Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Islam is Slavery

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From Eric Dondero

Worldwide Libertarian Human Rights Activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali interviewed last week on the Canadian TV News program "On the Map."

At the 2:30 mark Ali states unequivocally:

Islam means submission to the will of Allah. A docrtine that requires an individual to become a slave. In my view it's bad.

Islam limits one to follow what you can find in the Koran and to follow the example of the prophet Muhammed. I think that's bad. And that's what keeps people in the Islamic world backwards.

Note - Ali is married to British libertarian historian Niall Ferguson.

Trump hearts Michele Bachmann?

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From Eric Dondero:

Pretty amazing that the Donald has kind words for any other Republican. But his view on Congresswoman and rising star presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is suprisingly positive.

Trump said on a recent CNN interview with Pierce Morgan (via Newsmax):

Michele Bachmann as a bright light in the Republican race for the presidential nomination. “I think she’s a very underrated person,” Trump told CNN’s Piers Morgan during a phone interview.

Trump, who decided not to run for the Republican nomination himself, said he “was very impressed with her” when the Minnesota congresswoman and founder of the House Tea Party Caucus visited him recently in New York City.

The money now points to Rick Perry

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From Cliff Thies:

Intrade, one of the foremost gambling parlors in the world, now tabs Texas Governor Rick Perry as the favorite to win the Republican nomination, 33 to 32 percent, over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is a distant third, at 10 percent. Others are tabbed in the single digits.

From the Washington Times"Among bettors, Perry now bests Romney for 2012 nod":

Mr. Perry’s nomination odds reached a high of 33 percent Thursday morning, eclipsing Mr. Romney for the first time. Mr. Romney, trading at 32 percent, had been Intrade’s 2012 favorite since betting on the GOP nomination began in 2008 and had even consolidated his front-runner status in recent months as his opponents stumbled and other would-be challengers opted not to run.

Giuliani stakes out middle-of-the-road stance on Gay Marriage

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Describes his view as "libertarian Republican"

From an interview on CNN via WYNC.org blog:

I don’t see harm. Although, I think it would be better for stability of families if we kept marriage between a man and woman. I see more harm, however, by dwelling so much on the subject of gays and lesbians and whether it’s right or wrong in politics. We’ve got far - not necessarily more important things - but far more relevant things to talk about.

I think if you are a libertarian Republican or you have a streak of libertarian Republican, I don’t know what the heck the Republican Party wants to do getting involved in people’s sexual lives and personal lives so much for. Stay out of it and it would be much more a successful party if we stuck to our economic, conservative roots and our idea of a strong, assertive America that is not embarrassed to be the leader of the world.

Editor's comment - Our sentiments precisely here at LR; keeping marriage between a man and a woman is much preferable, however dwelling on the issue at the expense of economic conservatism and a strong defense, which unites all Republicans, is not at all helpful to the GOP.

Mozel Tov to Britta Hanson and Track Palin

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From Clifford Thies:

Army Reservist Track Palin and his beautiful wife (and childhood sweetheart) Britta Hanson are expecting their first child.

The London Daily Mail notes:

Sarah Palin is going to be a grandmother again - her 22-year-old son Track is expecting his first child.

The Republican politician’s new 21-year-old daughter-in-law Britta Hanson appears heavily pregnant in newly-posted photos on a friend's Facebook account.

Track spent a year with the Army in Iraq as a reservist before the wedding; Britta, the daughter of a minister, is a University of Alaska nursing student.

Britta grew up in rural Alaska not far from Wasilla. They dated all through high school, were winter sports buddies, and have known each other almost all their lives.

Libyan Rebels supported by Obama administration now beheading Loyalist soldiers

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"Sub-Saharan Africans... lynched" by mostly Arab forces

From Eric Dondero:

The London Telegraph is now reporting on massive human rights abuses by Libyan rebel forces.

The headless corpse, the mass grave and worrying questions about Libya's rebel army...

The five corpses floated disfigured and bloating in the murky bottom of the water tank. Wearing green soldiers' uniforms, the men lay belly down, decomposing in the putrid water... close to the Libyan rebels' western front line town of Al-Qawalish in the Nafusa Mountains...

the evidence of a brutal end were clear. One of the corpses had been cleanly decapitated, while the trousers of another had been ripped down to his ankles, a way of humiliating a dead enemy.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both said there were documented cases of extra-judicial killings by rebel forces, including deaths in custody under torture... Sub-Saharan Africans accused of being mercenaries were lynched... men in rebel-held areas suspected of being members of Col Gaddafi's security services have been taken from the homes, and subsequently found dead with their hands tied.

NATO is aligned with these forces?

Photo credit - TheIslamicStandard

"Virtually Impossible" to raise taxes if GOP gets their way

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QUOTE OF THE DAY!

From CNS:

In order to pay our bills, Republicans would require us to pass a Constitutional amendment that would permanently enshrine their partisan budget priorities in law and make it virtually impossible to raise revenue -- House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland

Editor's comment - And that's precisely the point Steny.

Photo credit - Raw Story

MSNBC leftist blowhard embarrasses herself over Eco Degree

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From Eric Dondero:

Meet Mo Brooks. He is the conservative Republican congressman from northern Alabama (Huntsville area).

Brooks was a guest on Contessa Brown's MSNBC show, and she asked him a question about his academic background. She didn't quite get the answer she was expecting.

From Brooks's bio (house.gov):

Mo graduated from Duke University in three years with a double major in political science and economics, with highest honors in economics. In 1978, he graduated from the University of Alabama Law School.

Editor's note - We supported Brooks's Tea Party opponent in the 2010 GOP primary.

MAJOR DEVELOPMENT!! Florida GOP Senate Primary

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From Eric Dondero:

Karl Dickey at The Examiner reports:

Former state House Representative Adam Hasner has less to competition in his effort to gain entry to the U.S. Senate office currently held by Bill Nelson. Thanks to state Senate president Mike Haridopolos dropping out of the race for Florida's U.S. Senate seat, Hasner has one less heavily-favored Republican to go against to win the Republican primary, though he has nine others compete with - most notably George LeMieux who has been making the rounds.

Dickey, Chair of the Palm Beach County Libertarian Party and a 2008 attendee of the Republican Liberty Caucus convention in Orlando also notes:

No Libertarians have yet to file for the office and it seems doubtful former Libertarian Party U.S. Senate candidate Alex Snitker will run for the office in 2012.

Haridolopols was a guest speaker at that same 2008 RLC Convention, and serves on the RLC advisory board.

Hasner is a pro-defense libertarian, staunchly free market, and a vehement critic of radical Islam. A Jewish American, he is a friend and former State House colleague of Senator Marco Rubio.

The Andre Controversa Show: Should Russell Pearce be recalled?

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From Right Guy:

From 7:00-8:00PM CST Thursday

Russell Pearce is president of the Arizona Senate and a strong border hawk. He drafted SB 1070. We will have a panel that includes:

Mike O'Neil, President of O'Neil Research, an Arizona polling firm, former congressman from Colorado Tom Tancredo, Matt Toman, chairman of Citizens opposed to the Pearce Recall and Cad Snow, chairman of Citizens for a Better Arizona, who support recalling Russell Pearce.

From 8:00-9:00PM TBA

Host Andre Traversa

Co-host Jim Lagnese

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

Rasmussen confirms: Obama loses badly to Generic Republican

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From Cliff Thies:

Last time we commented on the U.S. national polls, it was Gallup showing Generic Republican ahead of President Obama by 8 points. We now have a similar showing in the Rasmussen Poll. Generic Republican ahead by 6 points, 47 to 41.

President Obama now earns his lowest level of support yet against a generic Republican candidate in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that a generic Republican earns support from 47% of Likely Voters, while the president picks up 41% of the vote. Four percent (4%) favor some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided.

Generic Democrat in 2003: How to Read Match-ups early in the Presidential Election Cycle

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LR SPECIAL REPORT!

by Clifford F. Thies

"It’s a good thing Barack Obama won’t be running against 'Generic Republican,' says one blogger. "There’s little chance of another Mr. Smith going to Washington," says another. "There’s just one small problem," says a third, "any time an actual candidate gets entered into the mix, the number drops."

Dream on!

At this juncture in the election cycle, it is not surprising that Generic Republican is ahead of even the best-performing named Republican. Let's look back to the 2004 election cycle. President Bush was presumed to be the Republican nominee; and, the Democratic nomination was up for grabs. Among the possible nominees paired against Bush in "match-ups" were Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, Hillary Clinton, Richard Gephardt, Welsley Clark, Al Sharpton, John Kerry and Jonathan Edwards.

I have compared the performance of Generic Democrat versus the best-performing named Democrat from the mid-term elections of 2002 to the end of 2003. Sometimes, the same poll-taking organization soliticited preferences in match-ups involving both the Generic Democrat and named Democrats. More often, certain pollsters used the Generic Democrat match-up and other pollsters the named Democrat match-ups.

For each month, I averaged all the available match-ups. As the accompanying chart shows, Generic Democrat consistently did about five points better in match-ups against President Bush in the monthly averages.

As to why Generic Democrat did better than the best-performing Democrat back in 2003, and why Generic Republican is doing better than the best-performing Republican this year should be obvious. It is not because the better-performing candidates are weak. It is because not all those who are inclined to support whomever will be the nominee of the challenging party is equally supportive of all possible contenders in advance of the nomination being decided. Some are more supportive of one candidate or another, and and reluctant to indicate to pollsters that, in the end, they will support whomever their party nominates.

This kind of result is typical in polling in Governor or U.S. Senate when one party, and not the other, has a contested primary. The candidate who doesn't have a contested primary will look artificially strong until the primary is concluded and the winner has had an opportunity to unite his party. One obvious way a nominee for President can do this is by naming a candidate for Vice President that helps to unify his party. Almost always, those who win their party's nomination are able to unite their party; although, from time to time, example 1964, the nominee is unable to accomplish this task.

One more thing: some pollsters ask a third form of match-ups, the incumdent versus "somebody else." Logically, "somebody else" includes potential independent and third-party candidates and even challengers for the nomination of the incumbent's party. Accordingly, "somebody else" tends to do even better than the Mr. Generic. In the 2004 election cycle, I found that "somebody else" outperformed Generic Democrat by an average of three points.

A Conservative! not necessarily libertarian argument for Marijuana Legalization

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From Eric Dondero:

John Frary is a retired history professor in Maine. He is a traditionalist Republican. He ran unsuccessfully for congress as the GOP nominee in 2008 opposing incumbent Rep. Michael Michaud. During his campaign while he was on a local radio show, a caller called in and asked his position of legalizing marijuana. Frary stunned the caller and listeners by answering he favored legalization. He cited National Review and quoted free market economist Milton Friedman.

From his editorial in the Portland Daily Sun "Legalize Marijuana?" July 19:

A lot of people assumed that I was taking a libertarian position about the war on drugs, that drug consumption and addiction are entirely private matters. Actually, I never felt the need to get into the philosophical question. A conservative can conclude that the human race really doesn’t need yet another means of evading or numbing reality and blotting out reality. But there are no good grounds for persisting in failure.

A prolonged and persistent effort had been made. Civil rights have been strained, jails and penitentiaries stuffed full, hundreds of billions of dollars spent, immense police resources committed. No victory in sight.

It falls to those who want to keep this war going to explain either how much they are willing to spend to maintain the present stalemate and for how long, or how they think victory can be achieved at last despite the iron laws of supply and demand that Prof. [Milton] Friedman explained.

Note - Maine Republican legislators have recently introduced medical marijuana legislation, and Republican Gov. Paul LePage has indicated he would sign such legislation.

NJ Republican Governor Chris Christie lets Medical Marijuana bill become law

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Had initial concerns, but let it pass

As reported by the LA Times blog "New Jersey becomes 16th state to approve medical marijuana use" July 19:

New Jersey's Republican Gov. Chris Christie said this afternoon he would permit a bill allowing the dispensing of marijuana for specific medical purposes to become law...

in coming weeks, New Jersey's doctors will be able to legally prescribe marijuana to patients suffering from a specific list of illnesses including HIV and cancer if other treatments have failed.

Christie said he had initial concerns about opening state dispensaries to federal prosecution. But although he could not obtain a clear answer from the U.S. Justice Department, he decided they faced little risk of that if operating under the new state measure.

"My desire all along has been to bring compassionate care to the people who need it the most,'' Christie said during a news conference. "This is a narrow and medically-based program that will not lend itself to abuses that we have seen particularly in California and Colorado."

Note - Christie is a former federal prosecutor.

VIDEO: Michael Munger on America’s Debt Crisis

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Michael Munger lays out America’s debt problems, and gives three solutions on how to solve them. “is an economist, chair of the political science department at Duke University, and was the Libertarian candidate for Governor of North Carolina in 2008.” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Munger Munger also appeared in the popular YouTube videos “”Fear the Boom and Bust” [...]

How libertarianism Helps the Poor

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For most libertarians, their first stumbling block to the philosophy was how those in need will receive assistance. Even those that count themselves as party founders still probably get a little hot flash of anger when someone calls them “heartless” or “selfish.” Libertarians are usually driven to the philosophy of non-intervention because they’ve witnessed first-hand how a [...]