Vulnerable Middle Performing States Falter on Democracy

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States occupying the political 'middle ground' confront increasingly difficult challenges in improving democratic governance, according to a new study released by Freedom House. In this year's Countries at the Crossroads assessment, declines exceeded improvements in both number and degree, with widespread efforts by governments cross-regionally to restrict freedom of expression and association in particular.

John Thune: Smooth Cattle Ride to Reelection

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No Democrat files against him

Looks like Republican Senator John Thune will be unopposed for reelection. In a further sign that Democrats are losing big in the all-important candidate recruitment game, not a single Democrat has filed against him.

From The Yankton Press & Dakotan (h/t Rightosphere and NRO):

PIERRE — South Dakota Democrats have failed to find a candidate to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. John Thune.

Democratic Party officials had acknowledged earlier they might not find anyone to run against Thune, a popular politician who is seeking a second term in the Senate. The lack of a Democratic candidate became official Thursday when election officials posted the final list of candidates who submitted nominating petitions to run for statewide offices and the Legislature in the June primary.

State Senate Minority Leader Scott Heidepriem of Sioux Falls, the Democratic candidate for governor, said the party decided not to field a candidate in a futile race against Thune.

“We just concluded that John Thune is an extremely popular senator who is going to win another term in the Senate,” Heidepriem said.

A Libertarian Party or Constitution Party candidate might not have any luck against Thune either. His 2009 National Taxpayer Union (NTU) score was a solid 'A' 92 points out of 100. This made him the 12th ranked "Taxpayer's Best Friend," in the entire US Senate.

Another sign Democrats heading into trouble for November

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The can't seem to attract any candidates

303 to 224; that's the margin of Republican candidates to Democrats this year in Missouri. This is a state that is always considered a bellweather of public opinion nationwide.

From the Kansas City Star:

JEFFERSON CITY | Significantly more of Missouri's political candidates are calling themselves Republicans than Democrats this year.

When Missouri's candidacy filing period ended last week, Republicans comprised 303 of the 582 people running for U.S. Senate or House, the state Legislature, state auditor or circuit judgeships. Democrats had 224 candidates, and the rest were aligned with either the Libertarian or Constitution parties.

West Texas GOP run-off for State Rep. – diehard libertarian-conservative challenges Establishment

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John Frullo made the run-off for State Representative HD-84 in the Lubbock area. The first place finisher was business-man, and Texas Tech regent Mark Griffin. Frullo was a complete political unknown. But he represents a growing hard right insurgency. He owns a print shop. His campaign signs simply read "Frullo for State Representative; Conservative Republican."

From the Texas Tribune, April 5:

The contest shares one important characteristic with the adjacent race in HD-83: It pits inside-the-tent Lubbock Republicans against a coalition of social and libertarian conservatives who are distinctly unhappy with government in Washington and Texas. In that frame, Frullo's the insurgent and Griffin represents the establishment.

"I feel a little like Don King," jokes Chris Winn, chairman of Lubbock County's GOP, but he downplays the ideological splits. "In Lubbock, what you have are people who espouse limited government, freedom and liberty. Those values have been the cornerstone of the Republican Party back as far as Goldwater and Reagan," he says.

"What it comes down to right now are which individuals show they are experienced to work in Austin for what's best for Lubbock," Winn says.

Griffin was a backer of Kay B. Hutchison for Governor. Frullo has Gov Rick Perry on his campaign website. Though, Perry has not made any official endorsements in the race.

Notably, Frullo has the endorsements from the Young Conservatives of Texas (Rand Paul was Chairman of this group for many years in the 1980s), and the libertarian-leaning Empower Texas.

Reached by Libertarian Republican, Frullo had this to say:

I want to thank everyone who has supported my campaign in the pursuit of smaller government. I believe that individual freedom is the cornerstone of our government and I want to do my best to defend it.

More Madness from the World of Sharia Law

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Outlawing of couples Kissing in Public

Two items:

From the BBC (h/t Jihad Watch) "Jailed Dubai kissing couple lose appeal over conviction":

A British couple jailed in Dubai for kissing in public have lost their appeal against their conviction.

Ayman Najafi, 24, and Charlotte Adams, 25, were sentenced to a month in prison with subsequent deportation and fined about £200 for drinking alcohol.

The couple were arrested in November after a local woman accused them of breaking the country's decency laws by kissing on the mouth in a restaurant.

No more Music on the Radio

And this from Google News "Islamists order Mogadishu radios to stop playing music":

MOGADISHU — A hardline Somali Islamist group issued a 10-day ultimatum Saturday to Mogadishu-based radio stations to stop playing all kinds of music or face unspecified penalties, an Islamist leader said.

The Hezb al-Islam group, which controls patches of the war-riven Somali capital, said playing music on radio stations was evil.

"We call on the local radio stations to stop broadcasting the songs and all music as well. We give them a 10-day deadline and any radio station found not complying with the orders... will face sharia action," said Moalim Hashi Mohamed Farah, a senior Hezb al-Islam official, referring to Islamic law.

Uganda back in the News… Al Qaeda Terrorist arrested on the Border

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Radical Muslims have been advancing on all fronts into Sub-Saharan and even Central Africa, from Nigeria, to northern Kenya, and even as far south as Tanzania. Now, solid proof of their increasing incursions into Uganda. (Uganda is located just south of the heavily Muslim Sudan where genocide against the Christian minority in the south by the Islamic Government has been standard policy). At least one Al Qaeda rebel has been captured in the troubled Central African nation.

From The UK Independent, April 2:

Security agents in Kampala arrested a suspected Somali Al Shabaab terrorist linked to the Al-Qaeda.

Hashi Hussein Farah and a dozen others were arrested by the Joint Anti-terrorism Taskforce (JATT) in Kisenyi slum in the capital Kampala on Thursday. He was paraded on television later in the evening. The terror suspects were taken away by the anti-terrorism squad for further interrogation.

It’s not clear where he is being detained. The Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba declined to comment, saying the police did not arrest Farah. She referred The Independent to JATT, a largely military intelligence squad, which carried out the arrest.

However the Army Spokesman Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye declined to divulge details about Hussein Farah, on account that it would jeopardise investigations. He said Farah’s arrest is part of a wider investigation. He did not say where Farah was being detained.

Farah, who has an Australian passport, was first arrested by the Kenyan police on March 13, 2010 as he was trying to cross Uganda’s Busia border into Kenya.

Last year, Muslim clerics in Uganda pushed legislation that would allow for the executiion of any Uganda citizens caught in a Homosexual act.

See our article from our sister site Worldwide Liberty, "Muslims push for Death Penalty for Homosexuals in Uganda," from Dec. 16.

Ohio’s going State Sovereignty on ObamaCare

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Breaking News...

The State AG has approved the first step in the process to qualify an initiative for the November ballot granting Ohioans the right to opt out of federally mandated Health Care. The move is significant, for Ohio does not fit the mold of a traditional southern or western State such as Idaho, Virginia or Texas.

From LegalNewsOnline:

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline)-Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray last week signed off on petition language that would bar federal health care coverage mandates from taking effect in the state.

The petition is being sought by the Ohio Liberty Council, a coalition of 25 conservative and libertarian grassroots groups, including many Ohio Tea Party organizations.

With the attorney general's declaration that their ballot summary is fair and accurate, the petition language now goes to the Ohio Ballot Board for final approval.

If the measure is ultimately approved by voters, Ohioans would not have to pay the likely $750 fine for failure to carry health insurance.

Oddly, Cordray, a Democrat, is on record in strong opposition to the measure, believing Obama's Health Care legislation to be in full compliance with the Constitution.

Accomplice to Mass Genocide in Rwanda now a Registered Voter in small Alabama town

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Has voted in American elections, including three Party Primaries

From Eric Dondero:

David L. Bosco of the Washington Post has an investigative piece "Rwanda's ex-U.N. ambassador, who vanished after genocide, resurfaces in Alabama" April 4. Bosco, after years of research, tracked Damascene Bizimana to a sleepy little town in northern Alabama, Opelika. The town's main claim to fame is that it was the subject of the 1970s Pro-Union movie "Norma Rae" starring Sally Fields.

From WaPo:

Sixteen years later, the Rwandan government is still investigating whether Bizimana supported the genocide in his capacity at the United Nations, according to Andrew Tusabe, a counselor at the Rwandan Embassy in Washington. "Bizimana has not been forgotten," he told me. But he said they had not been able to determine his whereabouts.

It seemed that the ambassador, along with his wife and two small children, had simply vanished -- until he turned up living quietly in the small town of Opelika, Ala., a few miles up the road from Auburn University. He's an American citizen now. He works for a plastics company. And he doesn't want to talk about genocide.

But buried in one of the final paragraphs of the three-page piece is this intriguing note:

Bizimana does not appear inclined to reckon with the past, and legally at least, he has no reason to do so. Opelika records show that he registered to vote in October 2004 and has cast ballots in primaries and general elections since then -- meaning he acquired U.S. citizenship. And as a citizen, he enjoys full due-process rights.

According to the Madison County, AL Register to Vote website, Alabama does not have registration by party. However, one must declare party affiliation to vote in primaries. From MadisonCounty.AL.com:

Registration is not by political party. Only in Primary Elections must you declare your party at the polls. In the November General Election you may vote for any candidate on the ballot - you can either vote a straight party ticket or a split ticket.

To be clear, to participate in a primary Bizimana would have had to declare a party affiliation. Sources reached by Libertarian Republican in Alabama could not disclose Bizimana's political affiliation or indicate if Bizimana voted in the Democrat primaries. The Opelika Clerk's office did confirm he was listed on the voter roll under a different first name.

Given the slant of the Washington Post, if there was any inkling Bizimana had participated in Republican primaries, there's little doubt this would be all over the media.

Is the United Nation's rep. for Rwanda 1994, during one of the worst mass human genocides in history - over 800,000 dead - now a US Democrat?

Note - later reports suggest Bizimana is now seeking political assylum in Ireland.

Mobile technologies will enable patient-centered care, PwC report says

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By Neil Versel

Rising healthcare costs and prevalence of chronic disease are not merely American problems; they are affecting the delivery of care worldwide. The crunch, says a new PricewaterhouseCoopers report, will push millions upon millions of people to take more control over their own healthcare, often enabled by mobile technologies and the Internet.

"The overarching challenge for incumbent health systems will be to shift their internal focus from a siloed bureaucratic healthcare infrastructure to one that puts the patient at the center...and engages them to be active stakeholders in their health and the health system," the report reads.
In an interview with the Reuters news agency, David Chin, director of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute says that the Internet and mobile technologies would help to break down some of the silos, empower patients and save money. He is particularly interested in the potential of mobile monitoring systems. "We're optimistic that the combination of a personalized approach and better technology will improve the health of the population, and start addressing the cost issue," Chin says.
"Of course the advantage to an insurance company or (healthcare) delivery system is that is costs less to deliver care over the Internet," he adds. "You're able to reach a wider audience for a lot less money."

For more details:
- see this PwC press release
- take a look at this Reuters story
- download the PwC Healthcast series of reports