Why Do Newspapers Endorse Candidates?

What's the Point? - American Journalism Review

Concerns about a perception of bias are relatively recent in the history of journalism. When the Bill of Rights took effect in 1791, it opened the umbrella of constitutional protection over a yelping, factional swarm of newspapers whose "main purpose, their reason for being, was to purvey political news," says Andie Tucher, an assistant professor of journalism at Columbia University.

"They were funded mainly by political parties," says Tucher. "They were staffed by partisan party functionaries... The idea that an objective press was going to present neutral news was just completely foreign in the very early years of the American nation."

How We Endorse, and Why - Fred Hiatt - WashingtonPost.com

Should Newspapers Still Be Taking Sides? - TIME

Taking a Stand - Why Newspapers Endorse Candidates - Ideas and Trends - NYTimes.com

Should newspapers endorse candidates? - USATODAY.com

Newspaper will only endorse local candidates - News-Leader.com - Springfield News-Leader

Why I Reject "Self-Defense"

"He punched me twice, so I punched him back twice," Kay Mehta said as she nursed a red, tearing eye and waited for police to arrive. "I was just defending myself."

Brawl erupts between Reid, Angle supporters at forum - News - ReviewJournal.com

For Further Study:

A Pacifist for Congress

Peace

Swords into Plowshares

Vengeance vs. Self-Defense

VFTonline.org

Ozarks Virtual Town Hall this Saturday

This Saturday is another "Ozarks Virtual Town Hall," at 10:30am. Libertarian candidate Kevin Craig will respond to the President's Saturday Morning Radio Address to the Nation and the Republican Party Response.

Listeners will then be able to ask Kevin Craig questions or make comments. This can be done over the phone, or using a Q&A box on the website. The subject matter of questions and comments is not limited to the subject of the President's Radio Address, but can be any subject on the minds of southwest Missouri voters.

Kevin Craig wants to be available to hear the voters and answer their questions. To make sure that everyone has an opportunity who has a question or wants to give Kevin Craig "what for," we're making available 250 phone lines and 2,000 internet webcast lines from now until Election Day. We normally go from 10:30am - 11:30am, but if there are more questions or comments, we'll extend the webcast.

Join us!

http://townhall.KevinCraig.us

Happy Constitution Day?

I guess I'm supposed to wish you a "Happy Constitution Day." Here's what I said on
Constitution Day 2007.

Someone commented that I needed to "update" my argument. Wrong for two reasons:

First, warnings about abandoning the Constitution and the need to "get back to the Constitution" have been around since at least FDR and the New Deal, if not Lincoln. The warnings were justified because Washington D.C. and America's law schools were abandoning the Constitution. I don't want to "update" this nearly ancient history. I'm not saying anything radically "new."

Second, I need to update the message only in the sense that, now in 2010, Obama has only taken us an even greater distance away from the Constitution. The Constitution is now even more meaningless and irrelevant than it was in 2007. The warnings continue to be ignored.

The Constitution failed in its most essential task: that of preventing the government it created from transgressing the rights affirmed in the Declaration of Independence.

I'm confident that every single person who signed the Constitution would take immediate steps to repeal the Constitution and abolish the government it created, if those Signers were here today. I would join them (though I would leave my musket at home).

Interview with John Judge - Wednesday at Lunch

This Saturday is the anniversary of the 9-11 attack. On our weekly "Lunch with a Libertarian" webcast we are honored to have John Judge join us to talk about his work with 9-11 families as an independent researcher. Based in Washington D.C., he sat through the 9-11 Commission hearings and has plowed through over 800 books on the subject. He wants us to ask simple and obvious questions about the conventional story, without falling prey to sensationalist conspiracy theories. This will be an extraordinary lunch conversation.

If you join us live you can ask John Judge some questions, either on the phone or typing them into our Q&A box.

Here's the webcast page:

http://KevinCraig.us/lunch-page.htm

We're going to be talking about this interview this Saturday on the Ozarks Virtual Town Hall.

Don't miss this!

Ramble and Rumble with Rabbi

In two hours I'm going to "Ramble and Rumble with Rabbi" Eukel.

Listen to internet radio with Rabbi DF Eukel on Blog Talk Radio

This time I think I'll actually arrive on time. It's 12:00 central time. Can't be midnight. Gotta be noon.

Notes for the program are here.

Update: I don't know what happened. All I could hear over the Internet and over the phone was noise. If you heard different, leave a comment.

Character Counts?

If Scott Eckersley were the Republican candidate for Missouri's 7th District seat in Congress, and Billy Long were the Democrat candidate, I suspect Republicans would be a lot happier.

Just changing party labels would make this race a completely different contest in the eyes of tens of thousands of voters.

But most Republicans put party loyalty ahead of character.

I admit, I wouldn't vote for anyone who increases the ranks of the Party of Pelosi, regardless of his personal character. I would not vote at all.

That's one reason I'm running: to give people like me someone to vote for.

In Missouri's 7th District, a vote for the Libertarian candidate cannot help the Democrats.

Obama's Deficits

I have to admit, I liked it better when I could say that Republicans are just as bad on deficit spending as Democrats, but it looks like Obama is going to beat Bush, if this graphic from FOXNews.com can be believed.

I suspect the Iraq spending is underestimated, and we should probably think about total "defense" spending -- or, rather, "nation-building" spending around the world -- and not just spending against Iraq.

Still, the two big bars are pretty compelling.

Is the Muslim My Neighbor?

Addressing the funeral of Daniel Pearl (the American Jewish reporter who was brutally slaughtered by terrorists in Pakistan), Imam Rauf actually uttered the words "I am a Jew" -- in the sense that he believes in the God of Abraham, the mission of Moses, and the commandment from the Torah to love God and his fellow man. While not supporting religious syncretism, I have to ask: Is this the behavior of a stealth jihadi?

Whatever else can be said about the teachings and practice of Islam, this much should be understood: The evil practice of murder-suicide bombing has been condemned by traditionalist Islamic clerics as an apostate innovation of recent vintage that is incompatible with Koranic teachings condemning suicide and assaults on innocent non-combatants. This reflects the fact that terrorists and those who support them account for a tiny percentage of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims.

By way of contrast, most conservative American Christians support unending military aggression against the Muslim world, including the use of tactics (such as bombing civilian population centers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the imposition of murderous blockades against Iraq and Gaza) that can only be described as state-sponsored terrorism against the innocent.

Will Grigg, "Is the Muslim My Neighbor?" - Pro Libertate

Extremism

A new Rasmussen Reports™ says that

Forty-eight percent (48%) of voters now regard Obama’s political views as extreme. But slightly more (55%) describe the views of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a favorite of many Tea Party members, as extreme.

Though they are both "extremists," clearly Obama and Palin do not agree with each other. The supporters of Obama and the supporters of Palin like their candidate precisely because s/he is an extremist and not a moderate, though none of the supporters would use the word "extremist." Conversely, supporters of one candidate hate the other candidate precisely because the other is an "extremist."

Adolph Hitler was an extremist, as was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was arrested and hanged for conspiring to assassinate Hitler. But who today is most respected: Hitler the extremist, Bonhoeffer the extremist, or millions of moderate Germans who never lifted a finger to stop Hitler?

I oppose assassinations, and I don't agree 100% with either Palin or Obama, but I am proud to say I am an extremist. I hope you think so too.

Moore falls short of qualification for House race

Moore falls short of qualification for House race News-Leader.com Springfield News-Leader

I'm sure glad Dean Moore didn't get on the ballot. I don't need such stiff competition.

But it's probably too bad that the election process is so dominated by political parties that thoughtful, qualified, independent candidates are excluded. I was on the ballot in 2004 and got half as many votes as Moore got signatures, but I was part of a political party, and Moore isn't. Having received fewer votes than Moore got signatures, I was on the ballot, and Moore isn't. Does that make sense to you? It doesn't make sense to me.

Is there any rational, public-spirited reason such an unfair standard is set for independents? Or is it only a self-serving policy of the two major parties? I can understand how the major parties feel. As a candidate, I read the headline, "Moore Falls Short of Qualification for House Race," and my first reaction was, "Whew! That's a relief!"

Let's make it easier for independents to get on the ballot.

Press Coverage

Here is a report from KOLR/KSFX in Springfield.

The media have been very fair to my campaign, almost always treating this as a genuine 3-way race.

Which Religion is Worse?

Which religion is more of a threat to life:

• the relgion of Islam, which arguably commands that adulterers be stoned, or
• the religion of Secular Humanism, which arguably commands that thousands of babies be stoned every day in order to make adultery more convenient?

Fourteen Ways to Reduce Government Spending

Grover Norquist proposes Fourteen Ways to Reduce Government Spending. These proposals would save millions and millions of dollars. These proposals will never by implemented by Republicans, to say nothing of Democrats.

Unfortunately, trillions need to be cut, not just millions.

I can't think of an easier and more powerful way to cut government spending, however, than observing one of the "first principles" of the Constitution: the "enumerated powers" doctrine.

Cut all government programs for which no authority is enumerated in the Constitution.

So here are 14 ways to cut trillions of dollars of government spending.

No doubt some will say that some of those Departments have Constitutional approval, such as the Defense (War) Department. I would argue that the modern Defense Department more resembles what the Founders feared: "standing armies." The Constitution authorizes the federal government "To raise and support Armies," which I interpret to mean, "when an invasion occurs or is imminent." The modern perpetual military-industrial complex violates the very next phrase of this Constitutional provision: "but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years." The Defense Machine has been operating consistently since at least 1961:



Use the comment box below to list any other Department that you feel was "enumerated" -- in its present form -- and cannot have at least 50% of its budget slashed.