It’s a good time to be a corn lobbyist. The largest acreage of corn since 1944 is to be planted this year, with a record harvest predicted if weather is even slightly cooperative. Here’s what the Washington Post tells you:
Corn prices have doubled since last fall due to explosive growth of the ethanol industry, driving up costs for cattle, dairy, hog and poultry producers.
“Explosive growth of the ethanol industry” translates to higher ethanol content in gasoline, thanks to government, high tariffs on Brazilian sugarcane ethanol, thanks to government, and massive subsidies for ethanol production, thanks to government. This government support for corn ethanol isn’t around because your representatives just care so much about CO2 emissions. In fact, corn ethanol does very little for net CO2 emissions. But it’s awesome for Midwestern special interests. Sugarcane ethanol is far easier to produce, and thus far more environmentally friendly, but since there’s nowhere in the US that is suitable for growing sugarcane (except, with huge government subsidies, the Everglades – government helping out the environment again), it must be imported from countries like Brazil. This might be a good idea, but the corn lobby and their pet politicians won’t hear of it, so ridiculous tariffs on ethanol have been imposed.
The larger acreage of corn being planted means that corn is being grown on land less well-suited for corn farming, which means that farmers will use more chemicals on their land to get a yield. These chemicals don’t all stay on their land, however. Some will end up in runoff, which means they’ll get into streams and rivers. There, pesticides and herbicides kill things, and fertilizers cause runaway growth of algae. When the algae dies, its decomposition uses up all the oxygen in the water. Then all the animals not killed by pesticides and herbicides die. Bam, dead stream/river/lake. As government continues to tweak the market, encouraging naturally uneconomical uses of land, the environment will continue to suffer – all in the name, supposedly, of renewable energy.
If this keeps up I’m changing the tagline from “for truth, justice and the american way” to “All Gene, All The Time!”
Okay, since everyone wants to hear the allegations so badly… I’ll mention what little I can. Keep in mind that these are allegations, and they’re unsubstantiated. Some dimwit could have pulled these out of his ass. But I doubt it, as they ring true and he ended his campaign and deleted all evidence shortly after these were posted.
No, I’m not reposting what I heard. The FBI watches this guy, and for once my libertarian self says it’s for a damn good reason. He’s crazy and he threatens people and I’m not subjecting LFV to a lawsuit or, worse, having Chapman’s unemployed ass coming down for one of us with a match and a can of gas. So I’m only posting the allegations that have been made that involve things that, if he really did them, would be legal. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, it’s Case Scholastic Day here in sunny Chadron, and that means that everyone’s getting fucking drunk, and it’s the government’s fault. You see, Case Scholastic Day was invented by CSC as a way to get high school students to come here… in large quantities… all at once. They swarm our cafeterias, they crowd our sidewalks, basically they r in r college killin r d00dz.
So, what do you do in a college town if everything’s fuck-packed and there’s no way you can go out in public?
Drink.
Case Scholastic Day is nicknamed Case Day because you’re supposed to wake up and start drinking beer. You’re supposed to have a case of 24 beers downed before the night is over. I was woken up by hearing the howls of ether-laden jocks screaming out the passenger side of their best friend’s ride out my bedroom window, and it’s only going to get worse. I despise that fermented piss colloquially known as “Budweiser” but I’m broke so I’ll probably just go get some cheapass shit whisky (Jack Daniels, I’m looking straight at you) instead and get drunk off of that. After all, it’s Case Scholastic Day… and the only way to endure the high schoolers (half of whom blow off the scheduled activities anyway and go look for a party, good job CSC) and the drunkanoids is to join their ranks for the evening. If anyone sees a post from me about bunnies or some shit later tonight, plz delete kthx.
As a select few of you are aware, my anti-Chapman blog got hit with a rather unusual anonymous comment yesterday. I’m not going to repeat it because I have no way of substantiating some of what was in it, but it was posted by someone who claimed to know Gene’s ex-wife, and it made some very specific accusations about Gene’s background which, if true, would not only destroy his political aspirations, but would render him a pariah forever.
Those comments were posted on other blogs as well. I deleted them from my blog (with explanation), simply because they cannot be substantiated and were highly inflammatory to the point that, if untrue, they could be actionable. At the same time, it was a hard decision because there was one item in there that someone probably wouldn’t know unless they actually knew Gene. That information is not available on the internet except in a lone audioblog from years ago, and even there it didn’t go into detail.
In my explanation regarding why I deleted the post, I suggested the anonymous poster put that information on Gene’s blog, if in fact the accusations were true and could be substantiated. I don’t know if they did that, but it’s possible.
Did Gene suddenly drop out of the presidential race due to these accusations? It’s an awfully big coincidence that he was just talking about how he was to participate in an LP conference call for presidential candidates today, and yesterday he dropped out of the race and deleted all of his blogs, with no warning whatsoever.
It’s possible those two things are related and, if so, I just feel bad that Gene didn’t listen to me back when he first started his campaign, even before I started my blog, when I warned him in no uncertain terms that anything he had ever done will come back to bite him in a presidential campaign. I don’t know if this is some of the stuff that he thought would never come to light, but I do find his sudden disapparance – in less than 24 hours after those comments were posted in multiple blogs – to be a very, very strange coincidence.
From Gene’s old website at www.genechapman.blogspot.com:
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Posted 3/29/2007 08:34:00 PM by Gene
Greetings,
I’ve carried the ball as far down field as I can. With 4 jobs and school starting in June, along with not having a truck to carry me to presidential debates, I see no way to continue the campaign.
I’ve withdrawn from the race and have my sights on the Class Action Materials and operating under the redar toward the Tribulation Period. I’ve deleted all the websites relating to the campaign.
If there were a following for our ideas, it would have already show itself in the form of a donation.
God Bless you,
Gene Chapman
genechapman@hotmail.com
So apparently he didn’t get even one donation.
Gene’s campaign website is indeed gone, and has been replaced by a filler page advertising “Plaintfield Role Slave” (whatever the heck that is). In fact, as he said, all the campaign pages are gone.
That includes a blog maintained solely by his 15-year-old “Intelligent Design Advisor”, which had absolutely nothing to do with Gene’s campaign. It was basically a religious blog. I didn’t agree with anything that kid said, and truthfully read it for laughs, but at the same time that kid put a LOT of work into that blog. It was a lot better blog than Gene’s would ever have been.
Gene shouldn’t have deleted the kid’s blog. That wasn’t right. Gene didn’t write that blog, he didn’t maintain that blog, and precious little on that blog had anything to do with Gene.
Yet to be seen is if he will try to make a comeback into the presidential race, or if he will instead bill himself forever as “Former US Presidential Candidate Gene Chapman”.
While meandering around google just a few minutes ago, I found what appears to be a brand-new blog for the 2008 presidential election. It’s surprisingly well thought out, and seems to be trying to maintain a neutral viewpoint. There’s not even a hint of what party affiliation or political persuasion this blogger may have, which is what peaked my interest.
Here’s their blog description:
The purpose of this blog is to provide voters with a comprehensive list of candidates and their positions, and also to provide voters and candidates alike with a forum in which to share their views. Commentary is not only welcome, but highly encouraged.
Unlike some other presidential election blogs, this one is extremely comprehensive so far, with a listing of (and links for) about 75 presidential candidates of every imaginable description. They even listed the candidate for the “Vampires, Witches and Pagans Party”, LOL.
They’ve definitely put some work into it, and given it a lot of thought. The candidate and party links list alone is impressive compared to most blogs of that nature.
Apparently they’re looking for input to make sure they’ve included all the candidates and parties which should be listed, and are also looking for input so they can compile biographical info on all the candidates. They are also looking for additional links to add. So far their link categories seem to be candidates (separated by party), political parties, discussion resources, and general resources.
In case you’ve been hiding from the constant stream of depressing news, Iran detained 15 British soldiers in what are generally recognized as Iraqi waters. Neocons are trying to convince people that this means war with Iran is necessary, apparently completely oblivious to the overstretched state of the armed forces.
One way to look at this is that it’s a very elaborate Gulf of Tonkin-style incident, staged to win support for an invasion of Iran, and that the neocon apologists are just falling into line. But as I have yet to see anything approaching proof of this, I’m going to operate on the assumption that this indeed happened. In that case, hasn’t Iran committed an act of war against the UK, and shouldn’t the UK and its NATO allies, including the US, respond by declaring war on Iran?
Well, the answer to the first half of the question is “yes”, assuming facts are as we are told. To the second half, my answer is absolutely not, not because I’m an unpatriotic terrorist sympathizer, but because it seems that Iran is playing along in the current round of brinksmanship between it and the West, chiefly the United States and the United Kingdom. Recall the sanctions recently imposed on Iran by the UN, with the strong encouragement of the US. Somehow I imagine that if these sanctions were repealed, these Britons would be out of captivity much sooner.
Unfortunately, the likelihood of Tony Blair, his government, and Washington acting rationally and de-escalating is low, so we can expect another act of aggression against Iran coming in the next few days.
It’s not the same Hammer of Truth, or even the same URL. It’s Susan Hogarth claiming the URL hammeroftruth.net and trying to give us a run for our money as the Heir of HoT.
So let’s see how she’s doing.
Kinda cookie-cutterish layout, not terribly distinctive… but I do realize she’s probably not a latent coding genius either, so I’ll cut her some slack for now. If she really does want to lead the next HoT though, she should get a better layout sooner or later.
What I found to be the greatest little bit of info was this though:
That’s right, Susan Hogarth cursed. You heard it here first, folks! That makes my goddamn week, I tell you what. Maybe she might actually be able to pull it off after all. At any rate, it should prove to be an interesting development, and I wish her success if it means any success for the Libertarian Party.
So Susan… speaking as your chief competitor to the throne of HoT, as it were (LOL), how about a friendly rivalry for the good of the movement?
…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.
(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”?
According to a recent article in the LA Times, libertarian influence is growing in this country, especially when measured against the beginnings of the movement:
But the libertarian movement began as a reaction to how alien the ideas of unbridled individual and market liberty had become. When former Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce chief Leonard Read launched the first libertarian think tank, the Foundation for Economic Education, in 1946, his ideas about limited government and free markets were so marginal in the United States as to seem almost seditious.
Lane was investigated by the FBI in the early postwar years for daring to write on a postcard that Social Security was the sort of socialistic government management of people’s lives we fought wars against. True Social Security, she insisted, was canned vegetables and slaughtered pigs in your cellar. She and Paterson refused to accept anything from the Social Security system.
Looks like we were a target of HUAC as well? Clearly we’re as dangerous as those dirty commies. Bah, conservatives are brainless, especially in those days.
According to the proposed ordinance, a vehicle owner must pay a parking fine within 72 hours if a meter maid claims his automobile was improperly parked, incurring tickets worth between $5 and $250. Failure to pay this amount results in the assessment of a fifty-percent “late fee.” After seven days, the city will place a lien on the car owner’s home for the amount of the ticket plus late fees, attorney fees and an extra $15 fine. The fees quickly turn a $5 ticket into a debt worth several hundred dollars, growing at a one-percent per month interest rate. The ordinance does not require the city to provide notice to the homeowner at any point so that after ninety days elapse, the city will foreclose. If the motorist does not own a home, it will seize his vehicle after the failure to pay three parking tickets.
Any motorist who believes a parking ticket may have been improperly issued must first pay a $250 “appeal fee” within seven days to have the case heard by a contract employee of the city. This employee will determine whether the city should keep the appeal fee, plus the cost of the ticket and late fees, or find the motorist not guilty. Council members postponed a decision on whether to reduce this appeal fee until final adoption of the measure which is expected in the first week of April.
It’s really anyone’s guess what the truth is about aliens, but I’m glad to see at least one government opening up their files. Not really a huge deal, but it’d be cool if America did the same.
Traffic is crushing on the French government UFO site, but if you care to wait the URL is here.
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?)
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?
While the world watches and waits, and demands to know what killed Anna Nicole Smith (and where her son Daniel got the Methadone which killed him just five months prior – duh), a far more disturbing prescription drug-related death has occurred.
Four-year-old Rebecca Riley died of an overdose of Clonidine, a drug prescribed for bipolar disorder. This would normally be a tragic morality tale about the importance of keeping prescription drugs away from children, except for one undisputed fact.
A doctor had prescribed that drug, along with others, for the little girl starting when she was only two years old; and the little girl was intentionally given the overdose over a period of months in order to control her, prosecutors say.
Apparently what used to be known as the “terrible twos” is now being diagnosed as ADHD and bipolar disorder.
After Rebecca’s death, police found only seven Clonidine tablets in the family’s medicine tray; the pharmacist said there should have been 75.
All together, prosecutors say, Carolyn Riley got 200 more pills in one year than she should have.
The Rileys’ lawyers call them unsophisticated people who did not question their children’s doctors.
Both were unemployed; they collected welfare and disabilty benefits and lived in subsidized housing. Michael Riley, who is also awaiting trial on charges of molesting a stepdaughter in 2005, claimed to suffer from bipolar disorder and a rage disorder; his wife told police she suffered from depression and anxiety.
“They are not the sort of people who go on the Internet and look on WebMD. These are the sort of people who, when they go to a doctor, the doctor is God and they do what the doctor says,” said John Darrell, Michael’s lawyer.
Carolyn’s lawyer, Michael Bourbeau, said that because the Rileys’ three children were all taking Clonidine, Rebecca’s prescription may have come up short at times when her siblings were given some of her pills. And some of the pills may have been lost when they were split in half, he said. Read the rest of this entry »
In this week’s “radio address,” Steve Kubby discusses the war on Iraq:
Over the last four years, a majority of Americans have come to agree with what libertarians have been saying all along:
That this war was a mistake and that it is a continuing atrocity.
That this war makes us less, not more, secure from military or terrorist attack.
That this war positions our nation as an international enemy of peace and freedom.
And that this war carries far too high a price in American blood and treasure for whatever goals its supporters may claim they want to achieve.
Unfortunately, our so-called leaders in Washington either disagree, or just don’t care. Republican and Democrat alike continue to resist the American majority’s call for withdrawal from Iraq.
Renowned magician Harry Houdini is rising from the grave, 81 years after his untimely death at age 52.
He’s not doing so voluntarily, though, despite his promise to contact his loved ones from The Great Beyoooooond.
It seems that members of his family now believe he died, not as the result of peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix as previously believed, but rather as the result of murder most foul carried out by Spiritualists who were angry that he had exposed their fraud.
A book about Houdini’s life published last year, which included a somewhat threatening letter written by Spiritualist proponent and Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, suggests that the magician was possibly poisoned with arsenic. No autopsy was ever performed but, if true, it is possible that arsenic may be detectable even now.
I browsed through one of my favorite daily newspapers and came across this rather grotesque and troubled article.
SUPERIOR, Wis.- A 20-year-old man received probation after he was convicted of having sexual contact with a dead deer. The sentence also requires Bryan James Hathaway to be evaluated as a sex offender and treated at the Institute for Psychological and Sexual Health in Duluth, Minn.
Necrobeastiality is not on my list of things to try but does this sexual perversion demand that this guy be labeled as a sex offender for the rest of his life? Correct me if I’m wrong, dead bodies can’t testify against him in court!
I feel sorry for this guy that he has to resort to such grotesque behavior to get his rocks off. Is screwing dead animals or humans a disease or desperate cry for attention?
When I read this story I thought of the Type O Negative song “Black No.1″ when Peter Steele says, “Loving you, was like loving the dead. Was like FUCKING THE DEAD!”
Anyways, with all the other things occurring in our world today, it must have been a slow news day.
If you read this site, you probably already know why the War on Drugs is bad. If you don’t, here’s a quick review:
Making drugs illegal pushes them onto the black market, encouraging violence.
Billions of taxpayer dollars are spent every year on the War, yet no progress is made.
The right of self-ownership, fundamental to freedom, renders the War thoroughly immoral.
Now that that’s over, an Alaskan who was suspended from high school because he unfurled a sign reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” during an Olympic parade and the principal of that school are in the Supreme Court debating whether he ought to have been suspended.
Firstly, I think we can all agree that suspending him was going way too far, even if you agree with the War on Drugs. “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” is hilarious in an absurd way – clearly not encouraging drug use, just a high school student asking for attention.
But what bothers me here is that the counsel for the school, Kenneth Starr (who apparently also is in need of attention) is basing his arguments on the fact that the message opposed the school’s anti-drug beliefs, and the counsel for Joseph Frederick, the student, is arguing that the only reason the suspension was invalid was that Frederick was on the opposite side of the street from the school. This argument doesn’t seem to hold water – it was a school-sponsored event, after all.
But there is Frederick’s fundamental right to say what he wants, which the Supreme Court has ignored many times in the past. This will probably be another defeat for free speech. But remember always that the Supreme Court is not the final arbiter of what is right.
The public’s bottom line is simple: it wants the United States to concentrate on protecting itself. When asked what should be the main purpose of American foreign policy, respondents chose “protecting the security of the US and our allies” (66%) over “promoting freedom and democracy” (21%) and “advancing our economic interest” (9%). Interestingly, Republicans were the most likely to choose self-interest over freedom and democracy (75-18%). When we asked the question more bluntly in a split sample, even more respondents (68%) chose the statement: “The main goal of US foreign policy should be to protect American security, whether it spreads our ideals or not” over a competing statement about the value of spreading our ideals, freedom and democracy.
McCain and Giuliani both want to keep us there. I mean, Captain Straight Talk Express has fucked up his verbiage in the not-so-distant past, so who knows where he stands. But I’d doubt he’d get us out… he’d rather use racial epithets and then apologize for them. How refreshing… a man who says what he means and means what he says. Straight Talk Express indeed.
But no, what pisses me off is that even the Democrats are gonna keep us there. Okay, guys, you won the Senate and the House. You can stop worshipping at the temple of Francis Fukuyama in the hopes that another fence-sitter will vote for you. You don’t have to stay in Iraq forever. Oh, wait, that’s right… I was under the illusion that this government was run by the people, for the people. Silly me. Looks like Halliburton’s made some new friends.
Well, that’s both sets of front-runners in both parties. I don’t think politics could suck any worse if the Democrats nominated Cthulhu and the Republicans nominated a Dalek.
Why didn’t we think of that? All this time, President Bush could’ve just thrown some herbs together, guided by his ancestors, and cured AIDS forever. Dammit Bush, why didn’t you dream up a cure to AIDS? Why can’t you be as cool as His Excellency Yahya Jammeh, President of the Gambia by right of complete fucking stupidity?
Just think of all the money we’ve wasted on “science” and “medicine” when all it took to cure AIDS was some goddamn fucking herbs and testicles the size of minor asteroids. Well shucks, we sure are silly. Read the rest of this entry »
I realized I hadn’t posted much since I got back so I went trolling CNN for something to piss me off enough to write about. But I went to their political section and it’s all about the Presidential primaries. So, it’s not really Libertarian news so much, but I for one welcome our new Republicratic overlords. They’ll keep this blog in business, at the very damn least. So here’s a roundup of their latest tomfoolery.
Apparently Giuliani’s law firm lobbies Congress on behalf of Hugo Chavez. Homeboy’s got like a scandal a week going down, though, so I doubt it’ll hurt him. After 9/11, he’s 10 stories tall and made of Teflon. Speaking of the grinches on parade, McCain’s got the hubris of a thousand indie shows. “Straight Talk Express” has got to be the corniest name for a political campaign I’ve ever heard. Why not just call it “Best Campaign Ever”? Seriously now.
Meanwhile, in the blue corner, the Hildabeast has more flip-flops than a goddamn beachhouse. First she starts in by giving oral to several gay-rights groups, and then she fucking blows it when some military twit decides that homos aren’t people and she doesn’t necessarily disagree. I think she might have forgotten her script on her way back from impaling junior congressmen on spikes. Speaking of Barack Obama, apparently he’s losing ground to Hillary among Democrats. I guess having a platform consisting of “audacity” and “hope” just doesn’t cut it. But hey, it’s been hilarious watching Hillary try to smear your campaign without being accused of racism, so you’ve been fun buddy.
If these polls are any indication, we’ll get to look forward to Don Teflioni vs. The Second Coming of Communism. God save us.
Cleveland Cavaliers center Scot Pollard looked into the camera during a recent game and said, “Hey kids, do drugs.”
Pollard was sitting on the bench in street clothes when he made the remark during a 20-second timeout Sunday against Indiana. The Cavaliers didn’t find it funny.
“We have spoken with Scot and certainly do not condone his actions,” general manager Danny Ferry said in a statement Wednesday. “He regrets his mistake, using inappropriate humor, particularly when he has always been very involved in the community, projecting positive messages to our youth. We will handle the issue internally.”
“It was a bad joke,” Pollard said in Thursday editions of The Plain Dealer. “That’s all it boils down to. There are a number of things people could say about it, but it just turned out it was a bad joke. Obviously, I don’t believe that.”
And you, Pollard. Stick to your guns, don’t let these humorless grouches boss you around. The entire fucking world is not run by Truth.com, start acting like it.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, confessed to that attack and a string of others during a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a transcript released Wednesday by the Pentagon.
No doubt the neocon faithful are all out strutting their stuff today after this home run of a news story. In their minds, this goes a long way to vindicate King George’s unwavering mission to rid the world of terrorists (at least the ones currently on the Administration’s shit list).
I’ve grown quite skeptical of any claim coming out of Washington about some clandestine terrorist threat being thwarted in the nick of time or the capture of the next super-evil al-Qaeda villain and the like. Bush’s ratings have plummeted so low that they’re clearly desperate for anything they can hold up as a positive, even if it means fabricating a story (you know, the kind that can’t really be validated because, well, it’s classified, national security-risking information).
As for this particular story, it may very well be on the level. But, does that in any way justify the indefinite incarceration, the secret trials, the complete abandonment of habeas corpus? What happened to our proud tradition of American justice? It’s not too difficult to imagine one fessing up to just about anything after being subjected to the kind of reprehensible treatment being doled out in Gitmo.
Again, maybe these confessions are legit. But, personally, I think they got the wrong guy.
[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]
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.
Captain America may be dead for “defying a superhero registration law,” but the Libertarian Party now has a suitable replacement.
For the last few days, the buzz around the national office has been about the responses to the 2006 Libertarian National Committee Annual Report, 2006 Adventures in Liberty. Most of our members have now received the report. As the mail has been a bit inconsistent lately, some of you might be receiving your copy sometime over the next few days.
We’ve heard plenty from the Kubby and Phillies campaigns. Two well-run campaigns are building momentum, but new information has been slow in coming from the Stanhope campaign since the Hammer of Truth interview last year. Well, the third serious challenger in the ring is getting heard now, and heard here. With no further ado, Doug Stanhope.
LFV: Your Wikipedia article used to say that you had given up the campaign after hearing about the reporting requirements. Now it says that you are “reconsidering my presidential run while my exploratory team looks into the viability of such an endeavor.” Could you clarify this matter for our readers?
DS: I haven’t officially announced but we still have every intention of doing so. My campaign manager is not a U.S. citizen so we’ve been held up in the tangle of immigration bureaucracy while we get the rest of our ducks in a row and our website ready to launch. I am also in the process of completing some television obligations which, while not political, will certainly raise my public visibility.
Also note – Anything put on Wikipedia about me was done by the people unknown to me. It used to say that I was on ABC’s “The View” with Barbara Walters so make sure you always cross-reference anything you read there. I have never said that I’d given up on the campaign for any reason. Read the rest of this entry »
All right… I’ve been gone for a while. I really really appreciate everyone pulling together to keep stuff going while I was gone. What happened was this: I’m the vice president of Chadron State College’s Campus Historical Forum. Well, the CHF trip this year was to the Seattle area, with stops in Victoria and Vancouver. That was over spring break, so I went. Therefore, I wasn’t anywhere near a computer with which to make a bloggings. I feel bad about that.
I did have my eyes and ears open for anything to write home about, however. Most notably, when I was in Vancouver I eschewed the Canucks hockey game that the club shelled out $50 USD apiece for, and instead offered to save the club money by taking a $20 CAD instead and blowing it in town for a few hours. My first stop? The New Amsterdam, the most notorious “smoke-easy” in Vancouver. I got a dime for a nickel, and proceeded to smoke it up in there. Man, I’ve never seen so many people be so nice about weed… I got a blunt the size of a cigar because the dude next to me didn’t want to finish it. I tell you what… those BC kids know what the fuck they’re doing.
I also got to talking to the guy who started Canada’s first needle exchange program; he helped me roll my joints (I’ve always been bad at it). Apparently marijuana laws are so lax there because Vancouver’s anti-drug task force is concentrating on its heroin problem. Which is hardly good news; heroin’s a bad drug and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I saw, right next to Gastown, the slum areas where heroin addicts went dumpster diving for food because all their money goes to heroin. The government’s involvement just makes it worse, but still… what a way to get marijuana de-facto legalized.
Oh well. The bright side is that Vancouver’s got the freest drug laws on the North American continent, and the movement they’re building there is too far advanced to ever be stopped.
“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”
– John F. Kennedy
I have always believed this statement to be true. The most depraved human being in the world is the man without a purpose.
Now I have a question: What is OUR purpose? What is the purpose of LastFreeVoice.com?
The “about” page says this:
To an avid libertarian, sometimes the world feels so bleak. We watch statist ideologies rage all around us and seem helpless to do anything but rage against the authorities with the First Amendment. But words hold meaning and power, and their judicious application may yet save the pro-liberty movement. Even if we were truly the last free voice on the internet, the cause would not be lost. We’re libertarians of all stripes and colors; purists, pragmatists, anarchists, minarchists, Libertarian Party members, DFCers, RLCers, BTP guys, anything and everything and yet we’re all heading in the same direction. Last Free Voice is a blog for that journey, a voice for the children wandering in the desert of American politics.
The only purpose I can gather out of it is possibly the phrase “words hold meaning and power, and their judicious application may yet save the pro-liberty movement”, so are we to infer that as the purpose – to save the pro-liberty movement? If so, from who or what? Or is that not it?
I ask these things because I want LFV to be successful. So, let’s say what it’s all about. Simply to post interesting news stories and complain about them? If so, that’s fine – that certainly is a purpose. People WILL come for that. But if that’s it, let’s state is as such.
Or is the purpose to motivate the reader into taking some sort of action? If so, what; if not, why?
The purpose of the written word, I have always believed, is to accomplish one of two goals: to make one think, or to make one do. Or, possibly, both. I say, let’s make LFV’s raison d’être clear to all, and really focus on becoming the best at that goal. I guarantee that those sites and or/organizations with a clearly defined purpose are more apt to succeed and achieve whatever end at which they are aiming.
I preface this by saying that I consider myself an environmentalist. I see crap in streams, smell what comes out the end of cars, and it annoys me. I also believe the free market to be the best solution to this. Then I see the crap spewing out of the faces of those who latch onto anything they can to justify their hate for development, growth, and freedom. This documentary is interesting and probably different from anything you’ve seen before on the subject, especially if you’re an anthropogenic global warming fence-sitter like me.
After testing the waters for the past couple of months, apparently the venerable Ron Paul has determined that a run for POTUS will be a worthwhile endeavor. This is great news for liberty-lovers as he will be the only major party candidate who is 1) a real libertarian, 2) a strict Constitutionalist, and 3) an ardent and consistent critic of the Iraq war (along with possibly one or two other candidates, i.e. Dennis Kucinich).
While I remain encouraged by the possibility of a nomination of Steve Kubby by the LP, at this time I feel it’s important to do everything possible to support Ron Paul. It can’t be stressed enough what an enormous political advantage it is to be running under one of the Republocrat banners in terms of gaining media exposure. Sure, Ron Paul has to be considered an extreme longshot to win the Republican nomination, but so what? Any LP candidate we put out there is an even greater longshot and will be unlikely to get but a small fraction of the attention any of the major party candidates get. The fact that Ron Paul will certainly be in some of the televised debates means we can expect many of our issues to at least get an airing for a change, which is something that has the potential to eventually help the LP candidate later, assuming Ron Paul ultimately fails to make it through the primaries.
What do you say, folks? Personally, I care a whole lot less about party labels than actually having more liberty in my life.
By Dick Clark, a write-up of a gubernatorial campaign we worked on together in 2002. I’m hoping some of our campaigns and candidates can use this to their advantage. The text is Dick’s from 2002, the embedded links are mine from right now. -paul
this graphic, by a supporter of the Kubby campaign, was not attached to the original article, I’m just throwing it in here because I like it. -paul
….I opened that email from Scott Kjar. The email declared Scott was the campaign manager for an Auburn economist named John Sophocleus who would be running for governor. Furthermore, his campaign desperately needed the services of that class of laborers lovingly known as “interns”. My problems had been solved. I replied to Scott’s email, volunteering my services for the spring semester. Upon my return to Auburn after winter break, I made the necessary arrangements to receive credit for my internship.
While I had worked a few outreach events in my leadership role with the AU Libertarians, I really had no idea what to expect when I went to work for John Sophocleus. I soon discovered that I would be doing many of the outreach events that I had done before. In addition to those activities, I would be responsible for doing certain research, and coordinating various campaign outings all over the state.
On Tuesday, 22 January, and Wednesday, 23 January, Paul (campaign research director) and I talked to three hundred eighty-seven Auburn students and faculty. This particular event was sponsored by the campus club, and was intended to show each person his or her place on the political spectrum. The hope was that those that scored in the libertarian area (eighty-five people over the two day span) would be interested enough to participate in future libertarian events. That week, twenty students attended an “Introduction to Libertarianism” speech given by Dr. Roderick Long of the philosophy department.
Open the .pdf to get a better view. If you like, please download and distribute; if you don’t like, please make suggestions for improvements in the comments!
Suddenly the biggest story in the 2008 presidential campaign world is Ann Coulter associating John Edwards with the word “faggot”. (I won’t go so far as to say that she called him one, because her statement was somewhat unclear.) Now, as an embarrassment to my university (much like Janet Reno – can they annihilate each other or something?), Coulter bothers me, but otherwise, not so much. Let’s examine how retarded this is:
For one, Ann Coulter is not a presidential candidate. She is a Republican-neocon apologist who compensates for having nothing original to say by always “crossing the line”. Stories about presidential races aren’t supposed to be about nutjobs who write books lauded by their middle-aged fanboys because their author is a similarly middle-aged woman who pretends to be attractive. (If you love your eyes, don’t click on that.)
Also, John Edwards isn’t gay, nor has any credible person accused of being gay. (Not that I would care if he were, but still.) We already knew Ann Coulter wasn’t the biggest fan of gay people, so how is this news?
Third, stories about presidential campaigns should be relevant to the candidates or the issues. This is neither. I would much rather hear about Edwards’s stance on the use of the “state secrets” excuse to remove cases from courts, for example, than about this.
But what pisses me off the most about this is that these stories are blocking out information on the candidates who aren’t just talking heads – the ones that mean what they say; folks like Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich (shudder, but it’s true), and virtually the entire LP field.
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!
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.
I’m posting this on behalf of Doug Craig at his request.
Stuart – can we get Doug added as a blogger here so he can post for himself? ENM has also asked for a password to the new site. Just let me know if it’s OK to add them if you’re too busy.
We are running a candidate for the US House district 10, but why?
Georgia Libertarians has been put into a historical event. Due to the untimely death of Charlie Norwood Georgia will be having a special election to replace him.Here in Georgia we have found a candidate actually a great candidate, Dr. Jim Sendelbach. Because of Georgia ballot access laws we have not been able to run for a US House seat prior to this.This being a special election all rules are out the window.It is non-partisan but the candidate will have his party label next to his name.
The question I have is why should we run in this race.The cost for the filling fee is $4800.00 non-refundable ( in Georgia you get back 75% after the election, normally).We will not win this race ( o.k. money could fly out of my backside).So why should we run.
We libertarians are used to being told we’re crazy, usually in response to a position which, if given the chance to explain, would make perfect sense, but to the close-minded masses, are a cause for immediate dismissal. I frequently have this problem when I advocate the elimination of the FDA. But if you pay attention, you’ll realize it’s almost completely worthless. Take the Vioxx shitstorm, or the mess over the “morning-after pill”, or this: even though the vast majority of experts agree that this antibiotic should not be given to cattle, they’re doing it.
Cefquinome isn’t particularly dangerous for cattle. The concern is that resistant bacteria could evolve due to the selection pressures correlating to the introduction of the antibiotic, and later cause problems for people, where cefquinome is among the last resorts for treating infection.
Now, in a market economy, we all know how this would work: some ranchers would use cefquinome, some wouldn’t. Those concerned about its effects would buy from those who didn’t use the drug, and the others would buy what they felt like. Thus, if people didn’t want the drug used, the market would show that soon enough.
Instead, the drug will most likely be used by virtually all ranchers, since with no requirement to warn consumers and market forces being quashed, there will be no pressure not to use the drug, and in about five years, cefquinome will be worthless. Doesn’t that sound fun, statists?
Over at the LP Blog the last ten posts, and counting, are about the party’s participation in the Conservative Political Action Conference. Granted, the coverage is pretty darn good, and we are at least doing some outreach somewhere, in contrast to much of what has taken place the last few years. But when is the last time we did anything like this at a liberal conference? When will there be one, and does the LP have any plans of attending?
My exchange with Steve Gordon (LP national communication director) in the comments at:
I sincerely hope the LP also does this same type of outreach and coverage at some similar upcoming event for liberals, to provide much-needed balance in our outreach.
Do you know of any such upcoming events, and do you have plans to attend and cover them?
Posted by: paul at March 4, 2007 04:16 PM
Paul,
Suggest an event where 1) we’d even be allowed in the door, 2) where we’d have some reasonable outreach opportunities, 3) that it would be logistically reasonable (it is easier and cheaper for a DC-based organization to attend an event in DC than one in San Francisco) and we’d very clearly consider it.
Posted by: Stephen Gordon at March 4, 2007 04:28 PM
Steve,
That is certainly a reasonable answer.
Unfortunately, I don’t know about where and when the big liberal conferences in the DC area take place, just as I would not have known about CPAC but for the LP’s participation, but I’ll research it. I’m going to put this out on a variety of yahoo groups and see if anyone knows.
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.
"I want to be free. I want to go outside, and I want to go to school," pleaded a 9-year-old boy, on the phone from prison. This prison wasn't in some far-off country, some dictatorship where one would expect children to be locked up. He is imprisoned in the United States.
The boy, Kevin, is imprisoned in Taylor, Texas, at the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility. His parents are also locked up there. The tale of how this family became imprisoned is just one example of how broken our immigration policies are in this country. It is a tale of children left
behind, of family values locked up, of your tax dollars at work. Read the rest of this entry »
A Pueblo, Colorado woman and a couple she was friends with have been arrested for baby trafficking. Essentially, the mother, Nicole Uribe, and her drug-addicted boyfriend could not take care of the baby. The couple, Irene and Jose-Juan Lerma, believed that they could. The baby boy has been taken into state custody.
The police said the deal was struck for $1,500 with $500 being a down payment, which Uribe advanced for a used Dodge Intrepid.
But do you really believe any of these people did something wrong? Uribe knew she couldn’t take care of her son. The Lermas apparently wanted to raise a baby boy. They reached a mutually advantageous agreement that also would have helped out the boy, because he would’ve gotten a loving home with a far more functional family than a single mom with a drug-addicted boyfriend.
But the State disagrees, so this boy will be shuttled into foster care, probably go through multiple homes around the state for his childhood, and probably will be on welfare for a significant portion of his life too. The taxpayers of Colorado ought to be outraged that they’re paying to destroy this kid’s life.
Political Futility / Endless Conflict / System Worship / Big Government Reagan / Leave Us Alone / Fall of Communism / Civil Disobedience / Anti Immigration Protectionist / Standing Armies / The Roads / Ron Paul Joins Us / Keene Visit / Immigration / Whiners? / Slavery / Public Exposure / Freedom
Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zones / Taking Risks / Freedom to Travel Activist Arrested Again / Drug War Deaths / Campaign Advertising / Acetone Gas Tank Bunk / Things Everyone Needs to Know / North Korea / License Plates / Salvia Prohibition
Shelly Roche joins us to discuss bringing women to liberty, her personal path to freedom, and more. / Govt Assuming Responsibility / Minarchy vs. Freedom / Using the System / Liberty-oriented Lawyers? / InjusticeEverywhere.com / Comfort Zones / Auditing the Fed / Agorism
UK Socialist Dental Care / Police Harassment and Standing Up For Your Rights / Socialist Health Care / Unemployment / Health Care Prior to Government Intervention / Black Man In KKK Robe Disrupts City Council Meeting / Miltary Man Refuses to Deploy / Swat Team Called to Back Yard Crew / Nightmare Story
Jim Babka joins us from Downsize DC / Failblog / Persuasion vs Arguing / Minimum Wage / Stamped Dollar Bills / Billing a Court? / Magic Incantations / Fully Informed Juries / Paytriot Scam Artists / More Extraordinary Claims Without Proof / Violent thugs don't care about words. / NH Hard Sell
Cutco Update / Disturbing Internet Speech Regulations Proposed / Government, Tool of Violence / Flag of Distress / Tax Freedom / Free Speech and Private Property / Excited Delerium / Unemployment / Abomination? / China and Freedom / Big Activist Weekend in NH / Police Chief Advocates Lowered Drinking Age / Medical Marijuana Failure / Guns and Canada / Las Ve […]
Mind Meld With Miles… Over Migas! Back in the day… when I was fresh out of high-school and working at Austin’s downtown public library, my boss had a party for me. To promote the little day-job shindig she’d created a flyer with a picture of Star Trek’s Jean Luc Picard all Borged-out with the caption, “Mind [...]
ANOMALY Magazine Welcome’s Brian Worsham! In late 2001, some friends and I were talking about our desire to see more and better quality paranormal and parapolitical TV shows on broadcast and cable television. We wanted our own Anomaly TV Network. We felt certain we had the drive, the skills, the equipment and the network of real [...]
Watching the ARGonauts Play If you’ve followed the Elfis Network from the beginning then you know of my early interest in Alternate Reality Gaming and their potential for “mucking up the works” for paranormal and parapolitical researchers. You may also know that my interests were rekindled in 2007 by the provocative hypotheses of blogger D […]
Anomaly TeleVision » Blog Archive » 60 Minutes - Mind Reading Tech 60 Minutes - Mind Reading (video) cnettv.cnet.com/2001-1_53-50004855.html How Technology May Soon “Read” Your Mind www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/31/60minutes/main4694713.shtml www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4697682n
Big news regarding evidence of evolution: Fossil Discovery Is Heralded In what could prove to be a landmark discovery, a leading paleontologist said scientists have dug up the 47 million-year-old fossil of an ancient primate whose features suggest it could be the common ancestor of all later monkeys, apes and humans. Anthropologists have long believed that h […]
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