Tag Archives: policy

Justin Amash trashes “No Budget, No Pay” as unconstitutional

Earlier this week Darryl Perry wrote here at Hammer of Truth that the No Budget, No Pay Act (H.R. 325) was an unconstitutional measure, and a sure sign of Republican weakness to boot:

The 27th Amendment reads, in part, “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of the Representatives shall have intervened.”

Despite the fact that the compensation is not changing, the bill could still be unconstitutional as it alters the scheduled dates of pay, which would be “varying the compensation.” It is unlikely any of the Republicans will challenge the bill, and the Democrats reportedly see “the legislation as a white flag on the part of the GOP, something that allows Congress to skirt the debt limit issue and move on to other fiscal arguments.”

On Tuesday, Justin Amash — a second-term, libertarian-leaning, Republican Congressman from Michigan — posted his take on facebook:

I voted no on H R 325, No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013. The bill has two parts.

First, the bill suspends the debt ceiling through May 18, 2013. In other words, it allows the government to operate as though there is no debt ceiling. On May 19, the debt ceiling will automatically increase by the amount borrowed during the suspension. Because the government borrows about $4 billion per day, this bill will likely increase the debt ceiling by $400 billion or more, without any cuts or reforms to reduce future spending. see more…

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Poll asks retards: “describe an assault weapon”

Reason/Rupe conducted a phone survey (of mostly retarded people) asking an open-ended question, “In just a few words, how would you describe an assault weapon?”

The list of uninformed opinions they posted shows how incredibly stupid some people are in this country when it comes to limiting the rights of others. In other words, they’ve been successfully brainwashed:

[...] A GUN

I THINK ANY WEAPON THAT CARRY MORE THEN 4 OR 5 BULLET IN A WEAPON

SOMETHING THAT IS QUICK FIRE AND HAS MORE THEN SIX ROUNDS IN IT.

SEMI AUTOMATIC WEAPON CLIPS RAPID FIRE. DESIGNED FOR OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE.

ANYTHING CAN BE AN ASSAULT WEAPON LIKE KNIFE FRYING PAN HAMMER BOARD.

A WEAPON THAT SHOTS VERY FAST THAT HAS A MAGAZINE THAT HOLDS A LOT AMMUNITION AT ON TIME

A WEAPON DESIGNED FOR MASS KILLING

HIGH REPETITION LARGE CAPACITY MAGAZINE AND SIZE OF AMMUNITION

ANYTHING THAT SHOOTS CONSECUTIVELY

PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS GUNS, I DON’T KNOW THAT MUCH ABOUT GUNS BUT THEY SEEM KIND OF WICKED [...]

That’s just a small sampling, and shows that at least one person out there now thinks a hammer is an assault weapon. Fuck yeah, mission accomplished.

At this point, even sheriffs and police — the very folks who would supposedly be tasked with enforcing “assault weapon” bans — are starting to look at each other and shake their heads in disbelief.

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GOP adds ‘Protecting Internet Freedom’ to platform

Last week at the Republican National Convention in Tampa Florida, the GOP proudly unveiled a new addition to their platform:

Protecting Internet Freedom

The Internet has unleashed innovation, enabled growth, and inspired freedom more rapidly and extensively than any other technological advance in human history. Its independence is its power. The Internet offers a communications system uniquely free from government intervention. We will remove regulatory barriers that protect outdated technologies and business plans from innovation and competition, while preventing legacy regulation from interfering with new and disruptive technologies such as mobile delivery of voice video data as they become crucial components of the Internet ecosystem. We will resist any effort to shift control away from the successful multi-stakeholder approach of Internet governance and toward governance by international or other intergovernmental organizations. We will ensure that personal data receives full constitutional protection from government overreach and that individuals retain the right to control the use of their data by third parties; the only way to safeguard or improve these systems is through the private sector.

Most interestingly, the Libertarian Party has handily beat Republicans to the punch by more than two decades, having tackled the internet freedom message way back in 1991:

Stop Internet Censorship

Politicians are trying to take away your right to read what you want, and to say what you want.

The Internet is making it possible for new voices to be heard — the voices of people who simply could not afford to publish their ideas or display their artistic talents to a wide audience using older technologies. Established interests of both the left and the right fear new voices, and are trying to control what appears on the Internet through new laws and regulations.

America’s Founders couldn’t foresee the Internet, but they knew that government control of information was not only a violation of personal liberty — it was a threat to their hopes for a nation based on the principles of self-government. So they gave us the First Amendment.

The Libertarian Party carries on today in the tradition of the Founders:

  • The Libertarian Party didn’t wait for the Internet to become popular to stand up for principle: The LP has always supported freedom of speech and the press, and has had language specifically supporting freedom of online communication in its Platform since 1991.
  • The Libertarian Party joined with thousands of concerned Internet users in “turning its web pages black” in protest of President Clinton’s signing the unconstitutional “Communications Decency Act” in 1995.
  • The Libertarian Party continues to speak out today against the attempts by Democrats and Republicans to find loop-holes in the First Amendment, so they can turn the Internet into a government-controlled medium.

Think about it: while the GOP has just given birth to a messy and still-diapered internet freedom policy, the LP’s plank is all grown up, growing a beard, and is old enough to drink.

Even for a totally empty rhetorical gesture, I suppose it’s better late than never.

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