Catania defends health care for illegal immigrants as Gray signals opposition | WashingtonExaminer.com
Last year David Catania, who has just announced he is running for mayor of DC, came out for taxpayers being on the hook for healthcare for anyone who can make it to DC.
Curiously, a couple of Ron Paul Republicans in DC are supporting him. Because he used to be a Republican? Because he's white? Because he's gay? Because he's "campaigned" against corruption?
Someone should ask them.
Mark your ballots!
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
On Mayor Gray and D.C.'s corrupt, illegitimate government
Mayor Gray donor and friend Jeffrey Thompson has now testified to federal investigators that Mayor Gray conspired with him to accept over half a million dollars in illegal campaign contributions without which his electoral victory seems unlikely.
This situation underscores the illegitimacy of the D.C. Government, where politicians are elected by breaking their own laws, laws they use to reduce or silence political competition. The illegitimacy of the D.C. Government extends back to at least 1994, when the D.C. political class decided to nullify the will of the people about a basic constitutive principle of our government, when 66% of voters voted in favor of a term limits initiative and the city council decided to declare it invalid.
It seems our ruling politicians will break laws and disregard referendum votes to hold onto power.
Of course, Mayor Gray is innocent until proven guilty. Perhaps Mr. Thompson is now conspiring with prosecutors in a plea bargain and is falsely implicating Mayor Gray, even though they are long time friends. What we do know is that the D.C. Budget has grown to $12 billion, and that much loot will continue to attract cronies and cause corruption . One can only imagine how much corruption there will be when the D.C. Government not only dispenses $12 billion, and decides who gets waterfront land parcels and government leases, contracts, grants, and subsidies, but when it also gets to decide who may and who may not erect a building over 12 stories. One important means to less corruption is to take money and power away from government by transferring more of the activities it has monopolized, like education, to free people in the voluntary sector.
One question I would ask in all of this is about the efficacy and integrity of the Office of Campaign Finance. I am currently being harassed weekly with emails and letters by the Office of Campaign Finance because in December 2012 I reported a few days late the $157 I had donated to my own campaign, at that time my only donation. For reporting that amount late, in part because the Office of Campaign Finance provided me with no log on information for their on line filing system until I repeatedly asked for it, they have announced they are fining me $100. But the incumbent Mayor, their boss, is alleged to have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions from one source. Is the purpose of their office just to chill political speech by harassing new and independent candidates and parties?
The D.C. Libertarian Party has released the following statement:
"Thompson's activities have been known about and stretch far beyond Mayor Gray; we hope that continued investigations reveal the true scope of Thompson's money and influence throughout the DC Democratic Party. In 2012, when Bruce ran for DC Delegate, we launched the website "www.EleanorGiveItBack.com" which highlighted the over $60,000 which Norton also received from Thompson. Thompson's charges also highlight the need for a new, sustainable and viable party in the District, and this party is the Libertarian Party. Our slate of nine candidates this year promise, among other things, a departure from the monetary scandals which continuously arise from within the DC Democratic Party."
This situation underscores the illegitimacy of the D.C. Government, where politicians are elected by breaking their own laws, laws they use to reduce or silence political competition. The illegitimacy of the D.C. Government extends back to at least 1994, when the D.C. political class decided to nullify the will of the people about a basic constitutive principle of our government, when 66% of voters voted in favor of a term limits initiative and the city council decided to declare it invalid.
It seems our ruling politicians will break laws and disregard referendum votes to hold onto power.
Of course, Mayor Gray is innocent until proven guilty. Perhaps Mr. Thompson is now conspiring with prosecutors in a plea bargain and is falsely implicating Mayor Gray, even though they are long time friends. What we do know is that the D.C. Budget has grown to $12 billion, and that much loot will continue to attract cronies and cause corruption . One can only imagine how much corruption there will be when the D.C. Government not only dispenses $12 billion, and decides who gets waterfront land parcels and government leases, contracts, grants, and subsidies, but when it also gets to decide who may and who may not erect a building over 12 stories. One important means to less corruption is to take money and power away from government by transferring more of the activities it has monopolized, like education, to free people in the voluntary sector.
One question I would ask in all of this is about the efficacy and integrity of the Office of Campaign Finance. I am currently being harassed weekly with emails and letters by the Office of Campaign Finance because in December 2012 I reported a few days late the $157 I had donated to my own campaign, at that time my only donation. For reporting that amount late, in part because the Office of Campaign Finance provided me with no log on information for their on line filing system until I repeatedly asked for it, they have announced they are fining me $100. But the incumbent Mayor, their boss, is alleged to have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions from one source. Is the purpose of their office just to chill political speech by harassing new and independent candidates and parties?
The D.C. Libertarian Party has released the following statement:
"Thompson's activities have been known about and stretch far beyond Mayor Gray; we hope that continued investigations reveal the true scope of Thompson's money and influence throughout the DC Democratic Party. In 2012, when Bruce ran for DC Delegate, we launched the website "www.EleanorGiveItBack.com" which highlighted the over $60,000 which Norton also received from Thompson. Thompson's charges also highlight the need for a new, sustainable and viable party in the District, and this party is the Libertarian Party. Our slate of nine candidates this year promise, among other things, a departure from the monetary scandals which continuously arise from within the DC Democratic Party."
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Voter rebels at Dem-only candidate forum
#DCision14 in the media: Voter rebels at Dem-only candidate forum: Following an exchange between various community members regarding the upcoming Ward 6 candidate forum sponsored by Capital Community News, c...
Monday, March 10, 2014
Hey Libertarians - Maybe Jeffrey Thompson Can Buy You Some TV Ads?
Libertarians were overlooked when DCTV invited all candidates to record PSAs last month. The Green Party candidate for Delegate to Congress, Lino Stracuzzi, pointed this out to me this morning (he was invited and recorded a spot, but says he never saw it run when the Democrats' spots ran).
I called DCTV today and had to convince them we are on the ballot, and that it is the same primary in the same day as everyone else. They were nice enough and offered to fix it within an hour of my initial call, though at first they thought I was a crazy person I believe, asked me how to pronounce "libertarian" and what day our primary was on (maybe they thought it was an April Fools prank?). The result is we have been invited to record PSAs three days after everyone else's have been running already. And we only have two days to schedule it. On a weekday afternoon.
Most of our candidates have full time jobs and two have small children. I suspect I may be the only candidate able to do this (and even for me I had planned to meet a plumber that day).
And our two candidates for "shadow" seats, the Statehood Senator and Statehood Representative to Congress, the "offices" the DC government creates to lobby for statehood, may not get to record a PSA. DCTV doesn't seem to do PSAs for these races for ANY party. Which is weird since DCTV is part of the DC government I believe.
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I called DCTV today and had to convince them we are on the ballot, and that it is the same primary in the same day as everyone else. They were nice enough and offered to fix it within an hour of my initial call, though at first they thought I was a crazy person I believe, asked me how to pronounce "libertarian" and what day our primary was on (maybe they thought it was an April Fools prank?). The result is we have been invited to record PSAs three days after everyone else's have been running already. And we only have two days to schedule it. On a weekday afternoon.
Most of our candidates have full time jobs and two have small children. I suspect I may be the only candidate able to do this (and even for me I had planned to meet a plumber that day).
And our two candidates for "shadow" seats, the Statehood Senator and Statehood Representative to Congress, the "offices" the DC government creates to lobby for statehood, may not get to record a PSA. DCTV doesn't seem to do PSAs for these races for ANY party. Which is weird since DCTV is part of the DC government I believe.
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Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Libertarian Bruce Majors: On DC Council 2014 marijuana legislation
I am glad the D.C. city council is "decriminalizing" casual marijuana use today so it is a small fine.
But by keeping it a crime to smoke it in public, they are basically saying college kids can use it, and African Americans young people east of 14th Street NW will be arrested when they do.
Here is the Opening Statement I wrote for the debate, and passed out as a flyer. (I actually quickly wrote extemporaneously a shorter, more biographical statement for the stage, more like the ones the other candidates were giving.)
Race and policing, the cost of the drug war in the District, were well covered by two of tonight’s sponsoring organizations. The Washington Lawyer’s Committee released a report last July on “Racial Disparities in Arrests in the District of Columbia.” and the ACLU released a June report on “The War on MArijuana in Black and White,” -- two reports that showed that African Americans are 8 times as likely to be arrested in DC for marijuana possession as whites. This is actually twice the national disparity, where on average blacks are only 3.7 times a likely as others to be arrested. And marijuana arrests, and the racial disparity in arrests, both increased in DC between 2001 and 2010. Odd given that in a recent national poll D.C. residents were rated the most liberal electorate in the nation.
Our electorate is why the ruling political class seems to be on the verge of decriminalization marijuana possession in DC. Though most of our governing class, with one exception who is here tonight, want to keep a $100 fine for smoking pot in public. And it will still be illegal to grow it or sell it. And the other half of the drug war - all the other substances the government wants to tell you you can’t buy or put in your body - will continue. And as long as this is true, we can suspect that African Americans will still be arrested at 8 times the rate of everyone else.
But worse than that, for everyone, of every race, we will still see black market related gang violence. And young D.C. residents, badly served by public schools and our over regulated local economy, will still be enticed to go into dangerous black market drug sales as the only way to get ahead, and so they will end up in prison. The small steps D.C.’s political class has been taking, following, not leading, several other states, are not enough. They won’t end prohibition, black market profits, gang violence, and lives ruined by prison time.
Voting for me, and for our nearly full slate of Libertarian candidates, for a party that has supported decriminalizing all victimless crimes, ending the drug war, freeing the incarcerated, and expunging their records, is the best way to signal our Democratic incumbotacracy that you will not put up with their slow pace any longer!
Bruce Majors, Libertarian for Mayor
twitter @BruceMajors4DC
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Pranav Badhwar for Ward 6
Pranav Badhwar for Ward 6