CBC warns: U.S. police are after your cash

American shakedown: Police won't charge you, but they'll grab your money - World - CBC News - Neil Macdonald, Senior Washington Correspondent:

September 11, 2014 - "Across America, law enforcement officers — from federal agents to state troopers right down to sheriffs in one-street backwaters — are operating a vast, co-ordinated scheme to grab as much of the public’s cash as they can....

"It usually starts on the road somewhere. An officer pulls you over for some minor infraction — changing lanes without proper signalling, following the car ahead too closely, straddling lanes. The offence is irrelevant.

"Then the police officer wants to chat, asking questions about where you’re going, or where you came from, and why. He’ll peer into your car, then perhaps ask permission to search it, citing the need for vigilance against terrorist weaponry or drugs....

"And if you were foolish (or intimidated) enough to have consented to the search, and you’re carrying any significant amount of cash, you are now likely to lose it.

"The officer will probably produce a waiver, saying that if you just sign over the money then the whole matter will just disappear, and you’ll be able to go on your way.

"Refuse to sign it, and he may take the cash anyway, proclaiming it the probable proceeds of drugs or some other crime.

"Either way, you almost certainly won’t be charged with anything; the objective is to take your money, not burden the system.

"You’ll have the right to seek its return in court, but of course that will mean big lawyer’s fees, and legally documenting exactly where the money came from. You will need to prove you are not a drug dealer or a terrorist.... It might take a year or two. And several trips back....

"Authorities claim it’s legal, but some prosecutors and judges have called it what it is: abuse."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/american-shakedown-police-won-t-charge-you-but-they-ll-grab-your-money-1.2760736
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Libertarians can be a significant force for good

Libertarians Can Be a Significant Force for Good in U.S. Politics - The Atlantic - Conor Friedersdorf:

August 14, 2014 - "Has the 'Libertarian Moment' Finally Arrived?"

"The question was put to New York Times Magazine readers by journalist Robert Draper, who has elicited disdainful responses from Paul Krugman of the Times, Jonathan Chait of New York, and my colleague David Frum. All three concur that the notion of a libertarian ascendancy is an unsophisticated, laughable fantasy. That's a vexing position to hear from this particular trio. If there is no real prospect of tomorrow's voters embracing libertarian ideas, let alone libertarians exercising meaningful power over policy, why have these three spent years dedicating countless hours, numerous articles in prominent publications, and tens of thousands of words criticizing, mocking, and vilifying libertarians, even as centrist elites carried out disastrous policies from Iraq to Wall Street? They're perfectly within their rights to proceed as though libertarianism is a political force that imperils us, or an obvious nonstarter, but it cannot be both.

"I'd respectfully argue that libertarianism is neither dangerous nor doomed, and that people who think otherwise are misled by a double standard they use when analyzing this political faction. When they write about a 'libertarian moment,' they act as if it would mean the immediate embrace of an extreme, ideologically pure version of a philosophy that most actual sympathizers embrace with pragmatic moderation.... But in the real world, libertarian ideas will only ever be implemented partially in a system of checks and balances where modest reforms are difficult to achieve, never mind sweeping, rapid changes....

""The relevant question is whether younger voters will support policies and elect leaders that enhance liberty in comparison to the status quo. If that's what is meant by 'a libertarian moment,' and it seems like a perfectly reasonable definition of the phrase to me, then we may indeed be witnessing one."

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/08/an-opening-for-libertarians-to-be-a-significant-force-in-us-politics/375972/
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LP House candidate survives 2nd ballot challenge

Samuel Davenport, Libertarian candidate for the 2nd District congressional seat, stays on the ballot | NOLA.com - Robert McClendon, Times-Picayune:

September 9, 2014 - "Libertarian candidate Samuel Davenport overcame a second effort to disqualify him from the 2nd Congressional District race Tuesday. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeal ruled 8-3 that the challenge to his candidacy, filed by Eliza Eugene and Lawrence Galle, had no legal merit, affirming the decision of Civil District Court Judge Lynn Luker.

"Davenport greeted the ruling with jubilation and a challenge to incumbent Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans. 'My opponent, instead of trying to bully himself an election, should just let the people decide,' he said. He encouraged his supporters to help him win another victory, this one at the ballot box on Nov. 4....

"Eugene and Galle's objection to Davenport's candidacy was made predominantly on the grounds that Davenport filled out the wrong address on his forms to register for the ballot. Davenport listed his domicile as 317 St. James Place in LaPlace, where he said he plans to move at the end of the month from a Metairie apartment where he currently lives. The LaPlace residence is in Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District; the Metarie apartment is not.

"The qualifying form implies that residency in the district is required, as it is for state offices. However, federal rules do not require congressional candidates to live within the district that they wish to represent, and the 4th Circuit Court's majority said in its opinion that the state has no authority to impose additional requirements."

Read more: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/09/samuel_davenport_libertarian_c.html
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Senator Leyonhjelm hires Helen Dale as adviser

David Leyonhjelm calls on Helen Dale to help fight for libertarianism - Paul Sheehan, Sydney Morning Herald:

September 10, 2014 - "Only one official libertarian sits in the [Australian] federal Parliament, though there are many closet libertarians hidden inside the tax-and-spend big government of Tony Abbott. This week that libertarian, Senator David Leyonhjelm of the Liberal Democratic Party, ... appointed Helen Dale, born Helen Darville, also known by the literary pseudonym Helen Demidenko, to his staff as a senior adviser.....

"I first met Dale and Leyonhjelm at a libertarian conference in Sydney earlier this year where both were delivering papers. Dale's presentation focused on social changes caused by technology, not expensive social engineering....  Practising law, she saw government regulation and compulsion as frequently having both adverse and unintended consequences.

"'I noticed the extent to which government regulations often had a malicious effect,' she said. 'Unlike many lawyers, I do not think the solution to every problem is "pass a law". Law has limits.'

"She arrived at this belief via a circuitous path, having become famous at age 20, as Helen Demidenko, for a novel written when she was 19, The Hand that Signed the Paper. It won the Miles Franklin Award in 1995....

"In 2002, at the age of 30, she turned to the law. She graduated with first-class honours from the University of Queensland and became a judge's associate. She won a scholarship to the University of Oxford, where she graduated with a bachelor of civil law. Because she has dual nationality, holding British and Australian passports, she remained in Britain and practised law. While doing a graduate course at the University of Edinburgh School of Law, she won the Law Society student essay prize....

"'Senator Leyonhjelm is a classical liberal, as am I," Dale says.... 'Working for him means leaving a job I enjoy and a city, Edinburgh, I love, ... but if I can help introduce the public to the radical notion that people are often best left alone, then my move will be wholly worthwhile'."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/david-leyonhjelm-calls-on-helen-dale-to-help-fight-for-libertarianism-20140910-10f132.html
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Idaho Libertarian runs against GOP 'good old boys'

Libertarian Bujak’s candidacy could be trouble for Otter - Spokesman.com - Sept. 6, 2014: - Betsy Z. Russell, Spokane Spokesman-Review:

September 6, 2014 - "If Libertarian candidate John Bujak succeeds in his bid to appeal to disaffected Republicans who voted against Gov. Butch Otter in the GOP primary, he still might not win, but he could pull enough votes from Otter to give Democrat A.J. Balukoff a chance.

"Bujak, the former GOP Canyon County prosecutor, made headlines in recent years for his own legal troubles: He represented himself in five criminal trials in the past three years and was acquitted in every one.

"'After what the party did to me in Canyon County, I didn’t trust a lot of the leadership – certainly after seeing the way that Republicans run politics behind the scenes here in Idaho,' Bujak said. 'They surround themselves with their buddies, they give deals to their buddies, they give contracts to their buddies, and when something happens that is unethical, they all just look the other way.'

"Bujak has a law degree from Gonzaga University, he’s a Navy veteran, and he’s been a deputy attorney general for the state Human Rights Commission and a lawyer in private practice. But he says when he went into politics, serving as the elected prosecutor in Canyon County, 'I hit a brick wall in the form of what I would call the "good old boys".'

"He clashed with the county’s power structure over reopening a notorious attempted murder case in which the Idaho Innocence Project had unearthed evidence that a young woman may have been wrongfully convicted, a victim of mistaken identity. That young woman, Sarah Pearce, is free now, though her conviction stood.

"Bujak found more and more issues on which to disagree with other county officials and ultimately had to resign.... Now he’s running for governor, seeking to capitalize on Idaho conservatives’ unease with Otter, who took 51.4 percent of the vote in the primary against tea party-backed GOP state Sen. Russ Fulcher."

Read more: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/sep/06/libertarian-bujaks-candidacy-could-be-trouble-for/
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University libertarians win a free-speech battle

Coalition comes together to aid libertarian college group - Bob Kellogg, OneNewsNow:

September 5, 2014 - "Like many college conservatives and Christian groups, Young Americans for Liberty is finding their free speech rights threatened on college campuses.

"Young Americans for Liberty students at Boise State University were being charged a $465 "security fee" to hold a pro-Second Amendment event on campus.

"YAL spokesman Elliott Engstrom says a broad coalition of legal organizations stepped in to help. Those groups ranged from the conservative Idaho Freedom Foundation to the left-leaning ACLU, and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which is libertarian.

"YAL is also a libertarian organization.

"'And the result was that the school refunded the fee to the student organization,' Engstrom tells OneNewsNow."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/education/2014/09/05/coalition-comes-together-to-aid-libertarian-college-group
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Feliciano loses GOP primary, still in as Libertarian

Vermont primary reveals dissent against establishment gubernatorial candidates « Watchdog.org - Bruce Parker, Vermont Watchdog:

August 27, 2014 - "In a primary election marked by low voter turnout and scores of unchallenged races, Vermont’s major party establishment candidates saw significant protest votes....

"On the Republican side of the aisle, moderate establishment candidate Scott Milne won the support of 72 percent of the vote, but not without a serious threat from Libertarian Dan Feliciano, who mounted a last-minute write-in campaign to be the Republican Party nominee for governor.

"Practically unknown until one month ago, Feliciano went viral on the Internet after blasting Shumlin on single-payer and taxes. As of Wednesday morning, the Keurig Green Mountain employee from Essex had garnered more than 2,000 votes of the total 14,000 votes cast on the Republican ticket.

"Far from viewing the primary as a loss, Feliciano said his write-in tallies prove he now has the name recognition to share a stage with establishment party candidates Shumlin and Milne — yet as a third party candidate.

"'I’ll continue on as the Libertarian candidate carrying the flag of stopping single payer, reducing costs, promoting school choice and reducing property taxes,' Feliciano told Vermont Watchdog. 'I’ll continue onward with my message and put on a good battle and go head-to-head with Peter Shumlin. I’ll still carry the flag, and I’ll continue with the ground force I have that’s growing every day.'

"Feliciano became an overnight social media sensation after strongly opposing Shumlin’s single-payer health care agenda. Under single-payer, the government — not private insurance companies — would pay all health care costs for all Vermonters using taxpayer dollars....The Libertarian has developed major viral buzz on Facebook and Twitter, and even garnered national attention from The Blaze. His campaign even won significant endorsements from the vice chair and treasurer of the Vermont Republican Party."

Read more: http://watchdog.org/167374/vermont-primary-shumlin/
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