Libertarian Politics Live!
Listen to Eric Dondero on Blog Talk RadioGuests on "Libertarian Politics Live" Dec. 8:
SPECIAL GUEST
Bryan Preston, Communications Direct, Republican Party of Texas
Andre Traversa, Co-Host - Chicago
Jim Lagnese, Iowa, Right Guy blogspot
Dave Nalle, Austin, TX, Republic of Dave blog
Wes Wessamore, Tennessee, Humble Libertarian
Dan Sheill, Michigan, Republican Liberty Caucus rlc.org
Or, more precisely a "Republican-Libertarian-Republican" and a "Libertarian-Republican"
From Eric Dondero:
It gets confusing I know. But follow me here.
I caught this piece by the Huffington Post last week. Now regular columnist Garry Reed of the Dallas Libertarian Examiner has picked up on it. From Dallas Libertarian Examiner:
Libertarians generally take it as a point of unquestioned fact that the Tea Party movement was a grassroots uprising begun at the local level by libertarians and later co-opted by the Republican Party.
But the left-eye-view can't seem to figure out who started or co-opted what from whom or what the difference is between a libertarian, a conservative, and a Republican.
A pair of Huffington Post pundits, Alex Brant-Zawadzki and Dawn Teo, teamed up to produce "a multi-part series, Reading Tea Leaves" which attempts to untangle the Tea Party beginnings and expose its political ambitions for 2010.
Then it gets interesting.
Republican-turned-Libertarian-turned-Libertarian Republican
Continuing:
the pair identifies Eric Odom as "the man most often regarded as the founder of the Tea Parties."
They then tell a tangled tale of how Odom left the Republican Party, joined the Libertarian Party, rejoined the Republican Party, and along the way "effectively hijacked" a Facebook Tea Party group created by the Libertarian Party of Illinois and launched his own Tea Party movement.
The Tea Party, in this version, was founded by a Republican-Libertarian-Republican hijacker.
Okay. Got that? Odom is the official Founder of the Movement, as we've often said here at LR. However, Odom was "on to the outs" with the GOP at the time of the founding, and was a Libertarian Party member. Of course, a mere few months later he switched back to GOP.
Wait a moment. The HuffPo video goes on to rase the spector of "mysterious GOP money" backing Odom at the time of the founding of the Movement. So, even though he may have been a Libertarian Party member at the time, he was secretly backed by Republicans.
Libertarian-turned-Republican financier
And then there's this:
But Alex Brant-Zawadzki, in a follow-up article under his own byline, discovered yet another Tea Party progenitor: David Koch.
"Koch claims to have founded the Tea Party movement," says Brant-Zawadzki, "at an October conference held by Americans for Prosperity."*
Koch, the ninth richest man in America, is indeed sugar daddy to countless conservative and libertarian groups, including libertarian's two iconic organizations, the Cato Institute and Reason Foundation.
So now it's a tie between Republican-turned-Libertarian-turned-Libertarian Republican and always backed by Republicans, and former Libertarian Party Vice-Presidential candidate now Republican benefactor David Koch.
I happen to agree with that assessment. I can remember the very beginnings of the Movement, late 2008; we followed it very closely, and reported on it here at LR. However, I would hasten to add, that there were two other groups involved at the very beginning: A Libertarian Party group in Seattle, and a Ron Paul meet-up group in Denver (or it may be the other way around - an LP group in Denver, and a Ron Paul group in Seattle??)
All sounds oh so complicated. Here's a solution. Why not just say Eric Odom and David Koch are the official Co-Founders of the Tea Party Movement? Forget all the intrigue - Libertarian-turned-Republican, Libertarian backed by Republicans then turned Republican, Libertarian who left the Libertarian Party and then backed Republican groups, ect... ect...
One can simply say, "The Tea Party Movement was Founded by Libertarian Republicans."
Editor's Note - As luck would have it, just last night I attended my local Houston Tea Party Patriots meeting at a tavern near downtown Houston. HTTP meets every other Monday at Sherlock's on West Gray St. 7 pm. You can always catch me there. http://www.teapartypatriots.org
From Cliff Thies:
According to Al Arabiya, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, says he has documentary proof that the United States is trying to prevent a return of the Mahdi, the 12th or Hidden Imam, believed by Shi’ite Muslims to be the Savior of the World.
Al Arabiya (via Fox News):
“We have documented proof that they believe that a descendant of the prophet of Islam will raise in these parts and he will dry the roots of all injustice in the world,” Ahmadinejad said during a speech on Monday, according to Al Arabiya.
"They have devised all these plans to prevent the coming of the Hidden Imam because they know that the Iranian nation is the one that will prepare the grounds for his coming and will be the supporters of his rule," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
Could he really be that crazy?
And be developing nuclear weapons?
Of course not. Just like Major Nidal M. Hasan couldn’t be that crazy. He’s just saying these things for domestic political consumption.
RAW FOOTAGE
Two-day long Protest at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.
The Tippecanoe County Libertarian Party plans to walk in the Lafayette Christmas parade this coming Sunday, December 6, 2009. The parade starts at Noon, and wiill air on local TV, radio, and will be covered in the local newspaper.
The party is looking for local Libertarians to walk in parade and pass out candy. They must be there by 10 AM, location to be determined. To participate, please contact Dan Church at 1-765-491-1441 or Michele Edmonds Blaas at 1-765-409-0100.
Editor's Note: Originally released by the NRA.
On November 30, 2009, the Bloomington Herald-Times made the following announcement:
“This week, HeraldTimesOnline.com will launch its new gun permit database. You’ll be able to search gun permit records by county, city or town and street."
The Herald-Times has begun receiving calls and emails, and their response is a defiant defense of their online gun permit database. Anyone who visits the newspaper website will be able to search the number of permits on a given street or neighborhood. Although at this point the names and house numbers are not listed, the newspaper’s website treats law-abiding Indiana gun owners like sex offenders on a searchable database.
Reason Magazine's Nick Gillespie put together a fantastic post on Reason's Hit & Run blog, covering several different angles that lead up to a handful of conclusions, but mainly: the majority of American don't want to see a sweeping solution that could hurt the economy.
I'm no expert, but I find it reasonable to believe that man's pollution could impact climate globally. However, I don't believe that capping emissions in the USA at the rates frequently discussed are worth doing. Just as Bush's pre-emptive war struck me as a huge, out-of-proportion response to a low probability possible future catastrophic outcome, the usual cap solutions I see strike me as parallels.
(Originally posted by Eric Schansberg at his blog Schansblog🙂
Wow...a lot of good stuff from TownHall.com the last few days on this amazing story.
As someone who has thought and written about politics as a means to various ends, I find it fascinating to consider the use of illegal means to air out unethical and illegal behavior.
Here are some of the TownHall nuggets that got my attention:
From Jonah Goldberg at TownHall.com...
To the Editor of the Herald Times,
This letter is in reference to your creating of a database showing information about gun permits. What did you hope to accomplish when creating this database? Here are a few points that I don’t think you considered that I would like to point out to you:
*************For Immediate Release******************
Libertarian Party of Johnson County wants voters to decide on jail expansion
GREENWOOD, IN -- In November the Johnson county council and commissioners unanimously approved a $23 million jail expansion project. This project will add to a Johnson County home and business owner’s property tax and possibly later to the county income tax.
There is the opportunity to put this issue on the May 2010 ballot by collecting 125 petition signatures by Dec 18th. On Monday Dec 7 the LPJC began collecting petition signatures. If the signatures are not collected the project will automatically be allowed to proceed.
Executive Director Chris Spangle is looking for college interns to participate in the 2010 LPIN intern program. Interns will work from Indianapolis in the LPIN HQ gaining one-of-a-kind political science experience in exchange for college credits. The 2010 election will offer students an inside look at the Indiana political process while working to organize Indiana's third largest political party.
Please contact Executive Director Chris Spangle to begin the process:cspangle@lpin.org.
By Tad DeHaven of the Cato Institute. 
Another day brings another example of federal health care fraud. Today’s story comes from “the nation’s healthcare fraud capital” of Miami-Dade County. The government’s crack investigators realized it was fishy that a single county was accounting for more than half of Medicare’s total payments for the treatment of homebound patients with diabetes. Miami-Dade doesn’t even have Florida’s highest rate of diabetes.
The Indiana Election Division has released the 2010 Campaign Guide, Campaign Finance Manual, and the Indiana Election Calendar.
The LPMC's annual pitch-in holiday party is Saturday, December 19, starting at 6pm. Libertarians from everywhere, their family members and friends are invited to share the spirit of the season.
Attendees are asked to bring a food dish to share with others (such as a salad, casserole or desert) and to bring used clothing for the needy.
Additionally, the Libertarian Party of Marion County will also accept monetary donations this year to give to this year’s beneficiary, Second Helpings. Second Helpings not only distributes food and clothing, it also provides job training opportunities. Its website is http://www.secondhelpings.org/.
From the Times of London:
Nursery-age children should be monitored for signs of brainwashing by Islamist extremists, according to a leaked police memo obtained by The Times.
In an e-mail to community groups, an officer in the West Midlands counter-terrorism unit wrote: “I do hope that you will tell me about persons, of whatever age, you think may have been radicalised or be vulnerable to radicalisation ... Evidence suggests that radicalisation can take place from the age of 4.”
The police unit confirmed that counter-terrorist officers specially trained in identifying children and young people vulnerable to radicalisation had visited nursery schools.
Like public health care, Canada’s tight gun-control laws help distinguish the country from its powerful neighbor to the south. But as Canadians commemorated the 20th anniversary of one of the country’s most notorious shooting sprees on Sunday, their Parliament was on course to eliminate one of its most significant gun-control measures.
A long-gun registry, which requires the registration of rifles and shotguns, emerged largely from public revulsion over the massacre in 1989.
What should libertarians think about gun control laws, like long-gun registration in Canada, that inconvenience purchasers but do not, by themselves, prevent responsible persons from owning guns?
My view is that the direct costs of such laws are small, but so are the direct benefits. It is possible that registration occassionally allows police to solve a crime or remove a gun from an unstable situation, but the number of such instances is rare. Thus, it is hard to get excited about such laws, for or against, if one considers only their direct impact.
The crucial question is slippery slopes. If mild controls like registration or background checks pave the way for more serious laws - bans on some or all guns - then in my judgment mild laws cause substantial harm.
What does the evidence say about slippery slopes? Most countries had no gun control laws a century ago, and their initial laws were "mild." Yet over time gun control has expanded enormously, and in some countries it amounts to virtual prohibition. This is consistent with slopes being slippery.
Given this, and my view that mild laws rarely generate direct benefits, I oppose all gun control laws, including mild ones.
Consider this headline from today's New York Times:
Coordinated Bombings Kill at Least 101 in Baghdad
Does that sound like a country that has achieved peace and understanding? And we still have over 100,000 troops there. Not to mention that since the Iraq surge, violence has escalated in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Once we leave (if we leave), civil war seems almost inevitable. This does not mean we should stay; that just delays the inevitable, and at a large, ongoing cost. But we should not kid ourselves about what will happen once we are gone.
Yesterday I signed up my son up for driver's ed classes. Under a recent revision of the laws in Massachusetts, parents must also attend two hours of classes, so I get to go as well.
Does this requirement accomplish anything? Hard to see how. Just two hours down the drain.
The trouble signs surrounding Lend America had been building for years. A top executive was convicted of mortgage fraud but still helped run the company. Home loans made by its headquarters were defaulting at an extremely high rate. Federal prosecutors alleged in a civil suit that the company falsified loan documents and committed fraud.
Yet despite these red flags, a little-known federal agency continued giving its blessing to Lend America, allowing it to do business in the name of the U.S. government. The Government National Mortgage Association, known as Ginnie Mae, authorized the firm to bundle its mortgages into securities and sell them to investors around the world -- all backed by U.S. taxpayer money.
Until last week, federal housing officials said that Lend America met requirements for participating in the program run by Ginnie Mae, an agency in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and allowed the firm to sell more than $1 billion in mortgages via Ginnie Mae securities.
Read the whole story; it gets worse. The root of the recent financial crisis, and the growing seed of the next one, is the U.S. obsession with subsidizing homeownership.
When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and then Iraq, I suggested to my father that we would exit within a few years. He laughed, and said "25 years, at least."
I am beginning to think he was right. I predict we will have at least 200,000 troops in Iraq / Afghanistan in November, 2012. We currently have about 120,000 in Iraq, and with the new surge we will have about 100,000 in Afghanistan.
