European Students for Liberty meeting in Berlin

Articles: A Populist Libertarian Youth Movement? - Brad Lips, American Thinker:

March 24, 2014 - "I am attending a conference of European Students for Liberty (ESFL), where some 570 libertarians -- all about half my age -- have come from 41 countries to celebrate their growing movement, and to strategize.   How will they grow from here?

"At the front of the room, Rasmus Brygger of the Danish Liberal Youth Alliance asserts that the socialists had their intellectual leaders, but didn’t expect everyone in their ranks to study them as nerdishly as libertarians do. (Case in point: later in the evening, young men in attendance will swoon as libertarian songstress Dorian Electra croons about the Austrian business cycle theory: 'Since these low interest rates, like you said, are lies/ Malinvestments come as no surprise.')

"Brygger notes that the hippie generation of the 1960s captured the culture for the Socialist Left; and earlier in the century, its principles were advanced en masse by workers’ unions. Could libertarians make similar advances in coming years? "

 Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/03/a_populist_libertarian_youth_movement.html
'via Blog this'

Nine extremely successful libertarians

 

Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

9 Extremely Successful People You Never Knew Were Libertarian - Robert Taylor, PolicyMic:

March 7, 2014 - "[Thanks to the] success of former Congressman Ron Paul's presidential runs and the availability of so much free and cheap literature, communities, and activism that the Internet now affords us, libertarianism is experiencing a renaissance that Murray Rothbard and Ludwig von Mises could have never dreamed of.

"More and more people do not identify as Republicans or Democrats, oppose the surveillance state and U.S. interventions abroad and are attracted to the consistent defense of individual liberty that libertarians offer than ever before. Over and over again, libertarians are vindicated in their warnings against the dangers of centralized power, bailouts, stimuluses, foreign wars and the boom-and-bust economy created by the Federal Reserve system.

"While millennials make up the largest percentage of those that call themselves libertarian, here are 9 incredibly successful people that you probably didn't know are also libertarians."

Read more: http://www.policymic.com/articles/84425/9-extremely-successful-people-you-never-knew-were-libertarian

Libertarianism "is suddenly a political force to be reckoned with" - The Observer

Rand Paul and Berkeley: libertarian and leftwing hotbed find common cause | World news | The Observer
- Paul Lewis:

"The rise of Paul and his libertarian brand of politics, one of the few intellectual movements with appeal across the spectrum, is turning old political assumptions on their head. Paul, the son of libertarian guru and former congressman Ron Paul, was the star of last week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) – an annual litmus test for the Republican base. For the second year running, Paul won the straw poll of likely Republican 2016 presidential contenders, trouncing fellow senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz as well as scandal-hit New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

"For decades, libertarianism has hovered on the fringe of the Republican party, associated with Ayn Rand novels, anarchists and tax refuseniks. Now it is suddenly a political force to be reckoned with, disrupting the political establishment by sparking unusual alliances between Republicans and Democrats."

"Nowhere has that dynamic been more evident than in the fallout over Edward Snowden's disclosures about widespread surveillance by the National Security Agency. Reform of the NSA is the issue Paul has claimed as his own, even to the extent of filing a lawsuit, naming himself as co-plaintiff, to challenge the agency's mass surveillance of domestic phone records....

"It used to be centrists who crossed the aisle to reach compromise. Today, it is those on the libertarian right, like Paul...

"The election is more than two years away, and already the Bush and Clinton dynasties have an air of inevitability about them. But there is something zeitgeist-like about the Paul brand: a sense that its moment may have arrived."

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/15/rand-paul-berkeley-libertarian-leftwing-alliance
'via Blog this'

Tonie Nathan, first woman to receive an electoral vote, dead at 91

Libertarian Tonie Nathan dies - Jeff Wright, Eugene Register-Guard:

March 21, 2014 - "Tonie Nathan of Eugene, the first woman to win an electoral vote in a presidential election, died early Thursday at age 91, family members confirmed....

"Tonie Nathan had lived in Eugene since 1968. She was a University of Oregon graduate with a degree in journalism, and she produced and occasionally hosted a talk show on KVAL TV.

"Paul Nathan, who lives in Palm Springs, Calif., recalled that he was 21 when he gave his mother some writings by Ayn Rand, the noted philosopher and novelist. That helped spur his mother’s political views of freedom, free markets and individuality, and prompted her to switch her political allegiance from the Democratic to Libertarian party, he said.

"Tonie Nathan attended the first national Libertarian Party convention in 1972 in Colorado as an interested observer and freelance writer, Paul Nathan said. Much to her astonishment, she ultimately was asked to join the party’s national ticket as presidential candidate John Hospers’ running mate.

"Hospers and Nathan each received the electoral vote of Roger MacBride, a renegade elector from Virginia."

Read more: http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/31321715-75/nathan-paul-tonie-party-died.html.csp

Judge says Ohio GOP behind plot to keep LP off ballot

Judge Says Ohio GOP Orchestrated Plot Against Libertarian Party Candidate - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Elizabeth Nolan Brown:

March 20, 2014 - "A ruling from a District Court in Ohio significantly diminishes the chances of getting a Libertarian Party candidate on the ballot for the 2014 governor's race. Interestingly, however, District Judge Michael H. Watson ... wrote that it was 'obvious' that the 'dupe' who challenged Earl's petitions had been used by 'operatives or supporters of the Ohio Republican Party'....

"Though Judge Watson found Earl's dismissal from the ballot legally sound, he didn't buy that the state GOP had nothing to do with it. Confirming what LPO Communication Director Aaron Harris told me about Gregory Felsoci, the 'clueless' Akron man challenging Earl's petition, Judge Watson called him a 'guileless dupe' whose testimony showed he had no idea what he was doing.

'His testimony demonstrates that he lacks even a basic understanding of the nature of the protest he agreed to sign. Felsoci repeatedly referred to the misdeed that motivated him to protest (Earl's) petitions as the LPO's gathering of "votes" without disclosing those who gathered them were being paid to do so. His decision to act as a protester came about after a Republican friend, John Musca, showed him an unidentified document which Musca claimed to have found at a local coffee shop. Felsoci could not as much as accurately describe the nature of the document Musca showed him and was at an utter loss to explain why he believed the truth of the assertions the document contained. He said he believed it because he read it.'....

"The LPO is making an emergency appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for the temporary injunction. 'While we respect Judge Watson's decision to deny our request for a temporary restraining order against Husted’s decision, we feel that he may be wrong in this instance,' said LPO attorney Mark Brown in a statement."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2014/03/20/ohio-libertarian-party-ballot-issues
'via Blog this'

Police seize millions from motorists never charged with crimes

Cops Use Traffic Stops To Seize Millions From Drivers Never Charged With A Crime - Nick Sibilla, Institute for Justice, Forbes:

March 12, 2014 - "A deputy for the Humboldt County’s Sheriff Office in rural Nevada has been accused of confiscating over $60,000 from drivers who were never charged with a crime.  These cash seizures are now the subject of two federal lawsuits and are the latest to spotlight a little-known police practice called civil forfeiture.

"Civil forfeiture allows law enforcement to seize property (including cash and cars) without having to prove the owners are guilty. Last September, Tan Nguyen was pulled over for driving three miles over the speed limit, according to a suit he filed.  Deputy Lee Dove asked to search the car but Nguyen said he declined.  Dove claimed he smelled marijuana but couldn’t find any drugs.  The deputy then searched the car and found a briefcase containing $50,000 in cash and cashier’s checks, which he promptly seized.... Nguyen was not arrested or charged with a crime — not even a traffic citation....

"Unsurprisingly, seizing cash from traffic stops can earn millions for law enforcement.... Bob Vogel ... seized $6.5 million in cash from cars going southbound on I-95 in Volusia County, Florida. But usually the cars that smuggled drugs went northbound. Plus, part of the 'drug courier' profile for Sheriff Vogel 'was that cars obeying the speed limit were suspect — their desire to avoid being stopped made them stand out.' The Orlando Sentinel later found that in three out of every four cases, no charges were filed."

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/03/12/cops-use-traffic-stops-to-seize-millions-from-drivers-never-charged-with-a-crime/

'via Blog this'

Gary Johnson calls for eliminating IRS

Libertarian Gary Johnson calls for eliminating IRS | The Daily News Journal | dnj.com - Scott Broden:

March 15, 2014 - "The country should eliminate all income, corporate and payroll taxes and replace them with a consumption tax, Libertarian Party 2012 presidential nominee Gary Johnson told an audience today.

"'I believe that our lives would be changed for the better,' Johnson, a former Republican governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003, said during his keynote address before the Libertarian Party of Tennessee State Convention....

"When it comes to the consumption tax, Johnson said he’d like to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and told the audience that he agrees with the current proposed Fair Tax as a way to get started. The process would include getting rid of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution that allows income taxes and replacing them with a Fair Tax that would act like a 28 percent tax on all sales.

"The idea is revenue neutral, so there would still be a need to cut spending, said Johnson, noting that 165 members of Congress support the Fair Tax.

"The country should balance its budgets as a top priority and reform Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, Johnson said."

Read more: http://www.dnj.com/article/20140315/NEWS05/303150019/Libertarian-Gary-Johnson-calls-eliminating-IRS?nclick_check=1

'via Blog this'