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Although I have not posted anything in the Politics section for a while, earlier this week Wes Benedict sent out this nice little summary article that looks like it might be useful for some of you. Currently we are drawing close to the filing deadlines for candidates to run in the 2010 elections here in Texas, and the deadlines for other states will follow shortly thereafter. This means that if you have become fed up enough with the current situation that you want to run for office, you will need to think about getting your paperwork in order pretty soon so that your name will make it onto the ballot by next November.

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I am not your politically correct type of person, so I don’t really appreciate politically correct cars. I get irritated when a vehicle is designed to dictate my behavior.

I’m all grown up and even well-read and educated, so I obviously know that smoking isn’t good for me. I don’t need Dodge to tell me that, or to try to keep me from smoking by making vehicles that have no ashtrays. Even if I didn’t smoke, I might like to use the ashtray to store change, candy, or maybe even some nice nicotine replacement gum. Yeah, right.

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A long history of questionable tactics in politics can leave a bad taste in the potential voter’s mouth. However, voters must evaluate candidates for public office each year at different levels of local government, including boards and commissions of townships, school districts, water management districts, cities, and counties. When political campaigns are conducted the local level, it is important that the voters get to know the issues.

A local candidate is someone who voters can get to know by attending a local speech. News media coverage does not serve as the only source of voter decision making. When you consider who to vote for, the values that candidates represent are important. How about judging a person’s suitability for office based on a record of clean campaigning without dirty politics? Here are four questions to help you decide which candidate to support with your vote in the next local election.

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For the past few months, our national Libertarian Party has been sending out a weekly “Monday Message” to its email subscribers. Most of the time I don’t bother mentioning them here because they’re usually little more than familiar political rants and calls for donations that can be found at the main LP.org site or the sites of several state affiliates. However, the message that was released yesterday by Donny Ferguson, the current Communications Director, deserves a reprint because it contains some useful information about how to get involved in the political process and organize campaigns at the local precinct level. In fact, if I had written it myself I could probably use it as an addendum to my earlier essay on how to organize a political campaign.

Have you considered becoming a Libertarian precinct leader?

I’m asking because, as a political party, we have an obligation to win elections. Not only do our over 200 elected Libertarians need some friendly allies where they serve, there are many communities across America with no elected Libertarians.

We need to change that.

And successful organizations do it by organizing at the local level.

In politics, organization defeats ideology. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened the paper the morning after Election Day and heard my candidate’s opponent openly wondering, “How did that wacko, with his views, beat me?”

The answer is “We were better organized than you.”

So what can you do to become a precinct leader? Contact us, or your local LP, to let us know you want to volunteer. Then:

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This article by an author writing as “Melodyfair” lists ten relatively little known trivia facts about July 4th, the date known as Independence Day to Americans who celebrate this day as a national holiday. It carries much significance because it was on this date back in 1776 that a few colonial radicals with some decidedly libertarian political leanings finally got fed up with the British government of the time and drafted a document known as the Declaration of Independence, which effectively severed political ties to Great Britain and created the foundation for the modern United States.

Since this is supposed to be a libertarian site (and one that is using the Independence Day theme, no less!), I would feel remiss if I did not take this opportunity to remind readers that the most important part of the Declaration of Independence is the idea that we actually have the right to alter or abolish our government in order to preserve our liberty. In a rather provocative posting from last year, Michael Hampton from Homeland Stupidity made a refreshingly radical call to do just that:

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Last year the IRS was besieged by telephone calls regarding treatment of the 2008 economic stimulus payments. Complicating matters even further was the fact that some people who did not get a stimulus payment may still be due one, as this article by Anthony Ventre explains. It remains to be seen whether the Obama administration’s attempt at a stimulus will cause similar confusion, but it’s interesting to see how messy and complicated income taxes have become.

There were so many questions stemming from the 2008 Bush administration economic stimulus package that the Internal Revenue Service had to detail extra people to answer the barrage of questions from people who received it and people who didn’t. According to the IRS, there were 119 million tax payers who received these payments. Owing in part to the tough economic times, the Internal Revenue Service has noted an increase in early filers and a concomitant increase in tax errors in the current 2008 filing year.

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Today Wes Benedict has released a letter detailing election day results and other related issues to members of our Libertarian Party affiliate in Texas. Despite the disappointing totals for presidential candidate Bob Barr, the party set several new records in other races, including highest percentage and vote total for U.S. Senate, highest number of candidates on the ballot, and over one million votes for our Court of Criminal Appeals statewide candidate. Only one other LP candidate, John Monds in the race for Georgia’s Public Service Commission, surpassed the one million vote mark nationally.

Here is the text of Wes Benedict’s email, which includes a link to the vote totals and percentages for all Libertarian Party of Texas candidates. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for the election results for LP candidates nationally, you can find these at the LP.org site here.

Dear Texas Friend of Liberty:

Thanks to our donors for coming through recently and helping us to purchase more door hangers and yard signs. Our Assistant Director, Arthur DiBianca, and I worked feverishly for the past couple of months recruiting volunteers and shipping door hangers and signs to as many of you as we could find and recruit.

Texas Libertarian candidates did great on election day, breaking some new records. Thanks to all of our candidates and volunteers who worked hard for the past two years, and to our donors.

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Today I ran across an interesting little article that has been showing up in forwarded emails and occasional blog posts recently. Labeled as “Bar Stool Economics”, it is a simplified version of why “progressive” income taxes (that is, taxes that are weighted heavily against people who are relatively wealthy) do not work very well even when we try to lower the overall tax burden. As I have mentioned in a few previous posts, as long as taxes cannot be practically avoided, I would much prefer a consumption-based tax to any type of income tax because people at all levels of income would have an element of choice in how much tax they pay based on their actual spending. Of course, there are also several other advantages, but I will leave those as material for another article.

Our Tax System Explained: Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

1. The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
2. The fifth would pay $1.
3. The sixth would pay $3.
4. The seventh would pay $7.
5. The eighth would pay $12.
6. The ninth would pay $18.
7. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do.

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The Libertarian merchandise site LPStuff.com sent out its weekly newsletter today, but this time instead of just showing images of the campaign materials, it actually had a significant amount of content. In addition to offering 10 percent off all items in preparation for the upcoming election, the newsletter includes an interesting template for writing a letter to the editor in states where polls show that the presidential election will not be a very close race. There is also a rather humorous template for a writing a letter to members of Congress regarding the proposed bailout of fiscally irresponsible financial companies.

Meanwhile, in case you haven’t figured it out already, if you want to visit the LPStuff.com site, you’re supposed to click the brightly colored banner below.

As Libertarians, we are very interested in getting our message out to others. LPStuff.com plays a vital role in this effort by providing quality products that help spread the word about the advantages of a Libertarian world. Here are two ideas that cost you nothing and you can use at home to help.

Because of the way the Electoral College works, the presidential election is actually decided in very few “swing” states. In all others, such as Kansas (or Massachusetts), the outcome is a foregone conclusion. If you live in one of these many non-swing states, whether red or blue, consider sending the following letter to the editor of your local newspaper:
(Of course you will need to change it for your state and its “color”.)

Don’t Waste Your Vote

As citizens of the Great State of Kansas, we are lucky when election day comes. Because of the Electoral College, Kansans do not need to feel constrained by such base concerns as politics; we get to actually vote our conscience. It’s a form of freedom not shared by voters in the so-called “swing states.”

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Although it’s not exactly a major surprise, Ron Paul’s latest letter to his subscribers earlier today expressed strong opposition to a proposed $700 billion taxpayer-funded federal bailout of several large corporations that managed to get into serious financial trouble by backing questionable mortgage loans and other instruments of debt. Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain both support this unbelievably fiscally irresponsible proposal, with John McCain even going so far as to propose a new federal agency which would create an “intervention system” that would direct the federal government to interfere even more in the affairs of private companies that it already has in the interests of supposedly preventing another such “crisis.” Frankly, I would sooner vote for Obama’s socialism than put up with this piece of garbage!

Fortunately, we do have another alternative. Although Ron Paul correctly identifies the proposed bailout as fundamentally misguided, he is no longer running for president. But Bob Barr is, and he agrees with Ron Paul’s assessment. Bob Barr is the Libertarian candidate for president this year. He is the most qualified candidate we have had in a long time, and he understands that it is blatantly unfair to let major corporations off the hook for their fiscal irresponsibility when smaller businesses and individuals like us are not entitled to be bailed out at the expense of everyone else. You can check out Bob Barr’s campaign website here. Meanwhile, here is the text of Ron Paul’s latest newsletter.

Dear Friends,

Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.

The events of the past week are no exception.

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In preparation for the upcoming 2008 elections, our Libertarian Party here in Texas is busy distributing yard signs, door hangers, and other campaign literature. Unfortunately, it seems that demand has outstripped supply at the moment, prompting executive director Wes Benedict to issue a call to members and other interested parties to contribute funds toward the procurement of additional materials. The current shortage is actually a good thing in some ways because it means that we’re actually getting our message out there and more people are beginning to take us seriously.

Fortunately I have a package of 10 yard signs left over from the 2006 election that I can still use this year because the signs are not dated or aimed at any particular candidate. I just need to remember to get out there before election day and find some appropriate locations for placement that will maximize exposure and traffic. Meanwhile, here is the text of the latest campaign update.

Dear Texas Libertarian:

The 2008 election is approaching FAST. We are trying to order Libertarian door hangers and yard signs, but we SIMPLY DON’T HAVE THE MONEY. We need your help NOW.

We are almost completely out of yard signs and door hangers now, and we do not have enough money to order and ship more.

Yesterday I had to tell two people who called for yard signs that I just couldn’t fulfill their requests. I was able to send them a few of our 30 remaining signs, but not as many as they were willing to put up. I hate not being able to provide materials to willing volunteers because willing volunteers are usually so hard to find.

We’re not totally broke. We have over $7,000 in the bank and a steady stream of funds from our monthly pledgers to keep basic operations going, but we wisely have a rule that requires maintaining a $7,000 reserve in the bank for emergencies. So, we have barely any spendable money.

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