School Choice the Saving Grace of Special Session Disaster

Indianapolis, IN - School choice and educational reform were at the center of the budget fight, and in the end, the taxpayer and students won. This budget ends the unquestioned support of the failing public education system, and creates a spark for alternative educational choices to be created. The General Assembly passed a pilot program for online virtual schools, and created a $2.5 million a year tax credit for private schools. The destructive caps for charter schoolson charter schools have been removed, which may provide additional future funding through grants.

read more

Stark: Talk Show Hosts May Be Accomplices Under Hate Bill

Robert Stark is a contributor to the Ron Paul Examiner from Los Angeles. You can see Robert's articles on Robert's Home Page.

LOS ANGELES, CA -- The Hate Crimes Prevention Act which has passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming margin is now facing hearings in the Senate. There are already similar hate crime laws in place, however, this bill imposes much stronger federal enforcement, which is a clear violation of the Tenth Amendment. It grants greater power to federal prosecutors to prosecute hate crime laws by prosecuting those who have been found innocent by local or state courts.

The current bill will extend special privileges to gays and transgender individuals that are currently only granted to ethnic and religious minorities. The most dangerous part of the Bill which is a direct assault against the First Amendment is that it allows for the prosecution as accomplices in a hate crime for talk show pundits that the person who commits the alleged crime claims to influence their actions.

Here is the essential text:

read more

Healy: Obama's Statist Ambitions

Gene Healy is a vice president at the Cato Institute and the author of The Cult of the Presidency. This article appeared in the DC Examiner on June 30, 2009.

"I am a firm believer in the power of the free market," President Obama told the Wall Street Journal recently. The "irony" surrounding his public image as a collectivist, the president insisted, was that "I actually would like to see a relatively light touch when it comes to the government."

Either Obama is as confused about the definition of irony as pop singer Alanis "rain on your wedding day" Morrisette, or he was being disingenuous. Given the president's ambitious, state-bloating agenda and longtime disdain for free enterprise, the latter is more likely the case.

read more

Boortz: Is Obama Running the Ship a Little Too Tightly?

Reprinted from boortz.com, By Neal Boortz.

I hope that you got the chance to see the exchange yesterday at White House press briefing. Robert Gibbs starts to get really flustered when a CBS reporter continues to hound him over the fact that Obama town hall events are completely staged. There are no "random" questions from the audience. Everything is pre-selected, every question is screened, etc. So this reporter calls him out on it, and then Helen Thomas gets involved. She says that she has never seen this level of control in the White House before. And if anyone should know, Helen Thomas would.

I just LOVE that woman!

read more

Hoosiers, Help Stop Cap and Trade!

Dear Indiana Libertarians,

Please contact your Senators and urge them to vote against the upcoming cap and trade legislation! You may copy and paste the following templates into an email message, or print them out and send a signed hard copy to your senator's address as listed at the bottom. Alternatively, you can call them at their office number and express your concerns.

Forward this on to all your family and friends so we can make a difference!

Sincerely,
Anna Heiselman
Libertarian National Committee Office
==============================

Senator Bayh

senator@bayh.senate.gov
---------------------------

Dear Senator Bayh:

As one of your constituents, I am writing to strongly urge you not to support cap and trade legislation.

Cap and trade will:
· Cut many existing jobs, raising unemployment
· Cost the consumer (the average American family) for the higher expenses
· Cost the economy billions of dollars, making it worse off than before

read more

Time is Running Out On Special Legislative Session

Our View: Time is Running Out On Special Legislative Session
By the Muncie Star-Press
JUNE 26, 2009

It's not unusual or rare for the clocks in either the Indiana Senate or House to be stopped as time runs down and final passage is near on a crucial piece of legislation.

Some might say the clock was never started this year in a General Assembly session that should have resulted in a biennial budget. Time didn't seem to be a concern, in the regular session, and based on the conference committee's delaying tactics this week, doesn't seem to be a concern now.

It should be.

read more

Former Chairman Welcomes Daughter

Former Chairman Todd Singer is the proud father of his second child today. Myra Campbell Singer was born June 25, 2009 at 2 AM. She weighs 7 lbs, 0 Oz, is 20 inches long, and is healthy.

Universal Health Care in America: The Recently Proposed Bills

The fight to reform health care is reaching an all-time climax. Thus, there are several pieces of legislation which various government officials have proposed. Find out libertarian solutions to health care here at the Cato Institute and Mises.org.

In a speech before the American Medical Association on June 15th, President Obama mentioned that wanted the following points to be a part of the new system:

• Those who want to keep their existing health insurance plan will be allowed to do so.
• Instead of having paper medical records, President Obama wants to switch to an electronic system so that important medical data can be accessed by medical professionals anywhere, anytime.
• More money will be invested in preventative care. As part of this, he wants to encourage Americans to take charge of their own health care by living a healthier lifestyle.
• To incentive Americans to take better care of themselves, doctors would be required to tell patients what their risk factors are. Those who continually have low cholesterol and blood pressure will receive reduced premiums.
• How doctors are paid will also be changed. Patients will not pay for every service provided. Instead, doctors will be paid based how well the patient’s health improves.
• Since medical school is expensive, Obama wants to create a National Health Corps for future doctors and nurses so that costs can be cut.
• Those doctors who want to serve in less lucrative areas based on the type of practice and where, geographically, that doctor will be working will be rewarded.
• It will be harder to sue for medical malpractice.
• A National Health Insurance exchange will be created which will be a one-stop shop for a health care plan, allowing you to compare benefits and prices, and choose a plan that's best for you and your family.
• Lastly, Obama wants this type of insurance to a public option.

The total cost is estimated to be around $1 trillion over the next 10 years which will come from:

read more

Barack Obama is Here to Save The Day!

read more

The American Form of Government

Democracy is a word often thrown around in modern politics. This video helps explain the true definitions of words like Democracy, Republic, and Fascism, and why our Founding Fathers established a Republic in our Constitution.

read more

Washington Times: Despite Obama's wishes, "tea party" movement not going away

Friday's Washington Times editorializes on the July 4 "tea party" movement, many of which are being organized by Libertarian activists or Libertarian Party affiliates.

Click here to read the full editorial, or if you live in the metro D.C. area pick up a copy of The Washington Times (click here to subscribe).  The Times writes, in part:

read more

Rampant overspending has some states teetering near shutdown

Click here for the full story.  The Los Angeles Times reports, in part:

read more

Obamacare failed in Europe

Guillaume Vuillemey, a researcher at France's Institut Economique Molinari, and Philip Stevens, a researcher at Britain's International Policy Network write in today's Washington Examiner about how Obama's proposed government takeover of the health care system has worked in Europe.

Hint.  Not so well.

read more

Obama backs what he called "the largest middle-class tax increase in history"

"I pledge that under my plan, no one making less than $250,000 a year will see any type of tax increase...Not income tax, not capital gains taxes, not any kind of tax." - Candidate Barack Obama in Dover, N.H., Sept. 12, 2008

Barack Obama, who won the presidential election promising absolutely no tax increase of any kind for the middle class, is now considering a new multi-billion dollar tax on employer-provided health care benefits -- the very proposal he attacked during the campaign as "the largest middle-class tax increase in history."

read more

Obama Supreme Court nominee overruled by Supreme Court, again

In a victory for individual rights, the Supreme Court Monday announced it is throwing out a decision by Second Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who ruled the city of New Haven, Conn. could deny several firefighters promotions because the racially-neutral test they passed did not produce politically correct results, and it could theoretically result in lawsuits from special interest groups.

read more

LPIN: RT @AlabamaLiberty Petition to WH to honor 2nd Amendment. Please help spead the word. http://act.ly/6n

LPIN: Talk Show Hosts May Be Accomplices Under Hate Bill: http://lpin.org/node/715

LPIN: Obama's Statist Ambitions: http://lpin.org/node/714

LPIN: RT @fezick @LPIN got a delivery failure on bayh's email - it said his inbox is full!

LPIN: Is Obama Running the Ship a Little Too Tightly? http://lpin.org/node/713

LPIN: The Republican Class of 1994 plagued with scandal: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24435.html (better link)

LPIN: The Republican Class of 1994 plagued with scandal: http://bit.ly/8c8gE

LPIN: Hoosiers, Help Stop Cap and Trade! http://lpin.org/node/712

LPIN: RT @ChrisFaulkner "The problem with socialism is that, eventually, you run out of other people's money." - Margaret Thatcher.

LPIN: @AttyAbdul Conferees have signed the budget committee report. We could have a vote relatively soon.