Miller Applauds Alaska Libertarians for Schooling Begich in Liberty

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Photo Credit: Senate Democrats / Flickr

Photo Credit: Senate Democrats / Flickr

Republican US Senate Candidate Joe Miller today responded to a recent statement from Alaska Libertarian Party Chair Michael Chambers regarding Senator Mark Begich’s recent mischaracterization of the libertarian movement in an interview with CBS News.

“I appreciate the fact that the Alaska Libertarian Party is speaking out on the important issues facing our state and nation,” Miller said. “What we don’t need more of is Mark Begich’s progressive ideology masquerading under the banner of liberty. True libertarianism is grounded in Constitutional liberty, and I am proud to share those values with the Alaska Libertarian Party.”

Begich attempted to align himself with libertarianism by suggesting that as Alaskans “we’re very libertarian . . . and we don’t think that government should be interfering in our personal and private lives.”

Alaska Libertarian Party Chair Michael Chambers responded with the following:

“Senator Begich, allow me to define the vast majority of libertarians for your educational benefit, as you seem to be confused:

1. I know of no Alaskan libertarian who would remotely support the government takeover of our healthcare industry.

2. I know of no Alaskan libertarian who would vote to confirm:
• Eric Holder – anti-gun
• Elena Kagan – anti-gun
• Sonia Sotomayor – anti-gun

3. I know of no Alaskan libertarian who supports:
• Common Core
• Federal Department of Education
• suppression of parental rights in education

4. I know of no Alaskan libertarian who would vote to support and advocate:
• The IRS in any malignant manifestation
• NDAA and the suspension of habeas corpus
• NSA invasion of our personal effects
• The Patriot Act

5. No Alaskan libertarian I know would advocate globalist policies like:
• The United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty
• TPP – Trans Pacific Partnerships
• UN Treaties having any jurisdiction or precedence over the US Constitution.

Certainly, there are a few libertarians who may support the socialist policies you advocate, but to infer that you are ‘libertarian’ in any of your political representations is to vacate any measure of truth.”

Miller concluded, “These are momentous times, and it is imperative that we transcend partisan frames of reference. The only way we can push back federal tyranny is for all Alaskans of good will to unite under the banner of Constitutional Liberty.”

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, and advocate of Constitutional liberty who believes in individual rights, private property, free markets and the sanctity of human life.

For media inquiries contact Randy DeSoto at 907-888-8216 or [email protected].

Beverly Hills Hotel Boycott: Former Power Spot a Ghost Town Amid Backlash of its Sharia Law-Endorsing Owner

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Photo Credit: Hollywood Reporter

Photo Credit: Hollywood Reporter

By Seth Abramovitch and Gary Baum.

On any ordinary weekday, every table at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s iconic Polo Lounge is filled to capacity with industry movers and shakers like Steven Spielberg, Ari Emanuel and Jeffrey Katzenberg, all regulars at the 73-year-old power spot.

But these days, the room is a ghost town.

Caught in the middle of the ballooning Beverly Hills Hotel boycott — a direct response to a decision by its owner, the Sultan of Brunei, to institute Sharia law in his country, which calls for the stoning to death of gays and adulterers — a Hollywood Reporter field trip on Wednesday for the midday meal found 1 p.m. to be as busy as 1 a.m.

Major philanthropic events like the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s Night Before the Oscars party, a luncheon for the Carousel of Hope Benefit, the J.J. Abrams-chaired Children’s Defense Fund gala and THR’s own Women in Entertainment breakfast have already canceled bookings at the storied Pink Palace. Now, it seems, the mass shunning extends to the property’s loyal power-lunching ranks.

Two hours earlier, an anonymous reservation call was placed, and a gracious female voice on the other end fielded the request for a highly sought-after booth for two. What would typically yield a “Sorry, we’re booked” instead earned a cheerful “We’ll do our absolute best!” For the eatery ranked No. 2 on THR’s 2014 Power Lunch survey, this did not bode well.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Protests Swell at Beverly Hills Hotel

By Tamara Audi, Craig Karmin and Erich Schwartzel.

The pink stucco palace known as the Beverly Hills Hotel has long been a symbol of Hollywood glamour and affluence, the place where Elizabeth Taylor decamped for six of her eight honeymoons. Now it’s become the unlikely epicenter of protest against a new set of harsh laws enacted by the Islamic country of Brunei.

The opulent hotel is part of the Dorchester Collection, a luxury chain owned by the Sultan of Brunei. This week, the tiny, oil-rich southeast Asian country set off a storm of celebrity protests and boycotts by introducing Islamic laws that include death by stoning for homosexuals and adulterers.

Over the past several days, 20 events have been canceled at the Beverly Hills property–a loss of about $2 million in revenue for the hotel, according to Dorchester. Local politicians and celebrities are also boycotting the nearby Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles, the hotel’s more subdued sister property.

Big names like Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres are urging boycotts, and the Beverly Hills mayor and council are calling for Dorchester to sell the famed hotel.

Dorchester, which runs 10 hotels world-wide, is looking to expand globally and has said it is seeking to acquire a luxury property in New York. Hotel analysts say the publicity surrounding protests against the company could complicate efforts to operate a Manhattan hotel, where there is also opposition to the new law.

Read more from this story HERE.

Harry Reid’s Ingenious Plan To Retake The House

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Yuri Gripas

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Yuri Gripas

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid thinks he knows how to win in 2014.

Step 1: Attack a Wichita donor most of America has never heard of; Step 2: Link said-donor to global warming hysteria ; Step 3: Lie about it so blatantly that even Washington Post bloggers call bull.

On Wednesday, Mr. Reid took to the floor of the Senate to bash libertarian donors Charles and David Koch, saying, “These billionaire oil tycoons are certainly experts at contributing to climate change, that’s what they do very well. They are one of the main causes of this — not a cause, one of the main causes.”

To back up his charge, Mr. Reid cited a UMass Amherst study: “In one year, Koch Industries released 31 million pounds of toxic air,” Reid said. “That’s more than Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil, and General Electric combined.”

Who knows? Might work. We mean, Al Gore’s howls aren’t so popular with the kids these days, but voters have responded well to lies in the past.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mark Levin to GOP Establishment: ‘But for the Tea Party, You’d be Nothing’

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Photo Credit: Mark Taylor / Flickr

Photo Credit: Mark Taylor / Flickr

After the Republican establishment gloated on Tuesday for surviving primary challenges against underfunded Tea Party challengers, conservative talk radio host Mark Levin ripped into the Republican leadership for preferring candidates they can coerce to support policies their conservative constituents oppose.

Levin said the question of whether the Tea Party is dead is a stupid one, and he asked why establishment Republicans were spending “millions of dollars laundered through Karl Rove’s group and Mitch McConnell’s National Republican Senatorial Committee” to fight and trash conservatives:

These “Republican leaders” only want to be in the majority if they can control the people we send to Congress. Mitch McConnell does not want any more Ted Cruzes or Mike Lees, or anybody else who’s going to give him trouble. He wants Republicans who are going to lie down and do what he tells them to do.

John Boehner and Eric Cantor? Exactly the same thing. These people are not about empowering the American people; they’re about empowering themselves. They see a majority in the House and a majority in the Senate, not as an opportunity to serve the people, but to serve themselves.

Levin also noted that establishment candidates often do not want their constituents to know of their more-liberal policy preferences; thus, they do not run television commercials informing their constituents of their enthusiastic support for amnesty legislation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Good Riddance: Common Core Backlash Claims New Political Casualties

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

All politics is local. So Republican politicians with national ambitions better pay attention to what grassroots parents are saying and doing about the federal education racket known as Common Core. In bellwether Indiana this week, anti-Common Core activists won a pair of pivotal electoral victories against GOP Gov. Mike Pence.

Pence’s attempt to mollify critics by rebranding and repackaging shoddy Common Core standards is fooling no one.

Tuesday’s Republican primary elections in the Hoosier state resulted in the landslide defeat of two establishment incumbents running for statewide re-election. Pence had endorsed GOP State Rep. Kathy Heuer over challenger Christopher Judy. Pence’s Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann had endorsed GOP State Rep. Rebecca Kubacki over challenger Curt Nisly. The incumbents enjoyed the support of the Common Core-promoting U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

These same Big Business elites backed Pence’s ploy to stave off grassroots parental opposition by “withdrawing” from Common Core — and then immediately adopting “new” standards that recycle the same old rotten ones. (See my April 30 column, “Big Government GOP’s Common Core Rebrand Hustle.”) As Hoosier mom Erin Tuttle put it, Pence’s stunt “gave the appearance of voiding the Common Core, while the Indiana Department of Education and the Center for Education and Career Innovation walked it through the backdoor.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Fed Chair Unsure If Capitalism or Oligarchy Describes the U.S.

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Photo Credit: AP / Charles Dharapak

Photo Credit: AP / Charles Dharapak

“Are we still a capitalist democracy or have we gone over into an oligarchic form of society in which incredible economic and political power now rests with the billionaire class?” Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont socialist, asked that question of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen at a hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

Yellen said she’d “prefer not to give labels,” but she admitted to being very concerned about income inequality.

“So, all of the statistics on inequality that you’ve cited are ones that greatly concern me, and I think for the same reason that you’re concerned about them. They can shape the — determine the ability of different groups to participate equally in the democracy and have grave effects on social stability over time.

“And so I don’t know what to call our system or how to — I prefer not to give labels; but there’s no question that we’ve had a trend toward growing inequality and I personally find it very worrisome trend that deserves the attention of policy-makers.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Says He Wants Pelosi Back as Speaker

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Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite

Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite

President Obama said at a closed-door fundraiser Thursday that he wants to see House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) become speaker of the House again.

“Not only did we accomplish a great deal when she was speaker; we’re going to accomplish that much more once we get her back in,” Obama said at the event at a private residence in La Jolla, Calif.

Pelosi hasn’t said whether she’s aiming to become speaker again, but it’s unusual for former speakers to stick around after their party loses the majority, and some think the 74-year old would like to reclaim her gavel.

Republicans love to float that possibility in campaign ads, believing the liberal San Francisco lawmaker is an albatross for Democrats.

Read more from this story HERE.

White House on Lockdown for Second Time in 3 Days

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

For the second time in three days, the White House is on lockdown because of a security breach.

The Secret Service says two people threw something over the fence surrounding the White House complex — one person from the south side and one from the north.

Read more from this story HERE.

What Abortion Selfies Tell Us About American Community

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Photo Credit: The Federalist

Photo Credit: The Federalist

You have by this point likely heard about the story of New Jersey abortion counselor Emily Letts’ decision to film her surgical abortion, which this week met with the kind of reaction you could expect from online communities. If you have not watched the video, I encourage you to do so, or to at least read her piece for Cosmopolitan explaining her decision and walking readers through the social media reaction to it. There’s a reason Letts wrote that “every time I watch the video, I love it. I love how positive it is. I think that there are just no positive abortion stories on video for everyone to see. But mine is.” The video is an intentional effort to create a “positive” story. She talks about how similar the experience was to birth (she has no children). “I feel in awe of the fact that I can make a baby,” she says. “I can make a life.” And she can destroy it, too.

For me, the striking thing about the video is how alone Letts is in nearly all of it. Her Cosmopolitan piece emphasizes the opposite – how she felt enveloped by support. But the depiction comes across as one running direct to camera reality show, with an abortion in the middle. In the video, clearly in pain and focused on her breathing, she grips the hand of a clinic attendant, who offers brief words of support. Letts describes herself as a struggling actress, and she has enough ability to manage a wan smile before she’s wheeled out – but it comes across less as triumph than as “Well now that’s done: and I’m glad it’s over.” She keeps the sonogram, smoothes her hair with automatic hand, and puts a record on the gramophone.

The concept of the abortion selfie is in some ways an inevitable consequence of an increasingly atomized culture. Consider instead the lure that would motivate one to seek to share this moment, and then to share in the reaction to this moment from social media, and then to share again in the reaction to that reaction in the pages of Cosmo. This is an individual seeking out the affirmation and attention of others – for good or ill, it is an attempt to find a community, a grasping for a sense of belonging.

Set aside Emily Letts for a moment, and consider these comments from someone on the other side of the culture wars: Rick Santorum, who is out once again in his green paisley van hunting for the ghosts of Reagan Democrats. Santorum’s latest book includes a call for Republicans to reject free trade, raise the minimum wage, and rediscover protectionism to defend traditional blue collar industries. As an economic message, Santorum is as disappointing as always (on the trade issue, for example, his longtime support for the protectionist status quo lines the pockets of well-connected cronies at the expense of everyone else). But on the issue of family and community, Santorum’s comments about individualism are worth noting:

“A blithe attitude about economic disruption and the decline of traditional industries goes along with what Santorum sees as a philosophical overemphasis on individualism. Conservatives, he argues, have neglected an important strand of political thought in which the family is the fundamental unit of the polis. “The basic unit of the society is the family,” he writes, not “the individual.” … Santorum explicitly blames libertarians for the rise of individualism, but it’s hard not to feel as if he’s taking issue with most of his party.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Brothers Yanked By HGTV Respond: “If Our Faith Costs Us A TV Show, Then So Be It”

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Photo Credit: Deadline

Photo Credit: Deadline

As they were swamped with media requests for interviews, David and Jason Benham issued a statement today about HGTV‘s decision not to move forward with their new show, Flip It Forward in the wake of a report issued by People For the American Way about the brothers, and their father:

The first and last thought on our minds as we begin and end each day is; have we shined Christ’s light today? Our faith is the fundamental calling in our lives, and the centerpiece of who we are. As Christians we are called to love our fellow man. Anyone who suggests that we hate homosexuals or people of other faiths is either misinformed or lying.

Over the last decade, we’ve sold thousands of homes with the guiding principle of producing value and breathing life into each family that has crossed our path, and we do not, nor will we ever discriminate against people who do not share our views.

Read more from this story HERE.