Dude, where’s my bailout?

h/t Delaware Libertarian.

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Facilitate Change – a nonviolent communication program with a focus on social change

Email From Kimberly Wilder. I know Kimberly through writing at Independent Political Report. She is the source of a good chunk of our Green news, although she recently resigned from the Green Party.

(I am not sure it they might extend the deadline. But, ideally, I think people are supposed to sign up today or tomorrow. Thought you might be interested, but also, it would be of great help if you could blog about this/spread the news –tonight???? Thanks for any help. Peace, Kimberly)

Facilitate Change – an NVC program with a focus on social change
facilitatechange.org

Facilitate change is a 9-month Nonviolent Communication Social Change intensive training program in New York. This project-based program includes three residential retreats and weekly gatherings by phone.

Using Nonviolent Communication as a primary activist tool, in Facilitate Change you’ll develop practices to boost the effectiveness of grassroots projects and nonprofit organizations in how they function and achieve their goals.

The Facilitate Change program supports the development of social change leaders and their organizations to create the change they wish to see in the world. By applying the consciousness and skills of compassionate, Nonviolent Communication to social change projects, Facilitate Change fosters “compassion in action” at a personal, group, and international level, taking tangible steps towards creating a world where human needs are peacefully met.

—

P.S. I have taken a course with Dian who is one of the leaders of this. She is very good. I think that this program would be invaluable for activists. It seems likely to lead to profound discussions about how can people have a politics of change in a new way, with profound listening and profound compassion.

peace, peace, peace, peace
peace, peace, peace, peace
Kimberly Wilder
Long Island, NY

Our family web-site of politics, art and culture:
http://www.onthewilderside.net

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I smoke pot.

There, I said it.  It wasn’t hard.  It didn’t hurt.

Now, I don’t smoke pot like some people I know smoke pot.  I smoke it once in a while, usually socially.  I enjoy it.  I enjoy partaking with friends.  I likely don’t need to state for everyone here the health facts about marijuana use: it’s safer than cigarettes, and the negative effects are vastly less than those of alcohol.  Alcohol and cigarettes contribute vastly more to bad health and other societal problems than does marijuana use.  I’m sure you already knew all of that, though. I’ve never assaulted anyone while high.  I’ve never robbed a bank, nor knocked off a liquor store because I got stoned.  Marijuana has not turned me into a perpetrator of crimes which infringe upon the rights of others.  It does help me relax, it does help me laugh, and the fact is that neither relaxing nor laughter are conducive to going out and infringing on the rights of others.

Let me get to the point, though.  When things become normalized out in the open, acceptance goes up.  It’s worked for achieving less discrimination for queer individuals.  It’s worked for a variety of other communities, causes, and activities, as well.  Once homosexuals started coming out, publicly, it became a whole lot more accepted very quickly.  There’s still room for improvement of course, but I digress.  This is about pot.  I’ve gone to all this trouble to announce that I smoke pot simply because I think it’s important to make it a normal, accepted part of American culture.  Once that happens, legalization will be a vastly easier task.

So I invite you all – regardless of how much or how often you smoke – join me in coming out of the closet.  Tell your family.  Tell your friends.  Post it in a comment here.  Whatever you do, lets make it so ordinary that people in this country smoke pot, that no one even thinks twice when they hear it.

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Anarchy vs. Minarchy

Nothing to add to what’s been said about this by others.

Just my attempt to get a threadjacking off IPR and bring it to where it is on subject. That is, here.

If you have thoughts on the question, whether you find this from IPR or elsewhere, please add them in the comments.

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LibertarianPartyCandidates.US tracks races all over the country

I’ve previously listed the LP candidates here, here, here and here. Now, George Donnelly has turned this list into its own website with graphics and continuous updating. George explains:

An Effort to List all LP Candidates

We Libertarians need to know how many candidates we’re fielding for office. Which states are fielding full slates? no slates? Who are the candidates, what do they look like, what is their history, what are their positions and motivations?

This is all very basic but, before Libertarian Party Candidates (LPC), you could not find all this information in one place.

It’s important to see how well (or poorly) we Libertarians are doing at challenging the Republicrat duopoly at the ballot box. Hopefully LPC will serve as a measuring stick and as an incentive to run more and better candidates in 2010, 2012 and beyond.

Background

When Paulie pointed out in July of 2008 that LP.org doesn’t list all the Libertarian Party candidates running for office, it piqued my interest. How can we expect people to support and vote for Libertarian candidates if they don’t even know who they are – or even that they exist?

So, after chatting with Paulie, I decided that Libertarians might like a website where they can find all LP candidates in one convenient place.

Thanks to Paulie, the state parties and others that have collected the raw information presented here. All I did was design the site and enter the data.

Future Years

The site was built in a hurry during my spare time in the last couple weeks of July 2008, but I plan to significantly improve it for 2010 and beyond. Your sugestions and comments will help make that a reality.

Please Share your Feedback

Please feel free to contact me, George Donnelly, at me@georgedonnelly.com with any suggestions, ideas, complaints or whatever. I’m open to developing the project in new directions. I’m also interested in other strategies to advance the cause of liberty.

According to the site, the LP is running

* 15 for US Senate
* 109 for US House
* 5 for State Governor
* 4 for State Lt. Governor
* 1 for State Treasurer
* 3 for State Attorney General
* 2 for State Auditor
* 22 for Other State Offices
* 42 for State Senates
* 216 for State Houses
* 3 for Local Executives
* 26 for Local Legislatures
* 6 for Judge
* 12 for Sherriff or Constable
* 78 for Other Local Offices
* 546 Total LP candidates

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Repent sinners!

From Liv Films, an editorial about gay marriage, fat marriage, eating lobsters, and more. Mona of Liv Films was the “Ron Paul Girl,” but most of their recent work has been non-political. LMFAO (laughing my fat ass off)….

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Starchild instrumental in putting prostitution decriminalization on the ballot

Press release posted on the LP Radicals yahoo group. Starchild has had various offices in the San Francisco and California LP, and is one of the spokespeople for this initiative.

The San Francisco Department of Elections announced today that the measure prohibiting city officials from spending money arresting and prosecuting people for prostitution, and mandating equal legal protection for sex workers, has qualified for the November ballot. Of 500 signatures randomly sampled and checked by department personnel, 80 percent were found to be valid. “This is a happy day for San Franciscans who want government to focus on fighting real crimes like homicides and robberies, and are tired of seeing resources wasted in a futile effort to police consensual sex between adults,” said Starchild, a sex worker activist and spokesperson for the campaign. “We’ve cleared the first hurdle.” By the Elections Department’s tally, supporters had turned in 12,745 signatures of registered San Francisco voters on July 7.

The campaign to decriminalize prostitution will hold a kickoff rally and press conference to formally announce the results on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. in front of the Polk Street entrance of City Hall, with
speakers to likely include Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, who was a signer of the petition to put the measure on the ballot along with two of his board colleagues. “It is way past time that the
recommendations of the Board of Supervisors 1996 Prostitution Task Force were implemented,” said the measure’s proponent, Maxine Doogan. “Criminalizing sex workers has been putting workers at risk of violence and discrimination for far too long.”

The prostitution reform measure joins two other voter-submitted measures on the local Nov. 4 ballot, along with eight measures put on the ballot by the mayor or members of the Board of Supervisors, with many others expected to be added in the next several weeks.

Starchild – (415) 621-7932 / (415) 368-8657 / RealReform@…
Maxine Doogan – (415) 265-3302 / MistressMax@…

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Troy King reported to be dating Troy University homecoming king

Back in November, I made the following comments at
Loretta Nall Sends Troy King Appropriate Sex Toy:

But reasonable people would not include the Alabama legislature, which in is great wisdom passed a law banning dildos, vibrators, and other weapons of mass stimulation.

Not content with the law as it stands, Alabama Attorney General Troy King wants the legislature to make the law even more draconian.

I remember Troy from college. He was always a little weird. He used to write frequent letters to the CW, which described in detail his disgust with homosexuals hooking up in public toilets (well before Larry Craig), a subject he seemed to be intimately familiar with, and exhorted readers to go eat at Cracker Barrel, which at the time was under fire for a policy of discriminating against having gay employees. Troy always seemed just a little too obsessed with homosexual perversion.

Alert readers may remember that Loretta Nall sent Troy King a blow up pig:

My suspicion now seems likely to have been confirmed.

Loretta explains

This is not about being gay. This is about being a hypocrite…of the highest order

There is an official denial of the rumor about Troy King now….so I can say what the rumor is.

According to rumors flying around for the last week Troy King, our
rabidly homophobic, anti-sex toy, Sunday School teaching, pro-execution Republican Attorney General is GAY! And I don’t mean that as in happy either. I’d bet he is anything but happy right now. In fact, according to two sources he is about to resign. [..]

I have been sitting on this story for about a week. Truth is I am SORE from having to sit on it so long….but not as sore as Troy King is.

Loretta elaborates:

I have some friends in pretty high places in Alabama politics so I called one of them up with the juicy details. They told me they heard a rumor about his sexual orientation some six months ago from a former reporter with a large, credible newspaper in Alabama. I also know that reporter and knew them to be very credible. The rumor at the time was that Troy’s mystery man was his old college roommate who he gave a position to when he took over the AG office in 2004. Supposedly when Troy was out of town so was lover boy.

The story then became that the mystery man was a young man who had just graduated from Troy University and was the Homecoming King(no pun intended) (God that gets confusing…Troy King with the homecoming king who graduated from Troy) and that was who the wife walked in on. Then a few weeks later Troy and his boy toy from Troy were spotted at the YMCA (not kidding) engaging in….ummmm….inappropriate activities. Yeah…at the YMCA…made famous by the Village People. Apparently Troy has no inkling of what it means to be ‘discreet’.

I’m betting they are both true. If Troy King can be a closet gay and Alabama Attorney General at the same time then there exists in this universe the infinite possibility for him to be a promiscuous, closet gay, Alabama Attorney General. But apparently closet and promiscuous don’t go so well together. But, hell, no one is claiming that he’s smart are they?

As far as the significance of this story, Loretta explains:

There are so many things that make this a delicious story. Gay Sex, high ranking elected officials who are rabidly anti-gay in public but turn out to be gay in private, they get caught at the YMCA (of all places), the whole sex toy incident, the ‘below the belt’ legislation that Troy has made a focal point during his time in office, his desire to be the guy who injects death row inmates with deadly chemicals. I bet this is why he objects to DNA testing, ya know? Wonder where all they would find his DNA? It’s really not much different than what Bill Clinton did with Monica Lewenski…except Troy is a Republican and his mystery partner is GAY!! Lordy, does it get any better than this?

Head On Radio Network is one of several sites making video and musical parodies which take advantage of Troy King’s embarrassment.

Another one is found at the myspace page for Mock 5

Alabama Queen

Troy King has refused to comment on the allegations, claiming that his kids would be subject to teasing.

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Democrats Gone Wild: Stabbing words edition

According to The Smoking Gun, Jose Antonio Ortiz stabbed his brother-in-law, Sean Shurelds (who was flown to a hospital, where he was admitted in critical condition) due to a disagreement about Hillary Clinton vs Barack Obama.

Yes, you read that right.

Apparently Shurelds supports Obama, and Ortiz supports Clinton. While the two were in the kitchen of someone’s home (it is unclear whose home) Shurelds told Ortiz that Obama was “trashing” Clinton, and Ortiz responded that “Obama was not a realist.”

While for most people that would be pretty much the end of the conversation, not so with these two, for whom those were not just fighting words, they were stabbing words. Ortiz and Shurelds argued, began to choke and punch each other, and eventually Ortiz grabbed a knife and stabbed Shurelds in the abdomen.

Ortiz then went back to doing the dishes, including, of course, the knife he had used to stab his brother-in-law.

Not at all surprisingly, Ortiz has a case of selective memory (not unlike the typical politician), and conveniently denies any memory of the stabbing incident. He has been charged with felony aggravated assault, as well as two misdemeanor counts. Bail has been set at $20,000.

I’m sure Clinton and Obama are proud to have supporters who are willing to go that far for their chosen candidate. Or not.

__________________________

Originally posted on Adventures In Frickintardistan  

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What my job is like

I have to talk to hundreds of people like this every single day.

(Originally posted on my blog and in the
Libertarian Survey comments which are still going strong even though it’s on page two now).

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Imagine our embarrassment…

First, the American people – or, at the very least Florida SOS Katherine Harris and 5 of 9 Supremely Kangaroo Kort “justices” ruling in a case over which they had zero jurisdiction (2000) and Ken Blackwell (2004) – picked a friggin’ Chimpanzee as POTUS. Twice.

Now, it turns out that one of the leading contenders for the NSGOP nomination may very well in fact be a reanimated corpse who feeds by draining and consuming the blood of living beings. Holy shit – what are the odds on that?

Ghouliani or Nosferatu? We report, you decide…

source:

Prose Before Hos

This is really scary…we must take all due diligence to keep this unclean, living undead, blood-sucking creature out of the white house, or else face even more international shame – and who would have thought it possible, after Clinton and Bush? – for our presidential selection.

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ImmiGREAT!

Border wall boondoggle: even dumber than I thought!

http://freestudents.blogspot.com/

So a gaggle of right-wing racists and faux libertarians want to build a wall on the border. They are going to “secure” the borders. Nice.

So what does securing the borders mean? Well, one taste of it is that the historic right of Americans to cross into Canada or Mexico without a passport is gone. To travel you have to a government document giving you permission to do so. You can see why I think the “libertarians” who support this measure are not really libertarians at all.

And they want to build a big wall on the Mexican border. Also nice. Real nice. (You do know I’m being sarcastic.)

Since the United States was founded (and before) the borders with Canada and Mexico were never “secure”. Never. So the communities developed often without regard of that imaginary line in the dirt.

Now the authoritarians want “secure borders” and that means problems. It doesn’t mean problems for would-be terrorists. After all the 9/11 criminals didn’t cross the border illegally. They came in with government permission. They had passports and the US government said to them: “Welcome to America. Want some flying lessons?”

No one came in through Canada or Mexico. They didn’t cross the borders but flew in and handed over their permission slips to the hall monitors at the airports. They were roaming around killing people because they passed government security and had state permission to be in the US. You would think the government would look at how they approve would-be terrorists to enter the US. Instead Americans are being forced to get passports to spend a few hours shopping in Mexico.

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John Edwards’ wife gives loudmouth Ann Coulter the smackdown

This is actually pretty funny. When confronted about her previous statements, first by Edwards’ wife Elizabeth, then by Chris Matthews of Hardball, Coulter plays dumb, pretending like she doesn’t remember saying, just the day before this interview, that she wishes John Edwards would be killed in a terrorist attack, and pretending like she doesn’t know what Matthews is talking about when he quotes some very personal insults about Hillary Clinton from her book. I have a pretty good hunch that, in a debate where Coulter isn’t allowed to talk over others and actually has to defend her abhorrent behavior, she’d lose in record time, and quite embarrassingly so.

I knew she had called Edwards a “faggot”, but I had no idea that she had made cracks about the death of one of John Edwards’ children. In fact, I didn’t even know the Edwards had lost a child. So, I decided to look it up, since it apparently happened about three years ago, and I have never followed Republicans, much less Republican loudmouths in mini-skirts.

Lo, and behold, I found the exact quote, wherein she made a crack about the death of Edwards’ 16-year-old son, Wade, in a car accident. How horrific for them, to lose a beloved child so unexpectedly. So I can only imagine the hurt they felt when they read the following trash from Coulter:

Edwards has talked about his son’s death in a 1996 car accident on “Good Morning America,” in dozens of profiles and in his new book. (“It was and is the most important fact of my life.”) His 1998 Senate campaign ads featured film footage of Edwards at a learning lab he founded in honor of his son, titled “The Wade Edwards Learning Lab.” He wears his son’s Outward Bound pin on his suit lapel. He was going to wear it on his sleeve, until someone suggested that might be a little too “on the nose.”

If you want points for not using your son’s death politically, don’t you have to take down all those “Ask me about my son’s death in a horrific car accident” bumper stickers? Edwards is like a politician who keeps announcing that he will not use his opponent’s criminal record for partisan political advantage. I absolutely refuse to mention the name of my dearly beloved and recently departed son killed horribly in a car accident, which affected me deeply, to score cheap political points.

My God. There are no words to describe anybody who would sink that low to insult political rivals. Well, there are a few, but those are words I would never use. Has this coldhearted bitch any idea what it’s like to lose a child? Apparently not. That’s Darwin’s fault, though, since he correctly predicted that scum-sucking bottom feeders like her could never breed.

I have to say, I loved seeing that loudmouth Coulter on the hot seat for once, since she usually mouths off about people who aren’t there to defend themselves against her vicious personal attacks. Note the brainwashing of an innocent child going on over her right shoulder. This entire sick scene reminds me why I have never supported a Republican candidate.

Incidentally, Coulter once wanted to run for Congress as a Libertarian, and the Connecticut LP turned her down flat. Smart thinking on their part, because she’s just another wackjob who wants to pretend to be a libertarian.

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Law enforcement involvement in death of CA woman ignored by ER personnel

We’ve probably all heard the story of Edith Isabel Rodriguez, who died in a Los Angeles emergency room after being refused treatment. Concerned people on the scene called 911, and were told there was nothing cops or paramedics can do, since she was already in a hospital. Hospital personnel stepped over her while she was on the floor, writhing in pain. A janitor mopped around her, to clean up the blood which came from her body. Concerned individuals who tried to bring the woman’s condition to the attention of hospital personnel were told that it was not blood coming from her mouth, but chocolate.

The woman, unfortunately, died.

The part of this story being left out of most news accounts, however, is that the hospital called the cops to have her removed from the premises.

When cops arrived, they picked her up off the floor, blood coming from her mouth, and arrested her for a probation violation.

What the hell?

Cops were transporting her to jail when her heart stopped. They returned her to the hospital, but by then it was too late, and she died. She had suffered a perforated bowel sometime within 24 hours after arriving at the hospital. Had she been seen when she had first arrived at the hospital hours before, she probably would have survived.

The problem here lies not just with the hospital, but with the cops. The cops should have demanded that she be seen before they transported her. After all, it’s not rocket science that somone is probably dying when they’re in that kind of condition.

A number of hospital employees have been fired and reported to licensing authorities, and the state has taken steps to close down the hospital since she’s not the only person who appeared there deathly ill and was refused treatment. A murder investigation has also been opened.

As far as I can tell, though, no action has been taken against the cops on the scene, despite their undeniable responsibility to intervene on the woman’s behalf.

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The dignified statesmen of Goat Hill

H/T Loretta Nall.
Fight in the Alabama State Senate!

According to
Between the Links:

Senator Charles Bishop (R-Arley) got a standing ovation for puching Senator Lowell Barron on the Senate floor. Mike Hubbard, the chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, was recognizing distinguished guests when he asked all state legislators to stand as a group to be recognized — there were too many in the audience to recognize individually.

After they all seated, however, he then specificially recognized Senator Charles Bishop “who has been much maligned by the press” recently, obviously a reference to the “Alabama Senate fight.” Applause erupted and people began to stand — a reaction only matched that night as US Senator John McCain approached the podium.

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Vote or Die, Bitch!

Since I gave Michelle a hat tip earlier, might as well make it a pair. (It’s easier to get away with staring with my hat tipped low). Something is making me think of Michelle and pairs today. Not sure what that is. Wait, don’t tell me, I almost got it figured out….damn, I forgot again. What was it, I wonder? Anyway. A wolf, a sheep, and a wolf in sheep’s clothing went in the polling booth….did I mention voting was mandatory in the USSR?

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Medical Marijuana and States Rights

H/T BureauCrash

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Has Eric Dondero Rittberg stopped beating his wives?

Carol Moore reports a most disturbing rumor about the master shake who is currently seeking to represent the Adolf Giuliani wing of the Rapepubliccon Party in the TX-14 congressional primary. Listening to Eric take turns first lavishing fake praise, then going apeshit and foaming at the mouth here, here, and here, it doesn’t take much of a vivid imagination to believe.

One warmonger to respond to Ron Paul’s statements was Paul’s former congressional campaign manager Eric Dondero who now fulminates daily about fighting “Islamofacist” terrorists on a variety of forums. He declared he’s running against Paul for congress in his home district in 2008, unless Paul resigns or another republican stands up against him. See RightPundit, RedState.Com, and this blog.
.
Dondero was Ron Paul’s travel aide when Paul was running for the Libertarian Party nomination, ran his 1996 congressional campaign where Paul re-took his seat, and worked for a time in Paul’s congressional office. I can say from personal experience that Dondero is a sleazy little operative, quick to insult and smear others with lies. So I thought a lot better of Paul when I heard he had ended their alliance.
.
The most persistent unpleasant rumor whispered around about Dondero himself was that he allegedly “beat his wife.” He introduced me to her at the 1987 libertarian convention and she definitely had the kind of sad sack, always wary demeanor of a woman who expected a whack in the head momentarily. They later divorced.
.
I therefore was quite suspicious when I read Dondero’s claim on a libertarian discussion group in November of 2006 that his NEW wife had been mugged three times. Two paragraphs from the post will make his boorish style of argumentation quite clear:
.
Yup, I’m a bigot alright. Married to a Chinese woman. Been all around the world; 30 countries on 5 continents. Speak 15 to 20 languages. Have had more Mexican and Filipina girlfriends than you can shake a stick at.
.
My wife has been mugged three times (!!!) in the last three years in Houston. Once where they put a gun to her head. All because she’s Asian. And illegals and others here in Houston prey on Asians, cause they think they’ve “got money.”
.
After the posting I replied on the discussion group, referring to the 1987 rumors, and wondering if Dondero’s current wife really had been mugged or if the injuries came from someone a little closer to home. Dondero promptly dropped off the discussion group! EndAbuse.Org reports that as many as 3 million women a year are assaulted by their significant others. That sounds low to me!
.
I also noted at the time some men may prefer to date immigrant women. First, many come from countries where deference to abusive males is still prevalent. Second, tenuous immigrant status makes them less likely to report physical assaults to police and/or are more easily intimidated by threats a man will press false charges against them. No wonder so many American men import “mail order brides.” If the rumors and impressions are true and Eric’s American born wife finally got up the gumption to call police on him, it would make sense he then turned to foreign born women.

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McCain: The Manchurian Candidate

With all the attention we have been paying to Republican Presidential candidates Adolf Giuliani and Ron Paul lately, I thought it would be only fair to say a word or two about creepy warmonger
John McCain.

Here he is singing “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” and laughing about it.

What did the Iranians ever do? Never mind, war criminal McCain has never met a war he didn’t like.

McCain can’t help but remind me of the
Manchurian Candidate.

This illustrious member of the Keating Five Savings and Loan scandal Senators and noted gigolo is also well known for the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act.

Somewhat less well known is that he also co-sponsored the McCain/Lieberman gun show bill, which would have given the federal government the administrative power to prohibit all gun shows, and to register everyone who attends a gun show. According to wikipedia, “Since 2004, McCain has gained the unique distinction of receiving an F- rating from Gun Owners of America; and further unlike any other 2008 Republican Presidential Candidate has a dedicated section/compendium within the GOA web site, which contains numerous pages relating to John McCain’s very own anti-Second Amendment initiatives while in the Senate”.

Wikipedia also points out that he hired a board member of the Project for the New American Century, Randy Scheunemann, as his foreign-policy aide and is considering Billion Dollar Bob Riley for veep.

Oh, and his anti-torture provision? Not all it’s cracked up to be.

To sum it all up, I have to give McCain the maximum number of flushes.

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Return of the Jedi

A few of us from the LP Radical Caucus were on Angela Keaton’s show. It’s been a while since I’ve heard it, but I remember that I said “um” way, way, way too much. It was me, Susan Hogarth, Morey Straus and Marc Montoni. Did I forget any other guests?

Unfortunately, after the show was supposed to be over, Susan and I kept talking and did not realize we were still being recorded for the show (oops!). One of the things we discussed was North Carolina LP Ballot Access. When we realized we were inadvertantly part of the show, I did not care, but Susan objected and we had the show removed.

A big brouhaha ensued, and I have been told the unedited show is a hot item being passed around on the libertarian underground by some people who must be incredibly bored. In any case,
after much fumbling, we were able to finally get the show edited and posted back up.

Listen to the edited show here:

http://angelakeaton.com/wp-content/uploads/radcaucus_ed1.mp3

Oh yeah:

Robert Capozzi and Brian Holtz of the LP Reform Caucus
“strike back“.

I guess someone objected to the
reference, since the show is now retitled “Reform Caucus Responds.”

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Adolf Giuliani: As Far From Libertarian As Possible

Despite what a certain milk shake would like you to believe, Rudolf Giuliani Mussolini is As Far From Libertarian As Possible (click on the link to read about his early history as a psychotically deranged persecutor of victimless white collar “criminals”).

Even some of Giuliani’s admirers admit he has fascist tendencies. The amazing record of corruption and perfidy simply boggles the mind. Giuliani even had the incredible temerity to
try to stay on as mayor after his term was over.

Check out the comments at Serf City. Giuliani abused his mayoral office to go after cabbies, artists, street vendors, porn,
sex-related businesses, and anyone who did business without a license. His phony tax cuts were merely deficit spending – putting the tax bill on future victims, plus interest, while ducking the responsibility for his out of control spending, a favorite ploy of scumbag Rapepublicneoconartists.

Ron Moore reports,

Let’s take the pot smokers. One study points out that under Rudy’s Broken Windows policy, public-toking arrests rose 2000% from about 2000 in 1994 to over 50,000 by 2000 ( Harcourt & Ludwig, Reefer Madness: Broken Windows Policing and Misdemeanor Marijuana Arrests in New York City, 1989-2000 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=948753). The study also finds that this had no measurable effect on violent crime.”

Furthermore,

Unfortunately, Rudy’s broken windows policy didn’t apply to Rudy’s buddies in the New York Police Department. An April 1999 article in Crime and Delinquency (Zero Tolerance: A Case Study in Police Policies and Practices in New York City, Judith Greene) points to a 75% increase in new civil rights claims against the police for abusive conduct. The article also points to a sharp increase in the number of complaints which resulted in no arrest and no summons and where there was no suspicion of criminal activity. Um – just why were people being stopped? What was Mayor Rudy’s response to growing concern about police misconduct? According to the article the new Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) funding was cut 17% compared to the agency it replaced.

Victim disarmament? According to Mike Blessing, Giuliani said on one of the

morning empty-talk shows that “We shouldn’t just try one of these [”gun control”] plans, we should try them all.”

Giuliani libertarian?

King George Dubai-ya Dubai-ya III Bush has gone a long way towards creating a fascist Amerikkka. Rudolf the coke nosed Fascist would go all the way. No libertarians should even remotely consider being fellow travellers in helping Ayatollah Giuliani set up his gulag regime.

We look upon authority too often and focus over and over again, for 30 or 40 or 50 years, as if there is something wrong with authority. We see only the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don’t see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.

-Rudy

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Dana Rohrabacher, Traitor to Liberty

Via Brad Spangler

Dana Rohrabacher wants me dead. Well, not just me. Dana Rohrabacher wants a whole bunch of Americans dead.

“I hope it’s your family members that [sic] die,” said US Rep. Dana Rohrabacher to American citizens who questioned the Bush administration’s unlawful extraordinary rendition policies.

Rohrabacher, bring it you fucking traitor.

“But in 1969-71, Dana Rohrabacher was the most successful and most beloved libertarian activist… he was a close friend of mine until he crossed the line with his campaign for Congress.“ — Samuel Edward Konkin III

This reminds me. I’ve been trying to get confirmation as to whether Rohrabacher was a warmonger during the Vietnam War. As a former anarchist and follower of an actual pacifist, Robert LeFevre, it would have been illogical, but I would like independent reports from those who actually knew Rohrabacher back then.

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Kent McManigal Ends Presidential Trail

Kent McManigal made the following announcement today:

The End of the Trail

After a lot of thought I have decided to end my campaign. Last night while trying to delete spam comments, I accidentally deleted most of the content on the Boston Tea Party’s website. That was the last straw for me. I appreciate all the encouragement and support I have received in the past two and a half years. I apologize to anyone who is disappointed that I have withdrawn. I will probably keep blogging, and plan to change KentForLiberty into something other than a campaign site. I have come to realize that we will never get government back in line with the Constitution or with what is right by using methods approved and “allowed” by that same rogue government.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I think a part of the LP community is surprised and disappointed by Kent’s departure. When I opened my computer for the day, there were several messages on the subject.

I am not shocked by it, but I wish he had stayed. Kent made the LP race more interesting, as I think many will agree. To my mind, Kent was that dark horse who could have walked away with the nomination, had Phillies and Kubby delegates clashed, not unlike what happened at the last LP presidential convention.

Kent was the one LP candidate who defied categorization. At first, to be honest, I really wanted to put him into the nutcase category. After all, he obviously doesn’t fit into the mainstream category. Yet, the more I read, and the more I talked to him, the more I realized that Kent is an original who defies categorization.

I first discovered Kent’s candidacy through, of all people, Gene Chapman. I looked at his website, and made a smartass comment on a forum about how Kent looks like he’d kick Gene Chapman’s ass for calling him a Communist. I stand by that statement, incidentally. Kent misunderstood and thought I was making fun of the way he dresses, and we began a correspondence which has continued to this day. I’m proud to call Kent McManigal my friend. I can’t categorize him any other way.

Needless to say, I support him no matter what he decides for his own life, because that’s what friends do. I hope I am not betraying a confidence when I say that this is a question over which Kent has struggled for a while now. He has hinted at it on his blog, after all. And now ….. well, the LP world is just a little less interesting for me today. I hope you understand.

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Jury Nullification: Should Juries Be Informed Of Their Right To Ignore The Law?

Jury nullification is a process by which a criminal jury determines that a law is unconscienable, either morally or as it applies to a specific case, and therefore is to be ignored despite the guilt of the defendant. The US Supreme Court has determined that juries do have the power to nullify, but they also determined that juries need not be informed of this power. As a result, very few jurors have any idea that they can ignore the law, if they feel the case before them warrants that action.

Historical examples of jury nullification are abundant. Early in our nation’s history, jurors were regularly informed of this power. Positive examples of jury nullification include cases involving the Fugitive Slave laws, and of course, Prohibition. Negative examples include the refusal of some juries in the south to find white supremacists guilty of murdering African-Americans or civil rights workers, despite substantial evidence of guilt.

Judges worry that informing juries of this power will result in juror anarchy, with jurors deciding cases based on their sympathies rather than on the facts of the case; some argue that this is what happened in the OJ Simpson trial of the early 90s. Another judicial concern is that jury nullification will result in an increase in the number of hung juries, or that jurors will be overwhelmed if they are expected to interpret not only the facts, but the fairness of the law as well. An ongoing concern is that, once found not guilty by a jury, a defendant is protected from ever being tried again on that charge under the Double Jeopardy Clause; so if jurors nullify, guilty defendants will go free. The current conventional wisdom is therefore to not only not inform jurors of their nullification powers, but to specifically instruct jurors that they are to determine the facts, not the law, and that they must follow the law exactly as it is presented to them by the court.

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Wealthy Convicted Felon Fugitives Given Special Treatment

Ed and Elaine Brown have been holed up in their Plainfield, NH house for months, daring federal law enforcement to bother them. While normally that’s not a problem, since I don’t want federal law enforcement to bother me at home either, Ed and Elaine Brown have been not only convicted of federal crimes, but also sentenced to prison for those crimes. They have also repeatedly referred to the outcome of any attempt to take them into custody as another “Waco”, and have openly stated that they will kill anyone who tries to take them into lawful custody. Now, that’s a problem.

Elaine is a very successful dentist (or at least she was, until all this happened). Ed is usually described as a “retired exterminator”. Basically, he lives off his wealthy wife, which I guess is nice work if you can get it. However, if Ed and Elaine Brown were young financially disadvantaged African-Americans, they’d have been toast long ago. See, my problem with this situation has nothing to do with the Browns’ convictions per se – and in fact, the nature of their conviction is irrelevant to me – but rather my concern is that everyone is supposed to be equal under the law. Obviously, though, that is not the case.

This whole mess started years ago, when Ed and Elaine decided there was no law which requires them to pay federal income taxes. So, they didn’t, and quite predictably the IRS came a-knockin’. They had failed to file or pay taxes on over $1.3 million in income, and refused to pay or even discuss payment when the government demanded its money, so they were criminally prosecuted. They then tried to buy their way out of trouble by offering to pay the back taxes, but it was too late.

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Ethiopians still in Somalia

I hate to say I told you so. But, I told you so.

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Kent McManigal on Strike The Root

A few folks have asked me why I support LP Presidential Candidate Kent McManigal. After all, I don’t agree with everything he says and he’s unlikely to get the nomination, but the truth is that Kent is a fascinating individual, a true individualist who has so much more to offer us than politics. He just published an insightful article on Strike the Root, which he calls “A Deep Breath of Freedom” . Here is an excerpt:

I have not really spent much time until now thinking about why freedom is so important to me. I love freedom for the same reason I love oxygen: Both are necessary for life. Government is like a fire in a small room, burning up the oxygen and making me fight to get to the fresh air outside. When the Declaration of Independence speaks of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” I think it is simply repeating itself for emphasis. The three things are so tightly bound together that I don’t think they can be separated.

Most of my thoughts of freedom center around the outdoors. Freedom to me is the ability to enjoy life and not worry about laws or regulations. Freedom is not the opportunity to take advantage of or hurt anyone. Those kind of twisted desires bring their own chains, even if you don’t get caught.

There are many times in my life where I have felt limitless freedom, such as the day I spent sitting on the edge of a cliff, in the roots of an ancient tree. I watched the clouds drifting slowly past far below me, hawks riding the air currents beneath the clouds. I could see the river glistening in the distance and tiny houses that I understood were very important to people I didn’t know, people who were the whole world to someone. For that day, I felt as though I were a part of their world, yet isolated from it. On days like that, freedom is a physical presence.

There are also the days of peeling the bark from poles destined to be new lodge poles for my tipi. Seeing the bark curl away from my drawknife and smelling the freshly exposed wood, there is no way to adequately describe the experience. I immerse myself in it so deeply that I chew bits of the bark to more fully become a part of the tree.

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Open Forum on Immigration

This is an attempt to get Andy and Gary to stop sending this stuff to my email.

Here you go guys, have at it.

Source material for the debate:

1 (continues for 12 pages when you hit (“previous entries”).

2

The Case for Free Trade and Open Immigration

Both sides

OK, now you can quit copying me on those emails! Thanks.

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Feeding Homeless A Criminal Offense In Orlando

Orlando police have unbelievably arrested 21-year-old Eric Montanez, an activist with the charity “Food Not Bombs”, for feeding 30 homeless people in downtown Orlando.

A city ordinance, supported by businesses which claim the homeless frighten away customers, prevents feeding more than 25 homeless persons within two miles of Orlando City Hall. The law does allow charities to feed more than 25 people at a time with a special permit, but only allows two such special permits per year. Perhaps they feel charitable only on Christmas and Thanksgiving?

I’ve been in downtown Orlando. It’s no different from any other large city, insofar as the homeless population is concerned. It’s also nothing special, and chances are this ordinance has little to do with the homeless frightening customers, and everything to do with the people who work downtown not wanting to deal with them.

Police videotaped Montanez as he fed the needy some stew from a large kettle. They later arrested him and charged him with a misdemeanor for violating the ordinance, and took a sample of the stew as evidence. A police spokesperson said that Montanez is the first person to be arrested under the controversial law.

Frankly, I hope he prevails in court, and that the law is found to be unconstitutional. After all, it is a restriction on the First Amendment right to peaceably assemble. Besides, charities historically have done a much better job of caring for the needy, but that wouldn’t let the government have quite so much control, would it? The charities go where the needy are, and in most cases, they’re downtown. The government needs to butt out, and let the charities do what they do best.

I also have to wonder if there is any connection between this action and the name of the charity, “Food Not Bombs”. There may be more to this than meets the eye.

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Pepperoni, Mushroom, Extra Cheese, and Handcuffs

The newest idea in rounding up “deadbeat dads” is to display their photos and identifying information on pizza boxes. Each child support wanted poster in Butler County, Ohio depicts multiple men along with their last known address, age and date of birth, occupation, number of children, and amount owed.

I’m sorry, but as much as I think everybody should pony up to support their children, I think this plan could possibly do a great deal of emotional damage to the children whose fathers are pictured in such a public manner.

There is also the possibility that there is a legitimate reason why the person is behind on their support payments, as well as the rather chilling possibility that someone could be publicly outed as a “deadbeat” when they aren’t behind on their child support at all, thanks to the government system which very regularly has no idea who has paid or how much someone is behind.

No matter how I view it, it’s a bad idea. There’s too much margin for error, and an error in something of this nature could ruin someone’s life.

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Warn Your Kids!

From
Classically Liberal

…sit down with the kids. Warn them. Tell that there will be people who pretend to be their friends. They hang out outsides the schools, at the malls, anywhere where kids hang out. They lurk around the internet. They will even call at home if they know the parents aren’t around. Not only will they pretend to be a friend but they will promise rewards, opportunity, even cash if the kids just do what they want. And they really, really don’t want the parents to know about this. Remember if you don’t tell you kids about these people they will get your children.

And if you think the comparison between recruiters and molesters is strained then watch the following CNN report. Over 80 recruiters, in 2005, were caught for sexual misconduct with the young people they are trying to recruit. Over 100 victims have come forward. These people are given, without the knowledge of parents, full access to kids anytime they want at any school in the US under Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” legislation. They are given private information on all children including unlisted phone numbers and you are not able to block their calls, they can bypass blocks on any phone. Since 1996 almost 800 military recruiters have faced these charges.

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“Illegal” Immigration Quiz

Illegal Immigration Quiz
by Joseph Knight

The Libertarian Enterprise

(1) Who will remove you from your home, job, family, and community to lock you in a cage like an animal for no reason other than what you smoke in your pipe or grow in your garden?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(2) Who demands that you surrender a portion of each paycheck to be used for purposes that they decide on rather than you?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(3) Who demands that you render tribute annually or be evicted from your property?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(4) Who demands that you take no medicine or medical treatment without their permission?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(5) Who tells you whom you may or may not hire?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(6) Who demands that you turn your children over to them daily for indoctrination?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(7) Who tells you with whom and under what conditions you may have sex?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(8) Who claims the right to enslave you or your children to fight their wars?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(9) Who can seize your property for any purpose they desire?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(10) Who tells you what you may or may not read, look at, and listen to?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(11) Who can kick in your door and go through your stuff with impunity?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(12) Who is most likely to disarm you?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(13) Which group claims to work for you, gets exorbitant salaries, but can’t be fired unless you act in concert with large numbers of like-minded individuals?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(14) Who created and perpetuates the welfare state?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

(15) Which of these terms is the antithesis of “freedom”?

A. Government
B. Illegal immigrants

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Word!

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Drunk Off-Duty Cop Attacks Female Bartender After She Refuses To Serve Him

The video pretty much speaks for itself. It goes without saying that this jerk should never have been given authority over other people. What’s really sad is that, if not for the surveillance camera in the bar, chances are the cops would never have believed it happened.

(Sorry, I tried to embed it, but the wordpress program keeps changing the code for some strange reason – anybody know how to fix this?)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jvi4L21-kHo

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Rock The Debates

Several LNC members, including Chuck Moulton,
who gave me a ride down to Orlando, are involved with starting Rock The Debates:
http://rockthedebates.org/about

You can play a key role in this unprecedented, historical endeavor.

The idea is to get the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates to commit to debate third party candidates.

How? We’ll ask them to debate, get the clip on video, and place it on You-Tube. Folks in places like New Hampshire can play a key, historic, pivotal role in making this happen.

---

o When the candidate comes to town, hook up with another as a tag team. One person asks the question, the other videotapes.
o Here’s the question:

Mr. / Ms. Candy Date, at this point in America’s history with such vital issues that we face, do you agree to debate any presidential candidate who is on the ballot in enough states to have a mathematical chance, and if not, how do you reconcile this position with the principles of freedom and opportunity upon which America is based?

.

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The American Freedom Agenda

The American Freedom Agenda
has come forward with a
Freedom Pledge which has been endorsed by some Libertarian candidates, including Steve Kubby and George Phillies (in the comment section at LP blog). We hope all the other candidates sign it too.

LP Presidential nomination Candidates, supporters and staff, please let us know any other candidates you know who have signed it!

Freedom Pledge after the jump:

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The Governator versus California Families

Text by Steve Kubby http://kubby2008.com/node/36; embedded links by me, “the paulienator”

[Note: This blog entry was submitted to several California newspapers for publication last week. While it addresses a "state issue," I believe that the sentiments expressed herein are also applicable to the presidential campaign]

Since his election to office, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has carefully cultivated his image as a “moderate,” plopping himself down in the muddled middle of every issue — often to the detriment of the very Californians he’s sworn to serve. In no case is that more true than with respect to issues of family and marriage.

In 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill which would have recognized same-sex marriages in California, citing an inapplicable referendum result (Proposition 22, which applied to marriages solemnized outside California and which is void due to its conflict with the US Constitution’s “Full Faith and Credit” clause). He matched that veto with a pledge to uphold the state’s current “domestic partnerships” scheme. Now he’s making the same promise again versus AB 43.

This is the “middle” that Governor Schwarzenegger stands astride: Not slavery, just segregation. Not extermination, just “second class citizenship.”

There are two sides to marriage, and neither of them are the government’s business.

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There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Campaign

I’ll just post this one “as is” and note only, with great relief, that Tom is once again acting de facto campaign manager, aka HMFIC, which totally gets me off the hook. Whew!

by Tom Knapp

via Kn@ppster

The good news: Steve Kubby’s presidential campaign is “in the black.” It has money in the bank.

The bad news: Almost all of that money was raised for, and donated by people expecting it to be used for, a specific purpose — producing the campaign’s first television commercial — and we’re not touching it for any other purpose.

The worse news: The Oregon Libertarian Party’s state convention at Sunriver Resort (near Bend) is this weekend.

That last bit may not sound like bad news, and in the normal course of things it wouldn’t be. But here’s how it is:

Steve Kubby’s car is an older vehicle that we’d really rather not see him driving over mountain passes in March. As a matter of fact, we’d really rather not see him driving over mountain passes at all in March.

Right now, that looks like it’s the only way he’s going to get to Oregon … and he is going to get to Oregon if I have to throw him over my shoulders and carry him. That’s something you don’t want to see.

We’d prefer to rent a more suitable vehicle — or, better yet, put him on a plane.

I’m going to explain why you should help us do that in a minute, but first I’m going to issue my little “matching challenge.”

I just contributed $10 to the Kubby campaign. That may not sound like much to you. If it doesn’t, good — go ahead and get out your credit card, because I’m asking you to kick in a picture of Al Hamilton, too.

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Let Freedom Grow! for 03/04/07

In this week’s “radio address,” Steve Kubby discusses family and marriage
issues. Excerpt:

It’s the fashion these days for politicians to describe
themselves as “pro-family.” I can do that. As a matter of fact, I’d
describe myself as the most “pro-family” candidate for President in
2008.

How “pro-family” am I?

I’m so “pro-family” that I don’t believe we should amend our
Constitution to exclude some Americans from participation in loving
families, or relegate those families to second-class status as “civil
unions,” or try to explain away Article IV, Section One of the
Constitution so that state governments can deny those families the
legal recognition they deserve.

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Gene Chapman: Is The End Near?

Via ElfNinosMom today comes
the sad news that one of our
favorite Presidential candidates may have to drop out of the race due to government persecution.

Gene Dropping Out of Presidential Race?

Gene posted the following on his blog today:

IRS Finds Chapman

Well, the IRS has sent a letter to my employer to take my checks, down to $168 per week, so I’m off to new adventures. I’m praying about a walk in the desert to visit with God on the matter. Being a homeless man is attractive to me in the world we live in. Lots of homeless people come from IRS issues, I’ve found.

I’ll attend LP and CP events, as I can, but God has clearly opened up a new direction for me, and His priorities are gonna be #1.

Gene Chapman
Libertarian Man
ChapmanForPresident08.com

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