LIBERTY: No Right To Secret Ballot

Thursday, September 27, 2012

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/09/22/1419211/federal-judge-says-no-right-to-secret-ballot-oks-barcoded-ballots

Federal Judge Says No Right To Secret Ballot, OKs Barcoded Ballots
Posted by timothy on Saturday September 22, @10:28AM
from the it’s-the-little-things dept.

doug141 writes “A Colorado county put bar codes on printed ballots in a last minute effort to comply with a rule about eliminating identifying markings. Citizens sued, because the bar codes can still be traced back to individual voters. In a surprise ruling, Denver U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello said the U.S. Constitution did not contain a ‘fundamental right’ to secret ballots, and that the citizens could not show their voting rights had been violated, nor that they might suffer any specific injury from the bar codes.”

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Are you kidding me?

Seems like a fundamental protection is being violated here.

Maybe it’s just me.

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POLITICAL: CBS suppressed Obama admitting mistakes in campaign ads

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/cbs-doesnt-air-obama-admitting-mistakes-campaign-ads_652973.html

CBS Doesn’t Air Obama Admitting Mistakes in Campaign Ads
10:39 PM, Sep 23, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

*** begin quote ***

Tonight, CBS aired a 60 Minutes interview with President Obama. But curiously enough, the news magazine show did not air a clip of Obama admitting to interviewer Steve Kroft that some of his campaign ads contain mistakes and that some even “go overboard.”

*** end quote ***

So what’s the surprise?

Big Media, Hollywood, and the Liberal Left is in full “Relect BHO44” mode.

Truth, Justice, and the American Way aside.

Argh!

No wonder that “We, The Sheeple” are getting shorn and killed.

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POLITICAL: The Drug War; caveat emptor?

Sunday, September 23, 2012

http://ncc-1776.org/tle2012/tle688-20120916-01.html

Marc Victor on the “Drug War”

*** begin quote ***

The “Drug War” is really a war on people who voluntarily choose to peacefully use drugs. To be free, competent adults must be allowed to decide for themselves what substances they put into their own bodies. Focusing on unhealthy or harmful consequences of drug use is focusing on the wrong question. There is no question but that the use of certain drugs is harmful and unhealthy. Indeed, the use of certain drugs can cause death. Moreover, no person has a right to endanger another person as a result of one’s drug use. If a drug user becomes impaired and operates a motor vehicle recklessly resulting in injuries or violence to another person, that person ought to be subject to criminal charges. Rational people do not disagree on these points. 

*** end quote ***

What someone voluntarily put in their own body is their own business.

To ay otherwise implies that someone else is in charge of you.

Of course, there are a huge number of politicians and bureaucrats who will collude with the illegal drug dealers to keep “Prohibition” in effect. It benefits everyone, but “We, The Sheeple”!

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POLITICAL: Why Public School Unions Strike

Sunday, September 16, 2012

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/chicago-and-why-public-school-unions-strike/

Chicago, and Why Public School Unions Strike
Posted by Andrew J. Coulson
Source: Chicago Tribune

*** begin quote ***

Chicago’s teachers have just walked off the job, and most of the media coverage is quick to point out that this is the city’s first strike in a generation. But is anyone really that surprised by a public school union striking just as kids are supposed to be heading back to class in September? Wouldn’t you be a lot more shocked if you logged on to Amazon.com and were greeted by the message that its site was down due to an employee walkout? Or if you took the kids to the movies to see the latest cartoon extravaganza and found picketing ticket-takers? What is it about public schools—and other government enterprises, for that matter—that have made their unions so much more dominant than those in the private sector? [Two thirds of the public school workforce is unionized compared to about 7 percent in the private sector].

Competitors. Or, rather, the lack of them. Private sector workers can only demand so much from their companies before the demands become self-defeating. Get a pension package that’s too cushy, a salary that’s too far above the market rate, and the employer will have to pass those costs on to customers. And if those higher prices aren’t accompanied by correspondingly better quality, customers will simply go elsewhere—hurting the employees who asked for more than the market would bear.

*** and ***

In the absence of real private sector competition and parental choice, public school unions have been able to drive up the system’s costs without needing to show improvement in performance. Sooner or later, Illinois will adopt a system, like education tax credits, that provides real choice and competition, because the current system will ultimately bankrupt the state.

*** end quote ***

I don’t understand why schools are ANY different than fast food.

I spend no resources about planning for my “burger needs” and the invisible hand of the (relatively) free market provisions three choices within a mile or two of my house. And, they battle ferociously for my business.

Why are “public goods” any different?

Because we’ve let the ruling class convince us that we can’t live without their benign beneficial leadership for which they extract a life of leisure.

Argh!

Sam Walmart revolutionized retailing for which he was well rewarded. Pick out ANY one of the myriad of politicians and bureaucrats, what have they accomplished for you?

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POLITICAL: How to get rid of politicians and bureaucrats?

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

FROM LUDDITE’S WIFE:

Medicare Part X
“NEW SENIOR PROGRAM….
New Medicare Program

You’re a sick senior citizen and the government says there is no nursing home available for you. So what do you do?

Our plan gives anyone 65 years or older a gun and 4 bullets. You are allowed to shoot four Politicians.

Of course, this means you will be sent to prison where you will get three meals a day, a roof over your head, central heating, air conditioning and all the health care you need!

Need new teeth? No problem. Need glasses? That’s great. Need a new hip, knees, kidney, lungs or heart? They’re all covered.

As an added bonus, your kids can come and visit you as often as they do now.

And who will be paying for all of this? It’s the same government that just told you that you they cannot afford for you to go into a home.

And you can get rid of 4 useless politicians while you are at it.

Plus, and because you are a prisoner, you don’t have to pay any income taxes anymore.

Is this a great country or what? “

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LOL!

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POLITICAL: Just not asking the correct questions?

Monday, September 10, 2012

FROM LUDDITE’S WIFE:

NewImage

SIMPLY AMAZING WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT

Isn’t it amazing that, within only one week of Tiger Woods crashing his Escalade,
the press found every woman with whom Tiger has had an affair during the last few years?

And, they even uncovered photos, text messages, recorded phone calls, etc.!

Furthermore, they not only know the cause of the family fight, but they even know it was a
9 iron from his golf bag that his wife used to break out the windows in the Escalade.
Not only that, they know which wedge!

And, each & every day, they were able to continue to provide America with updates
on Tiger’s sex rehab stay, his wife’s divorce settlement figures, as well as the dates & tournaments in which he was to play.

Now, Barack Hussein Obama has been in office for over three years, yet this very same press:

· Cannot find any of his childhood friends or neighbors;

· Or find any of Obama’s high school or college classmates;

· Or locate any of his college papers or grades;

· Or determine how he paid for both a Columbia & a Harvard education;

· Or discover which country issued his visa to travel to Pakistan in the 1980’s;

· Or even find Michelle Obama’s Princeton thesis on racism.

They just can’t seem to uncover any of this.

Yet, the public still trusts that same press to give them the whole truth!

Don’t you find that totally amazing ?

NOW TELL ME THERE IS NO CORRUPTION IN THE AMERICAN PRESS..

You can not get the water to clear up until you get the pigs out of the creek.

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I think she is ABSOLUTELY on to something!

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POLITICAL: Not Voting

Saturday, September 8, 2012

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/119858.html

September 2, 2012
George Carlin on Not Voting
Posted by Lew Rockwell on September 2, 2012 11:37 AM

*** begin quote ***

“I have solved this political dilemma in a very direct way: I don’t vote. On Election Day, I stay home. I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain. Now, some people like to twist that around. They say, ‘If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain,’ but where’s the logic in that? If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and they get into office and screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote — who did not even leave the house on Election Day — am in no way responsible for what these politicians have done and have every right to complain about the mess that you created.” — George Carlin

(Thanks to Eli Cryderman)

*** end quote ***

Maybe George is right?

Just ignore them and they will go away?

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POLITICAL: California may cap future retirement checks

Friday, September 7, 2012

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-28/california-lawmakers-set-vote-to-limit-retiree-pensions.html

California Lawmakers Set Vote to Limit Retiree Pensions
By Michael B. Marois – Aug 28, 2012 2:32 PM ET

*** begin quote ***

New state employees in California would face a cap on the size of their retirement checks, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said yesterday. They would also have to put in more time on the job than current workers before they collect, he said.

Brown, 74, wants to cut pension benefits and curb abuses before he asks voters in November to raise income and sales taxes. A weak recovery from the longest recession since the 1930s, reducing job prospects and retirement benefits for most nongovernment workers, has churned up a backlash against the pay and benefits of public employees nationwide.

“If voters think that legislators have made a serious policy change, then the chances for the tax increase improve,” said Jack Pitney, who teaches politics at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. “But if they think it is nothing but window dressing, then chances get a lot worse.”

*** and ***

He also wanted to raise the retirement age to 67 from 55 for most new state employees.

Rising retiree obligations are straining the budgets of states such as California and cities across the U.S. still grappling with income- and sales-tax revenue slammed by the recession.

California’s state pensions in 2010 had about 81 percent of what they needed to cover the benefits they promised, down from 87 percent in the preceding year, according to an annual study by Bloomberg Rankings. The median for all states was 75 percent, the data show.

Steinberg said the pension changes would save the state “tens of billions of dollars” over the next 20 to 30 years, though he later added that an analysis of the cost savings had yet to be done.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, but Gooferment pensions are a vestige of “golden watch” thinking.

No pensions for ordinary people; why should the political class get them.

It a terrible abuse of the taxpayer.

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POLITICAL: Convention feedback or “what lever Jesus would pull”

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

AN EMAIL FROM MY HIGH SCHOOL CHUM “CHIEF RACCOON”

*** begin quote ***

I don’t watch that much TV but I had to watch the convention last night mainly to see what Ann Romney is all about because up till now I only associated her with horse ballet.

When she started speaking I found myself holding my breath because i was concerned for her. There was something that I couldn’t put my finger on in her delivery … it was a cross between bravado and terror … I think. At one point I turned to Stella and said ” I’m really uncomfortable for her “. But then slowly as I listened and thought about her raising 5 boys, and that ain’t easy even if your a Kennedy, and it began to dawn on me that I liked this woman. Here she was for literally all the world to see and thru the schmaltz and the rehearsed hand gestures she seemed to be a genuine person/mother in a solid marriage who had to summon the courage to do this public speaking thing for her husband and family … and Oh yeah she also has MS.

Then she was done and the Mittster came out and I was desperate to read his lips but it was clear that he was delighted and proud of her and I thought he said something like ” fantastic ” and shook his head in a “how about that!” manner. I really haven’t paid that much attention to Mitt either up until now but he certainly looks presidential with a chin the size of my couch and his family looks like they’re straight out of central casting.

I got to admit I was thinking ” OK if Obama doesn’t make it I can live with this guy.”

Unfortunately I didn’t go back to reading my ” New Yorker ” magazine ( yeah that’s right I got a deal for 26 weeks cheap and I took it ) instead I decided to watch the much hyped Gov from NJ who I also really didn’t know that much about other than he once took a helicopter to his son’s pee wee football game.

So the Gov walks out to the podium clapping as he walks and I swear I saw Reginald Van Gleason the Third. But I had still had a glow from Anne’s speech ( not that kind of glow you animals ! ) and I was anxious to see just how he would compliment the nominee’s wife and how much he would linger on her. Well, it’s about 14 hours later and I’m still lingering waiting for his assessment of Ann.

I looked again at Stella and dumbfounded I said ” he isn’t going to say anything about her speech ? !! … maybe he’s waiting for the end and he’ll close with glowing praise for her … and then I get caught in a senior moment and I think that Christie is the nominee because he’s talking about his mother and his father and I half expected him to pull out his 1040 or whatever for public viewing. Diane Sawyer later remarked that it was 17 minutes into his speech before he mentioned Mitt. When the cameras would pan on Mitt and Ann while the Gov was speaking, I could hear Ann psychically saying that if this fat Ahole doesn’t acknowledge my speech and my hubby makes it into the White House, I’m going to try and get him planted next to Hoffa in the meadowlands !

Please someone tell me that they think it was famously rude of this guy not to give a single freaking shout out to to the wife of the guy he’s “fighting for “.

I thought it additionally disturbing that all of the post speech pundits that I heard didn’t mention what I would call ” the snub. ” Some people thought it was right on the mark for Repubilcan thinking.

Ann had a love message but Reginald uh I mean Christie’s message was … not love ?

I hope I have poked a stick in a bear hole and that Briscoe and Reinke and Phelpsy will weigh in with their views ( which usually go over my head ) and tell me what lever Jesus would pull

*** end quote ***

I love the characterization “Reginald Van Gleason the Third”.

I don’t watch political speeches. My bp would go thru the roof and I get distracted from the content by the theatrics.

I did like Ann and Clint. They came off as “real people”.

I did read the texts of all the speeches.

As a little L libertarian, I am amazed that everyone D and R can ignore the 800# gorilla in the room — the AfPak war where young girls and boys are dying, or worse coming home crippled for life. Sorry to rain on the politicians and bureaucrats’ parade but this is a national disgrace.

When I have to watch TV commercials pandering to get these troops what they need to recover some how Reginald Van Gleason the Third isn’t funny.

My guy, Ron Paul, didn’t get the nod. It was a long shot from the start. He didn’t get to speak and warn the R’s that they face being at the helm as the Titanic goes down. Talk about what BHO44 got from Bush43; that’ll look like a gift.

Ron is right on the War. No one else even addresses it.

Sadly, I think that we are leaving posterity a sack of <synonym for excrement>. Like lemmings off the cliff, we follow “leaders” who have their own hidden agendas.

Maybe Rand Paul will run. I hope it’s not too late.

I do think that this has DEMONSTRATED beyond a shadow of a doubt that ALL the anit-war groups, with the exception of the Quakers, are really just shills for the D’s. Talk about astroturf! Boy, did those people fool a lot of people. But not me. As a libertarian, I KNOW it’s all about control. Who has the levers to tell other people what to do.

Hope this is the rat’s nest you wanted to stir up.

But I did laff at the Reginald Van Gleason the Third line,
Pf-reinke-nstein

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I love the characterization “Reginald Van Gleason the Third”.
I don’t watch political speeches. My bp would go thru the roof and I get distracted from the content by the theatrics.
I did like Ann and Clint. They came off as “real people”.
I did read the texts of all the speeches.
As a little L libertarian, I am amazed that everyone D and R can ignore the 800# gorilla in the room — the AfPak war where young girls and boys are dying, or worse coming home crippled for life. Sorry to rain on the politicians and bureaucrats’ parade but this is a national disgrace.
When I have to watch TV commercials pandering to get these troops what they need to recover some how Reginald Van Gleason the Third isn’t funny.
My guy, Ron Paul, didn’t get the nod. It was a long shot from the start. He didn’t get to speak and warn the R’s that they face being at the helm as the Titanic goes down. Talk about what BHO44 got from Bush43; that’ll look like a gift.
Ron is right on the War. No one else even addresses it.
Sadly, I think that we are leaving posterity a sack of <synonym for excrement>. Like lemmings off the cliff, we follow “leaders” who have their own hidden agendas.
Maybe Rand Paul will run. I hope it’s not too late.
I do think that this has DEMONSTRATED beyond a shadow of a doubt that ALL the anit-war groups, with the exception of the Quakers, are really just shills for the D’s. Talk about astroturf! Boy, did those people fool a lot of people. But not me. As a libertarian, I KNOW it’s all about control. Who has the levers to tell other people what to do.
Hope this is the rat’s nest you wanted to stir up.
But I did laff at the Reginald Van Gleason the Third line,Pf-reinke-nstein
— —Pf-reinke-nsteinprep64 @ reinke . cc908-209-3625

 

POLITICAL: Thoughts about Labor Day

Monday, September 3, 2012

Labor Day Weekend, a time to goof off. 

Perhaps think about the essence of labor? Where we extract our sustinence from a cruel hard world. Such is our lot in life.

I joke with my much younger coworkers that what we do can’t be considered “work”.

The construction worker, the gardener, even the cooks in the cafeteria are “working”.

Paper pushing and keyboard tapping aren’t “work” in the same sense.

But what the division of labor and trade in a free market have given us has been taken away by the rise of “drones”.

Look around at what people “do” to make a living: paper pushing and key tapping is “work” in comparison to the politicians and bureaucrats. What I’d call the “Political Class”.

They make a living by telling their inferiors what to do. Right out of the Prussian School Model.

How did the workers let themselves get exploited by yet another set of “bosses”?

I think it was the adulteration of money that led everyone into a sense of complacency.

When the “dollar” was as good as gold, things were a lot different. The FDR gold theft allowed the common man to be taxed silently without his recognition. Withholding was a similar strategy. As was “social security insurance”. Debt. All frauds intended to steal the seed corn of future generations. 

Leaving them impoverished, while the past generations of politicians and bureaucrats feathered their nests.

How does it change?

I’m not sure. They say that admitting the problem is the first step towards a solution.

I admit that we have problem; does anyone else?

Happy Labor Day, fellow serfs.

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