Montana PAC spends $500,000 on TV ad for Libertarian Dan Cox

Group sympathetic to Tester drops $500K on TV ad – for Libertarian - Mike Dennison, Billings Gazette":

October 26, 2012 - "HELENA - A hunters-and-anglers group sympathetic to Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has spent $500,000 on a new TV ad in his Senate race — telling voters to support the Libertarian candidate, Dan Cox ... the third person in the high-profile Senate contest between Tester and U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg.

"The ad, which began airing this week, criticizes Rehberg for supporting a bill that would give the Department of Homeland Security expanded authority over federal lands within 100 miles of U.S. borders.

"Its closing frame then says: 'Vote Cox. The Real Conservative.'

"The ad is funded by the Montana Hunters and Anglers Leadership Fund, a political-action committee financed earlier this year by the League of Conservation Voters, a leading conservation and environmental group backing Tester."

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/group-sympathetic-to-tester-drops-k-on-tv-ad-for/article_44197da9-b6d2-5e8a-ae05-7442aef0a45d.html#ixzz2AsT8r0yO
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POTUS election may be in Gary Johnson's hands

Presidential Election May Be in Gary Johnson's Hands - HispanicBusiness.com - Hillary Chabot:

October 25, 2012 - "Gary Johnson's average 1-to-2 percent draw in New Hampshire polls could make him a spoiler for Mitt Romney in the neck-and-neck Granite State race -- but the Libertarian Party candidate sees himself as another Ralph Nader for President Obama in some key western swing states.

"'I hope I'm a spoiler for both of them,' the former New Mexico governor told the Herald. 'I do have a sense in New Hampshire and I do have a sense in many states that I could have an impact.'

"Recent polls show a razor-thin margin between the presidential candidates in New Hampshire,with a Rasmussen Poll on Tuesday showing Romney with a 2-point lead and 1 percent of voters going to other candidates like Johnson.

"'They should be worried,' said Suffolk University pollster David Paleologos of Romney and Obama. "If it's an even race or a 1-point race then it definitely matters and you've got the Nader effect.'"

Read more: http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2012/10/25/presidential_election_may_be_in_gary.htm
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Gary Johnson could hurt Obama in Colorado

Pollsters: Pro-pot Libertarian Gary Johnson could hurt Obama in Colorado - Colorado Daily - Brittany Arias::

October 28, 2012 - "Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson will make a campaign stop on the University of Colorado campus on Monday night, and pollsters say the third-party candidate with a pro-pot agenda could siphon votes away from President Barack Obama in his razor-close race against Mitt Romney in this battleground state.

"Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, will be on the Boulder campus at 7 p.m. in the Math 100 building for a town-hall style gathering. Proponents of Colorado ballot measure Amendment 64, which seeks to legalize marijuana and regulate it like alcohol, also will be at the event.

"Traditionally, libertarians such as Johnson tend to draw votes away from Republican candidates. But with marijuana legalization being a key issue for Johnson, there's the potential for voters already enthused about Amendment 64 to also cast votes in favor of the Libertarian presidential candidate -- including some from the left-leaning youth demographic, pollsters say....

"Floyd Ciruli, a Denver-based pollster and political analyst, said that less than half a percent of voters in Colorado are Libertarians. But Johnson could gain votes from other demographics, particularly college students or Republicans who supported Ron Paul.

Read more: http://www.coloradodaily.com/ci_21869950/pollsters-pro-pot-libertarian-gary-johnson-could-hurt?source=most_emailed#ixzz2Aj0pJ7kb
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Obama thinks Ayn Rand is for teens (for predictably childish reasons)

Obama Thinks Ayn Rand is For Teens (For Predictably Childish Reasons) - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

October 25, 2012 - "President Obama is asked ... by Rolling Stone: what does he think of Ayn Rand? After saying that 'sure' he's read her, his answer:

"Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we'd pick up. Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which we're only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else, in which we're considering the entire project of developing ourselves as more important than our relationships to other people and making sure that everybody else has opportunity – that that's a pretty narrow vision. It's not one that, I think, describes what's best in America. Unfortunately, it does seem as if sometimes that vision of a "you're on your own" society has consumed a big chunk of the Republican Party...

"Reducing Rand's message of liberty and achievement to one of a narrow 'you're on your own' individualism shouldn't be a surprise coming from the president, though it's still sad that the leader of the nation that attracted Rand to escape the Soviet Union at some risk would say such a thing.

"There is nothing 'narrow' about Rand's vision except in that it created moral boundaries in which most of the functions of Obama's government would be seen as illegitimate, because they use threats and violence against non-aggressors to achieve social goals. As Rand summed up her own philosophy once, it really amounts to: 'Gentlemen, leave your guns outside!' That alas is something Barack 'drones away' Obama will never do."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2012/10/25/obama-thinks-ayn-rand-is-for-teens-for-p
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Gary Johnson wins first Free and Equal Elections debate.

Gary Johnson wins first Free and Equal Elections debate

Johnson and Green candidate Jill Stein advance to a second debate in Washington, D.C.
by George Dance
(libertarian)
Saturday, October 27, 2012

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party’s 2012 presidential candidate, won the presidential debate hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation (FEE) on October 23. Four of the six candidates with a mathematical chance to win the election -- Johnson, Jill Stein of the Green Party, Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party, and Virgil Goode of the Constitution Party – participated in the 90-minute event,(1) which was followed by a 24 hour period in which viewers could vote for their favourites (using a ranked preference ballot). Close to 48,000 votes were cast.

Read more: http://www.nolanchart.com/article9926-gary-johnson-wins-first-free-and-equal-elections-debate.html
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Gary Johnson Twitter Passes 100,000 Followers

Gary Johnson Twitter Passes 100,000 Followers - IVN.us - Chad Peace, IVN Editors' Blog, Independent Voter Network:

October 27, 2012 - "Gary Johnson is perhaps the most popular 'online candidate' since Ron Paul, and undoubtably draws many of the Congressman’s supporters. And with over 300,000 Facebook Likes, over 1,000,000 Google+ followers, and as of today, over 100,000 Twitter followers, Gary Johnson could be laying the groundwork to make a significant impact on the political conversation for a long-time to come.

"Politics and technology are at an interesting cross-roads. The big number of reliable votes are still made by the folks sitting in a reclining chair with a remote control in their hand, but it won’t be long until those who grew up with Facbeook and Twitter start to really change the playing field."

Read more: http://ivn.us/editors-blog/2012/10/27/gary-johnson-twitter-passes-10000-followers/
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Ayn Rand Institute Questions Whether Obama Has Read Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand Institute Questions Whether Obama Has Read Ayn Ran =- Lucia Greaves, Huffington Post::

October 26, 2012 - "After President Barack Obama said in an interview with Rolling Stone that Ayn Rand's books are largely for teenagers who are 'feeling misunderstood,' the Ayn Rand Institute is questioning whether the president has done his reading.

"'President Obama claims he has read Ayn Rand, but you wouldn’t know it from his recent comments," said Don Watkins, a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute and co-author of Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand's Ideas Can End Big Government. 'To be an individualist, Obama suggests, is to be concerned with yourself with no regard for other people -- indeed, at the expense of other people. That is a total distortion of Rand's individualism'....

"'The President is pulling the same old trick that collectivists have been pulling for the last hundred fifty years. Rather than openly defend the proposition that you have a duty to serve society, he misrepresents and smears individualism....

"'Rand's argument is that other people are a tremendous value to an individualist: as teachers, friends, trading partners, lovers. But the key to successful human relationships, she argues, is that there should be no sacrifice of anyone to anyone.... Unlike the President, Rand doesn’t confuse ‘caring for others’ with having the government forcibly redistribute your wealth to others. She recognizes that our main obligation to other people is to respect their freedom.'"

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/26/ayn-rand-institute-obama_n_2024497.html
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