn Rand shine light on libertarian lioness" Jan. 2:

[Jennifer] Burns, a historian at the University of Virginia, emphasizes Rand's impact on American conservatism. Though her Russian roots forever informed her politics, Rand's U.S. political awakening flowed from her revulsion against President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. She became a volunteer for Republican presidential candidate Wendell Wilkie in 1940, even conducting opposition research on FDR and blasting the president on New York City streets. "What she wanted, more than anything else," writes Burns, "was someone who would stand up and argue for the traditional American way of life as she understood it: individualism."

Rand was also supportive of Goldwater and Reagan. However, as Lazada points out, she didn't believe either one of them were as purely capitalist as she would have liked.

by Eric Dondero

Ron Paul has a Republican primary opponent for the 14th Congressional District seat in Texas. His name is Tim Graney (photo). He's a millionaire small-businessman from the Katy area (heavily populated Ft. Bend County portion of the District.)

Graney is conservative all-around. He's Pro-Defense on National Security matters, distancing himself from Paul's isolationist/non-interventionist stance.

In a recent interview just released by the conservative blog Jumping in Pools, Graney states:

TIM KNIGHT: Mr. Graney, Eric Dondero of the Libertarian Republican, who has long worked with Congressman Paul, has had enough of his Isolationist views, your thoughts?

TIM GRANEY: This is one of my major differences with Ron Paul and his isolationist/non-interventionist foreign policy ideas. Paul’s isolationist views are a danger to the safety and security of our great nation.

America is the greatest county this world has ever known and we have done more to bring freedom to others in our short existence than any other nation ever has. We tried isolationism before and that lead us into a world war where millions of people died.

Ron Paul has not only been a poor excuse for a Republican, he has been a disgrace and embarrassment to the Republican Party. This clearly showed during the last Presidential election cycle when he basically blamed America for the attacks of 9/11. In another Republican debate, it was even suggested by the moderator that Paul was on the wrong stage. Paul’s views on foreign policy are a danger to the safety and security of America. I do not have a problem with our military bases throughout the world and Paul would prefer to bring them all home, stick his head in the sand and hope the problem we face with radical Islam would just go away. Paul often votes against Israel or in support of Hamas – depending on which way you want to view his votes. He is more aligned with Democrat Dennis Kucinich than Republicans

While Graney's views are admirable, and right on target when it comes to his criticisms of Paul's foreign policy views, he falters greatly on the social agenda.

Continuing from the interview:

I am a conservative, Ron Paul is a libertarian. I do not support the legalization of drugs as Paul advocates. We do not need corner cannabis stores in America. Paul will often equate the war on drugs with the prohibition era. There is a huge difference between having a beer with dinner and taking a snort of cocaine for dessert. We do not need rampant and cheap hardcore drugs in our society.

Even the most hardened libertarian purists would not legalize cocaine right off the bat. That was a cheap and easy shot. Rather, the more mainstream libertarian approach is to support reform of marijuana laws, particularly for medicinal use. It's highly disengenuous and a bit insulting for Graney to jump to the tired old "libertarians will give crack cocaine to school children," argument. And no, there isn't a "huge difference," between a corner cannabis store in a neighborhood and a corner liquor store. In fact, studies have shown repeatedly that alcohol, leads to far more instances of driving under the influence than marijuana.

Moreover his hinting that libertarian are somehow not really Republicans is annoying to say the least.

Of course, I live in the 14th. One candidate is horrendous on foreign policy. The other, takes a really bad stance on an important civil liberties issue, and seemingly disses libertarians in the GOP. I may have to just skip this race on the ballot, or do what so many others often do: Write in Mickey Mouse.

CNN recently did a report on Nigerian-American reaction to the Christmas Day Bomber Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab. Not surprisingly, the Nigerian-American community is strongly condemning the terrorist attack, and is deeply embarrassed and ashamed of their fellow countryman. There are over 2 million Nigerians in the US.

A Nigerian-American identified as a limousine driver interviewed by CNN said, "all the Nigerians I talk to are shocked, because we don't believe in such a thing..." But added, "I know we have radical Muslims in the north..."

While the vast majority of Christian Nigerians abhor violence, and are favorable to the United States, It's the Nigerians in the Muslim-dominated nothern part of the country, where AbdulMutallab originated from, who are causing great concern. (Nigeria's population is divided virtually equally 50/50 between Christians and Muslims).

Veteran CNN reporter John Roberts then gave some stunning poll numbers just released from the Pew Research Center:

43% of Nigerian Muslims polled believed Suicide Bombings against the West were Justified

54% of Nigerian Muslims polled said they were supportive of Osama bin Laden

While the exact number of Muslims from Nigeria living in the United States is not known, the Detroit Free Press reported on Dec. 30 in an article about the area's Muslims reactions to the Christmas Day Bomber, that "There are about 10,000 Nigerian Muslims in Michigan," alone.

See the full video segment at CNN.