Category: Uncategorized

In 2007, Raymond Burrington died and left the Libertarian Party $217,000. The Federal Election Commission would not let the party have the money all at once. Instead, because the McCain-Feingold law limits the amount of money an individual can give to a party (whether the donor is alive or dead), the money had to be parceled out in chunks of about $30,000. The Libertarian Party sued the FEC to get a ruling that this part of the McCain-Feingold law, as applied to bequests, is unconstitutional. But the court proceedings took so long, by the time the …read more

URGENT! Don’t let Mitch McConnell give Obama a blank-check for war. Retweet Congress gave George W. Bush a blank check for war in 2001. That blank check was called the …

Don’t let Mitch McConnell give Obama a blank-check for war

It has now been over 2 months since our partner Shift Payments launched the first US-issued bitcoin debit card, built with the Coinbase API. To the average person, the Shift Card may appear no different from a traditional debit card. But to the growing community of people that views bitcoin as an attractive store of value, spending bitcoin anywhere VISA is accepted represents a major step towards a more efficient global economy.

Shift has quickly emerged as one of the most successful apps to launch with Coinbase. Here’s a few insights on Shift Card usage:

User Signup and Spending Growth

Since launch …read more

“They’re killing me! — I can’t breathe — I’m losing my air.”

Oakland, CA — That now-familiar refrain represents the last spoken words by 51-year-old Oakland resident Hernan Jaramillo, an emotionally troubled man as his breath and life were crushed out of him by several police officers who had responded to his sister’s 911 call about a suspected intruder. Jaramillo was not a suspect and was supposedly not under arrest at the time of his death at the hands — and beneath the knees — of the officers. Just days ago the Oakland City Council hit up taxpayers to fund a …read more

Adam Dodek, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and an expert on the Canadian constitution, has this article showing that any citizen of Canada is eligible to become Prime Minister, regardless of his or her birthplace. Thanks to HowAppealing for the link. Canada has had four prime ministers who were not born in Canada. All four of them were born in Great Britain. …read more

On January 28, the Louisiana Supreme Court invalidated a portion of the State Constitution that bans ex-felons from running for state or local office for 15 years after the end of their sentence. The ruling is based on a technicality: the version that passed the legislature was not the same as the version that the voters then passed. See this story. …read more

Flint, MI – In the midst of an overseas tour, rapper The Game took to Instagram to announce that he was making a $500,000 donation to assist in providing bottled water to residents of Flint, Mich., in the midst of the city’s ongoing major water crisis, according to the Michigan Chronicle.
#WATERFORFLINT PROOF !!!

So, I’m on tour & not in the US as I’d like to be to help with this… https://t.co/d5OmlyayoP
— LA Confidential (@thegame) January 26, 2016

He added that the bottled water company Avita Water will match the $500,000 donation – making for a total of one million dollars …read more

Nine South Dakota legislators have introduced SB 95, which would let candidates for federal and state office get on a primary ballot by fee instead of by petition. The lead sponsor, Senator Ernie Otten (R-Tea), is the Senate Majority Whip, and the House Majority Whip, Representative Jim Bolin (R-Canton) is also a sponsor. All nine sponsors are Republicans.
The filing fee would be 1% of the salary of the office. The salary for South Dakota Governors is $107,121, so the fee would be $1,071.
If this bill were enacted, minor parties would be advantaged. Current law requires members …read more

Maine Governor Paul LePage has a solution for, what he feels, is his state’s lax punishment of drug dealers: “What I think we ought to do is bring the guillotine back.”
Apparently, the recent proposal to jail drug traffickers for a minimum of four years wasn’t quite draconian enough for LePage, as he told WMOV, “We could have public executions and we could even have, you know, we could even have [guessing] which hole it falls in.” No further explanation was offered for that last part, but in the context, it would seem he was referring to executed person’s decapitated …read more