News
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
An article covering one of our convention speakers, Brian Aitken, has been published on The Daily Caller.
Some men find religion in prison. Brian Aitken found liberty.
Convicted last year in New Jersey of illegally transporting firearms, Aitken spent four months in state prisons before Republican Gov. Chris Christie commuted his seven-year sentence to “time served” and let him go free. Now that he’s out, Aitken, once an aspiring entrepreneur, is a professional libertarian activist.
Read the full article here.
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- Written by: Joseph Dunsay
- Category: Latest News
Libertarians are often portrayed as Republicans who want to legalize pot. This is a gross simplification. We also want to legalize prostitution. We understand that a person has the right to do what he wants with his body and to manage his own economic transactions. Legalized prostitution is a natural ramification of these rights. Currently, Nevada is the sole beacon of liberty when it comes to prostitution. Each Nevada county can decide on prostitution's legal status within that county. It is legal in 10 Nevada counties and illegal in the other 7 counties. On Tuesday, Democrat Senator Harry Reid said that Nevada should ban prostitution to stimulate its economy, proving that the Left's fetish for centralized economic planning extends all the way to our bedrooms. Reid's suggestion is an assault on our liberties, and the available data suggests that his premise is wrong.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
After hearing so much on the protests in Wisconsin, I have taken a look at the text of the law. The proposed law ends the ability of most public workers to collectively bargain. While I recognize that public sector unions have become way too powerful, this is not a law I could support.
Every individual should have the right to associate with whatever group they decide and to choose to allow others to negotiate for them. This law coercively strips away the rights of individuals.
The bigger problems with public sector unions is existing state coercion. As a Voluntarist, I find that more coercion is not the answer, rather less coercion is needed. Instead states should:
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
In an important ruling handed down today, the Appellate Division ruled that the routine sequencing of a five-minute open session, followed by a closed session of indeterminate duration, followed by the resumption of an open session, violates the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA).
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Student Rights
In 1670, William Penn and William Mead were arrested and charged with violating the Coventicle Act. This act forbade religious assemblies of more than five people, unless they were assembling on behalf of the Church of England. Using jury nullification, the jury acquitted Penn and Mead. As a result the judge demanded that the jury not be dismissed until another verdict is reached. After announcing a decision of an acquittal four times the judge fined each of the juror's for their decision. One juror, Edward Bushel, refused to pay the fine and was imprisoned. Penn and Mead were imprisoned anyway for not removing their hats in court.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
In every human life, there are times when one must make tough and painful choices in order to move forward. These choices may come in matters concerning one’s health and welfare, one’s emotional and psychological well being, with regards to one’s family or regarding one’s financial, moral or economic well being. These choices are very difficult and are very tough to make. Nevertheless, these choices are made everyday to secure a better tomorrow and are done bravely with great consultation. When it comes to politicians, however, it is a very different story. Often times, politicians would like to take the easy way out or make no decision whatsoever in terms of issues, policy and when it comes to deficits and spending. These are people who not only want to have their cake and eat it too, but also want to keep what they have in terms of access, money, prestige and power, not to mention control of the purse strings.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Student Rights
Government education bureaucracy has been turning our schools into a police state. This past year several New Jersey schools have implemented random drug testing of students, even in middle schools. Students and their lockers are searched without reasonable cause. Zero tolerance polices are being enforced across the state. Instead of handling minor infractions internally, the police are called and criminal charges are being filed.
A seven year old brought a Nerf style toy gun into the Hammonton Early Education Center in Atlantic County. This menacing youth is now charged with a misdemeanor criminal charge for brandishing an imitation firearm on school property.
We have one additional speaker joining the already exciting lineup at our State Convention on March 12th. Chris Goldstein of the NJ Coalition for Medical Marijuana will now be speaking. In addition we have three vendors who are planning on being there:
- Julian Heicklen will be selling his book The Non Trials.
- DelValley Silver will have a table. I first met representatives from DelValley at the National LP convention in Atltanta. Based in Pennsylvania, DelValley Silver sells silver rounds that are an alternative to the rapidly declining U.S. dollar.
- F. Paul Wilson will have books for sale. Mr. Wilson is also speaking.
Additional information, including convention registration information is available here.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
In 2003, President George W. Bush stated the following: “When somebody hurts, government has got to move.” It was President Bush that believed that every solution required government intervention. He was not alone. This has been the belief of a majority of Americans since the 1900s. Americans since that time have believed that government was the instrument that could provide for all, that could make people moral and virtuous and can right any wrong in human activity and human life. After examining the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, after looking at our national debt, our unfunded liabilities and the intrusions by government in all aspects of human life, the report card is in: this belief and philosophy is bankrupt.
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- Written by: Wes Benedict
- Category: Latest News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 10, 2011
Contact: Wes Benedict, Executive Director
E-mail:
Phone: 202-333-0008 ext. 222
Libertarians at CPAC present Republican Wall of Shame
WASHINGTON - At their booth at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Libertarian Party is displaying a "Republican Wall of Shame." (View low-res JPG or high-res PDF.)
These are the prominent Republicans featured on the Wall of Shame:
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
The NJLP has several methods of party communication. Of course there is this website that has articles of interest to NJ state residents and a calendar of our upcoming events. We have our official Facebook page and our twitter feed.
Members receive our newsletter. Consider joining as a member, this also gives you a vote at our general meetings.
We run a number of email lists (to discourage spambot email harvesting @ and been replaced with ' at ')
- activists at njlp.org - this is a bylaws defined email list that is by invitation only. Preference is for members who we know. If interested just ask.
- member-talk at njlp.org - this is a (mostly) unmoderated email list for NJLP members. You must opt-in to this list if you want to join.
- announce at njlp.org - this is also a bylaws defined email list, however it really isn't used very often anymore.
- members at njlp.org - this is an email list where all members get subscribed to. It is intended for announcements and infrequent updates for our members. It is highly moderated, only posts from the chair or posts that have been discussed by the board are typically approved.
- press at njlp.org - this is a private listing used for sending press releases to. It is highly moderated, only posts from the chair are typically approved.
- prospects at njlp.org - this is an email list where all prospects get subscribed to. It is intended for announcements and infrequent updates. It is highly moderated, only posts from the chair or posts that have been discussed by the board are typically approved.
- northlpannounce at njlp.org - this is a highly moderated announce only list. All members and prospects in the Northern Region get added to this list. Only emails from the Northern NJ Libertarian's Chair are typically approved.
- northnjtalk at njlp.org - this is a discussion list for those in the Northern NJ region. You must opt in to this list. It is not moderated.
- southnjannounce at njlp.org - this is a highly moderated announce only list. All members and prospects in the Southern Region get added to this list. Only emails from the Southern NJ Libertarian's Chair are typically approved.
- southnjtalk at njlp.org - this is a discussion list for those in the Southern NJ region. You must opt in to this list. It is not moderated.
- centralannounce at njlp.org - this is a highly moderated announce only list. All members and prospects in the Central Region get added to this list. Only emails from the Central NJ Libertarian's Chair are typically approved.
- centralnjtalk at njlp.org - this is a discussion list for those in the Central NJ region. You must opt in to this list. It is not moderated.
- board-monitor at njlp.org - this is a receive only list if you wish to monitor communications among the State Board. A daily digest is sent out.
- platform-monitor at njlp.org - this is a receive only list if you wish to monitor communications among the Platform Committee. A daily digest is sent out.. when there is activity.
- bylaws-monitor at njlp.org - this is a receive only list if you wish to monitor communications among the Bylaws Committee. A daily digest is sent out.. when there is activity.
- chat.njlp.org - this is a members chat application. with various topics disbursed in several rooms.
We also have a few ad-hoc lists. These include candidates at njlp.org, bylaws at njlp.org, and platform at njlp.org. These are used for candidates and committees to communicate.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
Whenever I hear critics of a non-interventionist foreign policy speak, they always attack those who hold this view as “isolationists.” They claim that non-interventionists want to isolate themselves from the globe, that they want to create a bubble between them and the outside world, not engaging in any interaction with the foreign world. That characterization is false and very-very-dishonest.
A non-interventionist foreign policy is the belief in “peace, commerce, honest friendship will all nations,” and “entangling alliances with none,” to use the bold words of Thomas Jefferson. It is the belief that all nations have the right to engage of freedom of trade and freedom of exchange, that all nations should be friendly to one another, but that no nation should involve itself in the quarrels of other nations or in another nation’s political and social disputes. This was the foreign policy position of the U.S. for 100 years. It was rejected in 1898 when President William McKinley and Congress decided to go to war with the nation of Spain over Cuba. Since then, the U.S. has been following an interventionist path and has caused the U.S. to become the world’s busybody, not to mention the world’s policeman. This interventionist policy has also caused the U.S to get entangled in alliances with dictators and despots not only in places like the Middle East but elsewhere. It has caused populations in other nations to hate the U.S. because of these alliances.
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: