I am proud of the Libertarian Party when it offers candidates like North Carolina's Michael Munger

Give me about half an hour and I will provide you with the reason why I am proud to be a Libertarian, even if--as is the case with Bob Barr--I am less than overjoyed about some of our candidates.

(But what the hell, that puts me in good company. Roughly half the Democratic primary voters are going to be at least a bit ticked no matter who wins, and as for social conservatives and John McCain--whooo.)

What I want you to do first is listen to both of these clips about Mike Munger, my party's candidate for Governor of NC (who is, according to the polls, taking more votes from the Democrats than the GOPers):

Mike Munger's radio appearance on the Brad and Britt radio show (about 16 minutes). The really good news in this piece is that Mike will be appearing in the NC Gubernatorial debate in October.

Mike's recreation of his keynote address at the Libertarian National Convention (longer, but worth it). In this clip, Mike answers the question, not what are Libertarians against, but "What are Libertarians for?"

In North Carolina in the 2004 general election, roughly 3.55 million people voted. If Mike's 4% holds up, that equates to 142,000 votes. There are reasons to be optimistic that he might even do better than that. Reason number one is that Mike is articulate, funny, addresses the issues, and is such a good public speaker and debater it is impossible to dismiss him into the kook category no matter how much you disagree with him. Reason number two is that Bob Barr is now polling at 6% in the Tarheel State, and the two candidacies may well be synergistic (as Barr pulls more from GOPers and Munger from Dems). Finally, there is the recent massive drive to put the Libertarians on the ballot in NC, where some of the most restrictive ballot access rules in the nation required 70,000 signatures. In the drive headed by Munger and the NC Libertarian Party, our folks raised $200,000 and turned in 108.000 names.

But--and there is always a "but"--for Mike to get his message out in the face of the huge Demopublican machine (which is sure to be in high gear as NC is fully in play between McCain and Obama), he's going to need money.

Mike has stolen a small part of the page from Ron Paul's playbook: instead of a Money Bomb, he's aiming for a Money Hand Grenade of as many small donors as he can muster. For the first time, Delaware Libertarian is carrying the Money Hand Grenade widget down under the blogroll.

I think Mike's worth the support, and I hope you will, too.

You don't even have to be a Libertarian to contribute. If you simply believe that a healthy democracy requires as many good candidates, good parties, and good options as we can get out there, support the idea of a citizen governor like Mike Munger, and I promise not to tell your party bosses.

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici...

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba...

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