Bookeristas In The News

USA: DeMint Endorses Williams For U.S. Senate In Texas

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Republican Steering Committee, is looking to bring more conservatives to the Senate. Sen. DeMint today endorsed Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams (pictured) in the crowded Texas Republican Senate primary. Mr. Williams is the fourth conservative whom DeMint, chairman of the Senate Conservatives Fund, has endorsed in a Republican primary.

"Michael Williams is the Democrat Party's worst nightmare," DeMint said in a statement, because he'll oppose "massive spending, bailouts and takeovers." Sen. DeMint said Mr. Williams "has just been very clear and winsome with what he stands for....That's what we desperately need." Mr. Williams, who said he wants to join Sen. DeMint in "cutting the slouch towards European-style socialism," hailed the endorsement.

USA: Does Sen. John McCain Hate Ryan Frazier?

Asks the Colorado Independent, a liberal website. Aurora City Council (Colo.) member Ryan Frazier (pictured) was touted by the local and national media as an excellent libertarian-conservative Republican nominee against incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet for the U.S. Senate. In September, Sen. McCain called former Lt Governor and state McCain presidential campaign supporter Jane Norton and told her to run for Sen. Bennet’s seat. Ms. Norton announced she was running and has stacked her donor list and campaign team with McCaininites. Mr. Frazier's ambitions were put on hold.

In October, Mr. Frazier announced he would be challenging incumbent Rep. Ed Perlmutter to represent Colorado’s 7th U.S. House district. Local conservative analysts again seemed to like the idea. Then this week John McCain reportedly recruited former Democrat and McCain staffer Lang Sias to run in the 7th District race, against Mr. Frazier, who is now the GOP frontrunner.

Ghana: NPP: "President Mills Must Not Shield Bribe Givers"

The center-right New Patriotic Party says it is dismayed by the revelation that center-left President John Evans Atta-Mills is refusing to expose people who have attempted to offer him bribes. “If people have become so emboldened that they are able to walk up to the highest office of the land and seek to offer bribe to the President of the Republic, then we are losing the fight against corruption,” said the NPP's press statement. Last Monday, Kwame Pianim, an economist and leading NPP member, vouched for the integrity and cleanliness of President Mills related to corruption. Mr. Pianim claimed that on at least two occasions, he personally witnessed the president reject bribes.

The NPP added in its statement: “It would appear that President Mills and the NDC [National Democratic Congress] government he presides over have an unhealthy interest in protecting such criminals. It is to defuse such an impression that the President needs to stop shielding them and offer them to the law without further delay.”

USA: Ward Connerly: "Privatize The University Of California System"

The University of California system raised fees by 32 percent for Autumn 2010 admissions, which has some students up in arms. Ward Connerly, the libertarian-conservative head of the American Civil Rights Institute and a former University of California regent, argues that the financial crisis gives California a chance to reexamine the value of a UC education (here's more info on his market-based position): "Let elite UC campuses like Berkeley and UCLA charge market rates," he says. "Students who go there would be high achievers who could afford it. Others would go to the other campuses or CSU or community college for two years. We've created the impression that you have to go to the UC system to be successful."