Release...

Aug. 19

WASHINGTON - As unemployment in the United States remains stuck above 9 percent, Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict released the following statement:

"Every time politicians say they're going to create jobs, they end up destroying more jobs than they create.

"Here's the Libertarian approach to unemployment: cut taxes and spending, and let the free market work. [emphasis added]

"Government intervention in the free market is what causes unemployment. There are many examples of this, well known to many economists. Minimum wage laws cause unemployment. Government-mandated unemployment insurance causes unemployment. Welfare and food stamps cause unemployment. Occupational licensing laws cause unemployment.

"One especially destructive factor is government prohibition of at-will employment. Because the government won't let employers hire, maintain, and fire employees on a truly at-will basis, it makes employment much riskier. Employers are scared to hire people because it can be so difficult to fire them if they don't work out, and employers are sometimes even scared to interview people because they might be forced to hire them. The result? More unemployment.

"What about all the 'stimulus spending' we've seen during the last two administrations?

"Stimulus spending doesn't create jobs, it destroys them. The government spends money by extracting it out of the productive private sector, which causes a net loss of jobs.

"Stimulus spending makes our future less secure, without doing any good in the present. It destroys jobs today, as well as down the road.

"Back in 2009, the Obama administration was worried that unemployment might reach 8 percent. So they pushed through a massive stimulus program, and employment went up even higher, to 10 percent. The stimulus program made our problems worse.

"And in 2008, George W. Bush championed a counterproductive plan to send $300-$600 stimulus checks to millions of people.

"Republicans and Democrats in the federal and state governments need to stop trying to help, because they're only making things worse. Instead, they need to get out of the way and let us free Americans solve the problem ourselves."

LP.org

Or, alternative title - "Dancing on the Green Jobs Grave"

From USAToday, "Chevrolet Volt prospects are starting to lose interest" Aug. 15:

Interest in buying the $39,995 plug-in car is starting to taper off, not only among "early adopters" but among lots of other buyers, reports CNW Marketing...

In March, more than 21% of early adopters said they were very likely to consider the GM vehicle. In the July study, that figure had dropped to 14.6%...

"In fact, all categories of new-car intenders are reporting less likelihood of even considering the vehicle."

From the NY Times, "Number of Green Jobs fails to live up to Promise" Aug. 19:

In the Bay Area as in much of the country, the green economy is not proving to be the job-creation engine that many politicians envisioned. President Obama once pledged to create five million green jobs over 10 years. Gov. Jerry Brown promised 500,000 clean-technology jobs statewide by the end of the decade. But the results so far suggest such numbers are a pipe dream.

A study released in July by the non-partisan Brookings Institution found clean-technology jobs accounted for just 2 percent of employment nationwide and only slightly more — 2.2 percent — in Silicon Valley. Rather than adding jobs, the study found, the sector actually lost 492 positions from 2003 to 2010 in the South Bay, where the unemployment rate in June was 10.5 percent.

Editor's comment - They sure had some hot shapely dancing girls though.

Complete fabrication of story meant to embarrass Missouri GOP

From Eric Dondero:

Politico's so-called hot shot "Investigative Reporter" David Catanese ran a 12 paragraph "gotcha" story on MO Lt. Governor candidate and libertarian Republican Peter Kinder. The left-leaning Politico alleged that Kinder has had a scurilious relationship with an ex-Penthouse Pet. Both Kinder and Tammy Chapman acknowledge they're longtime friendship. But Catanese is alleging that Kinder, a single man, visiting St. Louis area gentleman's clubs has caused the Missouri GOP to reconsider him as a potential candidate for Governor.

The executive director of the Missouri Republican Party has privately warned Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder the party will pull its support for his gubernatorial candidacy if evidence surfaces he's lying about the extent of his relationship with a former Penthouse Pet or similar allegations are proven true, POLITICO has learned.

Lloyd Smith, a veteran GOP operative who has a long history with Kinder and now heads the party, delivered notice to the lieutenant governor within days after the Riverfront Times published a damning photograph of Kinder with a stripper at a pantless bar, according to a Missouri Republican with knowledge of the conversation.

Now this update to the story "hot shot" Catanese was forced to post.

UPDATED @ 11:10 PM: Missouri GOP spokesman Jon Prouty phones to say that the story is untrue. "The conversation between Lloyd and Peter that you're reporting on is not true. That conversation did not happen," he said.

When asked about what Smith has said to Kinder about the allegations, Prouty said he was not privy to specifics but that the executive director did not convey to Kinder he would pull his support.

What Catanese and other left reporters/bloggers don't seem to get, is that the GOP is much more libertarian these days, than in the past. Daliances with risque performers, visits to gentleman's clubs don't carry the same punch in GOP circles as they used too in the days of religious right dominance.

In fact, as the libertarian wing emerges, it's increasingly becomming a plus.

Photo credit - ThePitchNews.com Photo below - MO GOP Exec. Dir. Jon Prouty.