The Atlantic has this lengthy essay by Alex Seitz-Wald on why the U.S. Constitution is outmoded. The article mentions that among the several hundred national constitutions that have been written in the last one hundred years, almost none of them copied the U.S. model. The essay also points out that most of the countries that did imitate the U.S. Constitution were in Latin America and during the years they had such constitutions, they suffered from instability. Thanks to How Appealing for the link. Alex Seitz-Wald is a political correspondent for The National Journal.

Parker Griffith will run for U.S. House, 5th district, in 2014, as an independent. He is already circulating his petition. He was elected as a Democrat in 2008, from the same Alabama district, but in 2009 he changed his affiliation to be a Republican, and then was defeated by another Republican in the 2010 primary. See this story. Thanks to Tony Roza for the link.

On October 31, U.S. District Court Judge William Haynes put the Tennessee Libertarian Party nominee for state legislature in Memphis on the ballot with the label “Libertarian”. If the injunction had not been issued, then the candidate, James Tomasik, would have been on the ballot as an independent instead. The case is Tomasik v Goins, 3:13cv-1118. The election is being held on November 21, to fill the vacant State House seat, 91st district. More details later.

UPDATE: here is a newspaper story about the decision, from the Memphis Flyer. Here is another article, from the Tennesseean.