Gary Johnson Endorses George W. Bush

I found an old clip from C-SPAN. I don't know if it's widely known, but it's new to me. It's from the 2000 presidential race. Then Republican Governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson, endorses -- even praises -- George W. Bush for president.





Johnson is currently running for president under the Libertarian Party banner, as he had previously in 2012. I agree with critics who complain that the LP's 2016 Johnson/Weld ticket is too pro-Establishment, too pro-mainstream GOP, too pro-Clinton.

As for the above clip, take it for what it's worth.

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KFI's Gary and Shannon Think the Defense Budget was Slashed by 87.5%

People display astonishing ignorance when trying to comprehend our bloated military budget -- or anything having to do with numbers at all, really.

A recent example of innumeracy was displayed by KFI-AM's Gary Hoffman and Shannon Farren, who think the Department of Defense's budget was slashed by 87.5% after eight years of Obama.

Even if there were any military cutbacks under Obama (there weren't), the idea of an 87.5% reduction is absurd on its face. Such massive cuts would have effectively shut down the military. Yet the two Los Angeles talk radio jockeys bought into that whooper of a lie during an interview with Chuck Mcdougald, held on July 18, 2016, at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Mcdougald is the Western Region Director for Concerned Veterans for America. In short, he's an activist. It's his job to lie. And it's Gary and Shannon's job to catch lies -- especially when they're so obviously a lie.

Specifically, Mcdougald told Gary and Shannon that Obama had "halved" the military's budget (a 50% cut), "then halved it again" (to 25%), "then halved it again" (leaving 12.5% of the original budget).

In this brief clip, you can hear Mcdougald pass off his lie, which Gary and Shannon swallow whole.

And apparently, nobody at KFI (AM 640 in Los Angeles) had their brains turned on that day, because nobody rushed in to correct Gary or Shannon. During the following hour, Shannon repeated Mcdougald's whopper to KFI "political analyst" John Thomas.

Thomas, likewise, let Shannon's silly statement go unchallenged (hear the clip), indicating that Thomas too accepts Mcdougald's absurd claim.

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Libertarian Party of California June 2016 Primary Election Results

Libertarian Party of California Chair, Ted Brown, emailed this report to LPC members:

The Secretary of State has posted the final statement of vote for the June primary.

Libertarian voter registration is 115,189, or 0.64%, down slightly from our high point.

For the presidential primary, 9,972 non-partisan voters chose to take the Libertarian presidential primary ballot; this is the first time we have allowed non-Libertarians to vote in our presidential primary

For U.S. Senator, Gail Lightfoot received 99,761 votes and Mark Herd received 41,344 votes, for a total of 141,105.

For our candidates who were printed on the ballot, the vote percentages were:

 
CD 9 - Alex Appleby - 3.9%

CD 17 - Kennita Watson - 2.3%

SD 13 - John Webster - 5.7%

AD 8 - Janice Bonser - 7.2%

AD 24 - John Inks - 4.2%

AD 35 - Dominic Rubini - 3.4%

AD 42 - Jeff Hewitt - 7.8%


Unfortunately, none of them was in Top Two.

For write-in candidates:

 
SD 33 - Honor Mimi Robson - 47 votes - on to November

AD 1 - Donn Coenen - 446 votes - on to November

AD 2 - Ken Anton - 56 votes - on to November

AD 7 - Janine Kloss - 51 votes - beaten by another write-in candidate

AD 49 - Boomer Shannon - 25 votes - beaten by another write-in candidate

AD 51 - Mike Everling - 7 votes - on to November

AD 62 - Baron Bruno - 32 votes - tied with another write-in candidate; under the law, both will advance to November for a unique "Top Three."


Ultimately, there are only two unopposed legislators for November: Democrat Eduardo Garcia in AD 56 and Democrat Reggie Jones-Sawyer in AD 59. I am disappointed because I almost had someone in AD 56, but it didn't pan out. In any event, we will have five state legislative candidates in November.

For liberty,

Ted Brown

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