Johnson & Weld offer character and experience

Drew Clark: Johnson and Weld bring experience as well as character for Utah voters | Deseret News:

October 14, 2016 - "Politics is about more than policy positions. When electing our president, we also need to choose a candidate who brings character and experience in governance.

"Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, and Bill Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts, are the only candidates this year that meet all of these necessary qualifications. They are on the ballot in all 50 states. Among independent voters, they are leading in the polls over Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"As a Utahn who believes in common-sense conservative solutions, I’ve noticed a number of my friends express some interest in Provo native Evan McMullin, the former CIA agent who declared his candidacy for president in August. He seems to be a conservative, and his positions are superficially appealing to people of my political background.

"But here’s why I’m supporting Johnson, not McMullin: The presidency is about more than one’s positions. Executive experience in government matters, as does honesty. And while Trump and Clinton fail on both of these tests, McMullin fails on experience. He and his newly-named vice-presidential candidate Mindy Finn, a Republican political consultant, don’t have presidential-level credentials.

"By contrast, both Johnson and Weld were two-term governors. But that doesn’t mean they came to government via politics, the way Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton did. Johnson was a handyman entrepreneur who grew from a one-man shop to a 1,000-employee construction company in New Mexico. He ran for governor as a political outsider, and won.

"Weld’s first elective office was also governor. But he brought experience as an attorney at the highest levels of government, heading the criminal division of the Justice Department under President Ronald Reagan. He came home to upset the Democratic lock on the statehouse in the land dubbed 'Taxachusetts.' Like Johnson, he also upset the state’s high-tax reputation. That was a great benefit to another former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney.

"In fact, Romney has said he would vote for Weld for president....

"McMullin isn’t even on the ballot in enough states to have even a mathematical chance at winning the White House.... According to Ballot Access News, he’s on the ballot in grand total of 11 states.... The electoral votes of those states total 84, not even one-third of what a candidate will need to win.... And his vice presidential pick will be on the ballot in exactly zero states.

"Instead, the McMullin presidential campaign has all the trappings of a vanity effort seeking to raise the profile of a person rather than speaking to a principled set of beliefs."

Read more: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865664793/Johnson-and-Weld-bring-experience-as-well-as-character-for-Utah-voters.html?pg=all
'via Blog this'

Ex-DEA agents campaign for legal cannabis

Former DEA Agents Rally In Support Of Marijuana Legalization In Arizona | Huffington Post - Emily Tate:

October 12, 2016 - "Two unlikely proponents of marijuana legalization stopped by Arizona State University Wednesday to campaign on behalf of Proposition 205, the state’s initiative to legalize and regulate weed.

"A pair of retired agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration encouraged some of ASU’s 80,000 college students to vote 'yes' on Prop. 205.... The former special agents, Finn Selander and Michael Capasso, were on hand to speak to students and explain why they support an initiative that runs counter to their former careers as drug warriors.....

"Capasso said he supports legalizing marijuana because it doesn’t have the 'collateral damage' — like addiction and overdose — that other drugs do. And because of that, he thinks it’s practical to regulate marijuana like alcohol and use the tax revenue to fund state programs....

"Selander, who as a DEA officer specialized in marijuana operations, is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an organization that advocates for progressive reform of drug laws. Capasso is also featured in a new ad by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, in which he explains why he supports legalizing cannabis after 23 years working for the DEA.

"'I’m supporting Prop. 205 because it will make our community safer,' Capasso says in the ad. 'Law enforcement has more important things to do than arrest adults for simple marijuana possession. It’s time to end marijuana prohibition and regulate marijuana like alcohol.'

"If it passes on Nov. 8, Prop. 205 would legalize the possession and consumption of recreational marijuana for adults over 21. Similar to previous reform efforts in Colorado, Oregon and Washington, Arizonans would be calling for an end to weed prohibition in favor of a system that regulates and taxes it like alcohol."

"A recent poll of registered voters in Arizona found 50 percent support for Prop. 205, while 40 percent oppose it and another 10 percent are undecided."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/legalize-marijuana-arizona_us_57fe7c98e4b0e8c198a5794e
'via Blog this'

New British PM assails "libertarian right"

Je suis right-wing libertarian | Coffee House - Paul Nizinskyj, The Spectator:

October 7, 2016 - "On Tuesday night, Conservatives for Liberty, which I co-founded in 2013, hosted our annual Freedom Fizz reception.  Jacob Rees-Mogg and Toby Young joined us, along with 400 party delegates, most of whom identify as right-wing libertarians....

"Twelve hours after we packed up, the Prime Minister effectively declared the lot of us enemies of the party – and the people. The Prime Minister used her keynote speech to attack the ‘ideological templates of the socialist left and the libertarian right’ as enemies of a government which would ‘act on behalf of the people’. Mrs May seemed to be suggesting that people should be just as concerned about entryism from the libertarian right as from the far left.

"It’s not a particularly nice feeling to be told you are unwelcome in a party which you’ve called your home for ten years, but we ought to have seen this coming. My colleagues and I have spent the last three years attacking in the strongest terms Mrs May’s appalling record on civil liberties as Home Secretary, as well as her enthusiasm for state intervention on the economy, but we were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.... How naive we were.

"What the Prime Minister was attempting to do was cast libertarianism as an ideology alien to traditional ‘pragmatic’ Conservatism. But unlike far-left groups ... what we now call ‘libertarianism’ is woven into the fabric of this nation and of the Conservative party. It is a philosophy whose core principles revolve around the liberties enshrined in the Magna Carta of 1215. It was men who believed those liberties to be sacrosanct who took up arms against the King in 1642, and who bound his successors by the Bill of Rights in 1689.

"It was the free-market Liberals of the nineteenth century whose prudent stewardship of the economy made Britain the richest and most powerful country on Earth. It was right-wing libertarians who provided the intellectual foundations for Margaret Thatcher’s transformation of Britain from ‘the sick man of Europe’ to the fifth largest economy in the world (even if the great lady herself would never be known as anything other than a Conservative). And it was in large part right-wing libertarians like our President, Daniel Hannan, who were behind the Brexit Mrs May so wants to make a success of.

"But more importantly for the PM, research shows most young people are right-wing libertarians without even knowing it. Decades of polling by Ipsos MORI has shown ‘Generation Y’ – those born between 1980 and 2000 – are far more likely than their parents or grandparents to be critical of high taxation and the welfare state, as well as to be more liberal on social issues such as gay marriage and gender equality. A growing number of young people within the Conservative Party do know it, however, and will be a key part of any election campaign."

Read more: http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/10/je-suis-right-wing-libertarian/
'via Blog this'

Drew Carey joins Johnson campaign as CA chair

Drew Carey joins Gary Johnson campaign | TheHill - Judy Kurtz:

October 4, 2010 - "Gary Johnson is saying 'Come on down!' to Price is Right host Drew Carey, with the comedian joining the Libertarian presidential nominee’s campaign as an honorary California chairman.

"In his position, Carey will 'speak out on behalf of the Johnson/[Bill] Weld ticket and help lead the campaign’s efforts in the state of California,' Johnson’s campaign announced on Tuesday.

"'Getting behind Johnson was an easy choice,” the former Whose Line is it Anyway? star said in a statement.... Carey, 58, said, 'Gary Johnson is reasonable. He’s a real person. He’s a pragmatic problem-solver who knows how to govern.'"

Read more: http://origin-nyi.thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/299222-drew-carey-joins-gary-johnson-campaign

Drew Carey Joins Gary Johnson Campaign to Help Stop ‘Needless War’ - The Daily Beast - Asawin Suebsang:

October 4, 2016 - "'I’m happy to join Gary Johnson and to campaign for a candidate, here in California and across America, who doesn’t want your money to be wasted or want your children put at risk in a needless war,' Carey said....

"Aside from his work in stand-up comedy and TV, Carey is a committed libertarian, and has worked with the Reason Foundation as a trustee and hosted a series of videos for libertarian outlet Reason TV.

"At a Johnson fundraiser hosted by Carey in July, The Daily Beast asked the comedian if he had any concerns ... about the Libertarian candidate playing spoiler in the 2016 election. 'I don’t give a f*ck,' Carey said, bluntly. 'If your person doesn’t get enough votes, you lose. I don’t want to hear it. There are more than two choices and you are allowed to vote for whoever you want. This is America'''....

"The Carey announcement from Johnson-Weld 2016 comes the week after it was revealed that Melissa Joan Hart, star of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, had been named the Connecticut chairwoman [of] the campaign."

Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/10/04/drew-carey-joins-gary-johnson-campaign-to-help-stop-needless-war.html?via=desktop&source=copyurl
'via Blog this'

Scott Adams endorses Gary Johnson (this week)

Why I Endorse Gary Johnson (this week) | Scott Adams' Blog:

October 9, 2016 - "I don’t know how to write this post without unintentionally disrespecting the real victims of abuse in any form. I apologize in advance if it comes off that way. But it’s part of the national conversation now, and unavoidable. The best I can do is focus on how voters perceive the situation. I don’t have an opinion about who did what to whom because I wasn’t in the room any of those times. That said…

"My view is that if either Clinton or Trump can be judged by the weight of the allegations against them, both are 100% unfit for the office....

"Clinton supporters have been telling me for a few days that any visible support for Trump makes you a supporter of sex abuse. From a persuasion standpoint, that actually makes sense. If people see it that way, that’s the reality you have to deal with. I choose to not be part of that reality so I moved my endorsement to Gary Johnson....

"I encourage all Clinton supporters to do the same, and for the same reason. I don’t know if any of the allegations against the Clinton’s are true, but since we are judging each other on associations, you don’t want to be seen as supporting sex abuse by putting an alleged duo of abusers (the perp and the clean-up crew) into office....

"To be fair, Gary Johnson is a pot head who didn’t know what Allepo was. I call that relatable. A President Johnson administration might bring with it some operational risks, and policy risks, but at least he won’t slime you by association and turn you into some sort of cheerleader for sex abuse in the way you would if you voted for the Clintons or Trump.

"If you take allegations of sex abuse seriously – and you should – vote Johnson. To vote for Clinton or Trump is to be seen by others as an enabler for sexual abuse."

Read more: http://blog.dilbert.com/post/151552548531/why-i-endorse-gary-johnson-this-week
'via Blog this'

"We need a foreign policy guided by principle"

My Foreign Policy Vision | The National Interest - Gary Johnson:

October 7, 2016 - "Although President Obama ran for office in 2008 on a promise to get America out of Middle Eastern wars, under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his administration continued a series of policies of regime changes, particularly in Syria and Libya....

"The president’s first and most solemn responsibility is to keep us and our freedoms safe, especially from foreign attack.... Keeping us safe means having a military capability that is unquestionably second to none....

"Where the debate comes into play is what we expect our military to do. The best word to describe my approach to military interventions abroad is that I am a skeptic. As president, I would not need to be talked out of dropping bombs and sending young men and women into harm’s way. I would be the president who would have to be convinced it is absolutely necessary to protect the American people or clear U.S. interests. I will be the skeptic in the room.

"And there is good reason for skepticism. Just look at the past fifteen years. I supported going into Afghanistan after 9/11 to deal with Al Qaeda and its Taliban hosts.... But ... We’re still there.... Today, too many lives and too many dollars later, the Taliban is returning to Afghanistan. And if we were to mount another surge, remove them, and stay there another fifteen years, the same thing would happen as soon as we left....

"Iraq. Yes, Saddam Hussein was a bad guy. No question about it. But are the Iraqi people better off today because we decided to take him out? Are we safer here in America? No....

"Libya. Same song, different verse. We used our military to help overthrow Qaddafi. Again, a bad guy and, by most standards, a war criminal. But what took his place? Did we have a plan? Did we consider the potential consequences, with which we are living today?...

"Our foreign policy, or lack of it, over the past fifteen years, has been a series of erratic chess moves, and the match isn’t going well. We need a chess player in the White House. More important, we need a policy guided by principle, not politics.

"The first and overriding principle is that our foreign policy and military actions must support clear U.S. interests.... Our interests are our lives, our property and our freedom. They are not necessarily a desire to shape the world in our own image or to pick winners and losers in civil wars on the other side of the globe....

"The second principle is that we must expect and demand that other nations shoulder the responsibility for their own defense and economic well-being. We are broke. We cannot any longer subsidize the national defense and economies of other nations. Yes, we will honor our commitments to NATO and other agreements, but other countries around the world have grown too dependent upon U.S. military power.

"Third, we must not ask our military to engage in conflicts without a clear mission and clear authorization. In Afghanistan and Iraq, what were our objectives? When could we possibly know when 'mission accomplished' arrived?.... As for authorization, whatever happened to the constitutional notion that Congress should declare wars?.... Congress has ... allowed the president to conduct 'executive wars' while avoiding their responsibility to place a check — or an approval — on those wars. Yes, they have continued to fund them, but as far as casting the tough votes to drop bombs or deploy our young men and women, Congress has been AWOL.

"We need to honor the War Powers Act and force both Congress and the president to only engage in war with a clear authorization from both the Executive and Legislative Branches. As president, I will honor the War Powers Act, without hiding behind dubious legal opinions from my own lawyers.

"If we adopt and follow these basic principles, the politically sensitive idea of reducing military spending becomes realistic. We must balance the federal budget, and it is fallacy to believe we can do so without being smarter and more focused in our military spending. The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission has regularly concluded that we have excess capacity in military bases of more than 20 percent. We have tens of thousands of troops stationed in places like Japan and Europe — for what purpose? We have weapons systems the military doesn’t even want, and yes, we are subsidizing the national defense of too many other nations with our own troops, equipment and deployments.

"With defined missions [and] a focus on defense rather than intervention, regime change and nation-building, we can gain significant military savings while, in fact, better securing our safety here at home."

Read more: http://nationalinterest.org/feature/gary-johnson-my-foreign-policy-vision-17974
'via Blog this'

Perry reboots POTUS run as write-in campaign

Darryl W. Perry 2016 - Newsletter #17 - Darryl W. Perry Announces Limited Presidential Write-In Campaign (press release):
September 29, 2016 - "Darryl W. Perry, embarked on his Presidential Campaign ... with three goals in mind: 1) to run the most libertarian presidential campaign in history; 2) to proclaim the ideas of liberty as boldly and as often as possible; and 3) to give as many people as possible the opportunity to vote for an actual libertarian in November.
"After the 2016 Libertarian Party National Convention ... Perry issued a statement saying he had 'accomplished two-thirds of the goals I set for my campaign. I ran the most consistent libertarian campaign to date'.... Perry, who was officially endorsed by the NH Liberty Party at their convention in February, added, ... 'I will not be continuing my campaign through November.'
Since then, numerous people have asked for a way to give people the ability to vote for a philosophical libertarian for President [so] Perry decided to file declarations of intent to be a write-in candidate in a handful of states where a slate of electors is not required....
"Darryl’s focus will remain at the state and local level.... In addition, the Darryl W. Perry Presidential Campaign does not intend to raise any funds or have any expenditures towards this limited write-in campaign. Perry says, 'I do not make this decision lightly, however I have the ability to not let another election cycle go by without a philosophical libertarian candidate in the general election.'"
Read more: http://us14.campaign-archive1.com/?u=6f1641090028848d623f5c6b0&id=752e55209e&e=811cff118b

Statement on Write-In Campaign of Darryl W. Perry | Independent Political Report - Nicholas Sarwark, chairman, Libertarian Party:
September 30, 2016 - "The Libertarian National Committee is committed to fully supporting the nominee of the delegates at convention and will continue to do so with all available resources.
"Mr. Perry remains a life member of the Libertarian Party and was recently elected state chair of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire. The LNC has no authority over the election of state party officers nor over the actions of state officers who choose to run rogue write-in campaigns."
Read more: http://independentpoliticalreport.com/2016/09/lnc-chair-sarwark-statement-on-write-in-campaign-of-darryl-w-perry/

National Libertarian Party Attacks “Rogue” New Hampshire Chairman in Press Release | Free Keene - Ian Bernard:
October 1, 2016 - "Now, rather than do the principled thing and follow the Seacoast LP’s request of officially withdrawing Johnson and Weld as their candidates, the LP’s National Committee has issued press release attacking Darryl by calling him a 'rogue' and saying further that they are, 'committed to fully supporting the nominee of the delegates at convention and will continue to do so with all available resources.'
"No one should be surprised to see the national LP double down on their unprincipled hack candidates. It’s the lowest point for the party in more than a decade of falling away from their principles."
Read more: http://freekeene.com/2016/10/01/national-libertarian-party-attacks-rogue-new-hampshire-chairman-in-press-release/

Free Virginia: Radical Reaction - Marc Montoni, founding member, LP Radical Caucus:
September 29, 2016 - "Perry did not discuss his plan with the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus Board of Directors.  We were ambushed with the news.
"The bylaws of the Radical Caucus provide for resigning from formal membership in the Radical Caucus simply by publicly supporting another party's candidate against a Libertarian Party candidate.... Running against the Libertarian nominee qualifies.....
"Perry certainly knew this action would be in conflict. He knew the bylaws and knew that provision. He also knew this would be unacceptable to a lot of us. Yet he ambushed us with his announcement and did it anyway....
"Mr Perry's announcement was his resignation from formal membership in the LPRC."
Read more: http://freevirginia.blogspot.ca/2016/09/radical-reaction.html

'via Blog this'