Here we go again: Now Allen Buckley has to fight for debate access

It is obviously in incumbent Saxby Chambliss' best interest NOT to have Libertarian Allen Buckley invited to any Georgia Senatorial debates this year. Buckley's reasoned positions on fiscal responsibility, and his ability to point out Saxby's porcine wallowing at the Federal trough for farm subsidies and other earmarks would make him a more uncomfortable debating adversary than either Democrat still in the running (Vernon Jones and Jim Martin).

So Chambliss, trying to stage-manage the whole thing, has set up a strategy to exclude Buckley, as reported by the Peachtree [GA] Weekly:

Atlanta, Georgia (August 4, 2008) - According to an August 4th article by Jim Galloway of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, tomorrow, hand-delivered envelopes from Saxby Chambliss will be delivered to Vernon Jones and Jim Martin, requesting the winner of the Democratic primary face Mr. Chambliss in a series of debates. No mention was made of an invitation to Allen Buckley, the Libertarian Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate.

Mr. Buckley placed a call with the Chambliss campaign this morning, asking if he’ll receive an invitation to the debates. Michele Grasso of the Chambliss campaign returned Mr. Buckley’s call, saying no invitation to a series of debates was made. Rather, Mr. Chambliss merely said he looks forward to debating the other U.S. Senate candidates in the fall. Ms. Grasso said Mr. Chambliss wants to debate.

Buckley said: “The majority of the voters in Georgia are conservative. I’m the only conservative candidate in the race. The strategy of the Chambliss campaign is obvious: try to cause the media and the people to focus on only the Republican and the Democratic candidates and hope the voters will decide Mr. Chambliss is the better of the two options/lesser of two evils. I request the press include me in any and all debates and that as many debates as possible be held.”

Joe McCutchen, lifelong Republican, said the following about the debates invitation exclusion of Mr. Buckley: “I think Allen Buckley represents the interest of at least 60 percent of the voters in Georgia because, unlike Saxby Chambliss, he does not support pork, farm subsidies or waste. It would be a terrible injustice if Allen Buckley is not included in the debates.”

Ballot access rules. Polling exclusion. Media coverage. Debate exclusion. GOP officials publicly calling for Libertarians to drop out of their races at both the State and National levels.

Ya think somebody's getting worried?

Comment Rescue (?) and child-related gun violence in Delaware

In my post about the idiotic over-reaction to a New Jersey 10-year-old posing with his new squirrel rifle , Dana Garrett left me this response: One waits, apparently in vain, for you to post the annual rates of children who either shoot themselves or someone else with a gun. But then you Libertarians are notoriously ambivalent to and silent about data and facts and would rather talk abstract principles and fear monger (like the government will confiscate your guns). It doesn't require any degree of subtlety to see why you are data and fact adverse. The facts indicate we have a crisis with gun violence and accidents in the USA, and Libertarians offer nothing credible to address it. Lives, even the lives of children, get sacrificed to the fetishism of liberty. That's intellectual cowardice. OK, Dana, let's talk facts. According to the Children's Defense Fund , which is itself only querying the CDCP data base, fewer than 10 children/teens were killed per year in Delaw

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

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