BJ Lawson scores 91 out of 99 on Ron Paul Paul-O-Meter

Marc over at Liberty Maven examines BJ Lawson on the twenty issue Paul-O-Meter to see how he stacks up to the Congressman from TX-14.

1. Liberty-based Voting Record – Lawson does not have a voting record; therefore per guidelines the score is a 3. Score: 3
2. The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy – Lawson supports instituting competing currencies, and badmouths the Federal Reserve any chance he gets. He doesn’t advocate abolishing it, like Ron Paul, but does advocate more transparency and accountability. Score: 4
3. Foreign Policy and Iraq – Lawson is a non-interventionist and advocates a safe and immediate withdrawal from Iraq.  Score: 5
4. Taxes – Supports efforts to transition to a point when income taxes are unnecessary. Supports some flavor of consumption tax, but has concerns about the Fair Tax. Score: 4
5. Government Spending – Lawson supports a balanced budget amendment and ending deficit spending. Score: 5
6. Privacy and Civil Liberties – Lawson says “no thanks” to the Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, Real ID, and FISA just like Ron Paul. Score: 5
7. Immigration – Lawson is against amnesty for illegal aliens and points out that we need to end the welfare/economic incentives that encourage illegal immigration. Score: 5
8. Gun Control and Second Amendment – Lawson is very close to Ron Paul here. He supports the 2nd Amendment and concealed carry laws, but is not completely explicit on ancillary gun control issues like trigger locks, background checks, and waiting periods. Score: 4
9. Internet Regulation – Lawson does not support federally regulating Internet gambling. Lawson has stated that he supports Net Neutrality which is not something Ron Paul supports because he views it as more regulation. Score: 2
10. Adherence To The Constitution – Lawson calls the Constitution the “rule book” for our country. Score: 5
11. Religion vs. Public Policy – Lawson rarely, if ever, invokes religion in his rhetoric and policy positions. Score: 5
12. Environment – Lawson advocates utilizing the court system and property rights as a defense for the environment just like Ron Paul. However, he also favors a Carbon tax which Ron Paul does not support. Score: 4
13. Energy Policy – Lawson supports drilling wherever necessary and also recognizes that it isn’t the only solution. He does not speak out against Nuclear power and suggests we use all means to obtain more energy. Score: 5
14. U.S. Sovereignty – Lawson does not seem to ever mention the NAU, but does mention protecting U.S. sovereignty. That is not good enough to score points though due to the stringent guidelines for this item. UPDATE: We received word from the Lawson campaign that he is 100% opposed to the NAU, therefore we update his score. Score: 5
15. War On Drugs – Lawson advocates ending the war on drugs, leaving drug regulation to the states, and pardoning non-violent drug offenders just like Paul. Score: 5
16. Education – Lawson advocates getting rid of the Department of Education and advocates more choice and home schooling. Score: 5
17. Welfare Programs – Lawson advocates gracefully reducing welfare programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. He also advocates ending corporate welfare. Score: 5
18. Abortion – Lawson is pro-life and will leave the decision of legalizing or prohibiting abortion to the states per the Constitution. Score: 5
19. Health Care – Lawson is a Ron Paul twin on health care. He is against any nationalized plan and advocates free market approaches and returning medical decisions back to doctors and patients rather than health insurance companies. Score: 5
20. Ability To Spread The Liberty Message – Lawson hands out pocket Constitutions during his campaign events. He is a very visible candidate campaigning throughout his district in North Carolina. There is no questioning his dedication to the liberty message. Score: 5

William “BJ” Lawson’s final Paul-O-Meter Score: 91 out of 99 possible points.

A score of 91 sounds to me like BJ lives up to his nickname of “Ron Paul Jr.”

Having met BJ at Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic and having spoken with him about the issues, I can honestly say that if I lived in the Fourth District of North Carolina, I would be voting for BJ on November 4^th.

NYC and DC Privacy Invasion

In the name of “security,” the cities of Manhattan and Washington D.C. have installed cameras that photograph every car’s license plate that enters the city.  They are also tracking the time of entry and radioactivity.  The video below shows that not even the nodders and yesmen in the mainstream media agree with this plan to track people’s movement without their consent and without cause.  The interviewees even show concern about their movements being tracked and stored for “about 30 days” by the local police.

When will YOU stop putting up with the suspension and elimination of YOUR civil liberties in the name of security?  How many terrorist attacks have we endured in the last 7 years as we cowered in the corner giving up right after right after September 11th?

H/T: My friends at United Liberty for the video.

Cheye Calvo Letter Requesting Civil Rights Investigation

Berwyn Heights mayor, Cheye Calvo, whose story has been carried and followed here for a little over a week, has requested an investigation of the Prince Georges County Sheriff’s Office and Police Department for their role in last month’s raid of his home.  This raid resulted in the deaths of his two labrador retrievers, the treatment of the mayor and his mother-in-law as criminals, and an interrogation that produced no arrests.  In the opening of his letter, he details the events of the afternoon of July 29th after his arrival home from his job.  His elected position is part-time, as Berwyn Heights is a small town.  You can read the letter in its entirety here.  I am quoting some highlights of the letter below:

[I] took our two dogs, Payton (age 7) and Chase (age 4), both black Labradors, for a walk. While on the walk, I noticed SUVs parked on nearby roads, but thought little of it other than to wave to the drivers. I returned home and then began changing my clothes to get ready for a quarterly meeting of municipal officials from nearby towns that I was hosting at Berwyn Heights Town Center, down the street. Before going back inside the house; however, I retrieved the package and placed it unopened on a living room table.

While in my bedroom upstairs, while changing and only in boxer shorts, I heard my mother-in-law scream and then heard our front door being broken open and gunshots being fired. I thought our home was being invaded. I feared for my life and fell to the floor. No one announced themselves as law enforcement.

Downstairs, the officers shot Payton immediately upon entering the house. Payton’s body was located on the floor near the entry to the kitchen where he was hot some distance from the front door. Chase, our four-year-old Lab, was shot in the back by the officers in the rear of the house while running away. Neither dog attacked or “engaged” law enforcement, as claimed by the county sheriff.

My mother-in-law was made to lie face-down on the floor in the kitchen, several feet away from where Payton was bleeding to death. Her hands were restrained with plastic handcuffs behind her back. She laid there on the floor with her head held down by police so that she could only see Payton’s lifeless body for a considerable period of time.

The officers called for me to walk downstairs backwards with my hands up, which I did. The officers then directed to me to kneel down in the living room by the open front door in my boxer shorts with my hands restrained in plastic cuffs behind my back. I remained in that position for a considerable period of time, watching Payton’s body in the other corner of the room and my mother-in-law lying face down in the kitchen.

Georgia and I then were interrogated by police. Georgia was questioned by a detective named Kim, who in the course of her questioning managed to talk on her cell phone and to make a veterinary appointment for her dog. Georgia overheard Kim tell her friend that, this was her first raid and that it was “exciting” because it was the mayor’s house. Finally, after nearly two hours, the officers released the restraints on my mother-in-law and me after I complained about losing feeling in my right hand. The officers ultimately decided not to arrest me or any member of my family and indeed found no evidence linking any of us to the box’s contents.

[...]

The law enforcement officers who entered our home did so without knocking and broke through the door. Since 2005, Maryland law has required a no-knock warrant. Last Saturday, the spokesperson for the county police stated that the court had issued a no-knock warrant. This is untrue. Law enforcement neither sought nor obtained a no-knock warrant. Indeed, no warrant was ever presented to us during the evening of the police raid.

Yesterday, the county sheriff justified the killing of our dogs because they had engaged the deputies. This is false. The officers were aware of  the presence of dogs in our house before they entered. They had seen me walking the dogs, both black Labs, moments earlier. They opened fire on our dogs as soon as they broke our door down. One dog, Payton, was shot near where he was found near the entrance to our kitchen some distance from the front door. The second dog, Chase was shot in the back while running away and was found in the rear of the house, where he had been shot.

Without ever investigating what happened or speaking to us, both the sheriff and the county police chief have announced public conclusions in this case defending the raid. More disturbing, we now have received reports of similar misconduct involving other innocent homeowners, including invasion of the homes of other innocent country residents and killing of other innocent family pets. This appears to be a pattern and practice in our law law enforcement agencies where a lack of training and supervision is apparent. There are also significant questions as to why our county’s sheriff’s department, whose statutory mission does not involve drug enforcement, should be executing drug raids.

I am glad to see that Mayor Calvo has realized that his situation is not uncommon in his community, but his position affords him a platform upon which he can stand up to the bullying by a sheriff’s department and county police that seems to operate on a “If We Raid Enough Homes, We Will Stop the Drug Problem in Our Community” policy.  There is an obvious drug ring operating in Prince Georges County, as they have arrested two individuals involved in the scheme that created the situation in question, as well as seized 417 pounds of marijuana in the last week or so.  In my opinion, Cheye Calvo’s position and network will actually bring about change in the tactics and operations of Prince Georges County, and his story will alert others about their civil liberties, and maybe they will voice the misdeeds of the police that happen to them.

New Position at the White House?

The New York Times ran an op-ed piece by Geoffrey R. Stone yesterday calling for the next President to create an advisory position within the executive branch to provide guidance in regard to civil liberties.

Presidents have a wide range of official advisers. There is a secretary of defense, a secretary of labor, a national security adviser, to name just a few. The next president should create a new executive branch position: a civil liberties adviser. Within the highest councils of every administration there should be a respected public official whose charge it is to defend our civil liberties against all comers.

I think, as most Libertarians do, that our civil liberties are infringed upon BY the government as it becomes more responsible with additional roles in our society that it bloated with additional money being seized and wasted (more commonly referred to as “taxed and spent”).  The idea of adding someone to the payroll to keep the intrusiveness of government sounds like the opposite of my idea of preserving civil liberties.  In fact, the plan discussed in the piece sounds like a disguised attempt to bring about more protected group classes, infringing on the rights of the individual, whose liberties that are swiftly disappearing.

Stone then goes on to celebrate Francis Biddle, the Attorney General during FDR’s presidency, without qualifying his praise of the presiding AG at a time when the American government was rounding up any person of Asian heritage into internment camps, regardless of citizenship status.

Many administrations have included high-level officials who have been strong advocates for civil liberties, even though this was not their explicit job description. At times, such officials have made a real difference.
[...]
Francis Biddle, as Franklin Roosevelt’s attorney general, championed respect for individual liberties from within the White House.

Hmmm…  This sounds to me like the “champion” for civil liberties was unable to stop one of America’s greatest civil rights atrocities.  After being unable to provide adequate examples of civil rights heroes, Stone goes on to suggest that this position should in fact be an entire “Council of Civil Liberties Advisers analogous to the Council of Economic Advisers.”  In the span of one article, Stone has gone from suggesting a single additional position to adding an entire council of people to guide decision-making to assure that civil liberties are preserved.

Needless to say, the growth of government, even by a single person is NOT my idea of preserving any liberties, especially the liberty to spend money I have earned as I choose.