Top 10 Libertarian Moments of 2014

Top 10 Libertarian Moments of 2014 | Students For Liberty - Kelly Barber:

December 12, 2014 - "Since the year is drawing to a close, it’s worth taking some time to reflect on the past twelve months and all that has been accomplished for human liberty. It’s easy to focus on the negatives– police brutality, countless military entanglements abroad, hyperinflation around the world, the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, mass surveillance by the NSA, and on and on.

"However, each day there are more and more stories of human courage and collaboration between disparate groups who are joining together to fight government abuse in the name of freedom. Below are ten events (in no particular order) that we think qualify as some of the biggest libertarian moments of 2014, plus a couple of honorable mentions....

1. Wave of drug policy reform.... 
2. The sharing economy went mainstream....
3. Snowden and Greenwald kept the spotlight on the NSA....
4. Unprecedented victories for same-sex marriage....
5. Protests in Venezuela, Ukraine, and Hong Kong....
6. Sentencing reform approved in California....
7. Big wins for free speech on college campuses....
8. Big tax cuts across the U.S....
9. Minnesota passes civil asset forfeiture reform....
10. Police brutality protests....

"Honorable mentions:

1. Estonia offers e-residency....
2. Concealed carry now legal everywhere in the U.S."

Read more: http://studentsforliberty.org/blog/2014/12/12/top-libertarian-moments-of-2014/
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Gravel is new CEO of Cannabis Sativa subsidiary

Ex-senator from Alaska to run marijuana company | OnPolitics - Catalina Camia:

December 30, 2014 - "A former U.S. senator from Alaska who made a quixotic bid for president in 2008 has a new gig — as CEO of a marijuana company.

"KUSH will be led by Mike Gravel, a senator from 1969 to 1981 who tried to make a comeback in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. Gravel has been a critic of the war on drugs since Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, classifying marijuana in a category set aside for the most dangerous of drugs with a high potential for abuse.

"KUSH, a subsidiary of Cannabis Sativa Inc., will offer a pot lozenge called the Kubby. 'I’m anxious to assist in bringing this important resource to a broader market in a serious and credible way,' said Gravel, who has been on the parent company’s board of directors.

"Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use. Voters in Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia approved ballot initiatives in November to legalize pot — joining Colorado and Washington state. Congress, however, nixed D.C.’s pot legalization plan when it passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill earlier this month.

"Gravel isn’t the only person tied to Cannabis Sativa who knows his way around politics.

"Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, who ran for the GOP nomination for president in 2012 before becoming the Libertarian Party nominee, is CEO of Cannabis Sativa."

Read more: http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2014/12/30/mike-gravel-marijuana-legalization-senate/
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See also: Mike Gravel joins Libertarian Party (2008) by George J. Dance

2 states sue Colorado over marijuana legalization

Nebraska, Oklahoma sue Colorado over legal marijuana - LA Times - Kurtis Lee:

December 18, 2014 - "A pair of states on Thursday filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to strike down Colorado's laws that legalize recreational marijuana.

"Citing federal antidrug laws, particularly interstate drug trafficking, Nebraska and Oklahoma said in the lawsuit that Colorado's marijuana laws have "created a dangerous gap in the federal drug-control system enacted by the United States Congress."

"In 2012, Coloradans voted in support of Amendment 64, which legalized the recreational sale and use of up to an ounce of marijuana for any resident over the age of 21. Moreover, under Amendment 64, Coloradans can grow up to six marijuana plants for personal use.

"The result of increased Colorado-sourced marijuana being trafficked in [Nebraska and Oklahoma] due to the passage and implementation of Colorado Amendment 64 has been the diversion of a significant amount of the personnel time, budget, and resources" of those states, wrote Nebraska Atty. Gen. Jon Bruning and Oklahoma Atty. Gen. E. Scott Pruitt in the court filing....

"Colorado Atty. Gen. John Suthers, who leaves office next month, vowed on Thursday to defend the state's legal recreational marijuana laws....

"Suthers, a Republican who opposed Amendment 64, added that 'it appears the plaintiffs’ primary grievance stems from non-enforcement of federal laws regarding marijuana, as opposed to choices made by the voters of Colorado.

"'We believe this suit is without merit and we will vigorously defend against it in the U.S. Supreme Court,' Suthers said.

"Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but several states including Washington, Oregon and Alaska have passed laws legalizing recreational marijuana sales."

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-marijuana-lawsuit-colorado-20141218-story.html
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Reason interviews Ron Paul on foreign policy

Dr. Never - Reason.com - Matt Welch, Reason, January 2015:

December 8, 2014 - "On May 15, 2007, at a Republican primary debate in Columbia, South Carolina, longshot presidential candidate Ron Paul shocked the room with his answer to a question about how 9/11 changed America: "Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we've been over there; we've been bombing Iraq for 10 years."

"Then-frontrunner Rudolph Giuliani, visibly agitated, interrupted the proceedings to condemn Paul's 'extraordinary statement ... that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq' and then demand a retraction as the crowd went wild. Campaign reporters, straight and ideological alike, started writing Ron Paul's obituary. Politico Executive Editor Jim VandeHei, on CNN's American Morning the next day, said that 'Rudy Giuliani came off terrific...mostly because he got that softball, where Ron Paul lobs it to him and basically blames the U.S. for the 9/11 attacks...You dream of those moments when you're a candidate, that's for sure.' Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt agitated for Paul to be barred from future GOP debates. National Review's headline captured the media zeitgeist succinctly: "Giuliani Up, McCain Up, Romney Down, and Ron Paul Out—Way Out.'

"But a funny thing happened on the way to Paul's seemingly inevitable ostracism from the Republican Party for the sin of noninterventionism: His star began to rise, while Giuliani's crashed and burned. Not only would the rambling septuagenarian outpace the famous former New York mayor in both delegates and the popular vote during the 2008 campaign, his message of peace and American pullback electrified a new generation of activists and voters, while Giuliani's hawkish stance has become less popular by the day.

"Now retired from Congress after a second, more successful run at the White House, Paul can gaze out at a world and a GOP that has become much more sympathetic to his once-lonely view of the world. His son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), has been hanging out near the top of the polls for the 2016 presidential race, selling a more Republican-friendly version of intervention-skepticism. There are entire armies of young libertarian activists — including many recent military veterans — who got their introduction to the philosophy through Ron Paul's bracing criticism of U.S. misadventures abroad. You can't talk about libertarian foreign policy without talking about — and to — Ron Paul. reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch caught up with the three-time presidential candidate over the phone in October."

Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2014/12/08/dr-never
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Highlight of 2014 - Minnesota's civil forfeiture law

Minnesota Now Requires A Criminal Conviction Before People Can Lose Their Property To Forfeiture -  Nick Sibilla, Institute for Justice, Forbes:

July 5, 2014 -  "In a big win for property rights and due process, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill [July 4] to curb an abusive — and little known — police practice called civil forfeiture. Unlike criminal forfeiture, under civil forfeiture someone does not have to be convicted of a crime, or even charged with one, to permanently lose his or her cash, car or home.

"The newly signed legislation, SF 874, corrects that injustice. Now the government can only take property if it obtains a criminal conviction or its equivalent, like if a property owner pleads guilty to a crime or becomes an informant. The bill also shifts the burden of proof onto the government, where it rightfully belongs. Previously, if owners wanted to get their property back, they had to prove their property was not the instrument or proceeds of the charged drug crime.  In other words, owners had to prove a negative in civil court. Being acquitted of the drug charge in criminal court did not matter to the forfeiture case in civil court.

"As Lee McGrath, the executive director of the Institute for Justice’s Minnesota chapter, put it, 'No one acquitted in criminal court should lose his property in civil court. This change makes Minnesota’s law consistent with the great American presumption that a person and his property are innocent until proven guilty.'

"The bill faced stiff opposition from law enforcement and a bottleneck in the legislature. In March, the Star Tribune called it an 'outrage' that lawmakers were 'dragging their feet on one of the big, common-sense changes' to the state’s forfeiture laws. Ultimately, SF 874 found wide, bipartisan support, passing the state senate 55 to 5 and the state house unanimously. The reforms will go into effect starting August 1, 2014."

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/05/07/minnesota-forfeiture-reform/
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Highlight of 2014 - Wisconsin's police-shooting law

In Wisconsin, A Decade-Old Police Shooting Leads To New Law - NPR:

December 13, 2014 - "Race is at the forefront of the current debate over the police use of deadly force. But one shooting in Wisconsin highlights another factor at play when police shoot civilians — the lack of outside investigation. And the decade-old death has led to real reform in the state.

"Ten years ago, 21-year-old Michael Bell Jr. pulled up to the house where he lived with his mom and sister in Kenosha, Wis., about an hour south of Milwaukee. A police officer who, according to a police report chose to follow Bell after observing his driving, arrived shortly after.... The two walked off-camera, where police tried to arrest him. A struggle ensued, and while his mom and sister watched from the house, Bell was shot, point-blank, in the head....

"The Kenosha Police Department's detective division and internal affairs division immediately conducted an investigation.... Within 48 hours, the department had determined that the shooting was justified, that the use of force was proper and that none of the officers had done anything wrong....

"As a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, Michael Bell Sr. says he's been a part of mishap investigations before. He was expecting a long, drawn-out investigation into his own son's death — not a decision made by the same police department in just a couple of days.... He says he knew the police had not even talked to the witnesses or gotten the report back from the crime lab....

"The Bell family ended up filing a civil suit for wrongful death. Six years later, they received a $1.75 million settlement. But there was no admission of wrongdoing, and the police maintained that Michael Bell Jr. caused his own death.

"The family used the settlement money to fund a grassroots campaign. They took out ads in the New York Times, in USA Today and on radio and created TV commercials.... Bell bought every available billboard in Milwaukee with slogans like: 'When Police Kill, Should They Judge Themselves?'

"'After we created enough ruckus, the unions ended up sitting down with us and talking with us,' Bell says. They told him that if he wanted to take the billboards down, they would work with him in crafting the legislation he sought.

"The law they put forth would make Wisconsin the first state in the nation to mandate, on the legislative level, that if an officer was involved with a loss of life, that outside investigators must come in and collect the data and investigate that shooting.

"This past April, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker passed the bill into law."

Read more: http://www.npr.org/2014/12/13/370592433/in-wisconsin-a-decade-old-police-shooting-leads-to-new-law

Have an anarchist Christmas

An Anarchist Christmas » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names - Grant Mincey:

December 25, 2014 - "As we reflect on this year of violence, imagine alternatives and act for social change perhaps we may revisit an age-old political ideology as liberating, co-operative and peaceful as it is misunderstood. The rich political tradition to which I refer is anarchism....

"Anarchic practitioners advocate highly ordered societies rooted in the principles of free association, mutual aid and cooperative labor.... This libertarian idea is deeply ingrained in the human spirit....

"Liberty is not a doctrine, but rather a praxis innate to human thought and action — the underlying principle being that one should always challenge authority and dismantle unjustifiable concentrations of power. The result is a more libertarian relationship between people and their institutions. Anarchism is thus a human phenomenon.

"When feminist movements organize for women’s agency over their own bodies and life without fear of violence we see anarchism.

"We see anarchism in Mexico as the population seeks liberation from violent drug cartels, complacent government and oppressive state policies.

"We see anarchism in prisons as inmates band together in these dehumanizing institutions to demand living conditions free of violence and sexual battery.

"We see anarchism in war-torn regions of the world where individuals risk their lives to save innocent victims of the drone strikes and barrel bombs of oppressive regimes.

"We see anarchism in towns and neighborhoods challenging the monopoly of violence held by the police.

"We see anarchism in movements that seek the protection of wilderness areas and native lands from the clutches of extractive industries and the iron fist of capital.

"We find anarchism in the new technology and falling communications costs that allow all of us to craft markets and labor together free of regulatory restriction.

"We see anarchism in our everyday social interactions — telling our family and friends we love them and being kind to strangers.

"These are but a few examples. Anarchism is everywhere."

Read more: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/25/an-anarchist-christmas/
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