News
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
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BY MURRAY SABRIN
Murray Sabrin is professor of finance at Ramapo College and was the Libertarian Party nominee for governor in 1997 and a GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2000 and 2008.
IT WAS REPORTED last week that General Electric paid no federal income taxes in 2010. Should we be angry that one of the world’s largest corporations paid no federal income tax while middle income and upper income Americans pay federal, state and in some cases city income taxes?
Americans also pay Social Security and Medicare taxes, state unemployment and disability taxes, sales taxes and property taxes, and a host of utility and other taxes. In short, Americans pay taxes to all levels of government in order to receive a number of benefits from the “public sector.”
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- Written by: pugmaster
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On K Street in Washington, D.C., there are many offices that are occupied by special interest groups. Everyday, those offices send a lobbyist for the purposes of attempting to make some members of Capital Hill and The White House to support their causes and their endeavors. About 95% of the time, what these lobbyists request is tax monies to fund their projects as well as lobby for other spending legislation and monetary support. It is these special interest groups and their political supporters whom are an impediment to reducing the size and scope of government, and an impediment to reducing this nation’s $14 Trillion dollar and counting national debt.
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- Written by: pugmaster
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There are many progressive and so-called “moderate” politicians like Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) that always claim that they are “pro-choice.’ However, when you look at their records and what they support, you will see that they are only “pro-choice” when it comes to the issue of abortion and nothing more. They are not “pro-choice” when it involves the right of an individual to own and purchase a firearm; they are not “pro-choice” when it comes to the right of parents to decide whether to send their children to private or parochial schools; they are not “pro-choice” when it comes to the right of an individual to smoke in public or private places; and they are not “pro-choice” when it comes to the right of individual to not join a Labor Union or opt out of government programs like Social Security.
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- Written by: David Schneck
- Category: Latest News
Trenton should stop mandates to towns, eliminate income tax
In order to find real solutions to the problem with New Jersey's highest-in-the-nation property taxes, it is critical that we accept the truth as to what is actually causing the problem. The proposal to use state power to pressure small (and not so small) towns to consolidate offered by Senate President Stephen Sweeney and detailed in last Sunday's opinion piece by Andrew Bruck completely ignores the factors that have caused my property taxes to nearly double in the last decade.
My town of Belmar was here 10 years ago. It is not as if we used to be part of a larger town and seceded. In 2001, it was a small town with reasonable taxes. All the services we enjoy today were provided then. There is no major change in the way the town has been run. In fact, we had the same mayor from 1990 until his retirement this year. So what has changed?
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- Written by: Webmaster
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The Party elects new officers, nominates candidates for office, plots forward path, and listens to interesting speakers
Contact: Jay Edgar Office: 732-962-NJLP Cell: 848-525-0578 |
For Immediate Release |
Tennent, NJ, March 15, 2011: Last weekend the NJ Libertarian Party held their 40th annual State Convention at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, NJ. The convention consisted of a morning business meeting, a noon luncheon, and an afternoon filled with speakers on a variety of topics.
Election of new Officers
An early order of business was to elect new officers.
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- Written by: Joseph Dunsay
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The USA Supreme Court defended freedom of speech this year when it ruled in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church on First Amendment grounds. The effects are rippling across the Atlantic. Today, JP Floru, a UK commentator at the Adam Smith Institute, used the Westboro Baptist Church case as an example of how a free society can safely tolerate extreme views. The example bolstered his argument against UK plans to have professors report students for their views. Inverventionists want to use America's military might to spread freedom across the globe, but this approach rarely works. The best way to spread freedom is to be a shining beacon on the hill. If we just make America as free as possible, people in other nations will learn from our good example.
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- Written by: pugmaster
- Category: Selected Blogs
When people talk about blindness, it is usually meant with regards to an individual losing one’s own eyesight; however, truthfully, there are other ways that an individual could become blinded. A man or woman could be blinded due to one’s own ego and pride. A man or woman could be blinded by living in denial and being oblivious to it all. A man or woman could be blinded by a cause or an endeavor. Finally, there are the men and women that become blind due to ideology.
To me, this can be all too dangerous.
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- Category: Latest News
In reaction to Judge Belvin Perry's illegal order, NJLP member Julian Heicklen has traveled to Florida to perform Fully Informed Jury pampleting and juror education. Judge Perry's order bars anyone from pampleting or demonstrating outside the Orange and Osceola County Courthouse.
Despite the order, Julian was unmolested.
Julian is a true freedom fighter. He has been arrested multiple times demonstrating against injustice. We are proud to have him as a member.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Sunlight needed urgently in N.J
Whenever anyone utters the acronym OPRA, John Paff's ears ring.
For 23 years, the man behind the state Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project has waged legal battles against many New Jersey government entities. He expands OPRA via case law, increases records access under Common Law, pushes to eliminate the enforcement of local government ordinances in conflict with state laws and ensures officials properly publish or disclose records.
Read the full story on Courier Post Online.
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- Written by: Joseph Dunsay
- Category: Latest News
On Tuesday I attended a presentation by Americans for Prosperity at the West Bergen Tea Party meeting. The speaker discussed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) which New Jersey joined in 2007. This program is a cap and trade system for limiting carbon dioxide emissions. It requires owners of coal, oil, and natural gas power plants to buy emission permits for every ton of carbon dioxide that they release into the air. The State of New Jersey collected $65 million through RGGI in 2009. Rather than use these funds on carbon sequestering programs, Governor Christie put them into the general state coffers. RGGI raises energy prices to fund our government's fiscal irresponsibility. It is time for New Jersey to withdraw from RGGI.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
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Atlas Shrugged Coproducer, Harman Karslow with NJLP Chair Jay Edgar and his daughter at the NYC Premiere |
This past week I got a phone call from screenplay writer, Brian O'Toole, inviting me to the New York City Premiere of Atlas Shrugged, Part 1. On Thursday, my daughter and I traveled into the city to view the movie.
Originally published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged is about the struggle of the productive class against a society that uses politics to limit the success of the productive for the benefit of those who are less capable. Communist laws such as the "Equalization of Opportunity Bill" force capable businessmen, engineers, scientists, and industrialists to withdraw from the system. The parasitic classes no longer have productive elements on which to feed. The "strike" forces society to fall apart.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
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Whenever there is an argument about cutting spending and cutting the deficit, often times there will be those voices that will claim that the supporters are hurting a segment of the population, hurting children, hurting workers, etc, or engage in the fine art of denial. Recently, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) claimed that by cutting spending for things like public television, supporters wanted to hurt Elmo and Big Bird. In Wisconsin, there are protesters that are saying that by cutting spending deeply, it is tantamount to Nazism. Some people, like propagandist filmmaker Michael Moore, are even claiming that there is no budget crisis and that states and the federal government have tons of money available. All in all, when you hear the opponents of debt reduction and spending restraints talk, it is not only comical but tragic as well. It is as if they are alcoholics and drug addicts who do not want to admit that they have a problem.
States like New Jersey, Wisconsin, Florida, New York and others are facing big budget and state deficits; the federal government’s national debt is at $14 trillion and counting. Painful choices will have to be made and the days where we lived in blindness are very much over. This nation has to face reality, and while reality is not pretty, it is better than living in denial.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
Yesterday, Judge Andrew Napolitano discussed Julian Heicklen's FIJA demonstrations, arrests, and harassment on yesterday's Freedom Watch Show. See the Freedom Watch website for watch the Judge's comments. The good Judge also includes comments on the First Amendment issues like campaign speech laws and the suit against the Westboro Baptist church of racism as it pertains to freedom of speech.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
The Institute for Humane Studies produced a two-minute video featuring Harvard Professor Jeffrey A. Miron.
The video, "What it means to be a libertarian" does an excellent job explaining the difference between libertarians, conservatives, and liberals.
Jeffrey A. Miron is senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies in economics at Harvard University. He blogs at http://jeffreymiron.com and is the author of Libertarianism, From A to Z.
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: