Today, The Libertarian National Committee, The Libertarian Party of Kentucky & The David Patterson for US Senate 2014 Campaign filed suit against Kentucky Educational Television, a PBS affiliate, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky citing political & ideological discrimination infringing on their First Amendment right to speak freely.  A charge that comes in addition to the implied but blatantly obvious media bias to prevent 3rd Party/Independent Candidates form participating in public debates by setting the standards of qualification so high that they are not only unreasonable but impractical  to candidates not loaded with PAC money or lucrative corporate sponsorships.

"I firmly believe that there is something wrong here," Patterson said of the new debate inclusion criteria. "An Open Records Request showed that KET modified the criteria multiple times during the campaign season. The suspicious timing and ever-increasing thresholds seem to be created to ensure I didn't get to participate. They knew what the ramifications of those changes would be, and chose to act anyway."

Under the last version of the criteria, only Democrats and Republicans would have ever previously qualified to participate in KET's debate. The ACLU has called on KET to use the original criteria, under which Grimes and McConnell were invited and under which Patterson qualifies for the debate.

Attorney for the plaintiffs Chris Wiest stated, "Certainly public broadcasters like KET are entitled to impose objective criteria for debate participation, but what they cannot do and what KET internal email indicated they did, is impose such criteria to engage in viewpoint discrimination with the purpose to exclude particular candidates in contravention of the First Amendment."

Carla Howell, political director of the national Libertarian Party, noted that support for political alternatives is extremely high. "Recent polls show that 53 percent of Americans don't think Democrats or Republicans represent Americans, and that 58 percent of Americans want an alternative party. Numerous polls also show that Americans want what the Libertarian Party delivers: much less government and more freedom."

Ken Moellman, state chair of the Libertarian Party of Kentucky, raised ethical concerns. "Beyond any of the legal questions, the ethical ramifications of KET's actions are clear; they have violated five of the nine planks of their mission statement, as they acted to mute the voices of a growing political movement. Based on polling, at least 250,000 Kentuckians will have their voices squelched by KET's new criteria. As a taxpayer funded organization, they have a great responsibility to act impartially and to reject pressure — whether implicit or explicit, internal or external — to squelch alternate political viewpoints."

Last week at the opening of the Libertarian National Committee Headquarters, Chairman Nicholas Sarwark delivered a powerful message in the spirit of the porcupine putting establishment cronies and the old parties on notice: 

Three dictators comprising the Roman Triumviri; Octavian, Lepidus, and Anthony ordered his execution. But it was Anthony who despised him most. The Roman historian Appian accounts:

“Cicero…was condemned along with his son, his brother, his nephew, and all his connections, supporters, and friends.
He was escaping by boat but being unable to tolerate the roughness of the sea, returned to land and lay low in a country place of his…near the Italian town of Caieta. When the men who were tracking him down came near…some crows flew into his room, squawking and rousing him from sleep, and pulling his bedclothes from him, until his attendants divined that this was a sign from the gods, put him in a litter, and took him down to the sea again through a dense thicket which hid him. “Numbers of men were running in various directions and trying to discover if Cicero had been seen anywhere. Everyone else, wishing Cicero well and pitying him, said that he had already put out to sea and his boat was under way, but a cobbler, who was a dependant of Clodius, one of Cicero’s bitterest enemies, showed the path to a small party under Laenas, the officer in command. He ran along it, and when he saw that Cicero’s attendants far outnumbered the men coming with him to wreak their vengeance, he very astutely shouted out, “Centurions behind me, come up on the double!’ “The attendants were terror-struck, thinking that more soldiers were coming, and Laenas, who had actually once won a court case with Cicero’s support, pulled his head out of the litter and proceeded to cut it off. It took three blows and some sawing through because of his inexperience, and he also cut off the hand with which Cicero had composed the speeches against Anthony, portraying him as a despot, which he entitled Philippics in imitation of Demosthenes. “People immediately rushed to take the good news to Anthony, some on horseback, others by sea. Laenas found him seated in the forum and waved the head and hand at him from a long way away. Anthony was overjoyed and garlanded the officer, and gave him 250,000 denarii on top of the normal reward, on the grounds that he had removed the man who had been his greatest and most aggressive personal enemy. “Cicero’s head and hand were fastened for a long time to the rostra in the forum, where he had previously played the popular leader, and more came to see the sight than had listened to him. “This, then, was the way in which Cicero was killed and outraged after his death—a man who is renowned to this day for his literary achievements, and was of the greatest service to his country when he held the office of a consul.” Appian, The Civil Wars, Book IV

Kentucky Senatorial Candidate and Libertarian Party of Kentucky Nominee David Patterson is polling at 8% in the 2014 Kentucky Senate Race according to a NBC/Marist poll conducted last week. The bump in the polls shows steady progression for Patterson in the high profile race and veritas that despite dissension from the status quo and being grossly outspent by his opponents on the ballot that the libertarian and his platform appear to be a breath of fresh air to many kentuckians who see the current political establishment as little more than a bipolar oligarchy more concerned with representing their own interest than those of the people in which they supposedly serve. Kentuckians have a chance to vote for Liberty this November & a vote for Liberty is never wasted. Find out more at David's Website

This past weekend saw the passing of Kentucky Patriot Gurley L Martin. The word of the WWII Veterans passing came as somber news to many Kentuckians who came to know, love and admire Gurley through his political activism through which he kept a watchful eye on our commonwealth and the America which he loved so dearly. It is sometimes ask "who watches the watchmen" with little doubt very few Kentuckians can say they have fought as vigilantly against corruption and for the people as Gurley did though out the decades. A man of Principle and conviction, Gurley carried the torch of Liberty sometimes alone against the establishment, through times when real change and accountability seemed as far from reach as they do today but with out American Patriots, true remnants of the Revolution like Gurely the ember of Liberty may have not endured to be passed to & ignited by new generations of Kentuckians. Gurley's Legacy will Live Long among Liberty Lovers in the Commonwealth as he will not soon be forgotten but indeed sorely missed at meeting and rallys across Kentucky for years to come & we would all do well never to forget that great americans like Gurley L Martin put it all on the line and walked it too for all of us to Live Free regardless of our differences. 

Godspeed Gurley, We're on Watch