NEW YORK POLITICS

On the Republican side, there's a wild race in the primary for the nomination. It includes Buffalo multi-millionaire and self-described Tea Party Patriot Carl Paladino, former Congressman Rick Lazio, and Democrat-turned-Republican Suffolk County Commissioner Steve Levy. Add Libertarian Party member and small-town city councilman Warren Redlich to the mix, who has said that he's also seeking the Republican line.

(NY candidates can seek dual and even multi-party lines, such as the Conservative Party, Liberal Party, Worker's Party, ect...)

Now Redlich has made some news right here at Libertarian Republican. In the comments section in our article last night on his rival Kristin Davis, Redlich remarked:

It wasn't my idea to run for Governor. My original interest was in the AG race. I was asked by several people within the LPNY (including two former state chairs) to run for Governor instead.

If the LPNY chooses Ms. Davis, and wants me to run for another office, I'd certainly consider that.

With that said, I believe I'm a better candidate.

Changes at Libertarian Republican

Hey, this is Wes Messamore from HumbleLibertarian.com. As some of you may know, I do professional graphic design work, web page optimization, branding, and other consulting and creative services for bloggers- especially political bloggers (especially conservative and libertarian political bloggers! ...examples here and here).

Eric Dondero has been working really hard here at Libertarian Republican and as he puts the pedal to the metal to turn a corner and take this website to the very top of the conservative political blogosphere and beyond, he figured a site redesign was in order. We've already made a lot of the changes, but there's more to come. Please use the comment thread on this post to leave your feedback on the new arrangement, navigation links, header graphic, logo, and page load time.

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New Video from a former Cato Intern

The IRS always win; You lose.

From Dan Mitchell, International Liberty DanielJMitchell.Wordpress.com

The Daily Caller reports that Texas Congressman and sometimes libertarian Rep. Ron Paul, predicts eventually Obama's Health Control legislation will be completely repealed.

From Daily Caller:

Even without the votes, Paul said, economic forces would eventually compel the bill’s repeal.

“Ultimately, the economics will reverse the tide,” Paul told The Daily Caller. “The medical thing, it will be reversed, because it won’t function.”

Paul will be introducing a bill this week that would completely repeal the individual mandate. He hopes for some bi-partisan support for the legislation.

Standard Disclaimer - LR agrees wholeheartedly with Ron Paul on nearly all domestic issues, but most definitely not on foreign policy.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele has come under fire from mostly social conservatives for allowing a disbursement by a junior staffer, at a risque nightclub in Los Angeles. But the libertarian wing sees it as less of a problem. Since the controversy emerged last week, he's had a number of libertarian-leaning Republicans rally to his side, including Rudy Giuliani, and Sarah Palin. Now another often times described libertarian Rep. Ron Paul has joined the Pro-Steele bandwagon.

From CNN Political Ticker:

Washington (CNN) - Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, offered support Monday for embattled Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who he praised for trying to build a bridge between the GOP establishment and the libertarian-minded activists who supported Paul's presidential bid.

"Generally, the Republican leadership [doesn't] want to have anything to do with me and don't want to have anything to do with the Ron Paul people," Paul said in an interview on CNN's American Morning. "They should be looking to us and saying, 'You know, why don't we help these young people who are so anxious and interested in what I'm talking about? Maybe they can be and sure should be in the Republican Party instead of being excluded.' He's reached out."

"He's doing a magnificent job..."

Ann Coulter debated Al Sharpton on Fox. Coulter came to his strong defense:

I love him, I love him so much, and the reason he’s being attacked for all these silly things is because he so effective, he's attacked for the same things Rush Limbaugh is, Ronald Reagan was, I am, Sarah Palin is. It's because he’s so great. He is being held to a different standard because of his skin color, but not by Americans and not by Republicans, he’s being held to a different standard by Democrats because they’re trying to trick stupid Republicans into dumping the first black head of the RNC who is doing a magnificent job…

(Coulter later on in the interview)

This was an utterly unfair attack. This tacky club out in LA. Not only was he not there he was at a plane at the time. Even if he looked at the receipts coming into the RNC and he doesn’t some accountant does, how’s the accountant going to know what the Voyeur Club is?… And, to even to make an issue of this when the former co-chair of the DNC had a major fundraiser gala at the Democratic National Convention in 2000 at the Playboy Mansion… These are democratic representatives who actually went to a Playboy events and they’re trying to act like Michael Steele some low level person who’s been fired since then is a totally fake issue because he’s effective.

Sharpton defended Steele to some extent, saying that he'd act pretty much as any CEO of a company would to mistakes from underlings.

H/t Gateway Pundit (video there from Mediaite)

Side note from the Editor - I had the pleasure of meeting Jim Hoft of Gateway the other day at a Tea Party in Metro-East, Illinois. Jim immediately recognized Libertarian Republican. I told him we were all grateful for his continuous cutting edge coverage of Right events.

Close in the Senate; definitely the House

SENATE +6 (ND, DE, IN, AR, NV, PA, CO) (relative to 9)
HOUSE +50 (relative to 38)

by Clifford F. Thies

Republicans look to make major gains in this year's elections. First, it is not unusual for a party that got wiped out in the prior election to make a comeback, and the Republicans took big loses in 2006 and 2008. But, as things look right now, the extent of the gains may be historic.

In the Senate, polling data show Republicans to be ahead in six states with Democratic seats and not to be behind in any states with Republican seats. There is another tier of contests, involving both Democratic and Republican seats, where the seat might flip. Thinking only good thoughts, California and Illinois might flip to the Republicans. There is yet another tier of states in which Republican hopes appear to be hinged to possible candidates who have not announced: New York, Washington and Wisconsin (where Tommy Thompson is at least thinking about it).

In the House, going by the Generic Congressional Ballot, and that's about the best we can do at this point, the Republicans appear to be on track to net something like 50 seats. This prognostication is supported by the stream of retirements coming from the other side.

Some people think it would be best for the Republican Party if we were to fall short of controlling both or even one chamber. They fear that a Republican Congress might do to President Obama what the Republican Congress first elected in 1994 did to President Clinton. That is, box the guy in, restrain spending and cut taxes to both balance the budget and spur economic growth, with the consequence of Obama being re-elected in 2012. All I will say about this possible scenario is: until I see a Republican Congress restrain spending when a Republican is in the White House, what would be so bad about that? We don't need the Republicans in Congress to turn into a bunch of lard asses the way they did when George W. Bush got elected.

We'll have more to say about this year's elections through the course of the year, including Governors and state legislatures.

Dr. Thies is the former National Treasurer for the Libertarian Party, and former National Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus. He's a professor of economics specializing in econo-metrics and statistics.

Caught with special Pipe

Urban Dictionary Definition (urbandictionary.com) - "One-hitter"

device for smoking dope, very small made for 1 hit, or...

A type of weed-smoking paraphernalia that traditionally refers to pipe that deliberately mimics the shape of a cigarette. In areas of the world where it is illegal to smoke weed

Fox News has breaking details of last week's near-Islamic Terrorist incident aboard a US jetliner.

Turns out the Diplomat in question was not lighting his shoes on fire, though he joked to Air Marshals that he might be. Rather, indications are he was actually smoking a "substance," other than tobacco in the lavoratory.

From Mediaite.com:

Catherine Herridge: The impression we were left with yesterday was that the Embassy, the Qatar Embassy would clean up this mess.

Shep: Any more information on what was happening on that plane specifically Katherine?

Catherine Herridge: Well, well... I heard this first from a diplomatic source who knows Al Madadi, is that he was not smoking a cigarette, but he was smoking a pipe. And it was not the kind of pipe that your grandfather might have had.

(conversation turns from serious to light chatter)

Shep: I heard it was a one-hitter.

Catherine Herridge: Ya know, I heard that too.

The administration is releasing few details. But bloggers and even mainstream media sources are speculating on a wide range of substances all the way from simple marijuana to even crack cocaine or opium.

Madadi has not been charged either on drug possesion or smoking onboard a flight. He is receiving special treatment due to his diplomatic status.

According to AmericasNewsOnline:

the diplomat was released to return to Washington…without charges being pressed.

"Tea Party comes to Metro-East"

According to the Belleville News-Democrat, a leading newspaper for southern Illinois:

The Tea Party came to the metro-east Saturday afternoon, and with it came hundreds carrying American flags and signs denouncing President Barack Obama and recent policies coming out of Washington, D.C.

Organizers estimated about 500 gathered at Woodland Park to unite and protest "socialist" activities and demand change. A number of speakers addressed the crowd, many of whom were carrying American flags, wearing T-shirts and caps with American flags embossed on them or toting signs protesting higher taxes and even some calling to impeach the president.

The Republican Party, the Constitution Party and the Libertarian Party were all represented, and had information tables right next to each other under the Gazebo.

The mood of the even was clearly unity in knocking off big taxers and big spenders for November. The event's chief organizer was quoted by the News-Democrat:

Alton Tea Party co-founder Rhonda Linders said the rally Saturday and the series of organized events held since early last year are non-partisan. She said Saturday's gathering showed that more and more people are fed up with overwhelming government taxation through social policies that she claims are unconstitutional.

"It doesn't matter if you're Democrat or Republican. This isn't Republican, Democrat, independent, Libertarian," Linders said. "It's Americans."

Editor's Note - I am currently on a nationwide tour of Tea Party events. I started with Metro-East. And as moving as the speakers were, near the Libertarian Party booth, there was a WWII Vet in a wheelchair. He had joined at 17, and participated in the invasion of Europe, and Battle of the Bulge. Nothing compares to the overwhelming experience of shaking his hand. I was humbled, and immediately broke into tears. I told him all America thanked him for his service.

Victorious Republican says it was a "libertarian cause"

The final vote was 35 to 12. The Maryland State Senate passed the legislation co-sponsored by a Republican State Senator, to legalize marijuana for medicinal use.

From the Baltimore Sun:

"We are very happy," said Mike Meno, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, a national organization promoting medical use of pot. "To vote by such a margin means that the Senate is in line with public sentiment nationally and here in Maryland."

Senators from both parties supported the measure, which builds on a Maryland law passed in 2003 that allows leniency to defendants charged with marijuana possession if they can show a medical need.

"I think the Senate recognized the plight of people who have sick and chronic conditions," said Sen. David Brinkley, one of the lead sponsors and two-time cancer survivor. The Western Maryland Republican said he views the issue as a libertarian cause.

The House will not take up the bill this year due to scheduling.

Note - MD Republican for Governor, fmr. Gov. Bob Ehrlich is on record in support of medical marijuana.

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

More Socialist Health Care: Less Freedom!

Hat tip Inside Louisiana News who shot this video. Interviews with young Anarchists outside the Southern Republican Leadership Conference held in New Orleans over the weekend.

Developing...

Reports of a young Republican couple, boyfriend and girlfriend, attacked in front of Brennan's Tavern near the French Quarter. Sources indicate the girlfriend, who is a top aide to Republican Governor Bobby Jindal has been seriously injured.

I have a fantastic problem. The LPIN has so many candidates that have stepped forward in the last two months, it has overwhelmed our staff. We are truly blown away by your willingness to spend your summer spreading the message of liberty and limited government. We need to know your final decision with [...]

From Eric Dondero:

A growing number of Muslim students are attending colleges in the US. Many of them are receiving government scholarships, taxpayer subsidized loans and even direct student aid paid for by American taxpayers.

Are some of these funds helping to fund Islamic Terrorism?

As Fox finds in an investigative report, noted Terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki was taxpayer subsidized.

Fox News reports that suspected Muslim Terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki lied to university officials in Colorado to gain a taxpayer-funded scholarship.

A former diplomatic security agent who was tasked with investigating Awlaki immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks told Fox News that the Yemeni-American national apparently lied on his visa application to attend Colorado State University, where he studied engineering. Rather than tell U.S. immigration officials that he was born in Las Cruces, N.M., in 1971, Awlaki stated that the was foreign born, the security agent, Ray Fournier, said.

Awlaki received $20,000 in scholarship money from a U.S. government program for his schooling in Fort Collins, Colo. When asked if Awlaki was eligible, Fournier said, “No, he is absolutely forbidden to have it.”

"That's the taxpayers' money," Fournier added, saying Awlaki knew that lying about his birthplace would help him get the scholarship money.

Al-Awlaki is connected to at least two recent terrorist acts in the US "the Fort Hood attack and the attempted Christmas Day jet bombing" (Nadal Malik Hasan and Abdulmutallab).

Robbie Cooper of the acclaimed Urban Grounds blog out of Austin, opines:

There are lot (too many to list or name) of American citizens who need and deserve to be shot dead. On the spot, where they stand, immediately.

Radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is just one of them...

After watching Obama limp-wrist another opening day pitch, I was beginning to wonder if this guy had a y-chromosome at all, much less a valid birth certificate or college transcripts [to get this job done].

Editor's Note - I had the pleasure of meeting Robbie Cooper at the Rick Perry-sponsored Right Bloggers event in Austin back in January.

Here it comes...

The Tea Party Express (website: http://www.TeaPartyExpress.org) will conduct a news conference with accredited members of the press corps on Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 9:00 AM at the National Press Club.

At Thursday's news conference the Tea Party Express will unveil our 2010 Election Targets for House & Senate races across the country - announcing candidates we are endorsing and those we will be opposing.

The Tea Party Express has led all other tea party organizations in fundraising and expenditure of funds both supporting and opposing candidates.

From Eric Dondero:

There's been a growing controversy this past week over Libertarian radio talk show host Neal Boortz and his longtime relationship with the Libertarian Party. Boortz was a keynote speaker for an LP National Convention in the late 1990s. He often boasts of a longtime membership and friendship with the Georgia LP. But a Texas Libertarian sent out a press release the other day, saying that he had been "booted" from the upcomming LP National Convention for St. Louis in May. It was titled "Libertarian Party Boots Boortz."

Boortz strongly disputes this claim on his website, "Not that I care..."

From Boortz:

Sorry Mr. Butler, but you have this a bit wrong. Last week I instructed Belinda (photo) to inform the Libertarian Party that I would be unable to keep this speaking engagement for personal reasons." According to Butler The Libertarian Party "removed me" from the schedule because of comments I made regarding voting for a 3rd party this November.

Whatever, Mr. Butler. If you want to say that I was "booted" from the schedule, have at it. It's your credibility that suffers, not mine.

He then goes on to explain his view in detail, that local LPers running is just fine. But he's concerned about upper level races such as Congress.

Continuing from NealsNuze:

By the way .... I have an email from a top-ranking official in the Libertarian Party who, after listening to my comments regarding voting for a 3rd party in November, is going to resign his position. Why? Because he felt that what I said made sense. We cannot afford a 3rd party effort this year if it is going to leave one single Democrat in office who otherwise might have been removed. I still plan to vote Libertarian in local elections .. but I simply cannot afford the luxury when it comes to the Congress.

Editor's Comment - I disagree slightly with Neal on this. There are tons of Libertarian Party members who wouldn't come out to the polls otherwise. They'd simply choose to stay home. Having a Libertarian Party candidate on the ballot motivates them to vote. And given Libertarian's general tendency to vote Republican as a second choice, this could help GOP candidates in races where no Libertarian is listed.

NANNY-STATE WATCH

NY legislators need to "protect people from themselves"

Alan S. Chartock, president and CEO of WAMC radio in upstate New York, has a column in the Troy Record, "Legislature should tax soda." Chartock sees the tax as a way to close New York's widening budget gap, and have some constructive social engineering. He writes:

We know that obesity is rampant in this country and sugar use by Americans is off the charts. But we don’t tax sugar-laden soda, even though our heath commissioner tells us that this is the time to do just that... The unpopular (but often right) Gov. David Paterson is in favor of the tax on soft drinks.

Chartock then admits that the working class will be hit the hardest, precisely the targetted constituency of the Democrat Party.

Continuing:

There is a current libertarian streak running through this country. People know that every time you put a tax on a popular product like soda, the little people are expected to pay more than their share. The economists call this a regressive tax and it is. Health Commissioner Richard Daines is wildly in favor of the tax. He feels that it will save lives and believes that just as the tax on cigarettes has helped cut down on the consumption of that killer product, the same thing will happen when taxes drive the price of a soda up.

This is a budget crisis year and people distrust the Legislature. As our law-makers look for ways to protect people from themselves, they may want to think about doing the right thing.

Christina Jeffrey for Congress: Fighting to Take American Back!

Christina Jeffrey is running an insurgent libertarian-conservative GOP primary campaign against incumbent "fiscally moderate, socially authoritarian" Bobby Ingless.

She's a self-described "Army brat" brought up in a household that was "Christian, anti-communist, free-enterprise, self-sufficient, loyal Americans."

She also notes in her campaign bio:

Christina attended Vassar College as a freshman, but transferred to a conservative college in Texas where she could study with an outstanding conservative and libertarian faculty.

She's a former College Republican, member of Young Americans for Freedom, and a co-organizer of the Boiling Springs Tea Party.

Further notes on her background:

She has worked in the campaigns of conservatives starting with Barry Goldwater. Most recently she was the campaign manager for Dr. Henry Jordan’s bid for Lt. Governor in 2006. She has never been a paid political operative, but always volunteers and never asks for expense money. In 2008, she fell 123 votes short of election to the legislature. She supports Mark Sanford’s fiscally conservative principles and helped him get elected, just as she did Jim DeMint, and other local conservatives.

Jeffrey recently spoke to a gathering of a local GOP precinct committee in Spartenburg.

Jeffrey stated that she agreed with a member of the audience that "right, first we defund them," Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements.

She later describes her plan for Social Security to "allow people to opt out. Take their money and let them invest it..."

Campaign website: ChristinaJeffrey.com

How to respond to the Obama recession? Atlanta-based radio talk show host, and staunch libertarian Republican Neal Boortz, offers a novel idea: Start the lay-offs with workers who voted for Obama.

Boortz from Twitter:

If Obama is hurting your business ... and you have to lay off someone ... why not lay off an Obama voter? They contributed to your problem.

(H/t Memeo)

Editor's comment - Our friend Neal is being a bit cautious here. Why not take it one step further, and lay-off all registered Democrats first?

AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS

Mises made, in my opinion, the single greatest economic breakthrough of the 20th century. He proved, with irrefutable logic, why socialism is inherently unviable, due to the impossibility of meaningful economic calculation in the absence of market-based prices. -- Mark Hendrickson, Economist

From Eric Dondero:

Another silly romantic comedy from Blockbuster this weekend, or a free market Economics text? Which will leave you feeling cheap, and which will leave you intellectually invigorated?

Mark Hendrickson, an economist who studied under one of the heirs of Ludwig von Mises Dr. Hans Sennholz, offers this list of the best of Von Mises at American Thinker:

In The Theory of Money and Credit (1912), Mises integrated money into the larger body of neoclassical marginalist thought; showed how inflation redistributes, rather than creates wealth; and laid the foundation for his and Hayek's future work on how central bank monetary policy causes the widespread "cluster of errors" that characterizes the boom-bust cycle.

In Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (1922), Mises made, in my opinion, the single greatest economic breakthrough of the 20th century. He proved, with irrefutable logic, why socialism is inherently unviable, due to the impossibility of meaningful economic calculation in the absence of market-based prices. His socialist critics claimed to have surmounted this difficulty by saying that socialist regimes could copy capitalist prices -- hardly a "triumph" for the alleged superiority of socialism if it is ultimately a parasite dependent on capitalism. Many tens of millions of human beings could have been spared untold grief, blight, poverty, suffering, and premature death in the wretched experiments with socialism that darkened the 20th century, if only Mises's insights and warnings had been heeded.

Mises's magnum opus is Human Action (1949). This book summarizes all of his vast economic understanding and synthesizes it into a comprehensive theory of (what else?) human action, called "praxeology." At a time when economics was becoming so fragmented and specialized that agricultural economists, for example, might have difficulty understanding international trade economists, Mises accomplished the intellectual equivalent of putting Humpty-Dumpty back together again by developing the economic equivalent of the unified theory in physics.

Mises's fourth masterpiece is Theory and History (1957), a surprisingly readable examination of methodology that includes discussions of how both economic theory and the study of history demonstrate the superiority of free-market over government-planned economic action. (This book is the most accessible of "the big four" to the non-economist.)