Category: Uncategorized

This interesting Canada news story explains how political parties become registered with the government. The procedure is quite easy, and there are several dozen parties. Candidates for House of Commons get on the ballot by collecting 100 signatures and paying a filing fee of $1,000, part of which is refunded if they follow campaign finance laws and the remainder of which is refunded if the candidate polls a certain share of the vote.
Party names are printed on the ballot only for parties that are recognized. Thanks to Nathan Hetzel for the link. …read more

New York, NY — Walking through a TSA checkpoint is a violating experience for everyone, but on some occasions it can get even worse. In one extreme case, a TSA agent was recently arrested for luring a traveler into a bathroom under the pretense of a security search, and molesting her.
40-year-old Maxie Oquendo of the Transportation Security Administration is accused of sexually assaulting a 22-year-old woman as she attempted to travel through New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday night.
“Supposedly he took her into another area using his official position, being in uniform, and she thought it was a part of …read more

Nielsen Merksamer, the California law firm that always intervenes in cases having anything to do with California’s top-two has asked the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear Rubin v Padilla. Rubin v Padilla is the minor party lawsuit that argues the top-two system injures voting rights in the general election.
The Nielsen Merksamer says, in a nutshell, that voters have no right of choice in a general election other than just two candidates. It says voters who don’t like their limited choices in November should have voted in June. Of course, not all voters could have done that. …read more

Attorneys for the state of California have notified the U.S. Supreme Court that the state does not intend to file any response to the cert petition in the minor party lawsuit against the top-two system. This is fairly common behavior for states at this stage. If the U.S. Supreme Court later decides it wants a response from the state, it will notify the state. …read more

Tampa, FL — As Liz Vargas was walking her daughter into school on November 5, officer Kevin Fitzpatrick heroically swooped in to protect the citizens of Tampa from Vargas’ tinted license plate cover.
Not having done anything wrong, and upset that she was being harassed in front of her children, Vargas voiced her discontent.
“Then because I was in my pj’s he called me bummy, and he accused me of illegal drugs, that’s why I got argumentative,” Vargas said of the incident.
Within 34 seconds of his encounter with Vargas, Fitzpatrick grabbed her wrist and had slammed the innocent woman to the …read more

The Associated Press has this story about the August 27 U.S. District Court decision that upholds the 2014 ballot access restriction. That law makes it illegal to circulate the petition for a new party during an odd year. …read more

Canada is electing a new national government on October 19. On August 28, a new poll was released showing a slight lead for the New Democratic Party, a party that has never before named the Prime Minister of Canada. …read more

Aurora, IL – The local government in Aurora recently voted to ban alcohol sales for habitual drinkers who are arrested, detained, or even driven home by police for being drunk in public. Politicians in the small city took the idea from Madison, Wisconsin, where tyrants there had issued a similar policy.
Under the new law, individuals that police and fire personnel transport six times or more in a 120-day period, because they are drunk, will be placed on the “habitual drunkard” list. This will prevent them from purchasing alcohol within city limits, and even some other nearby areas.
Local businesses are expected …read more

Los Angeles, CA — After collectively serving 47 years in prison for crimes that they did not commit, two wrongfully convicted men are allowed to advance lawsuits against the Los Angeles detectives and deputy who withheld exonerating evidence at their trials and pressured witnesses into falsely testifying against them.
A three-judge appellate panel denied immunity to police investigators on Wednesday after determining that they had been required to turn over exculpatory evidence in separate murder trials. Although attorneys for the police have argued that the lawsuits should be dismissed because the law was unclear in 1984 and 1991, officers have been …read more

Denver, CO — For the first time ever, the topic of jury nullification has become a trending national news story, thanks to the aggression of an overzealous police department.
Jury nullification activists have gathered near a Denver courthouse in recent weeks, hoping to inform jurors and other citizens about nullifying unjust laws.
When they were met with resistance from the police, a federal judge granted an injunction, stating that the activists had the right to hand out jury nullification literature.
However, on Wednesday morning, police defied the judge’s order and removed a tent that the activists placed in front of the courthouse.
For those …read more