I just read your article "Time for a Purge?" and am somewhat amused at the latest from the Watergate Gang.
This press release from Cory [http://lp.org/media/article_578.shtml] really makes me wonder what the dues of the LPUS's Sustaining Members are going for. I was under the <i>impression</i> that Cory was hired to run the day-to-day operations of the Libertarian Party's Watergate office.
A question for Shane Cory -- How does calling for MORE State action help to fufill the LP's professed mission of SHRINKING the State?
My answer -- It DOESN'T. So what business does the Executive Director of organization supposedly dedicated to shrinking the State have in calling for more State activity?
And I think that the War on Kiddie Porn will go the same route as the Wars on Drugs and Terror -- as an excuse for Democrats and Republicans to expand the reach and expense of the State, regardless of what their constituents say, never mind common sense, the Constitution, the rule of law.
As for the presidential candidate, it wouldn't be Christine Smith, would it?
This comes as a disappointment to me, as I was operating under the assumption that Smith was one of the more principled candidates. My main fear about her was that she would burn out, being such a high- energy candidate.
But not to fear -- another potential nominee has been dropping the ball. This would be former GOP congressman Bob Barr. It turns out that the Bob Barr Leadership Fund has been making campaign contributions to Republican candidates who were opposing Libertarian candidates, while the BBLF wasn't making ANY donations to the Libertarian candidates. All of this while Bob Barr has been a sitting member of the LNC.
We in the LPNM had a guy who did this kind of schtick. Back in 2005, he had announced that he was seeking the LPNM's nomination for U.S. Senate. At the time, he was the Vice-Chair of the LPNM. Come March 2006, he says that "If nominated, I'll use my campaign to stump for Jeff Bingaman." Bingaman was (and still is) the Democrat incumbent. He didn't show up at that year's (rump) State Convention two weeks later in Rio Rancho. I wonder why?
Fast-forward about two months later, and he announces that he's forming the "Independent Voters of New Mexico" with the Green Party's perennial traitor, Abraham Gutmann. As one of the leaders of this outfit, he endorsed then-New Mexico Attorney General Patsy Madrid for U.S. Congress, 1st Congressional District, against Democrat-wannabe Heather Wilson. (I'm NO fan of Wilson, either.) Given that Madrid had used her powers of office as State Attorney General in an attempt to kill off the LPNM as an organization, what business does a sitting officer of the LPNM do having ANYTHING good to say about her?
As for purging the undesireable members from the Libertarian Party, I don't know that the Party has any specific mechanism for doing that. Is that good or bad? I'll leave that question for the readership to answer for themselves. It seems to me that those who think along the lines of Carl Milsted and Eric Dondero like to conduct their purges by playing games with the membership and credentials rules, so as to cut the radical and principled elements out of the loop[1].
I say this in sharp contrast to those of us from the radical side -- when we are deemed to have purged someone of the Milsted/Dondero side from the LP's ranks, it's mostly that person who was "purged" simply heard, "You're full of shit" one too many times from other LP members.
[1] The current State Chair of the LPNM, Jay Vandersloot, while a member of the "Reform" Caucus started by Milsted, has no problem with Bill Koehler and I being in the radical camp. In fact, when Jay hears complaints about Bill and I from others, Jay will back us up, asking the complaintant, "What have YOU done to advance the cause?"
Who owns you? Who runs your life? Who should - you or someone else?
KCUF Media, UnIncorporated Commentary and Opinion for the Undamaged Mind http://xanga.com/kcufmedia ______________________________________________________________________
(Scroll down til you see the bold type -- "State's rights")
> I never trusted Bob Barr, and Mike Gravel is crazy as a bedbug.
Ha ha ha.
I think I'm going to set a personal rule to not support anyone as a candidate til I've at least known of them, what they've been doing, that sort of thing, for two years. This way, any squirrelly stuff (like C. Smith's planks, or Barr's money games) will come out into the open.
As for Gravel, until I see otherwise, he's just nomination-shopping. If he sticks around in the LP after this election year, THEN I'll (MAYBE) start to respect him (A LITTLE). Even if he does beat that one-in-a-trillion chance and get the LP's nomination, several states have "sore loser" laws in their election codes, which will severely limit his ballot access.
> Unfortunately, George Phillies has swallowed the Adminstration's lies > about 9/11 hook, line, and sinker.
Phillies has also swallowed the "conventional wisdom" about "global warming," hook, line, and sinker. At the 2007 LPNM Convention in Farmington, one of the attendees asked him what he thought of the idea that dissenters on the issue were being squashed. George said that the reason that you didn't hear much dissent is that most of the scientists agree with the mainstream line, and that he did, too.
The only saving grace for George there was that he explicitly said that government should take no action on the issue, and let the market settle it.
> I'm probably going to endorse Steve Kubby.
Last year, I was divided between Kubby and Stanhope, leaning more towards Stanhope. Then in May 2007, Stanhope dropped out, saying that his plan of using his comedy tours as a campaign venue would have been squashed by the FEC.
Thus Kubby it is for me, too. ______________________________________________________________________ - Mike Blessing / Phone - 011-001-505-918-6567 / Yahoo IM - mikewb1971 http://xanga.com/mikewb1971
Who owns you? Who runs your life? Who should - you or someone else?
KCUF Media, UnIncorporated Commentary and Opinion for the Undamaged Mind http://xanga.com/kcufmedia ______________________________________________________________________
> And I'm glad you named the candidate. I was disappointed, too, > although I'd always been frustrated with a certain vagueness. I never > trusted Bob Barr, and Mike Gravel is crazy as a bedbug. Unfortunately, > George Phillies has swallowed the Adminstration's lies about 9/11 hook, > line, and sinker.
Follow-up piece for Candidates, Purges and Principles --
This is my SECOND response to L. Neil Smith's article in The Libertarian Enterprise, titled "Time for a Purge?" It's also a follow-up to my own article, "Candidates, Purges and Principles."
After I finished "Candidates, Purges and Principles," I copied and pasted it to an email message, then sent it off to L. Neil and to Ken Holder, editor of TLE, as a submission. Neil got back to me, and while composing my response to his response, I spent some time looking through Tom Knapp's blog for supporting details. While there, I noticed this article about current Libertarian Party National Director Sean Haugh. It might be old news, dated 22 February 2008, but
It seems to me that the LP's Treason Caucus is in full swing this election cycle. Think about it -- we have Bob Barr giving thousands of dollars to Republican opponents of the LP's candidates while he's been sitting on the LNC, and not giving much of anything to the LP candidates themselves.
(It was in the comments section of this story that I first found about Barr's providing cash to Republicans against Libertarian candidates while sitting on the LNC.)
And we have the LP's national Political Director, Sean Haugh, said that he would support a Republican over the LP's candidate, Susan Hogarth.
Is it time for some sort of a purge in the LP's ranks? YES, it is. But there's one problem.
The LP doesn't have any specific mechanism that I know of to kick people out of the organization. Maybe this is a bad thing, but in the mean time, those of us who are of the radical or "purist" mindset simply have to let the members of the LP's Treason Caucus know that this sort of behavior simply will not be tolerated.
Think about it -- what if Barr or Haugh were hockey players, and said to their teammates, "Let's shoot the puck into our own net!" How would the team react to this insanity? I think that they would probably offer Barr and/or Haugh an enema of hockey sticks, minus any sort of lubrication. And deservedly so.
Now we've had this sort of problem in the LPNM at times, once from Socorro in 2000, and again here in Albuquerque in 2006. Both times, the perpetrators of this stupidity got hammered for it, and haven't repeated the offense.
What does it take to stop such idiocy? Simple -- vigilance on the part of the membership, and a willingness to stand up (and speak up) for principle. That's it -- nothing more needed. Nothing less will suffice. ______________________________________________________________________ - Mike Blessing / Phone - 011-001-505-918-6567 / Yahoo IM - mikewb1971 http://xanga.com/mikewb1971
Who owns you? Who runs your life? Who should - you or someone else?
KCUF Media, UnIncorporated Commentary and Opinion for the Undamaged Mind http://xanga.com/kcufmedia ______________________________________________________________________
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