Vote for Bill Levin, Indianapolis City-County Council At-Large! Vote For Bill Levin (HQ) from Englehart Group on Vimeo.

From 1971 to 2006, the Libertarian Party had a rich and colorful history. This video documentary explores the some of the key Libertarian events, campaigns and television commercials of the late 20th century.

2011 Mayoral Candidates Office Candidate Website Facebook page Email Anderson Rob Jozwiak Facebook Columbia City Scott Wise Website Facebook Elkhart Oscar Gibson Greenfield Phil Miller Website Facebook Greenwood Jeff Spoonamore Website Facebook Indianapolis Chris Bowen Website Facebook Email Jeffersonville Bob Isgrigg New Albany Thomas Keister Website Facebook Rushville Debbie O’Neal Facebook South Bend Pat Farrell  [...]

In an already Struggling Economy and deep Depression, Police will arrest you from selling lemonade at the Washington Capital.

The Libertarian National Committee has voted to make a significant contribution to Re-election of Indianapolis City-County Councilor Ed Coleman. The LNC will contribute $50,000 to the highest ranking Libertarian official in the United States seeking to stay on the Council. Coleman was elected in 2007 to office as a Republican to an At-Large seat on [...]

Ed Coleman is an Indianapolis City-County Councilman. He won election four years ago as a Republican running at-large, but before long, he grew very disenchanted with the Republican Party and the dictatorial leadership on the Council that wanted him to vote contrary to his principles and conscience, and toe the line. So, he defected to the [...]

Anti-Islamist author dragged off his bike, tied to a tree, and beaten to a pulp, near Toronto. His house later ransacked.

From Eric Dondero:

In 2005, Islamist critic Theo van Gogh was knocked off his bicycle by a Muslim attacker and stabbed repeatedly in the chest in the streets of Rotterdam. He had produced a film critical of Islam. Van Gogh died from his injuries on the street, as passers-by looked on.

Now, here in North America, a near repeat of the Van Gogh episode.

From EuroSon, "Author attacked..." Aug. 27:

Dipersico was attacked by two Muslim men who referred to him by another F-word: “faggot.” According to the Toronto Sun, Dipersico was ”dragged from his bicycle Aug. 17, tied up among trees, then beaten briefly unconscious” by them... they were offended by Dipersico’s flamboyant book, in which he talks about drugs, sex, and, occasionally, Islam — in not an altogether flattering light.

He believes “Islam is a Religion of ‘peace’ and Muslims will kill you to prove it.” Being brought up in a Muslim household himself he questions the very existence of God.” [Dipersico also challenges the sanctity of Ramadan and Koranic verses.]

“His book Wake Up Call is not only considered blasphemous and pornographic but also explicit due to his excessive use of drugs and alcohol.”

After the attack, his house he shares with cousin Gabrielle Dipersico — who contributed to the book, and who is pictured on the cover — was broken into, and Paris’s Back-up files were stolen.

Note - a check of popular websites claiming to be "libertarian," (Reason, Cato.org, LewRockwell.com, Daily Paul, LP.org, et.al.) shows no coverage of this story.

H/t Vled

A man with feelings better fit for the Job

From Eric Dondero:

Peggy, you didn't really write that did you?

From the WSJ, "Perry's Popping-Off Problem - The Republican candidate comes across well as consistent and sincere, but his quick-draw machismo will scare voters away" Aug. 26:

His primary flaw appears to be a chesty, quick-draw machismo that might be right for an angry base but wrong for an antsy country. Americans want a president who feels their anger without himself walking around enraged…

[T]he nation is roiling and restive. After Mr. Obama was elected, the right became angry, feisty, and created a new and needed party, the tea party. The right was on fire. The next time a Republican wins, and that could be next year, it will be the left that shows real anger, with unemployment high and no jobs available and government spending and services likely to be cut. The left will be on fire. The only thing leashing them now is the fact of Mr. Obama.

So there will be plenty of new angers out there. It probably won’t be helpful if the next president is someone likely to add to the drama with a hot temperament or carelessness.

H/t Bryan Preston

"Rock Star" Minnesota Congresswoman - Cut Taxes; Abolish EPA; Repeal Fed Health Care

From Eric Dondero:

The event was the Solivita Republican Club meeting in Polk County, Florida. Republican presidential hopeful, Michele Bachmann gave a rousing speech 43 minute speech "focused almost entirely on fiscal and foreign affairs issues"

From the Orlando Sentinel, "Bachmann rocks Solivita" Aug. 27:

"We need a coalition of social conservatives, and fiscal conservatives, and national security conservatives and peace through strength conservatives, and I bet we have a couple of Tea Partiers here today too," she said. "If we work together, I will tell you, we are a team that can't be beat in 2012."

She continued:

She did not disappoint them, pledging to repeal the federal health care reform act, abolish the Environmental Protection Agency and dramatically reduce taxes on the highest tax brackets, for people she called "the job creators."

Photo credit - Allure.com

Uses the 'S' word for the very first time?

From Eric Dondero:

At a campaign event in Iowa, a local challenged Ron Paul about his views on radical Islam. Paul shot back in typical Ron Paul fashion.

From the Des Moines Register, "Paul says US intervention motivated 9/11 attacks":

“I don’t see Islam as our enemy,” Paul said. “I see that motivation is occupation and those who hate us and would like to kill us, they are motivated by our invasion of their land, the support of their dictators that they hate.”

But of particular interest to pro-defense libertarians, Paul seemingly acknowledged that Sharia Law might be a concern. Continuing:

“After 9/11, (people said) ‘Oh yeah, it’s those very bad people who hate us,’ but 15 of (the hijackers) came from Saudi Arabia,” said Paul. “One of the reasons they attacked us, is we propped up this Sharia government and the fundamentalists hated us for it.”

“That was one of the main motivations for getting your attention on why they hate us and want to kill us,” he said. “You could send 20 million people over there and all it would do is make our problems worse.”

Editor's comment - Could it be that our constant pro-defense libertarian haranguing of left-libertarians on their hypocrisy over Sharia Law might just be getting through? Even the top non-interventionist is now using the 'S' word.

PRO-DEFENSE LIBERTARIAN MOVEMENT

From Eric Dondero:

A relatively new blog - JakeFinnegan.com - has a series running called "Burkalesque Babes." Jake highlights photos of hot American actesses and musical artists. He explains:

Burkalesque babes is an ongoing series detailing just exactly what we’ll lose if Sharia law were ever to be implemented in the West.

One of his first features is Katy Perry. Ms. Perry got into a hot dispute recently when she Tweeted out her support for Israel: “My prayers are for you guys tonight, Shalom!!! Please pray with us.” For that she was called "a whore" and a "heartless lesbian," on a number of Islamist sites. She was forced to re-Tweet and retract her remarks.

But as Jake points out, regardless, do we really want to let Islamists cover up this awesome looking American chic in an ugly black bag?

Please visit Jake's website to see more hot photos of Katy, and other super-hot American Babes.

From Eric Dondero:

A move to overturn the centuries-old restriction that only naturalized US citizens can run for the presidency, perhaps?

From Roll Call:

The Federal Election Commission is showing signs that it might allow a Guyana-born American citizen to file papers and raise money to run for president of the United States.

The agency released two draft advisory opinions Friday that could permit New York lawyer Abdul Hassan to go through the initial steps to run for president.

Though, as Roll Call later notes, the FEC has yet to make a final decision on the matter.

Hassan, an NYC attorney, is denying any ties to the Obama campaign, and any motivations outside of him just being a "political junkie." He is running on a platform of selling Treasury Bonds to get rid of the national debt.

To be replaced by "Burqa Beach Babes"

From Eric Dondero:

Ah, yes, the "Arab Spring."

The Obama administration is touting their foreign policy successes in Egypt, and Libya.

Now this from AllHeadlineNews "Egypt’s Brotherhood declares war on the bikini":

Sunbathing in Alexandria may soon be a thing of the past, at least if some Egyptian Islamist politicians have their way.

Egypt's tourism industry has suffered a severe blow since the outburst of anti-regime demonstrations in January. But that did not stop the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, from demanding stricter regulations over what tourists can do and wear while visiting the country. The party is urging officials to ban skimpy swimwear and the consumption of alcohol on Egyptian streets.

"Beach tourism must take the values and norms of our society into account," Muhammad Saad Al-Katatny, secretary-general of Freedom and Justice, told Egyptian tourism officials on Monday. "We must place regulations on tourists wishing to visit Egypt, which we will announce in advance."

Note - A check of so-called "libertarian" websites who claim to support civil liberties, such as Reason, Cato.org, Radley Balko, LewRockwell.com, Daily Paul, NolanChart, et.al. shows not a one of them covering this story.

Photo - Egyptian beaches, credit - SydneyMorningHerald & Bare Naked Islam.

by Clifford F. Thies

When was the last really big one, 2005? And, for going on six years this is the best we can come up with?

Well, since Tropical Storm Irene (no longer even a Cat 1 hurricane) is what we have to work with, Mayor Bloomberg of New York has ordered the 250,000 residents of the Far Rockaway section of the city to evacuate.

Here are some photos of the people of Far Rockaway shivering with fear and desperation, trying to flee. Notice the rampant looting, the abandoned buses in the school parking lots, and the hooligan police shooting people trying to cross over the bridge.

Among those ordered to evacuate are people in hospitals and nursing homes, along with others with chronic illnesses that make it difficult or dangerous to move anywhere fast.

One news story quotes Dr. Irwin Redlener of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University. He says moving people who are ill or feeble can even cause deaths.

But, Mayor Bloomberg believes it's better to be safe than sorry.

To help people evacuate with their pets, the Metropolitan Transit Authority has relaxed rules against the bringing of animals on the subway. Exactly how this is supposed to work, I don't really know, since the subways terminate in the Bronx. Perhaps that's where FEMA, the National Guard, the blue helmets of the UN, and Paul Krugman's Space Aliens will pick them up.

Photo credit - AP

MSNBC is reporting, "Ron Paul: No FEMA response necessary":

"We should be like 1900; we should be like 1940, 1950, 1960," Paul said. "I live on the Gulf Coast; we deal with hurricanes all the time. Galveston is in my district.

"There's no magic about FEMA. They're a great contribution to deficit financing and quite frankly they don't have a penny in the bank. We should be coordinated but coordinated voluntarily with the states," Paul told NBC News. "A state can decide. We don't need somebody in Washington.

Editor's note - This is the Ron Paul we love here at Libertarian Republican: The hardline free market/limited government side. (Not the far-out foreign policy stuff.)

Republican making a Libertarian Wet Dream come true?

From Politico, via AP:

The Minnesota congresswoman told supporters at a packed sandwich shop that the corporate income tax needs to be reduced because companies are moving to other countries to save money. She was later asked by a reporter whether changes to the minimum wage should also be considered to balance the cost of labor here and overseas.

"I'm not married to anything. I'm not saying that's where I'm going to go," she said.

She did say she wants to look at all aspects of doing business, from regulations to tax codes, and will consider anything that will help create jobs. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour

Editor's comment - More evidence Republicans getting their stance straight from the Libertarian Party platform.

Solid 'B' from Cato, High ranks from Club for Growth

Excerpted, ?"Front-runner for a reason" columnist Deroy Murdock, BostonHerald.com:

His record should satisfy limited-government conservatives far more than Romney’s...

The libertarian Cato Institute’s Report Card on America’s Governors gives Perry straight Bs and Romney consistent Cs.

Cato praised Perry for introducing “a zero-based budget to force the state agencies to justify their continued existence and funding levels” and noted that he has presided over moderate increases in the Texas budget. Cato applauded Perry’s “substantial achievement:” a $6 billion property tax cut in 2004. However, Cato criticized Perry for partially offsetting this tax relief with a cigarette tax hike and a gross receipts tax on business.

Cato observed that Romney’s “first budget, presented under the cloud of a $2 billion deficit, balanced the budget with some spending cuts, but a $500 million increase in various fees was the largest component of the budget fix.” Cato also saw that Romney “proposed modest increases to the budget and line-item vetoed millions of dollars each year, only to have most of those vetoes overridden.”

On health care, the free-market Club for Growth lauds Perry for expanding managed care within Medicaid. After Perry’s lawsuit reforms, “the number of insurance companies offering medical malpractice insurance soared 650 percent.”

Editor's note - Deroy is a syndicated columnist who writes for National Review and a friend of this website.

Or, alternative title - "Dancing on the Green Jobs Grave"

From USAToday, "Chevrolet Volt prospects are starting to lose interest" Aug. 15:

Interest in buying the $39,995 plug-in car is starting to taper off, not only among "early adopters" but among lots of other buyers, reports CNW Marketing...

In March, more than 21% of early adopters said they were very likely to consider the GM vehicle. In the July study, that figure had dropped to 14.6%...

"In fact, all categories of new-car intenders are reporting less likelihood of even considering the vehicle."

From the NY Times, "Number of Green Jobs fails to live up to Promise" Aug. 19:

In the Bay Area as in much of the country, the green economy is not proving to be the job-creation engine that many politicians envisioned. President Obama once pledged to create five million green jobs over 10 years. Gov. Jerry Brown promised 500,000 clean-technology jobs statewide by the end of the decade. But the results so far suggest such numbers are a pipe dream.

A study released in July by the non-partisan Brookings Institution found clean-technology jobs accounted for just 2 percent of employment nationwide and only slightly more — 2.2 percent — in Silicon Valley. Rather than adding jobs, the study found, the sector actually lost 492 positions from 2003 to 2010 in the South Bay, where the unemployment rate in June was 10.5 percent.

Editor's comment - They sure had some hot shapely dancing girls though.

Release...

Aug. 19

WASHINGTON - As unemployment in the United States remains stuck above 9 percent, Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict released the following statement:

"Every time politicians say they're going to create jobs, they end up destroying more jobs than they create.

"Here's the Libertarian approach to unemployment: cut taxes and spending, and let the free market work. [emphasis added]

"Government intervention in the free market is what causes unemployment. There are many examples of this, well known to many economists. Minimum wage laws cause unemployment. Government-mandated unemployment insurance causes unemployment. Welfare and food stamps cause unemployment. Occupational licensing laws cause unemployment.

"One especially destructive factor is government prohibition of at-will employment. Because the government won't let employers hire, maintain, and fire employees on a truly at-will basis, it makes employment much riskier. Employers are scared to hire people because it can be so difficult to fire them if they don't work out, and employers are sometimes even scared to interview people because they might be forced to hire them. The result? More unemployment.

"What about all the 'stimulus spending' we've seen during the last two administrations?

"Stimulus spending doesn't create jobs, it destroys them. The government spends money by extracting it out of the productive private sector, which causes a net loss of jobs.

"Stimulus spending makes our future less secure, without doing any good in the present. It destroys jobs today, as well as down the road.

"Back in 2009, the Obama administration was worried that unemployment might reach 8 percent. So they pushed through a massive stimulus program, and employment went up even higher, to 10 percent. The stimulus program made our problems worse.

"And in 2008, George W. Bush championed a counterproductive plan to send $300-$600 stimulus checks to millions of people.

"Republicans and Democrats in the federal and state governments need to stop trying to help, because they're only making things worse. Instead, they need to get out of the way and let us free Americans solve the problem ourselves."

LP.org

Complete fabrication of story meant to embarrass Missouri GOP

From Eric Dondero:

Politico's so-called hot shot "Investigative Reporter" David Catanese ran a 12 paragraph "gotcha" story on MO Lt. Governor candidate and libertarian Republican Peter Kinder. The left-leaning Politico alleged that Kinder has had a scurilious relationship with an ex-Penthouse Pet. Both Kinder and Tammy Chapman acknowledge they're longtime friendship. But Catanese is alleging that Kinder, a single man, visiting St. Louis area gentleman's clubs has caused the Missouri GOP to reconsider him as a potential candidate for Governor.

The executive director of the Missouri Republican Party has privately warned Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder the party will pull its support for his gubernatorial candidacy if evidence surfaces he's lying about the extent of his relationship with a former Penthouse Pet or similar allegations are proven true, POLITICO has learned.

Lloyd Smith, a veteran GOP operative who has a long history with Kinder and now heads the party, delivered notice to the lieutenant governor within days after the Riverfront Times published a damning photograph of Kinder with a stripper at a pantless bar, according to a Missouri Republican with knowledge of the conversation.

Now this update to the story "hot shot" Catanese was forced to post.

UPDATED @ 11:10 PM: Missouri GOP spokesman Jon Prouty phones to say that the story is untrue. "The conversation between Lloyd and Peter that you're reporting on is not true. That conversation did not happen," he said.

When asked about what Smith has said to Kinder about the allegations, Prouty said he was not privy to specifics but that the executive director did not convey to Kinder he would pull his support.

What Catanese and other left reporters/bloggers don't seem to get, is that the GOP is much more libertarian these days, than in the past. Daliances with risque performers, visits to gentleman's clubs don't carry the same punch in GOP circles as they used too in the days of religious right dominance.

In fact, as the libertarian wing emerges, it's increasingly becomming a plus.

Photo credit - ThePitchNews.com Photo below - MO GOP Exec. Dir. Jon Prouty.