News
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
Wealth, and the desire to preserve it, is what drives citizens of rich nations to demand an increasingly punitive justice system
by George Monbiot
Published on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
Written from the point of view of the United Kingdom.
As ever, Britain appears to be chasing the United States. In both absolute and relative terms, the US’s prison population is the highest on earth: 1% of its adult population is behind bars. This is five times our preposterous rate and six times Turkey’s. It is over twice the rate of the nearest contender, South Africa. If you count the people under community supervision or on probation, the total rises to more than 7 million, or 3.1% of the adult population (all references are on my website). Black men who failed to complete high school in the US have a 60% chance of ending up in jail. I feel I need to say that again: 60% of unqualified African-American men go to prison. It’s beginning to look as if the state has stopped imprisoning individuals and started locking up a social class. Is this what we aspire to?
Read the entire article here.
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- Written by: Sean Colon
- Category: NJ Libertarian Blog
Solar panel installation companies are laying off workers and NJ residents are waiting years for solar panels to be installed on and around their homes. Why? Because NJ has a rebate program to promote clean energy but they don't have the money to back it up. These installation companies have to wait years to get checks for work that they are doing and they can't afford to install solar panels and not get paid for their work. There are over 700 applications for solar power rebates still backlogged and now NJ is going to have to pull the plug on the program. And it gets even worse... they are funding this failed program with a tax on every one's utility bill! So as the price of oil is going up the NJ government is trying to promote clean energy use by making electricity more expensive? This does not compute!
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- Written by: Sean Colon
- Category: NJ Libertarian Blog
If you haven't seen it yet please go check it out. You can find it at www.bobbarr2008.com.
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- Written by: Sean Colon
- Category: NJ Libertarian Blog
Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) authored the most recent bill that modified NJ's current housing policies. It passed in the senate yesterday by a vote of 21-16. One of these changes was to stop municipalities from paying poor cities to take on the burden of offering affordable housing on their behalf. Half of these Democratic senators must be in the pocket of the developers because that is the only reason I can think of behind these types of bills.
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- Written by: Sean Colon
- Category: NJ Libertarian Blog
The City of Newark is spending $9,300 to offer etiquette classes to its citizens. This is the kind of absurdity that is hard to laugh at. Not only is this an insult to the people of Newark but also a wanton waste of taxpayers' money that could go to something much more useful and necessary. Table manners will not help add jobs to the city of Newark.
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- Written by: Lou Jasikoff
- Category: Candidates and Elections
News Release
For Immediate Release – June 20, 2008
http://www.jasonforsenate2008.com
Contact Lou Jasikoff – (973) 752-9164 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Libertarian officially on ballot
Trenton, NJ –Jason Scheurer, the former certified and clean election candidate from West Windsor will represent the Libertarian Party as its standard bearer for the U.S. Senate in the State of New Jersey according to Lou Jasikoff, Chair of the New Jersey Libertarian Party and campaign manager for the Scheurer campaign.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
We were recently sent the outstanding comments of Assemblyman Jay Webber of New Jersey, addressing the state's proposal to expand their previous failed experiment with taxpayer funded political campaigns:
Assemblyman Webber's LetterAs Assemblyman Webber succinctly states, "The role of government in our electoral process is to guarantee some level of transparency and honesty, not to pick winners. This bill turns that idea on its head by essentially empowering the government to tell us what we can say, when we can say it, and how much we can say it."
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
We often get emails at Libertarian Party headquarters asking what exactly are the differences between the Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party. The confusion is understandable, especially for party outsiders who are just beginning to look at either as a new political home. The question of the differences in the parties has become even more frequent as Ron Paul supporters are looking for a new home after Paul's announcement that he is discontinuing his campaign.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
The Libertarian Party's Open Government Task Force's efforts to increase the Warren County Freeholder's Open Public Meetings Act compliance was reported in a June 16, 2008 Express Times article.
The OGFT's letters, referred to in the article, are available here.
Advocate goes after minutes
He claims Warren County freeholders are violating Open Public Meetings Act.
Monday, June 16, 2008
By SARA K. SATULLO
The Express-Times
WHITE TWP. - An open government advocate is challenging Warren county's policy of not releasing closed-door meeting minutes without freeholder board approval.
John Paff, chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open
Government Advocacy Project, initially challenged the county for
being too vague when going into closed session. Instead of the board just saying it is discussing pending litigation, Paff advocates specifying the litigants' names.
Read the full article here.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Selected Blogs
Center for Competitive Politics (CCP) president Sean Parnell will testify to the New Jersey General Assembly's State Government Committee this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. concerning "The 2009 New Jersey Fair and Clean Elections Pilot Project Act," set to be introduced today.
Parnell's testimony will educate the committee on the results of New Jersey's most recent attempt at taxpayer-financed political campaigns as well as the impact that taxpayer-financed campaigns have had in other states.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
“Clean Elections” or Abbott-Style Funding for “Most Needy” Politicians?
by Steve Lonegan, Executive Director, AFP-NJ
Trenton’s politicians would have you believe the answer to New Jersey’s high taxes is another convoluted state program; taxpayer funded elections. We have heard it over and over, ranging from phony promises that raising some broad-base tax would provide “property tax relief” to false claims about new departments “rooting out waste and corruption.”
Read the rest of the article here. Listen to Steve's taxpayer minute on the subject here .
The NJLP supports Steve Lonegan in his fight against so called "Clean Elections". Our platform specifically opposes taxpayer subsidies to politicians. Although, libertarians oppose any public financing of elections this proposal is horribly unjust - third parties can only get half of what the democrats and republicans can get despite having to meet the same qualifications.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
Regulatory barriers to practicing particular professions are continuously being erected by government bodies to the detriment of our economy. The Institute for Justice has fought against arbitrary hair braiding licensing in Arizona, California, D.C., Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, and Washington. They have fought licensing of casket makers in Tennessee, Missouri, and Oklahoma. The have fought against taxi and limousine licensing in Denver, New York City, and Las Vegas. Other battles they have fought were against monopoly control of floral arranging, trash hauling, interior design, sign hanging, and weed control.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
Bill is an Attack on Sportsmen, Collectors, and Target Shooters
On Thursday morning, June 12, the New Jersey Assembly Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider legislation that would ban the purchase, transfer, and inheritance of many popular hunting guns, historical American firearms, and large bore target firearms, based on alleged public safety concerns.
Subcategories
NJ Libertarian Blog
Imported from NJ Libertarian News from the published feed
Videos
This is a page of various videos that we have either created or found interesting. Be sure to check out and follow our YouTube page.
Open Government Advocacy Project
The Open Government Advocacy Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to ensure transparency and accountability at all levels of government. Articles posted here are a subset of the work of the committee. For more information visit the Open Government Advocacy Project blog.
If you would like to demand accountability and ensure that your local governing body or school board adheres to the Open Public Records Act we can help you request information from them. Contact John Paff, the project chair here.
Insight New Jersey
NJ government is huge and complex. Private industry is shrinking while the size and cost of government bureacracy continues to grow. The articles posted here provide a guide of the NJ State Government and can be used by citizens and candidates for office to evaluate what departments can be reduced drastically in size.
We'll start with just some of the departments and provide a breakdown on what they do (or purport to do), how many employees they have and how big their budget is.
Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
The New Jersey Libertarian Party's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project (“the Project”) seeks to get New Jersey municipalities to repeal loitering ordinances that should have been -- but were not -- repealed when the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice was enacted in 1979. The Project has successfully had loitering ordinances repealed in over 30 towns. For a summary listing of all the towns see Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project page.
Police Accountability Project
The Police Accountability Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to search out cases of police misconduct, file former Internal Affairs (IA) complaints when appropriate, and to publicize violations of rules and laws by the police. There may be other stories posted on the NJLP Police Internal Affairs Complaint Blog page.
If you would like to help or know of a case we should be looking at, contact the committee at
Legislative Affairs Committee
The Legislative Affairs Committee was created to allow a select core of Volunteers to take action on legislation and policies which directly affects the people of New Jersey.
[INTRO VIDEO - HOSTED ON NJLP STATE YOUTUBE AND EMBEDED HERE]
Staff
Legislative Director and Committee Chair
Volunteers: