From Eric Dondero:

Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, a contributor to NewsMax and frequent guest on Fox News, has come out for libertarian-conservative Republican Chuck DeVore in the California primary for US Senate; the Barbara Boxer seat. Republicans Carly Fiorna and former Rep. Tom Campbell are also in the race. Campbell has come under fire recently for having once accepted a $500 contribution from a jailed Islamic Jihadist.

Wrote Geller in a blog post two days ago:

Forgive me for not talking up Chuck DeVore earlier. I have been watching him for awhile and I love him. He is going against that car alarm of a politician, Barbara Boxer, and RINO Carla Fiorina.

He is a tea party favorite and an Atlas favorite as well.

Geller was particularly impressed with Assemblyman DeVore's strong criticisms of Muslim students at UC-Irvine who recently tried to block a speech on campus by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. 11 Members of the Muslim Student Union were arrested. DeVore also criticized the group of supporting the terrorist organization Hamas, and actively fundraising for the organization.

Geller's previous endorsements include her longtime friend and ally Lt. Col. Allen West, an economic libertarian and staunch critic of radical Islam, running for Congress in Florida. DeVore, is also a Military Veteran, officer in the Army Reserves.

In the legislature DeVore has been a champion tax fighter and budget cutter, as well as a fierce opponent of nanny-state laws such as smoking bans and bans on trans fats.

Campaigns for Dutch culture and against illegal immigration from the Middle East

The Hague is the second largest city in all of the Netherlands. The official royal home of the Dutch Queen, the city also serves as both the seat of the Dutch government and the provincal capitol. Additionally, The Hague serves as the judicial capitol for the United Nations.

The city population is 480,000. The metro area includes nearly 1.1 million inhabitants.

On March 3, the Dutch libertarian party (PVV - Party For Freedom) could become the second largest party in the municipality.

The Dutch News, Feb. 27:

The PVV is tipped to emerge as the biggest party in Almere and second biggest in the Hague.

Wilders was campaigning last week in Almere emphasizing pride in distinctly Dutch culture and strong opposition to Muslim women wearing the burqa in government buildings and at government-subsidized events.

Continuing:

'Almere must become the safest city in the Netherlands,' he said. 'There will be an end to subsidies for Turkish macramé and Arabic finger painting. Not just the Netherlands but all of Europe will look to Almere.'

Almere is a planned city in the central Netherlands with 184,000 residents. Both The Hague and Almere have been plagued by an influx of illegal immigration in recent years from Turkey and the Middle East.

The southern Massachusetts Congressional seat of Democrat Rep. William Delahunt has been in the news, with yet another Kennedy making noises of a run - Robert Kennedy III, grandson of RFK - on the Democrat side. (AP article)

Longtime Libertaian Republican Bob Hedlund, is still weighing a run for the Congressional seat of the embattled representative.

From the Boston Herald, Feb. 3:

Hedlund, an 18-year senator and part-time radio host, said internal polls done by his campaign show him “within striking distance” of beating Delahunt in a head-to-head race. But the polling also shows a bruising battle in a three-way GOP primary against Perry (R-Sandwich) and former state Treasurer Joseph Malone, who is also weighing a run...

Meanwhile, Hedlund's friend and political ally in the Legislature has decided to jump in. Upon announcing State Rep. Jeffrey Perry said:

"They need someone who will stand up for the things they believe in and fight for action on issues like real health care reform without mandates, better job opportunities, checks on illegal immigration, national security, lower taxes and less national debt, and an end to the insider and special-interest dealing that permeates Capitol Hill. People across the South Shore, Cape Cod & the Islands are tired and frustrated with what they see as a system in Washington that’s broken and that’s incapable of progress on issues that matter to them. I want to be someone who changes that."

Perry is viewed as one of the two most conservative members of the Massachusetts Legislature. He's on record in favor of denying illegal immigrants state benefits that "cost Massachusetts legal residents millions of dollars every year."

JeffPerryforCongress.com

by Paul Jacob

Seems the recent gubernatorial election made a difference in New Jersey. There’s change there. Also hope.

Last November, running on a platform of fiscal sanity, Republican challenger Chris Christie defeated the Democratic Governor Jon Corzine. And it seems that, unlike a certain U.S. president, Christie has every intention of following through.

In early February, Christie told lawmakers that the state’s finances remain a mess and that the budget passed eight months ago is full of “all of the same worn out tricks of the trade” that have driven New Jersey to the edge of bankruptcy.

He said that the legacy of “irresponsible budgeting of the past, coupled with failed tax policies which lie like a heavy, wet blanket suffocating tax revenues and job growth” require extraordinary steps to bring the budget back into balance.

So on his own initiative, Christie is freezing spending across an array of programs. For example, he is cutting the subsidy to New Jersey Transit and urging managers of public transportation to “improve efficiency . . . revisit its rich union contracts,” be more fiscally responsible and efficient. He’s also targeting bloated government pensions and education funding.

Can Governor Christie complete the pivot to fiscal common sense despite the hurricane of opposition he faces? Time will tell. But it would be hard to imagine a better start.

Editor's Note - Paul Jacob is the former National Director for the Libertarian Party, and former longtime President of US Term Limits. His blog is ThisisCommonSense.

United Kingdom, France, German, Denmark, Sweden

New video chronicles:

Police in retreat in face of Muslim mauraders on the streets of London.

Riots in Paris. Cars being set a blaze.

Protests against Jews and Israel in Copenhagen.

At two minutes in, Muslim rioters giving the Nazi salute.

by Clifford F. Thies

The systematic attack on Christians around the world is mostly under the mainstream media's radar screen. The mainstream media goes crazy over church burnings when they perceive it's white on black violence, and this is a good thing. Hate, in all of its expressions, is to be surpressed through the legitimate use of force by the state.

But, what about Muslim on Christian violence, Muslim on women violence, and Muslim on gay violence?

Reports on the increasing violence in Nigeria are just starting to come in. From The Christian Post, Feb. 27:

The Redeemed Christian Church of God building in Tudun Wada was partly burnt on Jan. 25, and Christian Faith Bible church and the Living Faith Foundation Chapel, both in Gusau, were partly burnt in attacks on Jan. 20 and 24 respectively. Zamfara state, one of the predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria, was the first in the country to implement Islamic law (sharia).

The association alleged that those who attacked the Zamfara churches were emboldened because officials made no serious move to arrest those who carried out the Jos attacks. Two pastors and 46 other Christians were killed in the outbreak of violence in Jos on Jan. 17, triggered when Muslim youths attacked a Catholic church; 10 church buildings were burned, and police estimated more than 300 lives were lost in the clash.

Concerning these things, are we supposed to be in denial?

Here's what is going on: The radicals within the Muslim community are not being policed by their co-religionists. The "silent majority" within the Muslim community is still ambivalent about ratting out their fellow Muslims to non-Muslims. The critical uncertainty is if and when the current "silent majority" within the Muslim community will actually do something about the radicals, more than merely blather how Islam is a peaceful religion, as though Christianity being a peaceful religion means we didn't have to actually do something about the KKK. If they do, then this is not "a conflict of civilizations," but merely another police matter, albeit on a global level, as we will always have to deal with violent elements within our midst. If they do not, they we will have to see how many of them we can convert.

We cannot have a billion people within an open, global society, who condone and harbor, if not out-rightly support violence against peaceful, law-abiding persons. There are indications that increasing numbers of Muslims are getting with the program, that all peaceful and law-abiding people must stand together against all who are violent. Mainly, this is because of Arab-Persian animosity that predates Islam, scaring the bejesus out of the Arabs.

We are working in both overt and covert operations with Saudi, Iraqi, Jordanian and Gulf State Arabs to counter the growing threat posed by Iran which has joined with Al Qaida and spontaneously-arising radical Islam. The radical Muslims in Northern, Western and Eastern Africa, most notably in Nigeria and Darfur, are something of a side-show to what is going on in western and central Asia. I suspect that, at some point, when we are no longer concerned about their Arab and Chinese protectors, we will just crush the radical Muslims in Africa like so many cockroaches.

Photos of church burning in Kenya, 2008, by Muslim extremists connected with current Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and a church burning by Muslim radicals in Pakistan.

It is estimated that more than 800,000 Kurds were murdered under Saddam Hussein's regime. Many of them were gassed during the Iran/Iraq war during the 1980s. Now, the Kurdish provincal government has located three mass graves of genocidal victims.

The Hawler Tribune, (Iraqi Kurdistan) Feb. 27:

Three mass graves were discovered in the sub district of Dubiz in Kirkuk. Announced the Kurdish daily news paper ASO on Sunday, Feb.21st. These graves are to be excavated by the Ministry of Anfaled and Martyrs of Kurdistan regional government in a near future.

“The graves are holding remnants of children from both Chamchamal and Garmyan areas”. Sayd Fazil Amin the head of KRG martyrs office in Kirkuk told ASO, these kids were taken into captivity during 1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds.

Anfal genocide was a campaign against the Kurds in 1980s. It was aimed at the elimination of the Kurds in Iraq, by destroying and burning Kurdish villages down. Killing and burying alive the people of these villages. It costed over 200,000 lives of innocent Kurds.

The US House will vote on a resolution in committee on March 4 recognizing World War I-era killings of Christian Armenians by Muslim Turks as "genocide," according to sources on Capitol Hill.

Pamela Geller from the libertarian/human rights blog Atlas Shrugs gives some background, "Muslim Congressman Ellison won't call Armenian Genocide" Feb. 26:

It was the genocide that preceded the Holocaust. The Mufti of Jerusalem practiced genocide first in the Armenian genocide -- the systematic genocide of the Armenian population under the Islamic Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. The use of massacres and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees led to a total number of Armenian deaths of one-and-a-half to two million. Mufti Amin Al-Husseini swore allegiance to the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian genocide [i] . [ii] He was an officer stationed in Smyrna and participates first-hand in the Armenian genocide. One and a half million Christians were slaughtered under the sword of Islamic Jihad by the Ottoman Army. Allegiance to Ottoman Empire and Islamic world take-over was echoed by Osama Bin Laden in his post-September 11 declaration. Osama Bin Laden makes direct reference to the end of Ottoman Empire and thus proclaims his allegiance to its notion of Islamic dominion.

Now from the (Turkish) Hurayet, Feb. 19:

A resolution calling for U.S. recognition of World War I-era killings of Armenians as “genocide” will likely be endorsed in an early March vote in a U.S. congressional committee, according to analysis of domestic politics.

The non-binding resolution would call on President Barack Obama to ensure that U.S. policy formally refers to the Armenian killings as “genocide” and to use that term when he delivers his annual message on the issue in April – something Obama avoided doing last year...

This time the measure is expected to pass. In 2007, it failed due to opposition from some Republican concerned with relations with then Iraq War ally Turkey.

Continuing:

amid the political fight between the Democratic Obama administration and the Republicans, some Republicans on the committee might be tempted to vote for the “genocide” measure.

Ironically, Rep. John Murtha's death seems to have given the Armenian lobby renewed optimisim. Democrat Murtha was the leading proponent in Congress for Turkey, and against the resolution.

There's some controversy over how the only Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota will vote. He is the only Muslim in Congress. He happens to sit on the House Foreign Relations Committee. He recently said, "I am still developing my position..."

by Eric Dondero

Throughout the Cold War, 1970s, '80s, the Right accused Amnesty International of being little more than a front group for leftwing causes. Their reluctance to criticize human rights abuses by Communist regimes, from Angola to Nicaraugua to Cambodia to the former Soviet Union, was legendary.

Now it appears AI has taken on a new ally on the Left - Islamo-Fascism.

News now breaking from across the Atlantic that worldwide human rights activist Gita Sahgal has been "suspended" from the Amnesty International governing board. Her crime? Criticizing AI's alliance with Islamic Terrorist sypmathizer and Taliban defender Moazzam Begg.

The Times On-line reported:

In an email sent to Amnesty’s top bosses, she suggests the charity has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his “jihadi” group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic.

DNAIndia columnist Antara Dev Sin adds further details:

Sahgal has been protesting within the organisation for some time, in vain. Things may have come to a head last month, when Begg was part of Amnesty’s delegation that met British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, demanding that Guantanamo be shut down.

A week later she went public in an interview with the London Times.

From the UK Guardian Feb. 9:

Within hours of the article appearing she was suspended from her job by Amnesty as Gita says in her statement, "trying to do my job and staying faithful to Amnesty's mission to protect and defend human rights universally and impartially".

Michael Weiss in the Wall Street Journal adds this maddening detail to the story, Feb. 26:

Especially galling for Ms. Sahgal is the fact that she only accepted her job after insisting to Widney Brown, senior director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty, that she be allowed to address the Begg alliance.

"I told her, 'If you don't give me the power to clean up this Begg situation, I won't take on the gender affairs assignment. Widney encouraged me to write a memo on it and even came past my office late one night while I was writing to discuss it. There was no internal resistance against this. So I was promoted with full support. Then, when the Sunday Times story broke, everything I uncovered was deemed 'innuendo.'"

Now, Amnesty International has been caught engaged in an efffort of scrubbing their website of comments in support of Sahgal. Back to the UK Guardian:

for some hours yesterday, negative posts on Amnesty's website were being filtered out.

Few Liberals willing to defend Sahgal

What's been the reaction so far, from the liberal human rights community? Almost universal silence.

Noted author and free speech advocate Salman Rushdie has been virtualy the only exception. He has since come to her defense issuing this statement:

"Amnesty International has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his group Cageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. It has greatly compounded its error by suspending the redoubtable Gita Sahgal for the crime of going public with her concerns. Gita Sahgal is a woman of immense integrity and distinction and I am personally grateful to her for the courageous stands she made at the time of the Khomeini fatwa against The Satanic Verses, as a leading member of the groups Southall Black Sisters and Women Against Fundamentalism. It is people like Gita Sahgal who are the true voices of the human rights movement; Amnesty and Begg have revealed, by their statements and actions, that they deserve our contempt."

Christopher Hitchens has strongly denounced Amnesty:

It’s now incumbent on any member who takes the original charter seriously to withdraw funding until Begg is cut loose to run his own beautiful organization and until Sahgal has been reinstated.

But besides Hitchens and Rushdie there has been little if any comment by the big players on the International Left, and nothing but deafening silence by American Liberals.

Besides the two quixotic writers, the only ones so far coming to Sahgal's defense are Human Rights advocates on the Right.

The Right consistently Pro-Human Rights

South London blogger Bob Brockley, who regularly rants against Jew-haters and Stalinists in the UK wrote:

Defend Gita Sahgal!

A courageous feminist sacked for blowing the whistle on Amnesty's relationship with the Moazzam Begg's Islamist front...

In the US, conservative columnist Mona Charen has written in World, "Rights group left its own out in cold":

Amnesty International has been a handmaiden of the left for as long as I can remember. Founded in 1961 to support prisoners of conscience, it has managed since then to ignore the most brutal regimes and to aim its fire at the West and particularly at the United States. This week, Amnesty has come in for some (much overdue) criticism — but not nearly so much as it deserves.

Amnesty has a great many celebrity supporters, particularly in Hollywood, and in the music industry. They include the likes of Bono, Sinead O'Connor, Al Pacino, Bruce Springsteen, Chevy Chase, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguillera, Joaquin Phoenix, Kate Bush, Michael Stipe, Nicolas Cage, John Cleese, Sting, and Yoko Ono.

To date, not a single one of them has issued any statements in support of Gita Sahgal.

Like another Euro-liberal turned libertarian human rights advocate Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sahgal may soon find that her real friends and allies both in the UK and USA, are on the libertarian and conservative Right.

Human Rights defender suspended by Amnesty for opposing Terrorist's involvement with group

Gita Sahgal, head of Amnesty International unit for Women's Rights, has been suspended by the group, for opposing the alliance of the group with a top Taliban supporter in the UK Moazzam Begg (photo - right).

From the London Times Online, "Amnesty International damaged by Taliban link" Feb. 7:

Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty’s international secretariat, believes that collaborating with Moazzam Begg, a former British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, “fundamentally damages” the organisation’s reputation.

In an email sent to Amnesty’s top bosses, she suggests the charity has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his “jihadi” group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic.

Sahgal describes Begg as “Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban”. He has championed the rights of jailed Al-Qaeda members and hate preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged spiritual mentor of the Christmas Day Detroit plane bomber.

Sahgal went public with her disagreements three weeks ago, saying to The Times:

"I believe the campaign fundamentally damages Amnesty International’s integrity and, more importantly, constitutes a threat to human rights. To be appearing on platforms with Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender, is a gross error of judgment."

Now Michael Weiss of the Wall Street Journal reports "Amnesty and the Taliban" Feb. 26:

Now she's suspended from her job and in need of an attorney willing to confront a venerable nongovernmental organization...

What happened? Ms. Sahgal tried to get her Amnesty colleagues to cease their partnership with Moazzam Begg...

Weiss further notes:

The Taliban, Mr. Begg insists in his book, were "better than anything Afghanistan has had in the past twenty-five years." Elsewhere he has cited and sold the works of the "charismatic scholar" Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, erstwhile mentor to Osama bin Laden.

Interview with Dr. John C. Drew, former Marxist friend of Obama

Knew Barack Obama in early 1980s, from Occidental University.

"He was a pure Marxist"

From CNBC, Obama speaking to the Business Roundtable yesterday:

"Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, I am an ardent believer in the free market,"

"We have arrived at a juncture in our politics where reasonable efforts to update our regulations, or make basic investments in our future, are too often greeted with cries of 'government takeover' or even 'socialism'," Obama said.

"Getting this balance right has less to do with big government or small government than it does smart government. It's not about being anti-business or pro-government; it's about being pro-growth and pro-jobs," he said.

Vijay Kumar is one of 8 Republicans running for US Congress in Tennessee's 5th CD (Nashville.) The seat is currently held by longtime incumbent Democrat Jim Cooper, a Blue Dog, but considered very vulnerable. Tennessee has moved increasingly dark red Republican in recent years, and Cooper is one of the very last Democrat hold-outs.

Kumar ran in the 2008 primaries and received nearly 1/3rd of the vote. He says now:

I am an immigrant from India who has lived in Nashville for twenty-one years... I am running again because Congress has failed to take leadership on the issues of illegal immigration, taxation, English as our official language, our economy, healthcare reform, abortion, and the War on Terror.

Kumar's top issue is opposing Radical Islam, according to IndiaWest:

Radical Islam is “more dangerous than either Nazism or Communism,” because those other ideologies “do not claim to be a religious faith.”

Radical Jihad, he added, “has been around for 1,400 years” and is a pressing threat to the American way of life.

Kumar's solution? Work with allies to stop the spread of radical islamic ideology:

"America is not alone in this struggle. We can accomplish our goals by engaging our allies. Inclusion and diplomacy should be our catchwords. We must strengthen our alliances and develop a strategy of cultural defense for Western Europe, Great Britain, India, and other nations that have been victims of Islamic terrorism..."

Watch a video presenting his views on Islamic Terorism at KumarforCongress.com

US Military in Afghanistan being kept from being True Warriors

Recent Fox News report:

No more rough language

No harsh treatment of detainees even if they tried to blow up US troops or fired on US forces

No firing on the enemy unless approved by higher-ups

GUEST REPORT

by John Hickey

California Congressional District 11 will be a hotly contested battleground come November 2, 2010. Currently held by Democrat Jerry McNerny, but evenly split in registration, Republican David Harmer, the current favorite to win the Republican nomination, presents a formidable challenge to the incumbent, a man who votes 98% of the time with Nancy Pelosi.

Invoking a Reagan Era spirit of optimism, David Harmer, kicked off his campaign on February 24, 2010, at a packed breakfast event held in San Ramon, California.

Calling the upcoming November election, "the most consequential election in thirty years," Mr. Harmer related his experience as a young volunteer for Ronald Reagan, "thirty years ago in July of 1980 I was on the floor at the Republican National Convention in Detroit when Ronald Reagan accepted the nomination for the presidency of the United States."

That experience seems to have forged Harmer's political philosophy in the Reagan ideal of limited government at an early age.

Back to the Founding principles of the American Republic

In today's hard hitting speech, delivered without notes, Mr. Harmer chided the current regime as having turned away from America's founding principles. The solution he offered consists of a return to the, "tried and true principles which are as old as the nation itself," while posing the question, "in another thirty years, will our children still be free?"

Saying that question wasn't hyperbole, he characterized the upcoming elections as being "a test of national character," featuring, "two dramatically different world views."

He said the Democrat's pursuit of ever bigger, more intrusive government over the last two years, hastening under Obama, has forever, "abolished the myth of the moderate Democrat."
Mr. Harmer identified in rapid-fire manner some of the most problematic aspects of president Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid's philosophy, criticizing the Democrat approach. He attacked the current healthcare legislation as an effort to "create a top down, command and control one size fits all bureaucratic monstrosity."

Common sense free market approach

On cap and trade he stressed that the administration's intent is to, "increase costs...to create artificial scarcity just to fit some utopian's notion of how we should live," adding almost parenthetically that, "we don't have resource problems, we have regulatory problems."

Noting the congressional district's rise in joblessness when, "unemployment is pushing 20% if you count discouraged workers," Harmer asked why we were still, "spending money we don't have on programs we don't need."

David Harmer is an attorney and businessman with a long record of public service. The son of former California State Senator and Lt. Governor John Harmer, David began his lifelong involvement in politics at age four, when he walked precincts for his father, who won an upset victory in the Glendale-based 21st district and went on to become one of Governor Reagan's key allies in the state legislature.

Inspiration for Liberty ideals from libertarian think tanks

Early in his career, David took his expertise in constitutional law to Pacific Legal Foundation, where he defended property rights and other freedoms in state and federal courts. David was also a Resident Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and his book on education reform was published by the Cato Institute, America's foremost market-oriented public policy organization.

Popular Congressman and national taxpayer advocate Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) announced his support for David Harmer for California’s 11th. Flake is known for his tough, no-nonsense taxpayer advocacy, and he brings a well developed national network of conservative donors and activists which will provide a solid national foundation of support to the Harmer campaign effort.

“The national momentum has clearly swung back toward fiscal conservatism, and now is the time to recapture districts like California’s 11th,” said Congressman Flake. “In order to turn back the tide of federal spending, we need fiscal conservatives like David Harmer in Congress. He’ll be a strong, principled voice for limited government, and I’m happy to support his campaign for Congress.”

HarmerforCongress.com

BREAKING NEWS OVERNIGHT!!

Rangel admits Fun in the Sun at Caribbean hideaways

Longtime Democrat incumbent Rep. Charlie Rangel held an unusual "midnight" media availability to announce a negative finding by the House Ethics Panel probing allegations of mis-use of taxpayer dollars by his Congressional office.

From Fox News:

Embattled House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., said Thursday night the Ethics Committee will publicly admonish him for allowing a private corporation to pay for trips he and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus took to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008.

"The trip was approved. Whether it should have been approved is a serious issue," Rangel said. "Now what information they had that I should have had, that's another matter."

As he read from the report, Rangel said the committee indicated that two of his staff members were versed in the trips and knew that private corporations were footing the bill.

Rangel said that one of those aides has now been "discharged," but he didn't name either employee.

One of the employees in quetion was his former chief of staff and close confidante George Dalley. The gregarious Dalley was a well-known fixture on Capitol Hill.

Rangel declined to answer a reporter's question as to whether he will now step down as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Ethics problems draws opponent for first time in 40 years

Rangel may be allowed by the Democrat House leadership to finish out his term. It remains an open question if he will be permitted to remain Chairman of House Ways and Means.

However, the the powerful Congressman may now face a serious challenge to his incumbency on another front. He has drawn a challenger for the first time in 40 years for his House seat. And the gentleman is running as a Republican (and perhaps also on New York's Independent, Conservative and Other Party lines).

The Reverand Michel J. Faulkner is a former player with the New York Jets. He's also a community activist involved in numerous charitable causes. He led a Drug Rehab Center, was director of the well-known Lamb's Church in Times Square for many years, and was Senior Pastor at the Central Baptist Church in Manhattan.

Rev. Faulkner also served in Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani's administration on the City Task Force for Charter Review.

Rangel more about stuffing his pockets, than Jobs for the District

From Rev. Michel Faulkner, NY Post Feb 26:

My opponent is 40-year incumbent, Charles Rangel. Unfortunately Mr. Rangel has come to epitomize what is wrong with Washington today. His gross underpayment of federal income taxes while chairing the House Ways and Means Committee shows the hypocrisy of our Congress. Furthermore, his occupation of four rent-stabilized apartments (while so many in our community are in desperate need of affordable housing), demonstrates his disconnect from our needs and struggles. It could not be clearer that the people of this city deserve a new direction and need new leadership.

My priorities are this: We need to bring government spending under control. Those who control the purse-strings in DC have irresponsibly spent our nation into near bankruptcy and mortgaged our futures.

While the national unemployment rate has been making headlines lately, the need for job creation in my community has been at a critical level for generations. To address this crisis, we must recognize that nearly 80% of all jobs in America today are created by small businesses, and for that reason we need to reduce the red-tape and tax burden on these critical economic engines. I also intend to promote programs that use microfinance initiatives to support a path to economic self-reliance, to expand economic opportunities for individuals and to foster community economic development.

Rangel's district includes Harlem, the upper Westside and a slice of Queens.

For more info FaulknerforCongress.com

Funds from Radical Islamic Sympathizer Sami Al-Arian kept by Campbell campaign

by Tim Daniel

A simple idiom - that a man may be judged by the company that he keeps. For a politician it may be that a man is judged by the contributions that he keeps. In the case of Tom Campbell, former California congressman and GOP nod hopeful for the Senate nod, it is a case of special donations from a jihadist sympathising former college professor Sami Al-Arian. And yes, Tom Campbell may by judged by that contribution (and company) that he kept. Tom Campbell claims that he made a mistake with accepting a jihadist sympathizers donation but claims that it was all for a noble cause - bettering American relations with the Muslim world. Afer that, he then claimed to a different source that he didn't even receive a donation from Sami Al-Arian. Which one is it, Mr. Campbell?

From Politico:

A bespectacled former college professor who has pleaded guilty to aiding the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad helped tip the balance in a 2004 Senate contest in Florida. Now, six years later, Sami Al-Arian could be on the verge of doing it again, this time in California.

Campbell further muddied the waters on the Al-Arian issue this week by denying in an interview with the New Ledger website that he had ever taken any contributions from Al-Arian. Yet a Federal Election Commission report showed a donation of $1,000 on May 2, 2000, and of an additional $300 later reattributed to Al-Arian’s wife, Nahla. The candidate said Wednesday that he simply goofed.

DeVore’s campaign issued an even harder-hitting response, calling Campbell “a friend to our foes.”

“Tom Campbell has a long history in his public life ... of fellow traveling with what might best be called the American-based Islamist movement,” said DeVore spokesman Joshua Trevino. “The fact that he received donations is not the problem. The problem is, he had a pretty undesirable relationship with Al-Arian and his associates — visiting his brother-in-law in jail, writing a letter on his behalf.”

Support Chuck DeVore libertarian-conservative for US Senate

Can you see through the lies? Does not this story speak volumes to the character, intent and discretion of Tom Campbell? To the proper discernment needed in today's brave new world? This story speaks volumes for the need a true conservative candidate with the moral fiber and common sense to do the right thing - even when no one is watching.

Please take a look at Chuck DeVore for the United States Senate. A man of principle. A man that knows his Constitution. A man much needed at this time in America and for the people of California.

Via Memeorandum

Note - Chuck DeVore is a Veteran of the US Military. In contrast, Rep. Campbell who never served in the US Armed Forces, was heavily supported in his past campaigns by San Francisco AntiWar activists Justin Raimondo and Eric Garris, of AntiWar.com. Both served in various capacities at his San Francisco campaign offices.

Tim Daniel's blog is Left Coast Rebel.

The Libertarian Party of Rush County will be taking part in the 12th Annual Rushville St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 13th, 2010.

This is a break out event for our County LP and we need to open some eyes in our area. We need your help even if you are not in Rush County!

We have a float, signs, banners, music, pass outs, candy and several local Libertarian marchers. The parade begins at 3:00, we will be in the staging area at 2:00 to decorate the float and prepare for the parade at  615 N Main St., Rushville, IN 46173 Map

Immediately following the parade we have singer songwriter Brian Wallen performing, hot dogs and St. Patrick’s Day punch for the public, along with a “Soapbox” fundraiser ($1.00 a minute) for anyone who wishes can break out in their best rant!

read more

Libertarian Republican has learned that former KABC Los Angeles and nationally syndicated radio talk show host Larry Elder has been tapped to host a soon-to-be launched live webcast to premier in the next couple of months.

A spokesman for the new subscriber-based network confirmed that talk fans worldwide will have the opportunity to hear a super-charged, no-holds-barred Larry for 2 hours each weekday without commercial interruption. He will be commenting as we know and love on the issues of the day from his own "Republitarian" perspective, only this time without the pressures and oversight of a politically-correct corporate machine. This new medium promises to showcase Larry at his 'sage' best - the way 'freedom of speech' is meant to be heard.

Developing...Stay tuned to Libertarian Republican for more details...

Younger Paul now way out ahead for US Senate

From Eric Dondero:

A somewhat bizarre situation is developing in the BlueGrass State. Republican candidate for US Senate, Rand Paul is now crushing his GOP primary opposition according to a brand new poll, while his own father's poll numbers are way down.

From Magellan Strategies:

Among likely Republican primary voters in Kentucky, US Senate
candidate Rand Paul leads Secretary of State Trey Grayson 44% to 23%, and 33% are undecided.

In contrast, Rand Paul's father, Texas Congressman Ron Paul trails way behind in a side question on the survey, asking respondents who they would support for President in 2012. Paul placed 5th in low single digits, out of 6 potential candidates.

Continuing from Magellan:

Among likely Republican primary voters, Sarah Palin leads Mike Huckabee 28% to
24% in a presidential primary ballot test. Mitt Romney is third with 16%, followed
by Newt Gingrich with 12%, Ron Paul with 4%, Tim Pawlenty with 2%, and 14% are
undecided. Younger voters (18?34) prefer Palin by a significant margin with 43%
support, and among senior citizens the ticket tightens up with Romney, Palin and Huckabee in a dead heat.

Looks to his Dad on Tax and Spending issues, but not Foreign Policy

Two points need to be considered.

Firstly, the younger Paul has staked out a decidedly different position on foreign policy and defense from his father. For instance, two months ago, he came out strongly against transferring Gitmo prisoners to the mainland to give them trials in American courts. He has also produced television commercials touting his pro-defense credetials. And he doesn't flinch in using the term "terrorists," to describe America's enemies.

Secondly, Rand Paul embraced Sarah Palin, and enthusiastically accepted her endorsement last month. Whereas Ron Paul has shunned Palin, and on leat two occasions on cable news has made snarky remarks about her views and her followers.

Eliot Sander, Metro Transit boss man, nearly $300,000 a year salary from NY Taxpayers

Warren Redlich, is an attorney and town councilman in upstate New York. He's a candidate for Governor seeking both the Libertarian Party and Republican Party lines. Yesterday, he sent out a release listing the most overpaid bureaucrats in the state of New York.

From the release:

Albany – The Metropolitan Transportation Authority faces deficits amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. While these problems threaten New Yorkers with new taxes, they haven’t affected the MTA’s fat payroll.

According the SeeThroughNY.net database, the MTA had 54 people making over $200,000 in total pay in 2008, with over 8000 making $100K or more.

The top names on the list:

The MTA 200K club includes CEO Eliot Sander as the highest paid with $290K, and dozens of other executives, including William Norwich, the Senior VP of Operations for Long Island Bus ($259K), and Joseph Smith, Superintendent of Maintenance for NYC Transit ($256K).

The club also includes a number of regular workers. Ronald C. Dunne earned $283K as a Car Repairman for the Long Island Railroad. Some other $200K+ positions were Road Car Inspector, Conductor, Engineer, and Police Officer.

Redlich's solution is to simply cap the Metro Transportation salaries, and put an overall cap on public sector pay at $100,000 a year along with a pension cap of $75,000:

"Governor Paterson and others would increase taxes and adopt measures that hurt regular workers and reduce service. We can save more money by cutting at the top."

More info: "Stop wasting money for NY State" campaign, Redlich for Governor.