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Category: Selected Blogs

I used to think [the Libertarian Party was] just a bunch of crazy, gun toting, out-of-touch intellectuals. After meeting them, I now know how wrong I was. - Howard Kupferman

The following was posted on May 30, 2008 on a blog at http://lhtblogger.blogspot.com. It's the story of a long-time Democrat who found a home in the LP.

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Category: Latest News

TRENTON – The State House steps overflowed with hundreds of taxpayers rallying against higher taxes and outrageous spending habits in Trenton today. Long-time Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan was leading the charge as Americans for Prosperity brought residents out from every corner of the Garden State to the Trenton to say “No!” to higher taxes.

Read the full article at the American's For Prosperity website.

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Category: NJ Libertarian Blog

Jeffrey Conway, a man who protested at an Orange town meeting, was found innocent of any charges that could have been brought against him. For months the town government has been going after him in court, and for what? He held up a sign the size of a regular sheet of paper in protest against Mims Hackett, the mayor of Orange. For holding up a sign and refusing to put it down he was hauled away to jail despite the fact that other people were also holding up signs and that he was just practicing his first amendment right.

Here is the news article.

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Category: Latest News

Visit DPA Action Alert Page to let your representatives know you oppose mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenders. 

Kleykamp, Meredith, et al. Wasting Money, Wasting Lives: Calculating the Hidden Costs of Incarceration in New Jersey. Drug Policy Alliance; May 28, 2008.

NJ Report 2008This report is the first-ever analysis of the hidden and comprehensive costs of incarceration in New Jersey.  In addition to the cost of prison beds (the usual measure of incarceration costs), the report examines hidden costs such as lost wages during the time people are incarcerated, lost lifetime wages that result from diminished employment opportunities, lost taxable income, and lost child support. At a time when the state is facing severe budget deficits and cutting critical social programs and services, the report finds that the state is losing literally billions of dollars in direct and hidden costs as a result of the harsh and ineffective overuse of incarceration. The report looks at costs state-wide and also provides a snapshot of costs for New Jersey’s largest city, Newark.

Report [PDF]

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Category: NJ Libertarian Blog

The NJ school system was in the news today for a couple of reasons. One, Corzine wants to borrow $2.5 billion to restart school construction across the state. Two, NJ schools have received very poor marks on tutoring and transfers. There is very few options for students in bad schools who are not performing well. The New Jersey mentality is that to have a good education you need to tax the living hell out of your residents and borrow billions of dollars and since the children are our future there is no limit in the amount of money we should spend. This is a false prophecy that only serves to enrich bureaucrats and provide jobs for politicians to give away as gifts to campaign henchmen and loyalists.

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Category: Candidates and Elections

Dear Friends, Activists and Fellow Libertarians,

I've just returned from the Libertarian National Convention, held this past week in Denver. I know a lot of people are stunned and some are still angry that Bob Barr won. Although I am exhausted, I wanted to get a message out about where we go from here.

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Category: Open Government Advocacy Project

Thanks to John, the Upper Freehold Board of Ed will be now be providing more detail as to the reasons it is going into executive session.

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Category: Open Government Advocacy Project

After reading a Press of Atlantic City article that said that an employee in Atlantic City destroyed public records, I asked the Atlantic City Prosecutor to investigate the employee--Marisol Rosario--for a possible violation of the Destruction of Public Records Law, a crime of the third degree. See the letter and news article HERE.

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Category: Candidates and Elections

After 6 rounds of voting, Bob Barr has won the Presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party.

Learn more about Bob and his campaign at his website.

 

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Category: Latest News

The Mayor Found Drunk and Naked

A Former Mayor Hauled Off to Prison

A County Exec Nabbed in an FBI Sting

 ‘‘People always ask me how I spent my time in prison, and I say, ‘I just read a lot,'" Jerry tells me as we trundle along the Jersey City streets in his Volvo. "They would get you any book you asked for, so I ended up reading every title on the New York Times bestseller list," he explains with the tone of satisfaction one might detect in somebody who feels they've gotten a really good deal.

It's an overcast afternoon in northern New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, and we're driving towards the prep school where Jerry now coaches boys track.

We pull up to the curb and he suggests we get out and chat on the sidewalk. Parked illegally, he proclaims "I don't get parking tickets" in his north Jersey accent before springing from the driver's seat.

Read the full article on Campaign & Elections: Politics Website.

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Category: Policy News

Testimonies Included Internationally Recognized Medical Expert Dr. Denis Petro, Chair of New Jersey Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, Patients Desperately Seeking Help and Their Families

Drug Policy Alliance, for Immediate Release: Thursday, May 22, 2008. Contact: Tony Newman 646-335-5384 or Roseanne Scotti 609-610-8243

Trenton, NJ

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Category: Open Government Advocacy Project

In a May 19, 2008 letter, Piscataway Township Clerk, Ann Nolan, backed away from her previously held position that $25 was the proper charge for a compact disc (CD) of a Township Council meeting. She agreed that the cost should be $1, which is closer to the actual cost of a blank CD.

Nolan's change of position came after the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project challenged the $25 charge. All relevant correspondence is on-line at the Open Government Task Force Site.

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Category: Open Government Advocacy Project

I learned today that Salem County, New Jersey Prosecutor John T. Lenahan wrote a May 16, 2008 letter to every municipal clerk and municipal attorney in that county "strongly suggesting that [they] review the policies and procedures relating to [their] Open Public Meetings Act compliance [and that] full and complete compliance is absolutely necessary to avoid the possibility of monetary sanctions . . .".

Prosecutor John T. Lenahan credits the New Jersey Libertarian Party for prompting this action.

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Category: Student Rights

This evening the Upper Freehold Township Board of Education held its second drug testing forum. As reported earlier the school board is investigating (with lots of prodding from the Feds) implementing a random drug screening of all high school students. The Drug Policy Alliance of New Jersey, along with myself arranged to have a speaker present who could talk about the science behind drug testing. Dr. Steven Marcus gave a very intelligent discussion that contradicted much of what the board had been told earlier by Ms. Steffner, of the White House office of National Drug Control Policy.

  1. NJLP in New Jersey Law Journal
  2. Sunshine compliance sought in Roselle Borough
  3. There Is Still No Such Thing As a Fair Tax
  4. Institute for Justice in Trenton on May 14th