Today's political news briefs

The difference between Libertarians and Republicans: Gary Johnson wants to cut the defense budget by 43%. House Republicans just voted a half-billion more for war than President Obama requested.

Everybody talked about how W came into the White House already bent upon attacking Iraq. Apparently, the same was true of President Obama, but when your attacks are launched from cyber-space they don't count.

Reuters thinks that marijuana legalization on the Colorado ballot could be make-or-break for President Obama, but strangely omits mention of the only pro-legalization candidate out there, Gary Johnson.

Politico does not have the same blind-spot:

It's not clear, however, that Obama is in any real danger sharing a ballot with this initiative in Colorado. For all the disappointment in the marijuana reform community with Obama, it's hard to imagine pro-marijuana voters breaking for Mitt Romney either — who scolded a reporter for even asking about pot.

The real alternative for pro-marijuana reform voters is Gary Johnson — the Republican-turned-libertarian candidate and admitted medical marijuana user. But a recent New Mexico poll showed that when Johnson polls strong, he mostly hurts Romney. The latest New Mexico numbers (Johnson's home state) show the former two-term governor at 12 percent, with Romney trailing Obama 35 to 48 percent.

And while many are predicting doom, gloom, and destruction for third parties in California's new "top two" election system, Libertarian Gail Lightfoot is within two points of proving them wrong.

Comments

Anonymous said…

That story this week about the cyber attacks was stunning.

How little people seem to be upset about the matter is depressing.

John Galt

June 2, 2012 at 9:55 PM

A Libertarian Martin Luther King Jr. Day post

In which we travel into interesting waters . . . (for a fairly long trip, so be prepared) Dr. King's 1968 book, Where do we go from here: chaos or community? , is profound in that it criticizes anti-poverty programs for their piecemeal approach, as John Schlosberg of the Center for a Stateless Society [C4SS] observes: King noted that the antipoverty programs of the time “proceeded from a premise that poverty is a consequence of multiple evils,” with separate programs each dedicated to individual issues such as education and housing. Though in his view “none of these remedies in itself is unsound,” they “all have a fatal disadvantage” of being “piecemeal,” with their implementation having “fluctuated at the whims of legislative bodies” or been “entangled in bureaucratic stalling.” The result is that “fragmentary and spasmodic reforms have failed to reach down to the profoundest needs of the poor.” Such single-issue approaches also have “another common failing — ...

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba...

A reply to Salon's R. J. Eskrow, and his 11 stupid questions about Libertarians

Posts here have been in short supply as I have been living life and trying to get a campaign off the ground. But "11 questions to see if Libertarians are hypocrites" by R. J. Eskrow, picked up at Salon , was just so freaking lame that I spent half an hour answering them. In the end (but I'll leave it to your judgment), it is not that Libertarians or Libertarian theory looks hypocritical, but that the best that can be said for Mr. Eskrow is that he doesn't have the faintest clue what he's talking about. That's ok, because even ill-informed attacks by people like this make an important point: Libertarian ideas (as opposed to Conservative ideas, which are completely different) are making a comeback as the dynamic counterpoint to "politics as usual," and so every hack you can imagine must be dragged out to refute them. Ergo: Mr. Eskrow's 11 questions, with answers: 1. Are unions, political parties, elections, and ...

Search This Blog