. . . YET.

Our operations in Somalia --which even US government officials admit may be counterproductive in the long run--are the latest case in point.

Yeah, I know, it's only Google+, but . . . . President Obama has 1.8 million followers Libertarian Governor Gary Johnson has just hit 1.01 million followers and Governor Mitt Romney lags behind at 853K. Traction is where you find it.

Libertarians stand up for marriage equality Libertarian candidates and activists joined Delaware Right to Marry at Delaware State Fair on July 26, to collect signatures for a marriage equality petition designed to convince legislators to move beyond civil unions and approve same-sex marriage during the next session of the General Assembly. Wendy Jones, candidate for Senate District 6, said she wasn't surprised not to see Republicans or Democrats willing to stand for hours asking fair-goers to sign petitions.  "They seem to be more worried about not upsetting anybody than about taking a stand for the civil liberties of all Delaware citizens," Jones said in a press release. Libertarian candidate for Insurance Commissioner, David Eisenhour, said of Democratic incumbent Karen Weldin Stewart, "I'm out here asking people to help stand up for the right of people to marry whomever they love.  Ms. Weldin Stewart came by and posed for a couple pictures, but wouldn...

What do you think?  Where was this photo taken, and what was happening? I suspect the answer will astound some of you.

This should have been, ah, predictable.  If you have X supply of doctors serving Y supply of patients already, and you extend Y by several million . . . . The window-dressing mechanisms in the Affordable Care Act meant to stimulate the training of more doctors will apparently provide only about 3,000 of the 45,000 more physicians needed in the next decade.  They actually couldn't do much more because our doctor-training system doesn't really have the capacity to expand that quickly. There are, of course, more libertarian and market-based solutions that health care policy advisors will now have to examine after the fact, like allowing Physicians' Assistants and Nurse Practitioners to set up independent practices . . . . Don't hold your breath.  Even had we adopted nationwide single-payer health care as many progressives wanted, we still could not have magically generated sufficient doctors to take care of everybody, despite all the promises to the contrary.  Th...

Thirteen hours later and my comment on David Anderson's post on the Delaware congressional delegation and voting for "Audit the Fed" is still in moderation.  What did I say that was so dangerous? I pointed out that only Libertarian Scott Gesty--and not Republican Tom Kovach--had actually come out with a public statement criticizing John Carney for his vote against auditing the Federal Reserve. That's apparently the new verboten  at Delaware Politics, which still does not show my comment to anyone else. Well, thanks to the magic of screen capture, you get to see it here:

I promised to record what happened with Alexis and her stint at getting signatures for the Delaware Marriage Equality petition at the State Fair. But first things first--I have to correct an ongoing mistake.  The guy who organized this all (see last photo) is Chuck Mead-e, not Chuck Meade as I have been spelling it.  See, you take Bruce Mead (no "e") and he gets married (that's what's wrong with civil unions, they don't convert into a verb) to Charles Meade (with an "e") and it comes out Richard and Charles Mead-e.  Simple?  I think so. Anyway back to the narrative. . . . Alexis worked with Wendy Jones and me for about two hours (Chuck got to take a nap) from 5-7:00pm on Saturday night.  At first she was apprehensive about calling out to strangers, "Sign a petition for marriage equality!" and just handed out the secondary clipboards when somebody's spouse was already signing. But then she got rapidly into the swing of things, wavin...

. . . nobody may be watching.

To some extent it was funny (OK it was downright f--king hilarious) when the guy threw up his hands and shouted, "Don't touch me, Satan!" after Libertarian Ronnie Fitzgerald asked him to sign the marriage equality petition at the Delaware State Fair on Thursday. And it was . . . interesting to stand there all day in the T-shirt and listen to the comments or absorb the looks.  "I hope your people can find happiness."  "No sir, I don't have truck with your perversions." "I'm a Christian so I will pray for you."  "You said you had a son, so you must have been normal sometime in your life." I made a conscious decision that I wasn't going to say, "No, I'm not gay, I just happen to support equality for everybody in America," because I really wanted to find out at least a little something about what it felt like to be Chuck Mead-e or any other gay man standing up for his rights in what could at times be a host...

On a blog nobody reads, a troll who used to make thoughtful comments has decided that s/he is the arbiter of political purity, and that I'm. well, not.  Or else I am, and that's the problem. This person (or possibly beta version AI) has previously called all Republicans Nazis, found all Democrats to be hypocrites, and now is trying to peddle the idea that all Libertarians want to starve poor people, end civil rights, and destroy the public schools. Which would have come as a surprise to the members of the only political party in Delaware willing to get out there and collect signatures for Marriage Equality at the State Fair. . . Nah, I won't give you the link because s/he will show up here soon enough to tell you personally that Libertarians want you to die without government assistance. In five, four, three, two . . . .

Mali? Quck, before you have time to look, even tell me where in Africa Mali sits (a point naming any country it borders) and even one fact about the country, even one not relevant to why the Obama adminstration is interested in sending troops there. How do you plan to explain to our sons and daughters that they will be fighting in Mali? This has got to stop. Only Gary Johnson for President and Scott Gesty for US House will bring some sanity back into a foreign policy on steroids.  Vist both websites, find out why they are the only candidates on the ballot with sane foreign policy ideas, and then . . . contribute!

Let's face it:  NO Demopublican administration has been willing to come to grips with the appropriate strategy for ending the war on drugs.  In fact, under President Obama the Drug Enforcement Administration has begun to rival the Transportation Security Administration for the title of "America's Gestapo." In this arena, Delaware Democrats and Republicans have been not just a disappointment, but a disaster. Perhaps they pat themselves on the back for passing a Medical Marijuana law, but without the will to support our doctors, producers, and patients in the face of DEA stormtrooper tactics, the law means nothing.  Here, from the 2012 electoral platform of the Libertarian Party of Delaware, is the stance of our state and local candidates on the "War on Drugs":

So six members of the Libertarian Party of Delaware answered the call of Delaware Right to Marry and spent the day today collecting signatures for the marriage equality petition. Chuck Meade, who is spearheading the petition drive has been working the booth by himself most of the week, in no small measure because Demopublicans are afraid that being associated with this petition drive will cost them some votes.  (Of the pictures I wish I had remembered to take was Chuck's T-Shirt:  "I'm not gay, but my husband is.") Ronnie Fitzgerald and Wendy Jones Ronnie Fitzgerald (Libertarian candidate for State Rep, District 35) was the first to arrive.  He had the most profoundly spiritual experience of the day when a man he asked to sign the petition threw up his hands and shouted, "Don't touch me, Satan!" Wendy Jones (Libertarian candidate for State Senate, District 6) proved to be one of our most successful collectors of signatures (see below).  When pe...

Predictably, US Representative John Carney (D--Special Financial Interests) voted "NO" on the bill to Audit the Federal Reserve yesterday. Equally predictably (as with his vote to approve indefinite detention in the NDAA), Congressman Carney didn't even have the courage to say why he refused to support governmental transparency and oversight of the national's central bank, which has in effect become and independent fourth branch of the government. John Carney to his special-interest contributors:  Don't worry, guys, I'm holding the line here for you. Instead, Carney published a love letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke: "I appreciated the opportunity to ask Chairman Bernanke today about what he believes are the steps Congress must to take in order to encourage economic growth. “Mr. Bernanke’s testimony today reinforced two important points that must guide the work we do here in Congress as we address the economy and work to create jobs: first,...

In seven General Assembly races this year, the choice will come down to a two-person race between a Libertarian candidate and a single Democratic (5 races) or Republicn (2 races) opponent.  (There may be more; we are not completely finished filing candidates). Here is the list: State Senate District 1:  Three Democrats in primary; Libertarian Brian Lintz; no Republican filed. State Senate District 4:  Republican Greg Lavelle; Libertarian Marcia Groff; no Democrat filed. State Senate District 7:  Democrat Patti Blevins; Libertarian James Christina; no Republican filed. State Rep District 7:  Democrat Bryon Short; Libertarian C. Robert Wilson; no Republican filed. State Rep District 14:  Democrat Pete Schwarzkopf; Libertarian Margaret Melson; no Republican filed. State Rep District 15:  Two Democrats in primary; Libertarian Amy Merlino; no Republican filed. State Rep District 35:  Republican David Wilson; Libertarian Ronnie Fitzgeral...

The Cape Gazette publishes my letter introducing Scott Gesty for US House , and--in an amazingly friendly move --jason330 at Delaware Liberal re-posts it for us. Thanks jason.  And since Scott is ballot-qualified and has been for weeks, how about adding him to your list of candidates?

Here's what President Barack Obama said: "The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all companies could make money off the Internet." And Slate , plus legions of others, jumped on the old meme that the Internet grew out of Arpanet, and is a government invention: Rather than founded on the independent spirit of the Wright Brothers, the Internet is literally the bastard offspring of a government civil defense program and European physics research consortium. The problem?   Both Slate and the President are full of shit. First, consider what Robert Taylor, who actually directed Arpanet, said way back in 2004: "The creation of the Arpanet was not motivated by considerations of war. The Arpanet was not an Internet. An Internet is a connection between two or more computer networks." Then who did actually invent the internet? Vinton Cerf developed the TCP/IP protocol, the Internet's backbone, and ...

At first I was just a little hacked off personally because, when I opened WDEL's Electionwatch page there was absolutely no mention of the Libertarian Party or Libertarian candidates. There are links for Republicans, Democrats, IPOD, and the Greens.  No Libertarians. I know we aren't finished getting all of our candidates on the ballot, but a number of them (like Scott Gesty or Wendy Jones) have been ballot-qualified for weeks.  No mention. No Gary Johnson running for President. So I sat down to write WDEL a polite "please include us" email, and in so doing I realized that a lot more than Libertarians are missing. Alex Pires (IPOD) and Andrew Groff (Green) are apparently NOT running against Tom Carper. Ben Mobley (GOP) is apparently NOT running for insurance commissioner. There are others, but my favorite is the 32d State Representative District, which I'm obviously interested in because Will McVay is running, and Ellis Parrott is running away from h...

. . .  from The Whited Sepulchre.

It means that the GOP is starting to get serious hives over the idea. Although FOX tries to spin it as being interested in Johnson's pull from Obama as well as Romney, it's pretty clear what has the conservative TV news network's knickers in a twist.

1.   Marinol is a synthetic marijuana substitute that doesn't work as well as real pot and has serious potential side effects like psychosis and death.  Obamacare will cover Marinol, not marijuana. 2.   The New York Times actually (surprise, surprise) has a constructive article on improving health care quality while cutting costs that is not simply a shil for a particular political program. 3.   A homeless guy built himself a camouflaged little house out on public land.  Guess he's not really part of the public. 4.   If it was my daughter I'd expect her to do the same thing.  And if necessary I'd take the cell right next to hers.

Just a whisper, but movement toward including Libertarian Gary Johnson in this fall's presidential debates.

Sussex media outlets (WGMD and the Cape Gazette in particular) seem far more amenable to covering third parties than those further north. Today is a great example with a major Cape Gazette story on our Libertarian Party of Delaware candidates there. Some snippets (but read the whole thing): David Eisenhour: “We’re living in an area where more and more people notice the government is out of control,” he said. “We would allow people to regulate themselves.” Margaret Melson: “I am deeply concerned with the daily erosion of our freedoms, the trampling of the constitution and the slide into ever more restrictive and intrusive government,” Melson said.  “I can't sit back and complain about the sad state of affairs if I am not willing to put myself out there and at least try to make a difference.”  Wendy Jones: Jones also said she would work to lower the cost of healthcare and taxes on businesses.  “As a small business owner, it’s extremely difficult to operate now...

The pressing need to do something about public education in Delaware just keeps on growing. From the citizen pushback against corporate lobbying to the latest revelations about Pencader Charter, we are looking at a system wherein students and their education have become not the end, but a means to political power. At the Federal level there is patronage and special interest power:  one after the other presidents of both parties have elevated ideologues and half-baked visionaries to the cabinet level and allowed them not just to experiment on our children with high stakes testing, No Child Left Behind, or Race to the Top, but they have also empowered these Federal bureaucrats to take unprecedented control of all public education. And things haven't gotten better for our kids. At the State level a corresponding bureaucracy of power and entitlement has grown bloated from Federal and corporate money, raked off at the expense of teachers and students in the classrooms in the nam...

" Gary Johnson is the best Presidential candidate  I have seen in my lifetime, in terms of issues and experience." Pretty strong words from the former Chair of the Political Science Department of Duke University, and the 2008 Libertarian candidate for Governor of North Carolina.

Will Scott succeed in breaking through the Delaware version of a media blackout that has kept candidates like Ron Paul and Gary Johnson away from major news outlet coverage? Too early to tell. But it is promising that at least WGMD News decided to carry a piece on his campaign kick-off: A third candidate has gotten into the race to unseat John Carney as Delaware’s lone representative in the U.S. House. Scott Gesty is the Libertarian Party nominee for Congress. He kicked off his campaign last night at the New Castle County Libertarian Party meeting. Gesty says he’ll campaign on limiting federal intrusion into public education, and also getting the DEA out of the way of Delaware’s medical marijuana law. Gesty says the “War On Drugs” has become a “war on cancer patients.” [snip] “This year the Libertarian Party is going to be part of the debate,” announced Scott Gesty, the Libertarian Party of Delaware candidate for US House of Representatives.  “We’re on the rig...

Nice write-up.

An interesting online political quiz that surprised me in terms of how well it was thought out, how subtle it was, and how accurate it was. I came out as 89% for Gary Johnson (I was impressed that he was even an option). Try it here:   I side with . . . ?

A vote on Congressman Ron Paul's HR 459 has been scheduled for July 24. This vote will be taken under a suspension of the rules, which means (a) no amendments and (b) 2/3s majority needed to pass. John Carney has been brushing off constituent letters and emails asking him to support this bill.  The staffer he had write back to me included a very condescending "history"of the Federal Reserve, and the promise that he would "consider" my views "if" the bill came to a vote. That's Newspeak for "I don't plan to support it." Please bombard Representative Carney's office with emails and calls to  (202) 225-4165 demanding that he vote in favor of HR 459. If he does, we'll give him the appropriate credit; and he'll deserve it, because this is a critical piece of legislation. If he doesn't, that will be one more issue for Scott Gesty, Libertarian candidate for US House in Delaware, to beat him over the head with.

The Affordable Care Act/Obamacare provides for certain tax breaks to individuals in the state insurance exchanges. The problem then becomes what to do if a state declines to set up such exchanges. Despite the fact that there is no provision in the law for doing so, the IRS has apparently unilaterally decided to extend those tax breaks anyway. Of course, the fact that the IRS has no statutory authority for such a move has held them up a bit. Rule of law, my ass.

Here's his message: For everyone concerned, the reason I will not debate McVay is he owes his allegiance to the Libertarian Party not to the Republican Party. If anyone would like to know how I stand on issues, they can call me 670-8345 or e-mail me at ellisparrott@gmail.com.  Ellis I personally think you should take him up on his offer.  Feel free to report back any response you get.

1.  Peter Ubertaccio thinks Libertarians and Greens should be careful not to piss anybody off by only running hard in states where their votes influence the presidential election. 2.  If the Miami Herald can take Gary Johnson seriously, why not CNN? 3.  Virginia voters decide this November on a constitutional amendment to limit eminent domain seizures--a tailor-made issue for Libertarians. 4.  By attacking the Harborside Health Center, President Obama's Gestapo (the DEA) may finally have bitten off more than it can chew.

Note to John Young:  Sadly, I couldn't find a subliminal in this one.  Maybe you'll have better luck.

We can't match them dollar for dollar, and we don't have to do so. But we do have to raise money to play in the game. The Gary Johnson campaign is a case in point regarding fundraising.  Gary has qualified for Federal matching funds by raising the requisite $200k distributed among sufficient states (with the checks written by the correct proportion of left-handed people).  His first "Everest" money bomb brought in over $58K.  He received over $20K in donations at Freedom Fest, and the announcement of a $1 million pro-Johnson gift to a Libertarian PAC.  The current "debate" money bomb is just shy of $44K. By Romney/Obama standards these are pitiful numbers; they would not even refill the finger food bar on Air Force One. But by third party (*not third party independently filthy rich candidates) standards, these are amazing totals and indicate something may be breaking our way.  People are starting to make donations. The same has to be true locally. ...

In Delaware's 32nd Representative District, retired judge Ellis Parrott is apparently afraid of mixing it up with 27-year-old Libertarian/Republican upstart Will McVay. The Kent County Young Republicans had scheduled a debate between the two for August 30, but this week sent Will the following email [names etc. extracted]: Hi Will, Ellis backed out of the debate. Says he won't debate you unless you step down as the vice-chair of the Libertarian party. Let me know if you're interested in doing that. Otherwise, looks like Ellis is looking for excuses not to debate. Let me know either way- if not, I have to make an announcement that he's backed out. To quote kavips: No one is deserving of office in these United States of America if they can't musturd up the fortitude to debate a Libertarian. Will, speaking not just as the proprietor here, but as the New Castle County Chair, LPD, go ahead and resign.  Call this fool's bluff.  As you said earlier, Del...

No, I'm not kidding. In a recent article the NYT narrated the differences between the lives of single parents and married couples , and included this demographic information: The economic storms of recent years have raised concerns about growing inequality and questions about a core national faith, that even Americans of humble backgrounds have a good chance of getting ahead. Most of the discussion has focused on labor market forces like falling blue-collar wages and lavish Wall Street pay. But striking changes in family structure have also broadened income gaps and posed new barriers to upward mobility . College-educated Americans like the Faulkners are increasingly likely to marry one another, compounding their growing advantages in pay. Less-educated women like Ms. Schairer, who left college without finishing her degree, are growing less likely to marry at all, raising children on pinched paychecks that come in ones, not twos. Estimates vary widely, but scholars have sa...

Investor's Business Daily has the IRS reports on income tax delinquincy in the Federal government , and--starting with the White House--the numbers are NOT pretty: A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama's executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven't paid any share, let alone their fair share. [snip] The tax offenders include employees of the U.S. Senate who help write the laws imposed on everyone else. They owe $2.1 million. Workers in the House of Representatives owe $8.5 million, Department of Education employees owe $4.3 million and over at Homeland Security, 4,697 workers owe about $37 million. Active duty military members owe more than $100 million. The Treasury Department, where Obama nominee Tim Geithner had to pay up $42,000 in his own back taxes before being confirmed as secretary, has 1,181 other employees with delinquent t...

Will McVay:  unrepentent 1.  You're the State Vice-Chair of the Libertarian Party of Delaware, but you are also a serial registration changer.  You've been a Democrat; you've been a Republican.  Right now you're running as a Republican for State Representative in Delaware's 32nd District.  What does all this maneuvering say about you, and about the Libertarian movement? I've also been registered with the Green Party, and recently started five new Delaware political parties.  You can register to vote as a member of the Order of the Jedi, the Sith Lords, the Lesser of Two Evils, None of the Above, and the Bacon Party of Delaware.  I'm sure plenty of people have their own opinions as to what all of this says about me and the libertarian movement, but I think it says that some of us are starting to look more deeply at the electoral system that has exclusively favored Democrats and Republicans for 150 years, despite the growth of the Libertaria...

This seems to be an endorsement (sort of). kavips finds Gary Johnson to be the superior pick for those with Republican leanings. In his list of positives about the Libertarian former Governor of New Mexico he does leave out a couple of things: 1.  Gary Johnson would end the drug war. 2.  Gary Johnson believes marriage equality is a constitutional right. 3.  Gary Johnson would end the war in Afghanistan on his first day in office. But, hey, I'll take what I can get.

It's truly interesting to parse the money quote from this NYT story. First, you have the blaise statement about the Federal government's broad powers to violate the privacy of its employees, followed by the list of ways the Food and Drug Administration went WAY over the edge: While federal agencies have broad discretion to monitor their employees’ computer use, the F.D.A. program may have crossed legal lines by grabbing and analyzing confidential information that is specifically protected under the law, including attorney-client communications, whistle-blower complaints to Congress and workplace grievances filed with the government.

From The Raw Story: NSA whistleblower William Binney was interviewed by internet journalist Geoff Shively at the HOPE Number 9 hackers  conference  in New York on Friday. Binney, who resigned from the NSA in 2001 over its domestic surveillance program, had just delivered a keynote speech in which he revealed what Shively called “evidence which we have not seen until this point.” “They’re pulling together all the data about virtually every U.S. citizen in the country … and assembling that information,” Binney explained. “So government is accumulating that kind of information about every individual person and it’s a very dangerous process.” He estimated that something like 1.6 billion logs have been processed since 2001. What candidate Barack Obama and the Democratic Party promised us in the last election: "We reject the use of national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspeted of a crime.  We reject the tracking of citizens who do nothing more tha...

. . . the city where people are most open to using a vibrator with a partner. Wilmington is apparently the city where the smallest percentage of the population actually knows what a vibrator is.

This caps a great 24 hours for the campaign:  a $1 million contribution; polling at 5.3% nationally, and an upcoming protest at CNN headquarters: “We have reached a sad point in history at which Americans’ freedom is not being threatened from outside, but rather from our own government and the politicians who run it. Yes, there are many around the world, whether they be terrorists or nations who harbor them, who would do us harm if given the opportunity, and who would love to rob us of our liberties. But with a national defense that represents almost half the entire world’s military spending, we are well-equipped to deal with those external threats. “What we are failing to deal with is the fact that Congress and the past several Presidents have systematically done to freedom and liberty what no foreign enemy could do. If another nation robbed us of hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth, it would be an outrage we would not tolerate. Yet, we have watched helplessly as the ...

And, yes, he's smiling . . . up from 2% just six weeks ago. And for those of you who this will drive crazy . . . President Barack Obama's lead over Governor Mitt Romney is 5.6%. It looks like Johnson is taking 1.3% away from Obama and 4% away from Mitt Romney. The Johnson campaign reaction: “It’s all good, from our vantage point a lot more money is coming in,” Johnson said Saturday from Las Vegas where he was making a campaign stop at a libertarian-leaning meeting called  Freedom Fest . “If people get the notion that I could win, that could be a game-changer. We’re not there yet, I’m not saying that, but these numbers are encouraging.” Will other pollsters including Johnson’s in their surveys? “You would think so,” Johnson said Saturday.

John Carney: As far as all you people who oppose education "reform" imposed from above, vote for me anyway, 'cause I'm a Democrat I've already pointed out that there isn't a hair's worth of difference between John Carney and Tom Kovach on Education, so don't look for either man to ask, answer, or grapple with tough public education questions during the upcoming campaign. Carney is an astute enough politicians that he will have read the tea-leaves from the May 2012 school board elections around Delaware, and will be trying to distance himself from both Vision 2015 and Race to the Top whenever the topic of Delaware schools comes up. Unfortunately, John Carney has a long record of supporting both the corporate-driven Vision 2015 and the top-down Federal Race to the Top initiative: The John Carney Vision 2015/Race to the Top timeline

From the pictures you wouldn't think so, but then you read their websites. Let's play a game. Whose issue paragraph on National Security is whose? Does this one belong to Carney ? Or to Kovach ? There is no more vital a role of the federal government than keeping our citizens safe. We must make sure that our military commanders have the tools and funding they need to do their job and keep our soldiers the best-equipped fighting force in the world. Our government must also make sure that we live up to our commitments to our troops, their families, and our veterans. What about this one? In the dangerous world we live in today, Congress must work to make sure that the United States is effectively fighting terrorism and maintaining the strength of our globally stretched military. That means having diplomatic policies that do not exclude the global community, sharpening our focus on counterterrorism and protecting America, and conducting rigorous oversight of the ongo...