Republican Liberty Caucus Chair defends Illinois Libertarian Party in ballot access stand-off

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BREAKING NEWS!! LR EXCLUSIVE!

From Eric Dondero:

The Libertarian Party of Illinois handed in over 48,000 signatures for ballot access in late June. The required number of signatures was 25,000. Other parties, for example the Constitution Party, handed in only 35,000. The Green Party already has ballot status as a result of an 8% showing by their candidate for Governor in 2006.

The signatures were challenged immediately. Illinois is a challenge state. If any citizen or group challenges the signatures of the third party, that party must undergo a grueling process of line-by-line signature validation, and hearings in front of an election board to justify signatures that may be unclear, or have disputed addresses.

Last week at one of these hearings, a representative for the challengers revealed that he was a campaign volunteer for moderate Republican nominee for Governor Bill Brady.

National Chairman for the Republican Liberty Caucus, which represents the libertarian wing of the GOP, has released this statement to Libertarian Republican in regards to the Illinois situation:

"Ballot access for candidates and parties is as important to having an open and honest political system as it is for voters to have equal access to the polls. If a political party is so unsure of the its ability to win votes legitimately that it has to manipulate the system to deny its competitors fair access to the ballot then it has forfeited its right to represent the people. Republicans and Democrats should welcome the challenge offered by third parties and embrace the challenge to win elections on their merits rather than their incumbency."

Lex Green is the Illinois Libertarian candidate for Governor against Bill Brady. Ironically, both Brady and Green are from Bloomington (in Central Illinois, 2 hours south of Chicago). In fact, Green's wife Karen is a local Republican Precinct Committeewoman in Bloomington, and knows the Bradys. The Greens lean to the conservative side of the libertarian spectrum and are both what could be described as "cultural Republicans." Lex Green is a "Ron Paul type" constitutionalist Libertarian. He has been emphasizing budgetary cutbacks, spending reforms, and tax relief in his campaign.

Brady is viewed with suspicion amongst hardline conservatives throughout the state, particularly those who were supporters of Tea Party candidate Adam Andrzejewski, who came in 4th in the GOP primary.

Important Note - The RLC as a standard policy, does not endorse Libertarian Party candidates in any race, where there is a Republican candidate on the ballot. However, the RLC explicitly endorses and urges support among its membership for only those Republicans who have demonstrated definitive libertarian-leanings, and friendly relations with the libertarian movement.

Dr. Helen Smith – Sexy, Chic and "Right Libertarian"

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Dr. Helen Smith, contributing editor for Pajamas Media, distinguished Psychologist, and wife of InstaPundit Glenn Reynolds writing in Men's Daily, Aug. 3. Excerpt on liberal college professors supressing diversity of views at law schools across the U.S.:

I am not a Conservative…

Yes, but I am, at least I am a right-leaning libertarian which is adequately different from liberal dogma that it counts as Conservative. Actually, anyone who does not toe the liberal line is considered a Conservative by some of these open-minded academics

I wonder how many conservatives avoid the academic world altogether because of the hostility toward their political views. Law schools are better than most in allowing for different politics but if this is the most tolerant of the academic world, how intolerant are other graduate schools and their professors? I shudder to think about it.

"Castostrophic" losses for Democrats in Nov. now likely says RCP expert

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Excerpted from Sean Trende's column at Real Clear Politics (RCP) "Are Things Getting Worse for House Democrats?" Aug. 3:

what we are currently looking at is a 10-point generic lead for Republicans among the likely electorate. This would represent historic gains for the GOP. This would be larger than the 52-45% edge that gave the Republicans 230 seats in 1994 or the 52%-44% win that gave Democrats 233 seats in 2006. A ten-point win would be more consistent with the 53%-43% edge Democrats had in 2008, which gave them 257 seats - 80 seats more than Republicans presently occupy.

Recently, though, the President's disapproval numbers have spiked again, and his approvals have fallen. There is now a near-majority of voters disapproving of him, the highest number in the history of the RCP Average. This also means that there are probably around 100 House Democrats running for re-election in districts where the President's approval rating is upside-down. If this trend continues, it could be potentially catastrophic for Democrats, driving their generic numbers down even further.

Firedog Lake’s Jane Hamscher says many Marijuana legalizing Youth "Republican Libertarians"

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Mistake to say Marijuana Youth to vote Democrat

California will have an initiative to fully legalize and tax marijuana on the November ballot.

Appearing on CNN yesterday, liberal blogger Jane Hamsher said the following:

"Polls show that they [young people] are much more likely to vote if marijuana legalization is on the ballot.

I think it's a mistake to say that they're going to vote for Democrats because just as many of the youth are likely to be Republican Libertarians as they are Democrats..."

Hamscher's blog is Firedog Lake.

Nicknames and Nullification

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There used to be a guy up in Mooreland who went by the nickname “Banjo”. I don’t know why people called him by that name. There were a lot of people with nicknames when I was growing up, but I didn’t always know where the names originated. I was pretty sure [...]

What is medical testing? Why it matters for DTCG survival.

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I just was threatened by Daniel MacArthur over at GenomesUnzipped that he was about to delete my comments.

He called it trivial. I think he is missing the tremendously simple point.

Why is the FDA mad as hell? Medical Claims.

Hell, they even told Mary Carmichael in the interview.

Alberto Gutierrez = AG

"AG: The concern is with everything."

"AG: The law requires us to clear devices or approve devices BEFORE they go into the marketplace when they make medical claims"

This to me is crystal clear. Make a medical claim. Get regulated.

Which is interesting. Because I would say some of what DTCG did was, infer medical claims without making outright claims- silly games . I happen to think that is a shitty way to sell something. But heck it is a way to create a discussion rather than instant regs.....

"AG: The question with 23andMe has been whether their claims were medical or not. The original claims they were making were very much on the edge."

"AG: We actually told them that WE(FDA) thought they were medical claims, but it was at least possible you could argue that they were not"

Do you get it? The judge thought they were medical claims, but let the company proceed. Giving it just enough rope to hang itself.......

The question here is clear. What is a medical claim?

Which boils down to: What is medical?

I can tell you what I do as a doctor.

I diagnose, treat, cure, palliate, prevent human suffering and advance human health.

If you are making claims to do any of those things, I would call it medicine.

This is very important to understand and I hope you VC are listening........

Diagnose, Treat, Cure, Palliate or Prevent human suffering.......and advance human health.

Words matter. Did you notice I didn't say disease. Because what's today's disease may not be tomorrow's.

And Vice Versa....

Is a priest a doctor? Well, they used to be.

Is a counselor practicing medicine, well, I would say yes, they are in the healthcare arena

Yes, it is now sinking in. That huge pit in your gut. The millions invested trying to game the system that is millenia old........

It will not work. DTCG has just proven that. And, do you think the vitamin industry has a chance over the next decade?

No.

I will begin the deep dive into the FDA comments shortly. But rest assured, I just gave you some insight into what medical really means......

The Sherpa Says: There Daniel, there you have it. I have told you what medicine is. Now if you wish to argue against that go ahead bub.......

The Craziest Camaro?

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Is this the craziest fifth-generation Camaro yet? The LSX 454-ci crate motor is paired with the Turbonetics 91-mm hybrid turbo and good for 1,400-whp and 900-lb-ft of torque. It was also converted to a solid rear axle with ladder bar suspension and back-halved with a custom carbon fiber tub. S

A Galactic Spectacle

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A beautiful new image of two colliding galaxies has been released by NASA's Great Observatories. The Antennae galaxies, located about 62 million light years from Earth, are shown in this composite image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), the Hubble Space Telescope (gold), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (red).

The collision, which began more than 100 million years ago and is still occurring, has triggered the formation of millions of stars in clouds of dusts and gas in the galaxies. The most massive of these young stars have already sped through their evolution in a few million years and exploded as supernovas.

The X-ray image from Chandra shows huge clouds of hot, interstellar gas that have been injected with rich deposits of elements from supernova explosions. This enriched gas, which includes elements such as oxygen, iron, magnesium and silicon, will be incorporated into new generations of stars and planets. The bright, point-like sources in the image are produced by material falling onto black holes and neutron stars that are remnants of the massive stars. Some of these black holes may have masses that are almost one hundred times that of the Sun.

The Spitzer data show infrared light from warm dust clouds that have been heated by newborn stars, with the brightest clouds lying in the overlap region between the two galaxies. The Hubble data reveal old stars in red, filaments of dust in brown and star-forming regions in yellow and white. Many of the fainter objects in the optical image are clusters containing thousands of stars.

The Antennae galaxies take their name from the long antenna-like "arms," seen in wide-angle views of the system. These features were produced by tidal forces generated in the collision.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/antennae.html

Greenberg questions Upstate plan – Charleston Post Courier

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Greenberg questions Upstate plan
Charleston Post Courier
A proposed medical school expansion in Greenville likely wouldn't affect the number of qualified students who enroll at the Medical ...
USC, Greenville Hospital System trustees to vote on medical school FridayCharleston Regional Business
Greenville Hospital System set to pay at least $35 million to help USC expand ...The State
Usc Medical School Looks to Expand,WSAV-TV
Sumter Item -Myrtle Beach Sun News
all 32 news articles »

What is the Space Shuttle’s True Legacy?

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Frank Sietzen, Jr: "As the final flights of the Space Shuttle draw near, already some of us are awash in nostalgia for the winged beast, not withstanding its ruinous cost. For nearly a majority of Americans now living, there has never been an American spacecraft other than the Shuttle. Generation after generation have been born and grown to adulthood with the Shuttle missions flying, in many respects, transparently in the background, part of routine life. For millions all over the world, for some who love and for many who hate America, the Space Shuttle and its astronaut crews flying daring missions have become symbols of the American nation-an iconic self-image of who Americans like to think they still are: adventurers, risk takers, explorers. In times of triumph as well as moments of darkness."

But it is more than memories and nostalgia: can we now see the Shuttle in its historical context? Can we properly evaluate the unique role it has placed in the U.S. space program? Can we begin to assess its true legacy? And, most importantly, how to apply "lessons learned" to the next generation of government-owned or privately operated orbital spacecraft.

Looking back across the nearly four decades since President Richard M. Nixon made establishment of the "Space Transportation System" a national goal in January, 1972, the Shuttle design, shaped by political and budget limitations, looks truly incredible. From a 12-foot cone weighing 10,000 pounds, America moved in a single leap to a reentry vehicle 122 feet in length and 78 feet tall weighing 200,000 pounds, capable of carrying 50,000 pounds of cargo to orbit and back.

The early Shuttle missions - satellite deployments, retrievals and repair - are missions that could never be approved in today's risk averse culture (and some of which were banned following the Challenger accident). The operations cost of the Shuttle system, devoid of space tugs and orbital maneuvering vehicles, soared along with the machine's flights. But on missions flying Spacelab modules and Spacehab units, the orbiter came close to achieving its storied promise as a space-going truck.

Until the Columbia accident, the administration of Sean O'Keefe was trying to assess how much longer to fly the Shuttles, and what level of upgrades to approve and fund (think SLEP I and II). It was conceivable that NASA might keep the Shuttles flying well past 2020. After Columbia, O'Keefe got Presidential approval to end the Shuttle era with "completion' of the ISS- a flexible designation. Bounded by the sacrosanct CAIB requirement of recertification much past 2010, the outlines of retirement were emerging as Discovery returned to flight five years ago this summer.

It is also clear that the series of commercial and government replacements for the entire Shuttle system is to be some form of capsule-and-booster system, the Sierra Nevada HL-20 notwithstanding. And with the political battle needed to add just one more flight to the existing manifest, the Space Shuttle era is ending in political disarray and uncertainty.

NASAWATCH posters, here's my essay questions this week:

- Was retirement of the Shuttle following ISS completion appropriate? If not why not?
- What technological lessons have we learned from 132 (135) Shuttle missions, the good and the bad?
- How will space operations of the next manned spacecraft incorporate the Shuttle experience?
- How do you personally assess the era of the Shuttle? And
- Give us some of your personal memories and experiences of the Shuttle in your life and career.

For me, I must admit I came of age during the Shuttle's time, so I have feelings of nostalgia as its era comes to a close. I was a public official sitting in the Louisiana Governor's office when Challenger went down. Just weeks before, I had participated in the latest Dial-A-Shuttle broadcast, then a program by the National Space Institute. I would eventually participate in about a dozen of those programs, adventures for an all-too willing Shuttlehugger (then) that led to many friendships that I still nurture today. The existence of the Shuttle program led me on a path, as a writer, that would take me from the bayou to the beltway and more opportunities than I had ever deserved to come my way. Had there been no Shuttle program, I might well be still there today, still pining to escape. But that's another story. So, for me, it's personal.

In the spring of 1984 NASA sent the prototype Space Shuttle, named OV-101 Enterprise to be the anchor space agency exhibit at the Louisiana World's Fair in New Orleans. The Shuttle was to make the final lap of the trip by barge to the fair site, on the Mississippi River in downtown New Orleans. But before the Shuttle was loaded onto the barge, it made a flyover of the city aboard the 747 carrier aircraft used to transport the flying Shuttles Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis from the west coast landing site at Edwards dry lake to the Florida launch site (the Shuttle Endeavour would be added to the fleet to replace the lost Challenger). It was a cloudless blue sky that greeted me and a handful of my fellow Amoco Production Company employees who had gathered on the roof of our office building to see the spectacle unfold.

Gliding silently across the cityscape came the ungainly pair. The 747's pilot made repeated sweeps over downtown New Orleans, so that the lunchtime crowd could see the craft, beautifully lit by the golden afternoon sun. Later, it rode that slower means of transport, the barge, for the last leg of the trip to the fair site. Just off the Mississippi River, NASA had built its exhibit, with the Enterprise as the main attraction.

Later, as a freelancer, I had an office of sorts on the grounds of the fair. As soon as I entered the fair site, I was transformed into a space writer. I followed the Astronaut Class of 1984 around when they came calling. I interviewed the STS-41C and D crews, including a dark eyed crewmember named Judy Resnik. I described the 41D pad abort for local TV sitting inside a NASA mockup of the Shuttle flight deck. I listened to Brian Duff's tales of Reagan watching Shuttle videos at Camp David. I interviewed, thanks to a friend's intervention, the entire Apollo 11 crew - in the time when they did few such interviews. In short, I had a blast. On weekends, I'd take the bus from my house in the Gentilly section of the city to the fair. Early in the mornings, just after the fair's doors opened, there were few tourists about. I had to pass the Enterprise to get lunch or an ice creme cone, and I got comfortable seeing the silent ship in every time of day, often cloaked by crowds but sometimes just standing alone. The year was filled with Shuttle missions - including the Challenger's race to save the Solar Max satellite and a flight that tested orbital refueling (only using water, not rocket fuel).

I went to KSC to see Discovery launch on 51G and in Houston flew the Shuttle simulator for an ascent run during 41G. Although used as a prototype for atmospheric testing, the Enterprise was the same size as, and looked much like its sister ships that would fly the flights to space and back. On one afternoon, I stopped to see a young boy and his father that stood ahead of me at the front of the Enterprise display. Looking up from the floor, the Shuttle looked enormous as it sat on its landing gear atop a small stand. The blond-headed boy exclaimed "Wow dad! Look how big it is!". "It really is big", his father replied, "much bigger than I thought". All of those who fought so hard in Congress, and the thousands of spacers nationwide that fought to make the Shuttle a reality would have understood the affect it had back then on the public. It was big, much bigger than anyone thought. The largest manned spacecraft ever brought to operational status, the Shuttle dwarfed the space capsules of the past and future. In its huge size lay both its achievements and its limitations.

The voyages of the Space Shuttle brought America of age in living and working in space. But it would take at least a generation before we knew if the lives of the American people were made better for having lived during the era of its flights.

Bolden Is Operating In Cloaked Mode These Days (Update)

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Keith's 30 July note: In case you haven't noticed Charlie Bolden has been invisible for several weeks after the Muslim outrech media storm. No one in the media has interviewed him. He hasn't been quoted. He's just been, well, invisible. He surfaced yesterday at a stealth visit to GSFC. NASA only admitted this via Twitter a few minutes ago. No doubt he will disappear again. You can tell if he is arriving (or departing) stealthily if you hear this noise. This way he can avoid the media more easily.

Keith's 5 Aug note: Charlie Bolden emerges! Photo at a NAC meeting: "And here's the @NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden presenting award to NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Chair Ken Ford"