Alaska Democrat running ads for Libertarian

In tight U.S. Senate race, Begich touts one opponent in hopes of defeating another | Alaska Dispatch - Nathaniel Herz:

October 28, 2014 - "Incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich and his Republican opponent, Dan Sullivan, do not get along, and each has subjected the other to months of negative advertising.

"But the relationship between Begich and the Libertarian candidate in the Senate race, Mark Fish, is considerably warmer, with Begich fighting to make sure Fish is included in debates, then tossing him softball questions that highlight their shared views on domestic spying.

"Recently, Begich’s campaign has even run radio commercials touting Fish’s candidacy alongside his own -- meaning that since Fish hasn’t spent any money to advertise his own campaign, Begich has now spent more money promoting Fish than Fish has himself.

"'He likes my positions so well, I’m looking forward to an endorsement,' Fish said in an interview Tuesday.

"Begich’s official position is that he wants third-party candidates like Fish to be heard. 'Since many of the debate hosts won’t include Mr. Fish, Sen. Begich believes it is only fair to give Alaska voters all the information,' Max Croes, Begich’s communications director, said in an emailed statement.

"But several observers say Begich’s effort to boost Fish’s profile is actually a shrewd act of electioneering -- one likely designed to drive shaky Sullivan supporters into Fish’s column, and shaky Fish voters to Begich. The number of voters in the pool is small, but in a tight and costly election, the strategy makes sense, one local pollster said."

Read more: http://www.adn.com/article/20141028/tight-us-senate-race-enemy-begichs-enemy-his-friend
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Libertarians endow U of Maryland business centre

Libertarian donors fund new research center at UM's business school - Baltimore Sun - Carrie Wells:

October 27, 2014 - "A foundation led by the owner of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team and the Charles Koch Foundation have pledged $6 million to create a new center that will study enterprise and markets at the University of Maryland's business school.

The center will be dubbed the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets after a $5 million donation by Ed Snider, a Maryland alumn[us] and chairman of Comcast-Spectacor, which owns the Flyers.

"With another $1 million from the Koch Foundation, the university can hire three professors and a managing director, in addition to support staff, five doctoral candidates and four post-doctoral fellows.

"Koch and his brother David run Koch Industries, an oil, gas, and chemical conglomerate that is the country's second-largest privately held company.

"The Koch brothers are known for financially backing libertarian and free-market organizations, supporting conservative political causes, and helping to found other economic and policy think tanks like the conservative Cato Institute....

"University of Maryland officials said the center will conduct its hiring and research independently of the donors. The $5 million gift from the Snider Foundation is the second-largest in the business school's history after the $15 million naming grant from Robert H. Smith in 1997....

"Snider, who recently recovered from cancer, also is known for his libertarian views. He helped found the Ayn Rand Institute and was executive producer of the film 'Atlas Shrugged: Part I,' based on one of the libertarian author's books."

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-um-snider-center-20141027-story.html 

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Negative GA governor's race helping Libertarian

Libertarian offers alternative to veteran politicians in Georgia governor's race | Online Athens:

"The barrage of negative advertisements about Republican Nathan Deal and Democrat Jason Carter is helping Libertarian Andrew Hunt make his case for a third alternative in the governor’s race.

"'It’s a very, very night-and-day choice here. I am very different,' Hunt said in his only televised debate with the other two. 'I am a small businessman, PhD in engineering. I have about 50 patents, and I want to put all that to work for you. ... I have 1 percent or less of the money they do. You’re going to be seeing lots of ads run by them. We have the news of who they’re being supported by, the special interests that paid for these tens of millions (of dollars) in ads. You have to, if you want to support me, talk to other people.'

"Like Carter, he supports Medicaid expansion, but like Deal, he favors so-called tort
reform that limits malpractice payouts. He agrees with Carter on ending the ban on same-sex marriage, but is in sync with Deal on wanting to adhere to the original interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. He’s an advocate of school choice and educational savings accounts for tuition like Deal, and he joins Carter in attacking the incumbent’s ethics."

"The central plank on Hunt’s platform is job creation through a unique proposal to have the state cover the payroll-related taxes for full-time jobs paying more than $11 per hour.... He argues that will create incentives to hire because the costs will be lower for employers.

"As a result of skilled workers getting those new jobs, he predicts that unskilled workers will also find more opportunities."

Read more: http://onlineathens.com/election/2014-10-25/libertarian-offers-alternative-veteran-politicians-georgia-governors-race
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How to fight terrorism with capitalism

The Capitalist Cure for Terrorism - Wall Street Journal - Hernando de Soto:

October 10, 2014 - "As the U.S. moves into a new theater of the war on terror, it will miss its best chance to beat back Islamic State and other radical groups in the Middle East if it doesn’t deploy a crucial but little-used weapon: an aggressive agenda for economic empowerment.... [T]he West must learn a simple lesson: Economic hope is the only way to win the battle for the constituencies on which terrorist groups feed."

"I know something about this. A generation ago, much of Latin America was in turmoil. By 1990, a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization called Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, had seized control of most of my home country, Peru, where I served as the president’s principal adviser. Fashionable opinion held that the people rebelling were the impoverished or underemployed wage slaves of Latin America, that capitalism couldn’t work outside the West and that Latin cultures didn’t really understand market economics.

"The conventional wisdom proved to be wrong, however. Reforms in Peru gave indigenous entrepreneurs and farmers control over their assets and a new, more accessible legal framework in which to run businesses, make contracts and borrow—spurring an unprecedented rise in living standards....

"Peru reduced by 75% the red tape blocking access to economic activity, provided ombudsmen and mechanisms for filing complaints against government agencies and recognized the property rights of the majority. One legislative package alone gave official recognition to 380,000 informal businesses, thus bringing above board, from 1990 to 1994, some 500,000 jobs and $8 billion in tax revenue. These steps left Peru’s terrorists without a solid constituency in the cities....

"Looking back, what was crucial to this effort was our success in persuading U.S. leaders and policy makers, as well as key figures at the United Nations, to see Peru’s countryside differently: as a breeding ground not for Marxist revolution but for a new, modern capitalist economy. These new habits of mind helped us to beat back terror in Peru and can do the same, I believe, in the Middle East and North Africa."

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-capitalist-cure-for-terrorism-1412973796
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Rand Paul explains his foreign policy

Rand Paul just gave one of the most important foreign policy speeches in decades - Vox - Zack Beauchamp:

October 24, 2014 - "Sen. Rand Paul just gave one of the most important speeches on foreign policy since George W. Bush declared war on Iraq. But instead of declaring war on another country, Paul declared war on his own party. Or, at least, its entire approach to foreign policy.

"In his address last night at the Center for the National Interest — a think tank founded by Richard Nixon — Paul gave, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of how he thinks about foreign policy. His moderate non-interventionism is a far cry from his father's absolutist desire for America to exit the world stage. But Paul's stance is light years away from the hyper-hawk neoconservatism that's dominated Republican foreign policy thinking for decades....

"The real target of Paul's speech were the neoconservatives: the wing of the GOP that believes that American foreign policy should be about the aggressive use of American force and influence, be it against terrorist groups or Russia. Paul's unsubtle argument is that this view, dominant in the GOP, is a departure from what a conservative foreign policy ought to be....

"Until this speech, Paul's 2016 foreign policy position hadn't been clear. Now it is. Rand 'clearly wants a more restrained US foreign policy,' says Dan McCarthy, the editor of The American Conservative magazine. According to McCarthy, who's talked about these issues with Paul's staff, Paul has been engaged in a 'trial and error' experiment. The idea is to figure out how to make a less aggressive foreign policy politically viable in the Republican Party.

"After this speech, the testing phase appears to be over. According to his advisors, this speech represents the final, overarching framework for Paul's worldview. Rand has developed a strategy for wrenching conservatives away from the Bush legacy, and it's now a question of implementing it. "

Read more: http://www.vox.com/2014/10/24/7053561/rand-paul-foreign-policy-speech
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Conservative group runs web ads for Haugh in NC

Conservative group funds pro-weed campaign for North Carolina Libertarian candidate - Washington Post - Matea Gold, Post Politics:

October 23, 2014 - "Sean Haugh, the Libertarian candidate for Senate in North Carolina, is getting a big lift in the waning days of the election from an unlikely group praising his support for marijuana legalization and his opposition to U.S. military action abroad.

"The 'More Weed, Less War' online ad campaign features beaming young men and women who tout Haugh as 'sharing our progressive values,' chant 'Get Haugh, get high!' and dismiss Democratic incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan as 'out of touch.'

"The outfit behind the campaign does not have a history of advocating for marijuana legalization.

"American Future Fund, a tax-exempt organization based in West Des Moines, has been frequently used as a pass-through for political money on the right. In the 2012 campaign, it was a major player in a network of politically active nonprofits supported by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch and other conservative donors.

"But James Davis, a spokesman for Freedom Partners, the main financial arm of the Koch-backed network, said it no longer funds the Iowa group and has nothing to do with its pro-Haugh campaign....

"Nick Ryan, AFF’s founder, declined to say who was supporting the campaign. 'As a practice, we don't comment on who does or does not contribute to our organization,' he wrote in an email.

"He added that the goal of the pro-Haugh campaign 'is straightforward — share information with voters about where Sean Haugh stands on a variety of issues'.

"Ryan said the campaign is now generating so much buzz that AFF plans to expand its initial $225,000 buy.... 'We are going to re-double our efforts and expand the program next week.'"

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/10/23/koch-linked-group-launches-pro-weed-campaign-for-north-carolina-libertarian-candidate/

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Asperger's better than MBA for business success, says Thiel

Peter Thiel Criticizes Harvard Business School, Praises Asperger's - Businessweek - Natalie Kitroeff:

October 7, 2014 - "PayPal co-founder, billionaire, and venture capitalist Peter Thiel mused in a San Francisco ballroom on Saturday about the benefits of mild autism and not being competitive. In a wide-ranging talk before hundreds at a conference for gay MBAs, he also took a direct shot at the culture of business school and posed some provocative, if unusual, questions about the entrepreneurial spirit of gay people.

"'So many of the successful companies are formed by people who seem to be suffering from a mild form of Asperger’s,' Thiel said, referring to Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning type of autism. People with Asperger’s often have limited socialization skills and, he said, are unafraid of pursuing ideas seen as strange. 'What is it about our society where anyone who does not have Asperger’s gets talked out of their heterodox ideas?'

"Thiel was speaking at a conference hosted by advocacy group Reaching Out MBA to promote Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, a new book in which he argues that competition stifles original thought. In a navy crew-cut T-shirt, khakis, and sneakers, his vibe clashed with that of the jacketed and tied professionals in the audience. Thiel has not identified himself as someone with Asperger’s but praises those with the disorder for their willingness to pursue offbeat ideas....

"By contrast, Thiel said, MBA programs produce thinkers who tend to buy into innovations only once they’ve peaked. Thiel noted that MBAs flooded the world of junk bonds in 1989, a year before industry king Michael Milken went to jail. No MBAs went near Silicon Valley until 1999, he said, at which point “HBS perfectly timed the dot-com bubble,” referring to Harvard Business School."

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-07/peter-thiel-criticizes-harvard-business-school-praises-aspergers?

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