News
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- Written by: Joe Siano
- Category: Latest News
Come to the NJ Libertarian Party Convention.
This is a great year for the cause of Liberty.
Ron Paul is reshaping political thought through his incredible Presidential run. I hope that he wins his Party's nomination. However, if he doesn't he has still made a a big contribution and the LP has a potentially great candidate in the wings with Gary Johnson.
In New Jersey, we have a very accomplished gentleman who wants to represent the NJLP as a candidate for Senate. I believe that he has the time, energy, talent, resume and resources to to make a high visibility run. He will speak and you can decide for yourselves. In addition to him we will other great speakers and we will present our other aspiring candidates.
The Board has worked to make this convention
- Convenient - It is right in the middle of Jersey, less that a mile from Turnpike Exit 8. Also, plenty of free parking nearby.
- Affordable - $35 - includes hot buffet lunch and continental breakfast. Students rate is $25
- And fun - We are on the second floor of a pub.
As I said before, more Americans are awakening to the cause of liberty than ever before. And if Ron Paul wins the Republican nomination, that would be grand. Nonetheless, the Libertarian Party still stands as the few, the proud, the true keepers of the flame.
I want to see you in Hightstown on March 24, to kick off a great year for the NJLP. Register today!
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
At 10 a.m. on Friday, February 10, 2012, Jose Delgado and I appeared before Camden County Assignment Judge F. J. Fernandez-Vina to pursue our Sen. Byron M. Baer Open Public Meetings Act case against the Camden City Board of Education. I appeared in person and Jose, who was on vacation, appeared by way of speakerphone. Background and case documents are available here.
(Three open government activists, as well as a member of the board attended and observed. I appreciate the activists' support.)
Follow are the five issues that we presented (as set forth in the blog entry at the link above) and the result for each:
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
A recent poll shows that the 83% of Americans support Obama's drone policy, 53% of liberal Democrats and 67% of moderate or conservative Democrats now support keeping Guantanamo Bay open.
Glenn Greenwald blogs about it here. Jim Bovard blogs about at Liberals Love Obama's "Liberty Drones".
During the Bush Regime the left would have been screaming and protesting while the right would have been silent. Now the roles are reversed. What is wrong with the public? Why do they continually choose party over principle? Instead of being principled, people treat politics like a sports event while cheering on their favorite team to victory.
The good news is that voters are quickly abandoning the Republican and Democrat Parties. According to the USA Today the Democrat Party is down 800,000 voters, the Republican Party is down 350,000 voters and independent voters are up by 325,000 voters.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Candidates and Elections
In May of 2012 delegates from each of the 50 state Libertarian Parties will be convening in Las Vegas, Nevada. The delegates will be deciding on the future of the party and will be picking who our candidate for President shall be.
Candidates who have made statements that they are running to date include:
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
I don't recall ever before encountering a public agency misusing the "emergency meeting" exception to the Open Public Meetings Act. I did encounter such a violation today by the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC). After determining that it didn't give 48 hours advance public notice of a rescheduled meeting, ELEC held the meeting anyway, blithely finding that to do otherwise "would result in harm to the public interest."
The text of my letter to the Commission is on-line at:
http://njopengovt.blogspot.com/2012/02/improper-meeting-notice-no-problem.html
John Paff, Chairman
New Jersey Libertarian Party's
Open Government Advocacy Project
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
In yesterday's Appellate Division decision in State v. Heine, the Court ruled that a when a property owner refuses to permit access to a residence for inspection by local officials, the proper remedy is for the municipal inspectors to secure an administrative search warrant. The mere act of refusing access does not constitute a violation of a local ordinance in the absence of a search warrant.
In Heine, a variety of municipal health, construction and fire officials sought to inspect a residential property owned by the defendant. She refused them access to the property, believing it was a violation of her constitutional rights. Following three trials, she was found guilty in municipal court of various local ordinance violations related to the lack of access for the inspections. However, the Appellate Division held that although an administrative search to the warrant requirement exists in closely regulated industries, that exception does not apply in the context of a private home.
See http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/a5858-09a1720-10.pdf for a copy of the decision.
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- Written by: Mark Richards
- Category: Letters to Editor
Congratulations to NJLP member, Mark Richards for having a letter to the editor published in the Suburban Trends:
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Dear Editor:
I would like to thank John Aiello for having the courage to write that recent letter defending councilmember Lou Signorino to have Libertarian beliefs.
Mr. Aiello should not be surprised if he draws fire from his fellow school board members and also fellow Republicans for defending Libertarians.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
“I’m not going to stop doing what I’m doing,” says medical marijuana advocate Eric Hafner.
By JOHN T. WARD
Among those cheering at the Statehouse when New Jersey’s law allowing medical marijuana passed in January, 2010 was Eric Hafner, an 18-year-old who found in cannabis what he did not in prescription drugs: relief from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) brought on by a “traumatic, horrifying” incident two years earlier.
Two years later, however, the law has yet to be implemented, and Hafner is a facing a charge of possessing less than 50 grams of marijuana as a result of an early-morning traffic stop in Middletown in late November.
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- Written by: Seth Grossman
- Category: Selected Blogs
“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This First Amendment, adopted on Dec. 15, 1791, is the most important part of the Constitution. With free speech and press, we can be informed when government officials violate other parts of the Constitution. And we can inform others any way we can, and form organizations strong enough to either make them stop – or vote them out of office.
Without the absolute right to freely speak, assemble and organize, a constitution is useless. The Soviet Union under the dictator Stalin had a constitution that gave its citizens all sorts of rights. But anyone who reported violations of those rights or who tried to organize any opposition to the government was killed or sent to prison.
Last week Norm Cohen, my fellow columnist, wrote that he, and others with him on the left, want to “take the money out of politics.” They include filmmaker Michael Moore and MSNBC commentator Dylan Ratigan.
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- Written by: R. Lee Wrights
- Category: Candidates and Elections
One of the few quibbles that many libertarians have against the positions taken by Gary Johnson is his support for the Fair Tax. Libertarian Presidential contender, R. Lee Wrights has written the following essay about The Fair Tax.
The Fair Tax Isn’t Fair; It’s a Farce
By Saturday, January 7th, 2012
“There cannot be a good tax nor a just one; every tax rests its case on compulsion.” – Frank Chodorov
BURNET, Texas (Jan. 7) – The so-called Fair Tax is not fair; on the contrary, it is a farce based on fallacies and falsehoods. Sadly, some libertarians have fallen for the bogus arguments uttered by proponents of this national sales tax and bought into the idea that this is the “best we can hope to get.” This is a justification very similar to the flawed reasoning that induces some people to vote for the “lesser of two evils.”
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- Written by: Joe Siano
- Category: Selected Blogs
From our friends at the Mises Institute. This is chapter three of Jeffrey A. Tucker's book It's a Jetsons World: Private Miracles and Public Crimes.
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- Written by: Carla Howell
- Category: Latest News
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Carla Howell is the Executive Director of the National Libertarian Party |
Dear Friend of Liberty,
I ran for governor against Mitt Romney in 2002 in Massachusetts. I read his every press release, read every major newspaper article about him, and followed his every move throughout his governor campaign -- and in each of the four years he served as governor.
Mitt Romney IS Big Government -- to the core.
Which is why I nearly fell off my chair one day when I was asked by a libertarian, “Aren’t you glad to have Mitt Romney as your governor? He’s pretty libertarian, isn’t he?”
It is critical that voters know the truth about Big Government Mitt Romney. Please forward the below column to every voter you know who would consider voting for him.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
The following email was sent to the Borough Council in Little Silver today. Many towns across New Jersey are charging exorbitant late fees for property taxes. Much thanks go to John Paff for his contributions to this effort.
Hon. Robert Neff, Jr., Mayor and members of the Little Silver Borough Council
480 Prospect Avenue
Little Silver, NJ 07739Dear Mayor Neff and Borough Council members:
I write in my capacity as chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party. As you may be aware, Libertarians take a pretty dim view of taxation (Note1) and, if we had our way, we would a substantially reduce the size and scope of government causing a corresponding decrease in the tax burden presently shouldered by New Jersey citizens. While we don't expect the Little Silver Borough Council to adopt a Libertarian viewpoint overnight, we would like for you to effect a small change that would help reduce the burden on some of the Borough's most vulnerable residents.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Latest News
In wrapping up the year, I looked over some my old files and found some news articles from April of 1991 about a New Jersey Superior Court judge who successfully stepped on a juror's right to judge for herself whether New Jersey's drug laws were fair and proportionate. I thought this 20-year old bit of history would be interest, so I put these articles on the internet.
I remember this case well, as I visited the juror several times and recall hand-typing her May 17, 1991 letter into a text file - in the days before scanners and OCR--so that I could distribute it more easily (the text file is also at the above link). I also remember the case well because I traveled more than once to the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton to visit the man who was sentenced to life imprisonment because of the juror's forced verdict. Anyway, here's the story.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
On December 28th, Gary Johnson held a news conference in Santa Fe, NM announcing his switch from the Republican to the Libertarian Party.
Following Gary's announcement, National LP Chair Mark Hinkle welcomed Gary back to the Libertarian Party.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Local government agencies and authorities are required to audit their books annually, and one might think that these audits are sufficient to ensure that everything is on the up and up. But the audits merely point out financial reporting deficiencies - sometimes the same deficiencies year after year--and the agency or authority that paid for the audit may elect to take no corrective action.
A case in point is the Borough of Dunellen's (Middlesex County) Parking Authority. While reviewing the auditor's August 30, 2010 cover letter that accompanied the Authority's 2008 and 2009 audits, I was struck by the following sentence: "Because of the inadequacy of accounting system and records for the year ended December 31, 2008, we are unable to form an opinion regarding the amounts at which accounts receivable, accounts payable and deferred parking permit revenues are recorded/not recorded on the balance sheet or accompanying financial statements. The respective amounts are unknown." I felt that this sentence was significant because it said, in essence, that the Parking Authority, which reported $631,305 in net assets and had $124,798 in cash and equivalents on hand as of December 31, 2009, didn't properly record and account for its income during 2008.
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- Written by: Radley Balko
- Category: Selected Blogs
I’m saddened to learn this morning that Siobhan Reynolds died over the weekend in a plane crash.
I met Reynolds several years ago when I attended a forum on Capitol Hill on the under-treatment of pain. Her story about her husband’s chronic pain was so heartbreaking it moved me to take an interest in the issue. I eventually commissioned and edited a paper on the DEA and pain treatment while I was working for Cato.
Reynolds was fierce and tireless. She ran her advocacy group the Pain Relief Network on a thin budget, and often used her own money to travel to towns and cities where she felt prosecutors were unfairly targeting a doctor. And then she’d fight back. And sometimes she’d win. And the DEA and the federal prosecutors she fought weren’t really accustomed to that.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Candidates and Elections
The Texas Harris County Libertarians hosted a debate among three of the potential Libertarian Party Presidential nominees. Present was Roger Gary, R. J. Harris, and R. Lee Wrights.