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How to win Elections 888 449 2526 Republican Tea Party Libertarian Top 10 agency – Video

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How to win Elections 888 449 2526 Republican Tea Party Libertarian Top 10 agency - Video

First Brownback foe slated to be chosen

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Published: 1/3/2014 9:43 PM | Last update: 1/3/2014 10:51 PM Libertarian convention is April 26. By The Associated Press

WICHITA - The Libertarian party will pick its candidate for governor at the party's convention in Wichita on April 26, the first significant event in a year that will determine if Republican Gov. Sam Brownback secures a second term.

About 150 registered Libertarians will choose between Keen Umbehr of Alma and Tresa McAlhaney of Bonner Springs. Libertarians are prohibited from picking their candidate by ballot in a primary election in August because it is not considered a major party in Kansas.

Some Libertarians say having a primary election like Democrats and Republicans would improve their candidate's chances for a good showing during the general election in November.

The Kansas City Star reports that a political party in Kansas must get 5 percent of the vote in a governor's race to be considered a major party. In 2010, the Libertarian candidate for governor got 2.6 percent of the vote.

"We feel like we're behind the eight ball," said Rob Hodgkinson, vice chairman of the Libertarian Party of Kansas. "Most of the media have no idea we have two candidates. Everything is prioritized to the major parties."

Brownback, a former U.S. senator, was elected in 2010. His Democratic opposition on the November ballot will likely be House Minority Leader Paul Davis of Lawrence.

Umbehr and McAlhaney were taking the challenge of gaining voter support in stride.

"It is what it is," McAlhaney said. "We haven't gotten major party status in the state, so we have the freedom to run our party the way that we want."

Umbehr said the lack of attention and rules for minor parties "makes us work harder."

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First Brownback foe slated to be chosen

Civil libertarian says Qld police under pressure to break law

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The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties (QCCL) says police will be pressured into breaking the law to keep their figures up on scorecards.

As the Queensland Police Service aims to reduce state-wide crime by 10 per cent, officers will be assessed according to their number of traffic fines, random breath tests (RBTs) and street checks.

Terry O'Gorman from QCCL says it is a return to the so-called "kill sheet" quotas of the 1970s and 80s.

He says police will be under pressure to break the law.

"Police under pressure to complete scorecards will cut corners, will bully and bluster people into letting police search their cars when the police have no right to," he said.

"If police are going to be put on scorecards and you've got say 10 police in a squad and four are doing fewer RBTs, fewer street stops than the rest of them, then those four are going to be asked by their superior for a please explain.

"That is a return to the kill sheet."

Mr O'Gorman claims complaints have already been received about the abuse of search powers since the new bikie laws came into effect late last year.

But Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart has defended the scorecard system, saying it is not a repeat of the controversial 1970s and 1980s quota system.

"I expect our people to do their job. Their job is to stop crime in the community, make the community safer and build relationships with our community on a constant and continuous basis," he said.

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Civil libertarian says Qld police under pressure to break law

Libertarians have two candidates for Kansas governor

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WICHITA The Libertarian party will pick its candidate for governor at the party's convention in Wichita on April 26, the first significant event in a year that will determine if Republican Gov. Sam Brownback secures a second term.

About 150 registered Libertarians will choose between Keen Umbehr of Alma and Tresa McAlhaney of Bonner Springs. Libertarians are prohibited from picking their candidate by ballot in a primary election in August because it is not considered a major party in Kansas.

Some Libertarians say having a primary election like Democrats and Republicans would improve their candidate's chances for a good showing during the general election in November.

The Kansas City Star reports ( http://bit.ly/1cqvEMX ) that a political party in Kansas must get 5 percent of the vote in a governor's race to be considered a major party. In 2010, the Libertarian candidate for governor got 2.6 percent of the vote.

"We feel like we're behind the eight ball," said Rob Hodgkinson, vice chairman of the Libertarian Party of Kansas. "Most of the media have no idea we have two candidates. Everything is prioritized to the major parties."

Brownback, a former U.S. senator, was elected in 2010. His Democratic opposition on the November ballot will likely be House Minority Leader Paul Davis of Lawrence.

Umbehr and McAlhaney were taking the challenge of gaining voter support in stride.

"It is what it is," McAlhaney said. "We haven't gotten major party status in the state, so we have the freedom to run our party the way that we want."

Umbehr said the lack of attention and rules for minor parties "makes us work harder."

Hodgkinson said the fact Libertarian candidates aren't listed on the secretary of state's website is also a disadvantage.

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Libertarians have two candidates for Kansas governor

Queensland police under pressure to break law, civil libertarian says

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The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties (QCCL) says police will be pressured into breaking the law to keep their figures up on scorecards.

As the Queensland Police Service aims to reduce state-wide crime by 10 per cent, officers will be assessed according to their number of traffic fines, random breath tests (RBTs) and street checks.

Terry O'Gorman from QCCL says it is a return to the so-called "kill sheet" quotas of the 1970s and 80s.

He says police will be under pressure to break the law.

"Police under pressure to complete scorecards will cut corners, will bully and bluster people into letting police search their cars when the police have no right to," he said.

"If police are going to be put on scorecards and you've got say 10 police in a squad and four are doing fewer RBTs, fewer street stops than the rest of them, then those four are going to be asked by their superior for a please explain.

"That is a return to the kill sheet."

Mr O'Gorman claims complaints have already been received about the abuse of search powers since the new bikie laws came into effect late last year.

But Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart has defended the scorecard system, saying it is not a repeat of the controversial 1970s and 1980s quota system.

"I expect our people to do their job. Their job is to stop crime in the community, make the community safer and build relationships with our community on a constant and continuous basis," he said.

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Queensland police under pressure to break law, civil libertarian says

What is Libertarian? | The Institute for Humane Studies

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The libertarian or "classical liberal" perspective is that individual well-being, prosperity, and social harmony are fostered by "as much liberty as possible" and "as little government as necessary."

These ideas lead to new questions: What's possible? What's necessary? What are the practical implications and the unsolved problems?

Below are a number of different takes on the libertarian political perspective from which you can deepen your understanding;also be sure to check out the videos in the sidebar.

According to The Machinery of Freedom by David Friedman, Open Court Publishing Company,1973.

The central idea of libertarianism is that people should be permitted to run their own lives as they wish.

According toLibertarianism: A Primerby David Boaz,Free Press, 1997.

Libertarianism is the view that each person has the right to live his life in any way he chooses so long as he respects the equal rights of others. Libertarians defend each person's right to life, liberty, and property-rights that people have naturally, before governments are created. In the libertarian view, all human relationships should be voluntary; the only actions that should be forbidden by law are those that involve the initiation of force against those who have not themselves used force-actions like murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, and fraud.

According to Funk and Wagnall's Dictionary

lib-er-tar-i-an, n. 1. a person who advocates liberty, esp. with regard to thought or conduct.... advocating liberty or conforming to principles of liberty.

According to American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, 2000.

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What is Libertarian? | The Institute for Humane Studies

Bitcoin As An Alternative Currency? – Libertarian Vs Pragmatist

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One question that keeps popping up, and was addressed to some extent by NAB's recent report, is whether all the elements of the current Bitcoin are necessary for a viable alternative currency. And, as Citi's Steve Englander asks (from a libertarian and pragmatic perspective), if they are not, or can be improved on, where does that leave Bitcoins first mover advantage?

Via Citi's Steven Englander,

The libertarian streak in me likes the anonymity of Bitcoin transactions, but there is a rational part of me that asks whether that aspect is essential if I am paying for a latte in Soho. Similarly if the Bitcoin wallet can be made more secure by dropping anonymity, how many transactors will give up transactional security for libertarian principle? Giving up anonymity may make Bitcoin transactions more secure, and I suspect almost all transactors will value security much more than anonymity.

Going further, Bitcoins decentralized nodes are not needed, if there was less concern about keeping Bitcoin outside the current payments/fiat currency system. The nodes allow transactions to be validated by the Bitcoin community, but you can have efficient transactions without the particular validation system used by Bitcoin. The secure ledger of transactions can be centralized rather than decentralized. Bitcoins particular approach may be attractive for those who really want to operate outside the current financial system. There may be both legitimate and illegitimate reasons for this, but the vast majority of transactions do not have this need.

Going even further, if Bitcoin or an alternative currency embraced the financial regulatory system to make it more secure, how much payments efficiency is lost? You can still have secure, instantaneous transactions but inside the financial system there may be more security against fraud and more recourse if your Bitcoins are contained in your PC which gets hit by a meteor.

So there is this story about a special recipe for potato fritters (a very good recipe that I have tried). When a chef is handed the recipe, she decides to improve it by replacing each ingredient one-by-one with something more familiar. Having done so, she and her husband decide that the final result isnt nearly as good as advertised and is pretty close to what they prepare all the time. In eliminating anonymity, decentralization and non-regulation, much of the original intent of the Bitcoin developer(s) is being thwarted. The question is whether the core innovation of Bitcoin has been compromised or whether unneeded baggage is being dropped.

For the record, mining Bitcoin is waste of resources from a social perspective. The amount of CPU and electricity needed to mine Bitcoin is high, and from a social viewpoint about as valuable as building defenses against attacks from Mars. What the mining does is decide the allocation of the limited amount of Bitcoin produced each period and encourage the ledger to be kept. There is a real social cost to the decentralization designed into Bitcoin.

If Bitcoin is a payments technology, much of what makes it efficient and attractive can be retained, while dropping some features that most users find unnecessary. Bitcoin may become less attractive to illicit users as a result, but that is a sacrifice many will be willing to make. Culturally, the developers of Bitcoin may find this evolution extremely unattractive, because the distrust of the financial system and of financial authorities was one of the motivations for its development. However attractive philosophically, many users will vote for pragmatism over principle and a Bitcoin clone that satisfied this pragmatic streak could be able to overcome the first mover advantage.

So far I have ignored Bitcoin as a store of value, but the proponents of Bitcoin as a store of value/speculation crucially need Bitcoin to be unique and have strong barriers to entry, despite the replicability of the technology. If it turns out that investors/miners will arbitrage between Bitcoin and other mined alternative currencies, the outcome will be that there are many perfect or near perfect substitutes for Bitcoin, and the effective supply will be much larger than would be suggested by the gradually increasing and ultimately capped supply of the original Bitcoin. This will mean that valuations will be very fragile because in the long-term there will be no ability to limit the supply of Bitcoin lookalikes ... unless some subset of Bitcoin-like currencies gain government/central bank endorsement which gives them an advantage over non-endorsed Bitcoin-like currencies.

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Bitcoin As An Alternative Currency? - Libertarian Vs Pragmatist

Faces of 2013: Robert Sarvis

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WHY YOU KNOW HIM: The former software engineer, teacher, lawyer and new media entrepreneur from Northern Virginia was the Libertarian candidate for governor. On Election Day, he got 6.5 percent of the vote.

Sarvis, who ran his campaign on a shoestring, sought to achieve the 10 percent threshold that would give Libertarians automatic placement on future ballots. Polls showed many voters turning to Sarvis as an alternative a dynamic that some suggested adversely affected Republican Ken Cuccinellis chances.

But Sarvis refuses to accept responsibility for the GOPs defeat.

The Republican Party has an amazing ability to always find someone other than themselves to blame for their defeats, he said. Their response to this election is actually kind of emblematic of their politics, where prior beliefs trump evidence whenever the two conflict.

Sarvis was the first gubernatorial candidate for the Libertarian Party of Virginia since 2001, when William Redpath received just 14,500 votes, or 0.8 percent.

A former Republican, Sarvis first threw his hat into the political arena two years ago as the GOP candidate against Richard L. Saslaw, the Democratic leader in the Virginia Senate. Sarvis lost with 37 percent of the vote.

The Fairfax County native has since joined the Libertarian Party and in 2013 ran on a platform of limited government, fiscal responsibility and social liberalism.

Sarvis, who is half Chinese and is married to a black woman, supports legalizing same-sex marriage. He has compared the struggle of gay and lesbian couples to have their unions recognized to his mixed marriage, which would have been illegal in the commonwealth until the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia.

UPDATE: Since the election, he has been maximizing family time, Sarvis said.

Im a typical overly proud father. I love seeing Harlan and Ai-Li Mae grow, play, and learn new things. Im also incredibly proud of my wife, Astrid, who finished her residency and was accepted into her top choice of pediatric emergency medicine fellowship programs, he said. Well run out the clock on 2013 before returning to the stresses of the real world in the new year.

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Faces of 2013: Robert Sarvis

Lawrence native, a political neophyte, aims to be elected governor

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Photo by Richard Gwin

Tresa McAlhaney, a Lawrence native, is running for governor in 2014 as a libertarian. She is pictured holding daughter Emma, 2, at the family's Bonner Springs home on a recent day with, from left, daughter Natalie, 12, husband Michael, 10-month-old daughter Maegan, and son Logan, 8.

Bonner Springs Tresa McAlhaney isn't your typical politician.

In fact, she's not even a politician all the more reason she says she'd be the perfect person to govern the state of Kansas.

State government has gotten not only inefficient, says the stay-at-home mom from Bonner Springs, but out of touch with the people it's supposed to serve.

McAlhaney, 34, was never politically involved until recently, when she said she was forced to be. Her homeowners association was in a dispute with the state over the future of a nearby dam, when she noticed how long it was taking state officials to respond. She had also gotten into disagreements with the state over the education of her home-schooled children. "The more I got into the government stuff, the more riled up I got," she said.

She got involved with the Libertarian Party after hearing U.S. Sen. Ron Paul, a libertarian-leaning Republican from Texas, speak during last year's presidential campaign. And after she noticed a lack of Libertarians stepping up to run for governor in 2014, she took it upon herself to become a candidate.

"I think this is one of the safest, nicest places in the world," she said, speaking of Kansas. But until it gets better governance, she says, it will fail to live up to its full potential.

McAlhaney said she doesn't expect any big-money donors to back her campaign (her most successful week of fundraising $1,000 came right after she announced her candidacy). But she says that if she wins, that could end up being a good thing. "We don't want to have to be beholden to anybody," she said.

Her plans for governing include putting the state on a more fiscally sustainable path, with a balanced budget and careful analysis of everything the state funds. She says she's open to eliminating entire departments if need be.

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Lawrence native, a political neophyte, aims to be elected governor


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