LP challenge to NH ballot-access law OK'd

Judge allows Libertarians' court challenge in New Hampshire to proceed | Fox News - Associated Press:

January 1, 2015 - "A federal judge has ruled that the Libertarian Party can proceed with its challenge to a New Hampshire law it claims could prevent its candidates from getting on the ballot.

"A third party can have its nominees placed on the New Hampshire general election ballot by winning at least 4 percent of the vote for either governor or U.S. senator in the most recent election or by collecting signatures equal to 3 percent of the total votes cast during the prior election. Under a law that took effect in July, parties can't begin gathering those signatures until Jan. 1 of the election year.

"The state argues that the change ensures that signatures on nomination papers are valid, but the Libertarian Party sued, arguing that it would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the party to petition its way onto the ballot.

"The state asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, but U.S. District Court Judge Paul Barbadoro refused. In a ruling this week, he noted that the right to vote must be balanced against the state's interest in conducting orderly elections, but said whether or not the new restrictions are reasonable depends on factors that have yet to be explored....

"'This signature-collection process is like a marathon that's hard enough just to finish, and now the state is essentially demanding that the Libertarian Party run the marathon in less than two hours. This is unfair and unconstitutional,' said attorney William Christie, co-counsel on the case along with the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union.

"Attorneys for the party argue that the time limit also effectively prevents the party from meaningfully participating in the general election because it would have to use its limited resources collecting signatures instead of on campaigning and fundraising."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/01/judge-allows-libertarians-court-challenge-in-new-hampshire-to-proceed/
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Immigration and American first principles

The Immigration Debate and American First Principles | Washington Free Beacon - Bill McMorris:

"When Americans were busy in the 18th century figuring out what the first principles of their new nation would be, intellectuals and politicians used to produce ‘broadsides’—brief fliers meant to influence readers before getting tossed into the garbage.

"Encounter Books resurrected the form in 2009 and its 41st edition proves to be a rarity, and something well worth retaining after the first read: The publisher manages to hold an immigration debate free of any accusations of racism or hatred for America’s working poor.

"That isn’t to say the debate between CATO Institute scholar Alex Nowrasteh and Center for Immigration Studies executive director Mark Krikorian is not spirited. Krikorian opens his chapter with 'For the past five decades, America’s immigration policy has been based on poetry. It needs, instead, to be based on prose,' before laying out the case that America is a buyers market when it comes to newcomers and should craft policy with the interests of its citizens—especially those at the lower rung of society—in mind.

"To which Nowrasteh replies, 'restrictive immigration policies are government tools of social, demographic, and economic engineering that are unacceptably intrusive and contrary to … principles of liberty.'

"Both authors have given deep consideration to his respective case and analysis of the social, economic, and political effects of open immigration. Readers are free to choose their starting point as Encounter published the white papers in reversible format. There is no indication that either scholar received advanced copies of one another’s paper, but both know this issue well enough to understand the opposition and head him off at the rhetorical pass."

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/culture/the-immigration-debate-and-american-first-principles/
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Kelley Paul touring to promote upcoming book

Book tour puts Rand Paul's 'secret' weapon on national stage - Eric Schelvig & Steve Peoples, Associated Press:

January 9, 2015 -  "Once described as her husband's secret weapon, Kelley Paul won't be a secret much longer.

"Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's wife of 24 years is stepping onto the national stage as part of a book tour launching at roughly the same time her husband is expected to enter the 2016 presidential race. It's a big step for the mother of three who has long played a significant behind-the-scenes role in Paul's political operation, but soon will be thrust into a far more public role on the political world's brightest stage.

"Rand Paul has made much of his wife being a hard sell on a presidential bid, yet Kelley Paul hinted Thursday that she's ready for the pressures of a national campaign and its impact on her family....

"On Tuesday she kicked off a six-stop speaking tour to Republican women's clubs in her home town of Russellville, where she fondly recalled riding in the annual tobacco festival parade and cheering at high school football games. Her 20-minute speech focusing on her Irish immigrant grandmother moved her audiences throughout Kentucky to tears.

"This spring, she has media events and speeches planned for Washington, New York and Memphis, Tennessee, before publisher Hachette releases her book, True and Constant Friends, in April.

"Her book traces the paths of six women she met the first week of her freshman year at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. Paul said the women have reunited almost every year since they graduated in 1985 despite living throughout the country....

"At the book's center is the story of Kelley Paul's own grandmother, Julia O'Toole, who left an impoverished life in Ireland in 1929 to work as a maid for affluent New York families.

"She describes the timing of the book as a coincidence not tied to her husband's potential campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Yet she speaks openly about the prospect of a White House bid when asked." 

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/book-tour-puts-rand-pauls-secret-weapon-national-082347305--election.html

Silk Road trial sparks jury-rights campaign in NYC

Jury rights activists rally in NYC around Silk Road trial - National Libertarian news | Examiner.com - Garry Read:

January 3, 2015 - "The trial of Ross Ulbricht, accused by the federal government of running the Silk Road 'dark web' site on the Internet, kicks off on Monday, January 5, in New York City. Libertarians see the trial as yet another unjust victimless crime prosecution.

"Jury rights activist James Babb issued a press release Friday announcing a month-long jury nullification campaign in the area around the US courthouse in Manhattan to coincide with the Ulbricht trial. The protest will feature large phone kiosk advertising posters in the area while an army of activists distribute nullification pamphlets in an effort to educate people about their rights and responsibilities as jurors.

"A grassroots Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign launched in December and scheduled to run through February 5 has already raised more than their target goal. 'Early support has come from libertarians and redditors,' George Donnelly of the Jury Rights Project/NYC explained on the Indiegogo site. Because of that six kiosk jury nullification posters are already prominently posted, ringing the area around the courthouse.

"While the immediate goal is to support Ulbricht the long range objective is to end victimless crimes prosecutions in the city in 2015. Many Libertarian News Examiner readers will remember that former Penn State professor Dr. Julian Heicklen was repeatedly arrested and sent to jail or to psychiatric hospitals for distributing Fully Informed Jury Association outreach pamphlets at this same Manhattan courthouse.

"The 30-year-old Ross Ulbricht faces life in prison as the alleged creator and operator of 'Silk Road,' an 'illicit online marketplace' that was shut down by the feds in 2013. Silk Road, according to the libertarian Reason Magazine, was a secretive 'darknet' site operated as an online commerce website like Amazon or Yelp where people around the world could anonymously buy and sell non-legal drugs and have them delivered to their door by their country's postal service."

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/article/jury-rights-activists-rally-nyc-around-silk-road-trial
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Political gridlock and economic recovery

Thank Gridlock for Economic Turnaround - Reason.com - David Harsanyi:

January 2, 2015 - "The Obama Boom is finally here. Gross domestic product grew by a healthy 5 percent in the third quarter, the strongest growth we've seen since 2003. Consumer spending looks as if it's going to be strong in 2015. Unemployment numbers have looked good. Buying power is up. And the stock market closed at 18,000 for the first time ever. All good things. So what happened?.... What policy did Barack Obama enact to initiate this astonishing turnaround? We should definitely replicate it.

"Because those who've been paying attention these past few years may have noticed that the predominant agenda of Washington has been to do nothing. It was only when the tinkering and superfluous stimulus spending wound down that fortunes began to turn around. So it's perplexing how the same pundits who cautioned us about gridlock's traumatizing effects now ignore its existence....

"[S]pending in current dollars has remained steady since 2010, and spending as a percentage of GDP has gone down. In 2009, 125 bills were enacted into law. In 2010, 258. After that, Congress, year by year, became one of the least productive in history. And the more unproductive Washington became the more the economy began to improve....

"'People often don't realize that a political system is sometimes effective when it does not do certain things,' Pietro Nivola, a senior fellow in governance studies at The Brookings Institution, argued in 2012. 'You can't just measure the things it does, the actions it takes; you also have to measure the actions it does not take.' Nivola was impressed by how gridlock has the ability to stop the Republican House from cutting spending too abruptly for the economy.

"And perhaps he's right. Gridlock has caused an odd but pervasive stability in Washington. Spending has been static. No jarring reforms have passed — no cap and trade, which would have artificially spiked energy prices and undercut the growth we're now experiencing. The inadvertent but reigning policy over the past four years has been 'do no harm'."

Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2015/01/02/thank-gridlock-for-economic-turnaround
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Bitcoin Foundation dismisses policy counsel

Bitcoin Foundation Parts Ways With Its Global Policy Counsel - NYTimes.com - Sydney Ember:

January 2, 2015 - "Jim Harper, whose appointment as the Bitcoin Foundation’s global policy counsel last March was viewed as a sign that the advocacy group was taking digital currency regulation seriously, has been dismissed from the foundation.

"Mr. Harper’s last day was Wednesday, though he received notice of the foundation’s decision shortly after Thanksgiving.

"Mr. Harper’s dismissal comes as the Bitcoin Foundation is shifting its focus, from policy advocacy to Bitcoin technology and infrastructure development.

"'We’re changing direction a little bit here,' said Patrick Murck, the foundation’s executive director. 'The policy aspect was more of a distraction and a drain on resources that we could handle at the moment,' he added. 'Without having that work to be done, there really wasn’t a huge role for Jim to do.'

"Before joining the Bitcoin Foundation, Mr. Harper served as director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian research group. He will remain at Cato as a senior fellow, a reduced role he took when he moved to the Bitcoin Foundation.

"For his part, Mr. Harper said he wasn’t quite ready to cut all ties to the Bitcoin Foundation, despite a difference of opinion on the foundation’s direction. In an interview, Mr. Harper said he was still running for a position on the foundation’s board.... The board election will take place in mid-February.

"'My experience at the foundation was that it wasn’t an organization that had a lot of focus and direction,' Mr. Harper said in an interview. 'Part of the reason I’m running for the board is because, whether I work there or not, I think the Bitcoin Foundation should have solid leadership and management from the top all the way down.'"

Read more: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2015/01/02/bitcoin-foundation-parts-ways-with-its-global-policy-counsel/
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Republicans to push criminal justice reform in 2015

The Growing Republican Divide on Criminal Justice Reform | TIME - Alex Altman:

December 29, 2014 - "Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist and Republican Party donor, says he will make criminal justice reform a major cause in 2015. 'Over the next year, we are going to be pushing the issues key to this, which need a lot of work in this country,' Koch said in an interview with the Wichita Eagle.

"Koch is a big spender — and something of a bogeyman among many liberals — so this made news. The 'conservative mega-donor,' a Politico story blared, 'is opening his wallet on an unexpected issue.'

"Except it shouldn’t be unexpected. Koch is a libertarian, and libertarians have a history of opposing policies, such as mandatory minimum sentencing, that have made the U.S. incarceration rate the highest in the world. What’s perhaps more surprising is how Republican politicians from other parts of the spectrum are beginning to embrace criminal justice reform as well.

"Virtually all of the likely 2016 Republican field supports some element of criminal-justice reform. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is the most visible and least surprising proponent; as a libertarian-leaning conservative, he has staked his candidacy on the idea that the GOP must adjust its policies as the composition of the electorate changes. But Paul is hardly the only 2016 hopeful to plant a flag on the issue. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, has called for an end to the 'failed war on drugs' and signed legislation that sent some offenders to rehab instead of prison.

"Rick Perry, the conservative governor of Texas, has been among the nation’s top prison reformers, even winning a national award for his support of drug courts as an alternative to incarceration. Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, another Republican governor eyeing a 2016 bid, pushed legislation that would boost the state’s drug rehab program and make some nonviolent offenders eligible for early release.

"Conservatives in Congress also have an appetite for reform. Paul Ryan produced a white paper on poverty that includes proposals like giving judges sentencing flexibility for nonviolent offenders and letting some inmates earn time off their prison stays for successful participation in programs. Mike Lee, a Republican senator from Utah and a Tea Party favorite, was one of the original sponsors, with liberal senators Dick Durbin and Pat Leahy, of a bill called the Smarter Sentencing Act, which attempts to curtail the draconian sentencing that has left some 2.2 million Americans behind bars. Among the Republicans who have since signed on: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, another presidential hopeful."

Read more: http://time.com/3648638/republicans-police-reform/
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