The Humble Libertarian original

The United States, like most countries in the world, bans political campaign donations by non-citizens. Since the Supreme Court case of Citizens United v. FEC, however, foreigners—including even foreign governments—have been able to evade the law by donating to trade associations. Unlike other campaign committees, including labor unions and Super PACs, which must disclose the names of their contributors on a monthly or quarterly basis, trade associations face no such rules, and thus are able to influence elections using corporate and foreign money. As a result, in 2010, trade associations and related issue-advocacy groups outspent Super PACs $141 million to $65 million, according to the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Responsive Politics. Read the rest here BlacklistedNews.com  Judy Morris , Blogger, T H L Articles | Website

As we head toward the end of the year, the media’s fixation with the congressionally imposed “fiscal cliff” will reach a fever pitch and no doubt become a major factor in the presidential campaign. The danger is supposed to arise from the simultaneous implementation of $2 trillion in automatic spending “cuts” (in reality, just reductions in the rate by which federal spending increases) and the expiration of the George W. Bush-era tax rates. Most economists fear that higher taxes and slower increases in federal spending will combine to send us back into recession. Despite the hand-wringing, it is certain that the lame-duck Congress will slap together a late-December, last-minute, can-kicking compromise that will buy time at the expense of long-term solvency. Any success in wriggling out of this particular budgetary straitjacket will just make it more certain that we head straight for another, larger, fiscal cliff that is hiding in plain sight. As it is constructed currently, t...

America’s energy industries (oil, gas, electricity) have been a bastion of crony capitalism for much of their history. Leading gas and electricity firms sponsored state and then federal public-utility regulation during the Progressive Era and New Deal. Like other so-called public utilities, they welcomed the prospect of making commission-approved “reasonable” profits in an entry-restricted environment rather than taking their chances in open-entry markets. Read the rest here JunkScience.com  Judy Morris , Blogger, T H L Articles | Website

As Peter Suderman just wrote, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney just delivered a hi-howarya speech breathtakingly free of policy substance, after a four-day pre-amble of chanting small businesses and tough choices. Even though, as David Harsanyi pointed out here today, details can equal political death, it is equally true that a lack of detail, accompanied by sloganeering and vague uplift, can foreshadow policy disasters to come. Read the rest here Bastiat Institute  Judy Morris, Blogger, T H L Articles | Website

In an article in the Financial Times ("The US has already lost the battle over government," Aug. 16), Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, argues that "for all the rhetoric, the small-government agenda has already prevailed." His punch line is: "Both parties are accomplices to the asphyxiation of the state." The reality is that the state is asphyxiating the people. Read the rest here Cato.org  Judy Morris , Blogger, T H L Articles | Website

Once again, despite the GOP’s alleged commitment to freedom and liberty and all those nice sounding words, we are reminded that these freedoms rarely extend beyond those which gain the approval of social conservatives. From the just completed 2012 Republican Platform: Making the Internet Family-Friendly Millions of Americans suffer from problem or pathological gambling that can destroy families. We support the prohibition of gambling over the Internet and call for reversal of the Justice Department’s decision distorting the formerly accepted meaning of the Wire Act that could open the door to Internet betting. (P 32) Read the rest here OpenMarket.org  Judy Morris , Blogger, T H L Articles | Website

The U.S. is “reluctantly” considering additional covert action against Iran, according to the Christian Science Monitor. The plan calls for air strikes on power plants and other sites “that could impact Iranian civilian populations.” Under the Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague, IV), drafted October 18, 1907, it is illegal to bomb civilian infrastructure and the Nuremberg Principles state that “devastation not justified by military necessity” is a war crime. Read the rest here Infowars.com  Judy Morris , Blogger, T H L Articles | Website