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All the libertarian news you can use for the week of May 15th, 2009!
Did you know Federal aid funds now finance most of state government spending? The first three months of 2009 tipped the scales in favor of federal funds as states all over the US scrambled to make up the loss of revenue.
Does free speech apply to political speech during campaign seasons? As you dear libertarian reader, will most likely exclaim "of course!" the Supreme Court is currently hearing a case involving the violation of free speech by the Federal Election Commission. Cato has put out a video that describes in case in terms anyone can understand. This case will have frightening consequences if they rule in favor of the FEC. Of course, there's always the Internet.
Some good news coming out of US court system (can there be such a thing?) this week. The Fifth Circuit court of appeals has ruled that using a swat team to conduct an administrative or regulatory search is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Its amazing to me that this had to go to court in the first place. Hurray for justice!
The EU is trying to avoid Russian gas by possibly using Iraq as a supplier. The article is not clear why avoiding Russian gas pipelines is needed, except for an off-hand comment about reliability. Seeking gas from Iraq, which has poor gas infrastructure reeks of some back-room dealing going on between US occupiers and EU bureaucrats. But, this is all just speculation on my part.
With supplies low, US troops in Iraq are now having to steal water. Amazing as that sounds, but in the desert, water is a serious commodity. Is this worth the cost of saving face? Stop this evil war and bring the troops home.
Glen Greenwald over at salon.com has a scathing article on Obama's recent flip-flop on making the torture photos public. Glen shows Obama to be nothing more than a Bush war-crimes protector. Greenwald is one of the only left-leaning journalists to hold Obama to the same standard as Bush.
This week, the Center for a Stateless Society has released an excellent paper titled "Intellectual Property: A Libertarian Critique" written by Kevin Carson. The paper smashes the idea that IP is required for market incentive. A great companion to the book Against Intellectual Monopoly.
A crew over at Motor Home Diaries had a run-in with the po-po this week and all three were arrested. Thankfully, they are now out of jail and doing fine. Their vehicle was ransacked, equipment stolen and host of BS charges like "photographing police." Get the full story over at http://www.motorhomediaries.com.
In other civil disobedience news, Sam Dodson of Keene, NH is still in jail for bringing a camera into a court room. J.D. Tuccille has a great summary of the events over at the examiner. You can send Sam a letter using the mail-to-jail system.
An interesting study was released by Crypto Hippy this week that ranks electronic surveillance states around the world. China coming in at #1 with having the most complete electronic police state. The US ranks #6.
Lastly, a couple of interesting links I have to share. http://alongsidenight.ar.to/ is based on the novel by J. Neil Schulman, which depicts a future America in the throws of economic collapse. A classic libertarian scifi book. Second, a blog called "Going John Galt" that attempts to explore what can be done to achieve freedom using the ideas based on Ayn Rand's book Atlas shrugged. There seems to be some controversy on the site with regards to the author's intentions, but the blog makes for some interesting reading anyway.
That is all for this week. For more news and interesting discussion, follow Liberty Pile on twitter @libertypile
Yours in Liberty
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