Endorses Paul Ryan Budget Plan

From Eric Dondero:

Rep. Roby, a former city councilwoman, now represents Alabama's 2nd Congressional District, including her hometown of Montgomery. A Tea Party favorite, she beat a longtime incumbent Democrat in 2010.

[We in Washington] are talking of measures to ease the pain at the pump. It hit home this spring, when the President promoted Brazilian made energy in Brazil, while his administration keeps energy resources here at home under lock and key. I'm pleased to report the House has passed several measures to expand domestic energy production, to help address the soaring gas prices.

The Republican budget put forward by Chairman Paul Ryan, ends the threat of job-crushing tax hikes.

Note - This website was an enthusiastic supporter of Rep. Roby's election. See LR 2010 - "Another Blue Dog bites the Dust: Martha Roby over Bobby Bright in Alabama."

A Political Party Over-Budget?

From Eric Dondero:

While both the DNC and RNC, and their congressional-elect committees, are in the red, the Nation's third largest party seems to be doing rather well.

From a press release, LP.org:

In its most recent FEC report, for the period ending March 31, 2011, the Libertarian Party reported $284,882.95 in cash with $0 in debt. At the same point four years ago, the party reported $21,962.37 in cash with $31,589.74 in debt.

Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle said, "Four years ago, we were $10,000 in the red. Now we're almost $300,000 in the black. That's a big step forward for the LP, and should help us a lot going into the 2012 campaign.

"If our candidates, volunteers, and donors keep it up, 2012 may be one of the biggest years ever for the Libertarian Party.

Anyone who has been around the Libertarian Party or for a few years, or decades, knows how unusual this is. In the late 1990s going into the early 2000s during the Harry Browne years, the Party was constantly plagued by financial hardship, and even a few fundraising scandals.

Hinkle seems to be steering the LP ship to stable financial waters. Which puts the party in an excellent position to gain 50 state ballot acess for 2012.

Note - I served on the Libertarian National Committee for two years, 1986/87. LR Senior Editor Clifford Thies served on the LNC for over a decade, including National Treasurer. He made a failed attempt in 1985 for LNC Chairman.

Photos - LNC Chair Mark Hinkle (CA), Vice-Chair Mark Rutherford (IN), Ballot Access Chair Bill Redpath (VA).

Tax Cuts & Privacy Rights

From Eric Dondero:

Philip Roesler is the newly elected leader of the Free Democrat Party (FDP). He plans to push an aggressive free market agenda in the coming months.

From M&C.com "Germany's new FDP leader sets out post-Westerwelle agenda":

Berlin - The new leader of Germany's Free Democrats party, Philip Roesler, told his party conference in Rostock Saturday how a renewed emphasis on libertarian ideals would boost the party's poll rating in the wake of the departure of former leader Guido Westerwelle.

Roesler, 38, was elected Friday to replace Westerwelle, who remains foreign minister in the FDP's governing coalition with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).

The pro-business FDP came to power with a record 14.9 per cent of the vote in the 2009 general election, but approval now hovers around the 5-per-cent mark and the party has suffered embarrassing regional election setbacks.

A central FDP demand is tax cuts, an issue which the party made a main manifesto commitment at the election, but failed to deliver.

He stressed that the FDP and CDU had jointly pledged to reduce taxes, adding, 'We are ready. We are just waiting for our coalition partner.'

He also said that data protection would become a crucial issue as international corporations had growing access to personal information - citing Apple's iPhone, the Sony Playstation and Facebook as examples of this trend.

Roesler was born in South Vietnam, and adopted into a German family as an infant.

From Eric Dondero:

Eddie Kessler, Tech Lead/Manager at Blogger sent out this message to all Blogger users.

From Blogger at Google Central:

Here’s what happened: during scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger’s behavior. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages. A small subset of Blogger users (we estimate 0.16%) may have encountered additional problems specific to their accounts. Yesterday we returned Blogger to a pre-maintenance state and placed the service in read-only mode while we worked on restoring all content: that’s why you haven’t been able to publish. We rolled back to a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11th, so your posts since then were temporarily removed. Those are the posts that we’re in the progress of restoring.

As I mentioned before, we have been with Blogger for over 6 years now. This happens maybe once a year. This time was a bit severe. Still, we appreciate our relationship with Google. And we are our thankful that they are our server.

Readers should be aware that this is going to happen once in a great while.

No more "Hokey Cokey" says the UKIP leader

From Eric Dondero:

Nigel Farage, leader of the Tea Party/libertarian-like UK Independence was interviewed by The Spectator two days before local elections nationwide. One of his questions came on France's version of UKIP. Farage called Marine Le Pen "a very, very interesting figure, fascinating. She’s different..."

Though acknowledging that her Party has a lot of "baggage" from the past, Farage went on to praise her new direction:

Her euroscepticism is genuine, more so than her father’s certainly: he used to do the hokey-cokey with us: one minute a friend, the next cast into outer dark.

It’s encouraging to hear her say the things she says on immigration and repatriating power

Marine Le Pen comes along and she says a lot of things that are different, she even said in the Telegraph over the New Year that wants to model her party on Ukip not the BNP.

Le Pen was quoted from the London Telegraph, Dec. 26, 2010:

The FN, she insisted, was neither racist nor xenophobic but simply a "patriotic" party with more in common with Britain's Ukip and its "opposition to the totalitarian character of the EU and its desire to remove people's sovereignty"

From Eric Dondero:

In the last go around, UK Independence Party received 1.5% in a very far left district in the London burbs.

This time they ran Abhijit Pandya who called for the expulsion of illegal Muslim immigrants on welfare. He gained nationwide and even worldwide publicity for his brash style and frank talk.

According to the Euro-based libertarian blog Gates of Vienna, Pandya made opposition to increasing Islamization of Great Britain a centerpiece of his campaign. Detractors inside the UKIP who felt he marginalized the Party by placing too much emphasis on the single issue of fighting Islamism labeled him a "libertarian." (UKIP Discuss Forum).

However, Pandya received 2.9%, a gain of 1.4% for the UKIP.

From Eric Dondero:

From thisiskent.com.uk:

UKIP have won their first ever borough council seat in Tunbridge Wells.

Victor Webb, the party's local leader, will represent Rusthall after edging out the sitting Tory Barry Edwards.

In a closely-fought contest, Mr Webb won 634 votes compared to Mr Edwards' 560.

Just 20 votes behind was Thomas Snook for the Lib Dems.

Mr Webb's victory brought gasps from the election count at Tunbridge Wells Town Hall.

Nationwide, UKIP won 7 Councilor seats, and is now the 2nd largest "third party" in the UK behind the Greens:

UKIP: 7
BNP: 2
English Democrats: 2

BNP = British Nationalist Party.

The Ayn Rand Party?

From Eric Dondero:

Pamela Geller, a friend of this website, may now be the most well-known spokesperson for the pro-defense wing of the libertarian movement.

In response to a question about the name of her blog by Stage Right (Breitbart.com), Pamela Geller tells how her political activism all got started - in response to the attacks on her native New York by Muslim extremists on 9/11. And she describes her dedication to Ayn Rand, and her philosophy:

INTERVIEWER: Before blogging about Islamic extremism, were you focued on free market issues, as well?

GELLER: Let me say this. Atlas Shrugs or Ayn Rand is more than about politics or ethics or capitalism. It is philosophy. I mean I consider her to be, in my mind the absolute number one philosopher, even surpassing Aristrotle.

I named the blog... Atlas Shrugs was my favorite book. So, I named it Atlas Shrugs so, you would know the nature of my knowledge. You'd understand my epistomology. If you read the book. And you would share the affection and the love that I have for her... And at the time very few people were interested in Rand.

And then Barbara Branden would write to me. And when Atlas Shrugs was 50 years-old, ya know, the Ayn Rand Institute sent me a beautiful book. It was kind of cool.

It's based on, look, my premise is individual rights. This is my premise. And this was you know the founding principle of America. The first moral government in human history... was America based on individual rights.

And everything noble, and just was the logical fidelity to that principle. And that's what I'm fighting for.

My political party is capitalism. That's my political party.

ObjectivistParty.us

1865: Miscegenation [Statute]
Unlawful for officials to issue marriage licenses to persons of African descent and the other a white person. Penalty: A misdemeanor that carried a fine between $200 and $500, or confinement in jail for three months, or both. Ministers who married such persons also guilty of a misdemeanor, and fined between $500 and $1,000, or confied in jail for six months, or both. -- JimCrowHistory.org

From Eric Dondero:

The Muslim Brotherhood has been campaigning for upcoming Egyptian elections on a platform that includes strict adherence to fundamentalist Muslim ideology. In a recent interview party leader Essam Elarian made homophobic statements and "specifically excluded gay rights" from human rights.

But the MB is taking their discriminatory policies one step further. Under MB rule, if they prevail in the elections as is largely expected, Christian Coptic men (and presumably members from any other non-Muslim faith) will be prohibited from marrying or having relations with any Muslim female.

From afrol News, Afrol.com:

At a recent rally attended by about 25,000 people in Tanta, north of Cairo, Mohammed Badie, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood was reported to state that "it is not permissible for democracy to allow what is forbidden (haram) or forbid what is allowed (halal) even if the entire nation agreed to it."

we will not allow under the pretext of national unity that a Muslim woman would get married to a Christian man which violates the Islamic law."

Ironically, as faith-based blog Crosswalk.com reported in 2010, Muslim men across the Islamic world are more than permitted to marry Christian woman, even if the woman are unwilling, and even if they are underage.

Christian girls throughout the Islamic world are being abducted and trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and coerced into domestic servitude. Equally shocking is that Muslim men are offered financial incentives when they marry a Christian girl - a technique designed by Islamic fundamentalists to convert young girls to Islam forcefully.

Of course, many people would simply call that Slavery.

From Eric Dondero:

UK Police try to hold them back. But Muslim demonstrators in London, stormed the US Embassy, and violently protested at other locations throughout the city yesterday.

One Muslim cleric leads a chant:

USA you will die! Barack Obama you will die!

The Senator is "terrified" by a Tea Party challenge from the Right

From Eric Dondero:

The Hill reports that the Senator from Maine "Facing possible Tea Party challenger, Snowe moves right."

They quote the former Young Americans for Freedom Executive Director:

“Clearly the senator has been voting more conservative over the past few months,” said Brian Darling, senior fellow for government studies at the Heritage Foundation.

“I wouldn’t consider her all of a sudden to be a conservative but she’s voting more conservatively,” he said.

Her recent votes include: against further EPA regulations; against Planned Parenthood funding; for losening restrictions on small business to boost employment; and, even a in favor of an amendment by "Tea Party favorite" Republican Senator Rand Paul seeking full congressional authorization before any presidential actions in Libya.

Democrats accuse Snowe of scrambling to appease conservative voters at home in anticipation of a possible Tea-Party challenge next year.

“For good reason, Olympia Snowe is terrified of a conservative primary challenge,” said Shripal Shah, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “Today she tried to score political points with her base at the expense of Maine’s economy and small businesses.”

Andrew Ian Dodge - electthedodge.com, is a regular reader of Libertarian Republican, and member of the Maine Republican Liberty Caucus. He is also a former statewide chairman for the ME Tea Party. He is Olympia Snowe's main challenger for the GOP nomination.

Important Note - Senator Snowe is a friend of libertarian Republicans in Maine. She even attended a recent RLC meeting to field questions from the groups members. Some libertarian Republicans, notably Governor Le Page, and stalwart Lewiston libertarian Stravos Mendros, are going against their friend Andrew Ian Dodge, and supporting Ms. Snowe. This website supports the Senator, but hopes that Andrew will continue to have a positive impact on moving her more to the libertarian position.

Mission Accomplished

From Eric Dondero:

A stunning remark last night, by America's best-known non-interventionist.

Quoted by the National Review, interview prior to South Carolina debate, asked about his foreign policy views:

“Every day we see more people moving in that direction,” he says. “I don’t think that it will be a difficult argument to make. We have accomplished what we went over there for.”

See related LR article "Ron Paul gets fired from Board of YAF (over foreign policy views)," Feb. 13.

Stepfather felt she was "becomming too Westernized"

From WNEM.com, Saginaw:

Authorities said a Minnesota man killed his 20-year-old stepdaughter in Michigan because she left home and wasn't following Islam.

Forty-five-year-old Rahim Alfetlawi was being held in the Macomb County Jail without bond after being charged with first-degree murder in the death Saturday of Jessica Mokdad at her grandmother's home in the Detroit suburb of Warren.

Warren Police Detective Lt. Michael Torey said the Coon Rapids man went to police in neighboring Center Line to report the shooting... [He] told police the gun accidentally discharged when he pulled it out, but police believe he intentionally shot her in the head.

He forced her to wear a traditional Headscarf

More from Fox News WJBK, Warren:

Jessica Mokedad’s friends and family told us that for the first time in her life, she was finally happy. She had friends and freedom, but her stepfather is accused of taking that all away.

He forced her to wear a traditional head scarf instead of allowing her to make that decision on her own, and when she stopped wearing a scarf, friends say he became furious.

“She just wants to express herself the way she wants and not what he wants,” said friend Kayla Chuba.

Stop Islamization of America SIOA.com

From Eric Dondero:

The Travis County Libertarian Party candidates bi-annual forum has grown into an influential, and must attend ritual for Austin office-seekers.

This year virtually all the candidates for Austin City Council showed up. And by all accounts lots was learned and the candidates had a fun time.

One incumbent - Randi Shade pronounced she's more "Libertarian" than we may think. Significant, as she's a Democrat. A quick check of her records shows she's mostly about affirmative action programs for special interest groups, and expanding city services. But she does have a libertarian streak on one single issue - she fought against more regulations imposed on street vendors.

The Austin Post has full coverage of the forum, with some zany highlights fitting for a city that espouses itself on bumper stickers "Keep Austin Weird." Like, who ever knew flouridation of city water was such a hotly contested issue.

But a bit of a controversy has enused post-forum. The Post leads its coverage:

Did you know Max Nofziger enjoys pat downs? Did you know Kathie Tovo and Randi Shade have used marijuana, but Kris Bailey has not? That and much more was on display Wednesday night at the Travis County Libertarian Party (TCLP) forum for Austin City council candidates.

In the comments section a Bailey supporter quickly shot back:

I believe it would be more accurate to say Kris Bailey "does not" (smoke pot)...he said "it's been a long time." So we can't fault him for never having given it the ol' college try 😉

And the next day Bailey himself corrects the record:

The question was "Have you ever smoked pot" and my answer was in fact "it's been a long time." I certainly have done this in the past but it has been many years, so that would be a slight error in the article here. I was making the point that even though I do not smoke marijuana, I believe firmly that the laws surrounding it are wrong and create criminals as opposed to stopping crime. Hence, I am trying to loosen the laws and reduce the amount of resources being used to pursue marijuana related arrests.

Photos - candidates Shade and Bailey.

"Young people in the Middle East are just lapping up Bollywood; the songs, the dance, the hot babes... they just love this stuff"

by James Fryar

Some time ago Libertarian Republican featured a Muslim model and actress, Veena Malic, who earned the ire of Clerics by appearing in an Indian reality show. When challenged by one of them she fought back and became something of a heroine across the web.

From LR, "Hot Pakistani Actress taunts prudish Muslim Cleric on Indian National TV" March 18:

Veena Malik fled to India for her acting career. Now Pakistan's Culture Police are on her tail, attempting to lure her back to Pakistan.

Notes the narrator in this Reason video:

The Number of people who watch Bollywood is larger than Hollywood, 4 billion to 3.6 billion

Islamic radical clergy have been railing about the effect of western music, which they wanted, banned as it distracts youth from their religious duties. I have always advocated that we hit them with rock and roll; they have no defense mechanisms against it.

The new threat to them seems to be Bollywood. I can’t say I’m surprised, damn nice chicks, and catchy.

James Fryar lives in central Australia. He is publisher of Real World Libertarian, which covers world events from a pro-defense libertarian view.

Photo credit - India-Forums.com

Tonight's show will focus on the Palin Doctrine and the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Showtime 8PM CST

Call in at 949-203-4821 or stream here.

Fmr. PA Sen.: Majority will over Individual Rights

From Eric Dondero:

The long-awaited South Carolina GOP debate occured last night in Greenville. Both Ron Paul and Gary Johnson took strong stances in favor of drug legalization. Paul even acknowledged he favored legalizing heroin. Johnson emphasized marijuana.

From Greenvilleonline.com "GOP debate airs libertarian views":

“I think as a result of my candidacy, a lot of people will be talking that wouldn’t be talking about it otherwise, and it’s an issue that does really well under the light of day, with a little light shined on it.”

He continued with some surprisingly encouraging words for the Republican Party.

“I’m trying to grow the Republican Party,” he said in response to a question from GreenvilleOnline.com. “I do believe that the Republican Party is the only party capable of fixing what’s going on right now, which is the fact that we’re bankrupt.”

One GOPer was not happy with Johnson and Paul's stance.

The drug issue was distasteful to former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who claims to hold to moral values of the nation’s founders.

“Laws reflect the collective morality of our people,” he said. “This idea that people should be able to go and do whatever they want and it doesn’t really matter as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody, that’s not our founders’ view of freedom.”

Sidenote; Herman Cain, Johnson, Paul, Tim Pawlenty and Rick Santorum were the participants. The overwhelming consensus from the right blogosphere, and from a flash poll by Frank Luntz on Hannity's show, was that Herman Cain was the clear winner.

Photo credit - WMUR-NH

LAPORTE, IN – On April 30, Libertarians from around Indiana gathered to elect their leadership for the next two years. Delegates have reelected Sam Goldstein as the chair of the state’s largest third party. Jerry Titus of Howard County was elected to serve as Vice Chair, replacing Dan Drexler of LaPorte County. Dale Wedel of [...]

(The primaries are closed party business. By pulling an R or D ballot, you are legally “joining” those parties. Libertarian party members should refrain from interfering in the party business of other private organizations. It’s the law!) Indianapolis, Indiana – The Libertarian Party of Marion County encourages independent and Libertarian voter participation in the primary [...]

From Eric Dondero:

Seems that the very worst suspicions about Bin Laden of conservatives and pro-defense libertarians may have just been confirmed.

More intelligence from his compound has just been released. We are learning that the Al Qaeda leader was a fan of AntiWar activists in the West, listened "constantly" to elitist liberal taxpayer-subsidized Western media, was vociferious in his anti-Capitalist views, and rooted for the Democrat Party in US politics.

From the NY Times "Bin Laden’s Secret Life in a Diminished World" May 8:

In 2007, he complained that Democratic control of Congress had not ended the war in Iraq, a fact he attributed to the pernicious influence of “big corporations.” In other messages he commented on the writings of Noam Chomsky, the leftist professor at M.I.T., and praised former President Jimmy Carter’s book supporting Palestinian rights.

From TeaPartyPetersburg "BBC, Chomsky, Carter and Democrats":

They should be proud that their leftist views are commensurate with bin Laden's views, something that has been apparent for years but only now is revealed to the public.

bin Laden was depending on the Democrats in Congress to do his will and was disappointed when they didn't withdraw troops from Afghanistan; in addition, he despises the capitalist influence of "big corporations,"

bin Laden admired Jimmy Carter, whose behavior and positions have been pretty much crazed and out of touch with reality... Carter seems to have a problem with Jews and democracies and thinks terrorists (some of them anyway) are really friendly.

Note - Chomsky has been a frequent guest on AntiWar.com radio.

Photos - Chomsky bottom left, BBC Exec Dir. Mark Thompson