Our monthly open thread. Post news tips about alt parties and independent candidates, discuss any story that should be posted here but has not yet been posted, or even delve into completely off-topic stuff…just avoid quarantined thread subject matter and things that could get us and/or you into legal trouble such as threats, libel, and copyright infringement.
News tips can also be sent to the IPR writers who have chosen to make their contact info available at https://independentpoliticalreport.com/about/.
It’s also become an IPR tradition to post videos in the open threads. Here’s the latest from Juice Rap News:
…?
Lost you there. Do what?
Paulie,
Thanks… Trying to show someone that it wouldn’t be impossible for someone to do it, if he’s worth ….
2 BILLION DOLLARS…
🙂
If he didn’t get the LP or another line to start…
Here is footage of the recent Green Candidates Forum in St. Louis.
Apologies if this has already been posted
Green Party Presidential Forum ANM 2015
with Jill Stein, Kent Mesplay, Darryl Cherney, William P. Kreml,
and…..Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza Curry (hope that’s spelled right)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN7QfvZemRk
Apparently Darcy Richardson is working on a piece on Bernie Sanders….which I can’t wait to read.
Not sure which chart you mean….is it this one? http://ballot-access.org/2015/05/04/april-2015-ballot-access-news-print-edition/ see item #15
In some states yes, in some states no. I think people generally expect Jill Stein to be their nominee again, but there are other people running. Some states nominate by convention and some by primary. At least one state (Texas) does not legally allow people to vote in one party’s primary and attend another party’s nominating convention as a delegate in the same year, although as a practical matter I doubt anyone would be caught if they did so.
Out of curiosity, If Richard reads this.. Or anyone…
Does anyone have the chart for “New Party” and “independent” qualification for the ballot for President?
Are the Greens having a contested Primary? Don’t they Nominate at Convention?
Meaning, They CAN support Bernie in the Primary, and vote Jill in the General if they wish,
I’m not sure how much of a real uproar this is? Or more of a personal gripe?
Maine Greens split over Bernie Sanders.
http://tides.bangordailynews.com/2015/07/13/home/conflict-erupts-in-green-party-after-censorship-of-sanders-supporters/
Speaking of birthdays, FB tells me that Lily Tang Williams of Colorado is having a birthday today. Happy birthday, Lily!
Wow! That IS old! 😉
I wish all you young people my best on advancing liberty. George, who turned 68 last week.
Well Jill… I can top THAT! I AM older than Disneyland by more than six days. I, too, am able to still sit up and take solid nutrients. 😉
I am six days older than Disneyland! That’s awfully close to “older than dirt”!
I seem to be to walk and talk still, so that’s the good news!
Just catching up on this page.
Belated B-day greetings NF and Jill. Kudos on all milestones reached!
I have seven months until 60 myself. Moreover, having been born the afternoon before Leap Day, 1956, I can honestly say that if I was born ten hours later, I would only be turning 15 on my next birthday.
Nice job, Phillies! The Olympics basically epitomize everything that’s wrong with the world today.
Congratulation on the well deserved win.
Yes! Thanks in some part to our Libertarian Association’s No to Boston Olympics campaign (lots of other people also get partial credit) the Boston 2024 Summer Olympics is going down in history along with the Denver Olympics, namely it will not happen. The bid has been withdrawn. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the decision of the Mayor of Boston that he would not sign a statement agreeing that Boston taxpayers would cover all the financial losses that the Olympics might suffer, without any limit or guess as to the amount that will be lost.
I read on Facebook over the weekend that Lee Wrights will definitely NOT be running for office. It was a comment on a thread, but I can’t remember where I saw it. Anyway, he left no wriggle room.
Congratulations, Dr. Phillies! I heard that Boston is NOT be hosting the Olympics.
Belated happy birthday to Jill also.
I do agree with AR .. AR/CT >> recent trolls.
I do appreciate that, NF! I’m glad it added to the character of this site and brought humor to you and others. It was actually an exaggerated version of some of my political ideas at the time. I do think it was better for the discourse here than some of our recent trolls.
“No, the Catholic Trotskyist Party was a folly of my youth.” – Antirevolutionary
Ah… but what a fun folly! I enjoyed the discourse even if your tongue was planted firmly in your cheek.
Happy belated birthday, NF! Sorry I was busy all day and not online. No, the Catholic Trotskyist Party was a folly of my youth.
Happy Birthday to NF and (belatedly) to Jill.
Thanks, Paulie.
Happy Birthday NF
Good to have the company, Jill!
Happy birthday, NF! Mine was 2 weeks ago today, and was one of those “milestone” b-days.
I guess I’m also part of NASTY.
BTW AR/CT… today is my birthday and I have achieved the age required for full membership in NASTY, you know the National Association of Senile Timeless Youth. Old enough to not remember and young enough to not really care. It’s great!
Can you give me a hint? Is the Catholic Trotskyist Party making a comeback?
No, but I’m forming a new political party and making presidential endorsements.
Way Kewl! Are you running for office?
Getting back to last week’s discussion about non-libertarian commenters, I’m still here, but I don’t post as often. I do have another major announcement which I will post on August 1, in the August open thread.
Well, I didn’t feel like it, but I put it up because no one else has yet.
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2015/07/appeal-on-oregon-libertarian-effective-disaffiliation-filed-with-libertarian-national-judiciary-committee/
Admittedly I half assed the write-up, but it’s open to being fixed, as long as it is not by me.
The list of ‘ballot-qualified’ parties in the Reeves group filing is entirely wrong for Massachusetts, though the error appears to be innocent and arising from the terms of art used in Massachusetts General Laws for major parties and minor parties.
Assuredly, if you all want to move to Massachusetts and run with “Libertarian” on the line after your name on the ballot, you can do so.
They’re more of a Put-on than a Putin.
I love the photos of Putin.
Hilarious!
I don’t think I will write it up tonight. If someone else wants to get to it first, go for it.
It will most likely get one, but in the meantime:
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Judicial-Committee-Petition-Submission.pdf
The above comment likely needs its own thread,
Lunacy on the march!
The not-the-Libertarian-Party-of-Oregon group has filed an appeal to the LNC Judicial Committee, claiming that the 2011 Judicial Committee recognizing our Oregon affiliate as the Oregon affiliate was in error, and should be overturned.
This time the Reeves faction would appear to have packed the Judicial Committee with its supporters, so there is a reasonable likelihood that they will succeed.
I understand IPR will not publish articles by whom that shall not be named, yet ATPR will- in their entirety.
http://amthirdpartyreport.com/2015/07/23/constitution-party-of-wisconsin-the-philistines-are-upon-you/
&
http://amthirdpartyreport.com/2015/07/23/constitution-party-of-wisconsin-the-real-nature-of-athiests/
BTW, I corrected the word ‘atheist’ in the title, since Riley misspelled it; it is the ONLY part of his article I altered.
Riley Hood released another article- http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=73003895596e10218e5ef8b4a&id=c094d3bbdc
Here’s an excerpt:
“America is sinking into depravity, crime, chaos and anarchy. You can thank the village atheist, the sodomite, and all their “devil’s advocates” such as the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the other “civil libertarians.” As men can no longer abide to look at the Ten Commandments, such as, “Thou shalt Not Kill,” you can expect there to be more murders, not less. As men can’t abide “Thou shalt not steal,” you can expect more theft, not less. The Reverend William Linn stated, “Let my neighbor once persuade himself that there is no God, and he will soon pick my pocket, and break not only my leg, but my neck. If there be no God, no future account; government then is the ordinance of man only, and we cannot be subject for conscience sake.””
That could be a post. I may post it later if no one else does in the meantime, which I hope they will.
Starchild makes an appearance in the latest reason.tv video:
https://youtu.be/54lz3mjPG6o
Putin? Hah! These jokers are not even Medvedev!
We owe Putin. an apology!
The picture of Donald Trump shows him holding
an unidentified object in his hand, pointed directly
at me. Whereas, I don’t KNOW what that object IS,
can I assume that it is possibly a dangerous weapon
and fire my concealed 9MM at his chest?
at least I got “shirtless Putin with a gun”!
How dare they insult Russia like that!? 🙂
Freedom’s Phoenix has this list of declared candidates for the 2016 Presidential election: https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/176824-2015-05-22-declared-candidates-for-potus-2016-updated-07-22-15.htm
even if you know who’s running, following the link will bring a laugh or two (look at the photos)
We already had at least one article about her running for 2016
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2015/03/roseanne-barr-says-she-will-seek-the-peace-and-freedom-partys-presidential-nomination-again-in-2016/
She showed up herself in the comments. I can’t prove it was her, but it sounded genuine, and they were posted from Hawaii, where she lives.
Sure thing.
I think the sidebar is a bit barren…my preference would be for the columns to be about even in length. Anyone else have links they want to suggest?
Roseanne’s new season of Last Comic Standing premiered on NBC this evening.
Thank you, paulie
P> “True, but hashtags only go #before the hashtagged word or phrase,
not #bothbeforeandafter# ”
Which “holy writ” is this from?
AND, WHERE can I find a copy of this “authoritative” text?
According to MY testament, # is referred as either a “sharp” (as opposed to a flat)
OR is a symbol for “pound” (as contrasted from “ounce”)
.
True, but hashtags only go #before the hashtagged word or phrase, not #bothbeforeandafter#.
#blacklivesmatter# There should be a presumption, a rebuttable presumption, that if a person dies at the hands of an American government official including the military (with rules for warfare) or dies while in custody, that person’s civil rights have suffered a criminal violation; there should then be a Federal criminal investigation to determine who is to be indicted. The correct solution to the blue wall of silence is conspiracy law, with extended sentences for the silent.
OK. I’ll put it under other websites.
Some years ago I suggested thenorthstar.info as a website focusing on socialist electoral activism, and IPR had it in one of the lists of blogs for awhile, then The North Star had a purge and went off into academic bs and I suggested it be removed from listing on IPR. The academics lost interest lost interest, now there is a new crew (some of the original people plus some new people) running The North Star and it is back to being all about socialist/Left electoal activism.
http://www.thenorthstar.info/
So if IPR wanted to add it back into the appropriate list of blogs, that would be cool.
cheers
As far as I know Clark is not running this year so I am not sure I would call him a politician.
FYI as a general rule If I am forwarding anything to the IPR email list I think it is article worthy unless I specifically say otherwise.
Gen. Wesley Clark went full blown insane on MSNBC. Clark is respected in the military and darling in the Democratic Party. LP, GP, CP and all other parties need to get all over Clark and the Democrats about this. Craziest thing I’ve heard from a politician in years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaPwqokBn9M&feature=youtu.be
Sure, why not?
I don’t know if this is article-worthy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQd5WfmwYMg&feature=youtu.be
Between Trump last weekend and Sanders this weekend, the freaks are on the loose in downtown Phoenix.
What have you been drinking, Mr. Up?
Please wake up, sober up and smell the coffee
There are only two viable candidates left for President as well as for both the Republican and Libertarian Presidential nominations: Rand Paul and Donald Trump!
I think the proper word for a “gay” Muslim is cadaver!
.
A gay muslim? Or perhaps just a happy one!
Phillies> “Senator Paul also made a statement being interpreted as calling for a ban on immigration by Islamites or at least some Islamites.
Well, I know what an “Islamist” or an “Islamic” is, but I have no idea WHAT an Islamite is!!
All the ones who spoke up on the list say they did. Who knows what some less plugged in state officers somewhere may have done?
One doesn’t get to be chief cat-herder in a state by being an idiot or wishy-washy.
One thing that impressed me over the last five years that I was LPNY Chair was the dedication and devotion of my fellow state chairs to growing the Libertarian Party.
Of course.
This was the first one, from Mike Rollins in Rhode Island:
> I just had a phone call from a University of Rhode Island student. He
> was asking me to help the Rand Paul campaign, by providing contact
> information for Libertarian Party of Rhode Island members who are
> college students. My reply, which I believe was polite enough, was to
> tell him to get back to me after Senator Rand Paul has officially
> switched parties. It appears that the Rand Paul campaign is eager to
> subvert the Libertarian Party for the Republican cause.
>
> Mike Rollins,
>
> Libertarian Party of Rhode Island
“Several state chairs have been contacted by Senator Paul supporters asking for the use of our mailing lists.”
That’s interesting. I trust they all turned him down?
Several state chairs have been contacted by Senator Paul supporters asking for the use of our mailing lists.
Senator Paul also made a statement being interpreted as calling for a ban on immigration by Islamites, or at least some Islamites. The statement was less vigorous than is being claimed in parts of the press, but will likely not enthuse large numbers of Libertarians.
NewFederalist>
“I think Rand has put himself in an impossible position. He isn’t libertarian enough or he is too libertarian. He isn’t conservative enough or he is too conservative. The people he is trying to attract won’t tolerate his being too much of one or the other. In the end he will satisfy nobody and drop out.
Being neither fish nor fowl and a pretender of both, he will surely be devoured by one kind of carnivore or another,
If someone wanted to run and have a good chance of winning in 2016, they would need to start soon, build a large and effective campaign team, and have a good opposition research effort not necessarily connected to the campaign in an official manner.
Looks like it mostly Ruwart (and Warburton and Franklin) supporters swinging behind Lord to defeat Boddie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Libertarian_National_Convention
You’re right. On this one, I don’t even remember knowing that before, although I do remember watching that one on CSPAN.
But not the details.
Anyone who was there…why the big vote shift from the first VP ballot to the second VP ballot?
She ran for Vice President at the 1991 convention.
She ran in the 1990s?
Ruwart has earned her fan base, but if she runs in 2016 I think she’ll just be setting herself up to be rejected by her fourth national convention in as many decades.
I think Rand has put himself in an impossible position. He isn’t libertarian enough or he is too libertarian. He isn’t conservative enough or he is too conservative. The people he is trying to attract won’t tolerate his being too much of one or the other. In the end he will satisfy nobody and drop out. Just my $0.02 worth.
She didn’t actually campaign for the nomination until the 2008 run, and even that was too last minute for my personal taste.
Yeah, I think if she wants to have a real shot at unseating Johnson, she needs to declare pretty soon. The old “wait till the last minute” strategy won’t cut it this time.
She’s already run for the nomination on more than one occasion. I’d prefer to see somebody else.
I don’t think she would be a perfect candidate, but I would prefer her over anybody who is currently running, or seriously rumored to be running. Ideologically, she’s significantly more libertarian than Johnson, and from a practical standpoint, I think she could run a more effective campaign than Perry, Feldman, or any of the others that currently have their hat in the ring.
I think Rand will be taken seriously after the idiots running embarrass the GOP to death.
Really? I tend to think he will hang on til the end, or close to the end, and will probably get his 15 minutes of front runner status at some point when it doesn’t matter before crashing back down to earth.
Thanks, I forgot (I wasn’t LP then, but I read about it later). Can’t remember for sure, but I think that was the year before we got cable; if we already had cable I may have watched it on CSPAN at the time.
Anyway, yes, she came in third .. after being persuaded to run at the convention. In other words it was a last minute thing, and people voted for her because she was at the time a good looking young woman who gave a good speech. She didn’t actually campaign for the nomination until the 2008 run, and even that was too last minute for my personal taste. YMMV.
I think there is a good chance that Rand will drop out well in advance of the first caucus.
In other news, Jay Wilson continues his weird mission to spin Gary Johnson’s repeated criticisms and dismissals of Rand Paul into arguments in favor of Rand. A sign, I think, of how desperate the Rand folks are to stop bleeding libertarian support in response to Rand alienating libertarians and Ron supporters more broadly. Since that’s all he ever really had, or ever had any hope of having, and he’s already mostly lost it. The remainder is just the typical same-old GOP astroturf playbook, or the best of it they can buy with their shrinking pile of cash on hand.
http://alibertarianfuture.com/2016-election/the-five-differences-between-gary-johnson-and-rand-paul/
Scott Horton and Tom Woods had a good podcast on the Iran deal and Rand’s response to it. I think this will end up being one of the final nails in the coffin for many diehard Ron supporters, the ratio of defenders to critics has firmly swung against Rand. I think it’s getting more accepted/expected, for Libertarians and libertarians alike to criticize and denounce Rand, and for disillusioned ex-Rand supporters to voice their disappointment and disapproval.
http://tomwoods.com/podcast/ep-448-the-iran-deal-and-rand-pauls-response/
I didn’t delete your pingback either, William.
Mary Ruwart was also the third-place finisher for the 1984 nomination.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Libertarian_National_Convention
Why don’t you just post it manually as a comment?
As far as I know Mary only ran for President in 2008. She ran for VP in 1983. Does running for the nomination once, and losing narrowly to Bob Barr because people bought into nasty rumors about her advocating child molestation and BS about Barr raising tens of million$ mean she should never be able to run for the nomination ever again? Should we hold that standard for everyone who ever ran for the nomination, and if so, why?
“langa
July 18, 2015 at 3:44 pm
‘I’ve made a personal observation that Mary Ruwart has started to be more active and visible on Facebook lately. Is it possible she’s ‘testing the water’?’
If she decided to seek the nomination, she might actually pose a serious threat to what seems like the almost inevitable coronation of Johnson. She would certainly vault to the top of my list.”
She’s already run for the nomination on more than one occasion. I’d prefer to see somebody else.
She would make a great addition to the race, and possibly to the ticket.
I’ve made a personal observation that Mary Ruwart has started to be more active and visible on Facebook lately. Is it possible she’s “testing the water”?
If she decided to seek the nomination, she might actually pose a serious threat to what seems like the almost inevitable coronation of Johnson. She would certainly vault to the top of my list.
Also there is some current speculation about both Trump and Sanders possibly running as independents next year. I don’t think they will do it, but then again I didn’t think they would run in the primaries either.
Whatever their differences, Trump and Sanders have a historical record of registering, running, and/or exploring runs outside the duopoly. So does Ventura.
I didn’t see a pingback. May have been a technical glitch of some sort, not sure.
I am not a person given to conspiracy theories and such but I find it quite curious that Jesse Ventura seems to have aligned himself with both Bernie Sanders (perhaps America’s foremost socialist) as well as Donald Trump (by his own modest admission the leading capitalist in the good old USA) and both are seeking the nomination of the two dominant parties. Does anyone think this could be “coordinated” in any way? It just seems strange to me that Ventura is the common denominator. With the exception of Senator Sanders they are media whores and spotlight grabbers. As the members of the American Party might have said in the 1850’s… I Know Nothing! Hmmmm….
Here’s a link to an article I wrote on the Obergefell decision:
https://saturnsrepository.wordpress.com/2015/07/18/obergefell-v-hodges-and-the-cult-of-the-court/
A pingback was posted on the appropriate article but it was deleted. That was a very rude thing to do.
>Speaking of not being taken seriously, did everyone see that Huff Po will now be reporting on Trump’s campaign in the “Entertainment” section instead of “Politics”?
Hilarious!
And of course quite appropriate. My admiration for Huffington just went up.
Good riddance to bad trash.
Endorsing Sanders for President probably kills Jesse’s chances for an LP nomination. The only way I could see him overcoming this is if he said it was to stop Hillary Clinton from winning the nomination for the Democrats.
I hope not, NF
Speaking of not being taken sseriously, did everyone see that Huff Po will now be reporting on Trump’s campaign in the “Entertainment” section instead of “Politics”?.
Since Jesse Ventura endorsed Bernie Sanders for president is anyone going to take him seriously for the LP nomination now?
http://ballot-access.org/2015/07/17/jesse-ventura-endorses-bernie-sanders-for-president/
We know he participated in Republican conventions and primaries through 2012, so 2014 was the only time he could have affiliated as a Libertarian under Texas law, and that would have had to have been by being a delegate at a precinct or county convention. I don’t know for a fact that he didn’t but it seems highly unlikely that it wouldn’t have been reported on if he had. The only other possibility for the report to be factual is if he moved to another state which has LP voter registration. Again, possible but unlikely.
Yes, that seems more likely.
So would I. I remember reading it but can’t find a link again just now. Searching old comments at IPR I just found comments I made refrring to it, but I did not find one where I included a link. I searched my email and came up empty also. I did not just make it up, but if anyone can find a link I would like to see it. I’d like to be able to back it up if it comes up again.
Different state LPs have different membership rules. Some charge dues, some go by voter registration (only about half the states offer an LP option), some require signing the pledge, some have a combination of these. Some require you to live in that state and some do not. At least one state used to require national membership as well as state membership (post-UMP, when most states did), but I don’t know if any do anymore.
That depends on who you are. If you are Nathan Norman, for example, I would reject your request too, not that I would expect you to make one. As for Roger Lee Wrights he has had that account for some time.
Roger Lee Wrights just rejected my friend request. Is that something a candidate would do?
I’ve made a personal observation that Mary Ruwart has started to be more active and visible on Facebook lately. Is it possible she’s “testing the water”?
Also, many months went by without seeing anything about Lee Wrights on FB. Now, he’s shown up as “Roger Lee Wrights” and is posting/commenting again on FB. Is it possible that he’s considering a run?
“Speaking of that, What exactly IS the requirement for membership in states that don’t have Primary/Caucus membership?”
Do you mean ‘membership in the state affiliate?’
Losty,
On one hand, I am not impressed by the current half-dozen Presidential candidates, though most of them seem to be nice people and good Libertarians of some sort. Refusing to raise real money strikes me as not being a road to success. Not having financial resources of your own strikes me as not being a road to success.
On the other hand, I have retired, and as my financial disclosures would show if I ran, I have quite large liquid assets, enough that I can readily afford to run.
At this point, I think that serious candidates must wait to if Johnson chooses to run again. Even though he ran a campaign that was down there with Barr 2008 in terms of financial effectiveness, and thus much worse than Browne 2000 or Badnarik 2004, there is a reasonable likelihood that the delegates will look at the 2012 vote totals, not the miserable quality of the two 2012 opponents or the way the Republican convention treated Republican delegates of nominal libertarian bent, and choose to recycle Johnson.
This delegate decision will throw away another Presidential election cycle, but that appears at the moment to be where we are heading.
I may start issuing statements on what a hypothetical Phillies Presidential campaign would to, so as to educate delegates on what they are missing, without at least at the moment an intent of running.
George
Andy from July 1:
Other than known conflict of interest (And they are made clear, and I believe most of the Party knows them, and sure the LNC knows them), are there any issues as to Ballot access and the contractors used? The ones I personally know seem to do exceptionally well.
George,
I am under the assumption that you are considering throwing your hat into the Ring, Is that still valid?
Well, as a Life Member, He still is a Member if he didn’t revoke, right?
Speaking of that, What exactly IS the requirement for membership in states that don’t have Primary/Caucus membership?
In states that do, Primary/Caucusing with the Libertarians gets you membership (See Ohio 2 years ago, but because they don’t know how to fill out a back of a petition it’s all over now…)
Is there another requirement?
I suppose it’s possible he signed the last LP ballot access petition and then didn’t vote for himself in 2006, 2008, 2010, or 2012. That doesn’t seem very likely.
I think that reporter just doesn’t understand and didn’t fact-check the nuances of “registered” party membership, and was talking about his stated public affiliation. In which case, if it’s true that he officially renounced being identified as a Republican (I’d like to see a source for that), then that would leave the Libertarian Party as his only continuing affiliation, which he reaffirmed as recently as 2008, when he defended the idea of being a member of and supporting multiple parties.
Same here although it is not impossible that he could have moved. Since he is no longer in Congress, I would not necessarily have heard about it if he did.
It may have meant that, but it specifically said that he is registered Libertarian.
I don’t know when the last time he participated in Republican conventions or primaries was, but I did read that after the 2012 Repulican national convention he did once again leave the Republican Party due to the way he was treated at the convention and afterwards on his way out of town. However, that still would not make him a registered Libertarian in Texas unless he participated in some level (precinct, county, state or national) LP convention as a delegate. Since I was at the state and national conventions, I know he was not at those. It’s not impossible that he may have gone to precinct or county LP conventionsas a delegate, although I think that would have made some news that I would have heard if he had.
The only other thing that could have made him a “registered Libertarian” under Texas law was if he signed a LP ballot access petition, which is technically under Texas law considered to be “in lieu of” attending a precinct, county or state organizing convention. Texas does not allow anyone to sign more than one party’s ballot access petition or to sign a ballot access petition for one party if the signed votes in another party’s primary or is a delegate to one of their conventions at any level (precinct, county, state or national). However, the Texas LP has not had to petition for ballot access since 2004, so that would not be the case here.
“George Phillies
July 17, 2015 at 10:52 am
Andy,
In what sense is Paul not a member of the Republican Party, relative to his prior membership, mindful that Texas Republicans do not have members in the sense that we do? Did he skip a County convention? Fail to vote in a Republican Primary? Repudiate his support for that Party?
George”
I don’t know. I just heard that Ron Paul said that he quit the Republican Party after he and his delegates were treated so poorly at the Republican National Convention in 2012. I don’t know if he paid dues to the Republican National Committee prior to this, or if the Republican National Committee has a Lifetime Membership or not.
I do know that Ron Paul paid for a Lifetime membership in the Libertarian Party back in the 1980’s, and that he never revoked it, so he is still technically a member of the LP, even though he has not attended any party functions or been active in the party at all in years.
I assume that Ron will vote in the Republican primaries for President next year so he can vote for Rand, but in Texas all registered voters are technically registered independents, since Texas does not have partisan voter registration. A Texas voter requests which party’s ballot they want on primary day. I am pretty sure that only the Democratic Party and Republican Party have primaries in Texas. The Libertarian Party and the Green Party are ballot qualified in Texas, but I think that they both have minor party status and therefore do not get a primary.
Just got an invite to join a Donald Trump for President meet-up.
I think I can safely skip that one! 🙂
Andy,
In what sense is Paul not a member of the Republican Party, relative to his prior membership, mindful that Texas Republicans do not have members in the sense that we do? Did he skip a County convention? Fail to vote in a Republican Primary? Repudiate his support for that Party?
George
“paulie Post author
July 17, 2015 at 6:06 am
Texas does not have registration by party. It has a system where you are presumed to be affiliated with the party whose primary or convention you last voted in. The only way that DC paper is correct is if Dr. Paul voted in a precinct or county LP convention in 2014. I was at the state convention, and he wasn’t there. Although there were about 300 people there, he would not have gone unnoticed.
That is assuming he still lives in Texas.”
Ron Paul still lives in Texas as far as I know. The article probably meant that Ron Paul is no longer a member of the Republican Party, and since he never revoked his Lifetime Membership in the Libertarian Party, he is still a member of the LP (although he has not attended any LP functions in a long time).
So does that mean you will stop censoring politically incorrect viewpoints now?
He stops by from time to time. So does Deran, GwoA, Mark Seidenberg, Don Grundmann, a few others here and there. But I guess we have mostly driven them off over the years. Cody Quirk still stops by, but he identifies as a Libertarian now.
If you want to talk to Red more frequently, try Conservative Heritage Times (in our sidebar links) or maybe FB.
“It would be nice to have more people on here expressing different views.”
Whatever happened to Red Phillips?
Texas does not have registration by party. It has a system where you are presumed to be affiliated with the party whose primary or convention you last voted in. The only way that DC paper is correct is if Dr. Paul voted in a precinct or county LP convention in 2014. I was at the state convention, and he wasn’t there. Although there were about 300 people there, he would not have gone unnoticed.
That is assuming he still lives in Texas.
1988 Libertarian Presidential is reportedly again a registered Libertarian, per the Washington Times. See the article titled “Ron Paul calls Donald Trump a ‘dangerous’ authoritarian: ‘The opposite of a Libertarian’.”
Part of the reason that there are more Libertarians on here than anyone else is because the Libertarian Party and movement is bigger than the other parties/movements, and a lot of Libertarians tend to be computer geeks/internet junkies.
The “attack dog” nature of a lot of Libertarians when they see comments they disagree with is probably part of the reason as well.
It would be nice to have more people on here expressing different views.
Well, yeah. But our dominance in IPR comments is even more pronounced than it is in electoral results or other measures of real world strength. I try not to be a prick on here, but I can’t always help it, and when combined with the rest of the libertarian boys club it adds up and drives women and non-libertarians away. It’s not intentional though.
The Libertarian Party is bigger and better than the other non-duopoly parties.
Only “and better” in that statement is opinion.
Maybe it’s the whole group asshole male libertarian vibe. I deeply resemble that remark, too.
Peter, we are heavy in Libertarians now. We have several who are not, such as Green Without Adjectives, and a young man who hasn’t posted lately, but it’s not deliberate. We post articles from other parties, and you have been also. I don’t know why non-Libertarians don’t stick around.
I also don’t know why women don’t stick around. l’d love to have insight from other females, especially because I’m atypical in many ways.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/some-libertarians-wont-trust-but-verify-rands-stand-on-iran/article/2568376
“You would think by some of the comments I get that Hagel is really [two-time Libertarian Party presidential nominee] Harry Browne,” Paul complained. “They make him [Chuck Hagel] out to be some sort of libertarian champion, and he’s not.”
http://libertyupward.com/guitarist-arrested-on-fourth-of-july-for-playing-the-national-anthem/
Paulie, Many thanks for the broadcast info. George
Well Andy J took the Alex Jones bait and is riding it hard. Now just waiting on Capozzi to dig into the history of the SoP above. At least we answered the question about meeting broadcasts!
Here is the video where Alex Jones opens up for Doug Stanhope. Note that he jokingly called Doug a “degenerate Atheist,” but says that he’s a “good guy” anyway and that he’d support him over the Christian Coalition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8AwI5g2cds
Joshua Katz to LNC list:
“[email protected]
July 16, 2015 at 2:16 pm
saying that Alex Jones is a libertarian is marginally
less ridiculous then saying that the Pope is a Scientologist”
Well, let’s see. Alex Jones has endorsed the campaigns of Ron Paul, Michael Badnarik, and Gary Johnson. I’m not sure if he endorsed Harry Browne or not, but he did say good things about Harry Browne after he passed away. Alex Jones has also referred to himself as a libertarian on multiple occasions, and he advocates a high degree of economic freedom and civil liberties.
It does not sound so ridiculous to me.
saying that Alex Jones is a libertarian is marginally
less ridiculous then saying that the Pope is a Scientologist
I think Alex Jones has really changed over the past few years. Lately, he’s been gay-bashing and immigrant-bashing so much that I can’t read his site anymore. Either he’s been threatened or has genuinely changed his views, I don’t know. I never use his site as a source.
Why was my question not posted here? Because there are several people on that other thread posting so much that mention that I had posted here would vanish before anyone could read it.
http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/lnc-meeting-july-18-19-2015-in-alexandria-va
“paulie Post author
July 16, 2015 at 12:05 pm
And this one is for Andy J.:”
I’ve been listening to Alex Jones for years, and I’ve never heard him say that. I’ve heard him say that he is a Christian, but that he does not care if somebody is an Atheist just so long as they do not violate his rights. He’s said that he’s got friends who are Atheists, and he also said that he’d vote for Atheist Doug Stanhope before he’d vote for a member of the Christian Coalition, because he knows that the Christian Coalition is corrupt.
If he did say this, keep in mind that he does several hours of radio multiple times per week, and that sometimes he goes off on angry rants. Sometimes people say things that they don’t mean, or things that they could have phrased better, or they say things that can be taken out of context. I seriously doubt that he really believes that Atheists worship Satan. Given what I have heard him say on this topic before, he probably meant that he believes that Atheists are wrong to believe that Satan does not exist.
Also, Alex Jones rejected the conservative label a long time ago. He has actually identified himself as being a libertarian. He has also called himself at times a constitutionalist, a truth seeker, and a freedom fighter.
Same links as last time?
The closest thing to a Satan that I’ve ever seen went by the name, Jones
We’ve broadcast every meeting since I became Chair (other than the one immediately after the convention because we didn’t have the equipment yet). There’s no reason I know of why we wouldn’t broadcast this one.
And this one is for Andy J.:
Phillies posted a question about braoadcasting of this weekend’s LNC meeting in another thread. Valid question, although I am not sure why it was not posed here. I would be interested to know the answer myself.
And now for some Capozzi bait 🙂
D. Frank Robinson wrote in LP History on FB:
I write not to take issue with any previous commenter, but rather to reflect on my views in the early 1970s in the LP “hierarchy” and make it clear that I have changed some of my views, but my present views are not relevant beyond the point that I think those views still fit within the LP’s original vision.
When I came to David Nolan and the LP, I was a disgusted Republican under the influence of Ayn Rand’s philosophy. I was suspicious of candidate Richard Nixon in the 1968 campaign and repulsed by President Nixon in 1971 when he cut the thread to gold as the monetary base then imposed wage-price controls. There was more repulsion as the Vietnam War dragged on but that’s the gist of my alienation.
The idea of a new political party appealed to me. My view was that a political party was a worthwhile flank in a broad socio-cultural movement on many flanks. Unlike Ayn Rand, I didn’t think that any one-final-solution, top-to-bottom philosophy must sweep the world for a better civilization of happy individualists to emerge. I thought of the LP as a necessary, but not sufficient factor in bring change. I was still a minarchist constitutionalist, but I didn’t think my personal opinion was sufficient for effective activism in 1972. There was a missing element.
At the Denver Convention in 1972 I was puzzled by the self-identified Objectivists in attendance intent on accusing the delegates attempting to agree on a platform manifesto as plagiarizing Ayn Rand. They demanded clarity without paraphrasing Ayn Rand. I had observed, in my days in Republican Party platform battles, that the controversies were usually about who had the most personal influence rather than what meaning an outsider would take from the official dogma in a platform. Partisans of personality seldom cared what the final documents stated anyway. Who won and who lost was all that mattered in setting the pecking order. All political parties are personality cults who create ideologically murkiness with blatant contradictions. I did not like that.
These previous experiences and the debates on the floor in Denver made me determined to devise a barricade to personality cults using the LP for their tugs of war to dismantle it. So I, with Ed Carlson of New Mexico as “co-conspirator” in my committee, devised embedding an “article faith” – Statement of Principles that could not be altered without a super-majority. I was aware this was not “good form” in parliamentary practice. Organization unity and longevity “by hook or crook” is “good form” else an organization might split into seceding factions and wither away.
Nevertheless, I took the contrary view that factionalization and hair-splitting acrimony also sprang from ambiguity and transient charismatics in an organization. Just look at US Constitutional history.
These tactics could be used by shrewd manipulators to concentrate power in a clique like a Tammany Hall crowd. So, Ed and I persuaded David and the Founding Convention Delegates to plant a rhetorical stake in the ground with a tether — The Statement of Principles, a terse one page document, declaring to all coming after us, “This is the anchor and the lifeline. Do not tread too far from it (or you may perish).”
If you stay close, you may eventually prosper for your efforts.
Neither I, nor Ed, wanted to write the actual wording of the SoP. David Nolan led the convention to delegate the drafting to Dr. John Hospers and Mark Fraser (sp?). The delegates made their decisions and the two proposed statements were blended. That wording has remained acceptable to me including the Dallas Accord edit, even while my personal ideology has evolved.
In the succeeding years, I have seen LP Platforms evolve and morph and dance and sing, but the rhetorical force of gravity in the SoP has kept the centrifugal personality cults at bay. They haven’t made the LP into a Republican Lite, nor has the LP flown apart yet. The credit for this, in my view, belongs to all those delegates over the years who have looked all the new platform phraseologies and then compared them to the SoP. You just can’t fool those folks with a flim and flam and a damn and a jam and “He’s our man!” The SoP gives just the delegates a little more incentive think a bit more carefully. The LP cannot save a culture bent on self-annihilation, but it can aid the resisters and prolong the struggle.
A modicum of clarity makes it tough to fool seven-eights of convention of libertarians again and again and again. Scrap a platform and start over? Sure. Stand pat on the last one? Sure. Take the whole tribe on the warpath? If one-eighth of the pow wow say no, that is the end of fortune and glory, kiddies. We hope the door hits you in the butt on the way out.
If you have reached this line. Thank you for you patience. Continue on your own.
People aren’t miracle workers, and there are a limited number of hours in the day. Clearly the existing staff was not accomplishing nearly as much as they would have liked. Hopefully the new staff members will more than pay for themselves. If not, they probably won’t last long.
And what does the LNC do to advance its position? It hires more staff members.
For teh quotations from Jake Porter’s book, go to the current top column on GoldUSAGroup.com
Wes Benedict to statechairs list
I’m pleased to announce the two newest members of the Libertarian Party
headquarters staff: Lauren Daugherty and Andy Burns.
Lauren Daugherty joins us from Texas where she previously served as
the executive director of the Libertarian Party of Texas.
Ms. Daugherty earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Economics
from Emory University in Atlanta where she served as Chairman of the
College Republicans (don’t worry–she’s a real Libertarian now). She went
on to earn a Master of Arts in Statecraft and National Security from the
Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC, and a Masters of Arts in
Government from Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC.
Her impressive resume includes previous work at FreedomWorks in
Washington, DC, where she executed a rapid expansion of their direct mail
program, and the Leadership Institute, in Arlington, VA, where she
oversaw campus outreach at northeastern schools, managed four field staff,
and spoke regularly at training seminars across the country.
She served as executive director of the Libertarian Party of Texas from
2013 to 2015. In 2014, LP Texas raised over $145,000, put 132 candidates
on ballots across the state, and established branding standards for the
organization.
Ms. Daugherty will help us with fundraising and membership growth.
Andy Burns joins us from Minnesota, where he has served as as executive
director of the Libertarian Party of Minnesota.
Mr. Burns earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University
of Minnesota Duluth, where he majored in Organizational Management and
minored in Economics.
As executive director for the LP Minnesota, Mr. Burns dramatically raised
annual revenues from $5,800 before he was hired to over $45,000. Mr. Burns
managed LP Minnesota’s 2014 statewide petitioning effort which collected
13,000 signatures for 5 statewide candidates in just 14 days. This is the
only time any minor party has accomplished this since 1998. During Mr.
Burn’s leadership, LP Minnesota also increased their non-partisan elected
officials from zero to five and established branding standards for the
organization.
Mr. Burns will serve as our State Affiliate Development Specialist, in
particular to improve the areas of fundraising, database management, and
marketing.
The addition of Mr. Burns to serve as our new State Affiliate Support
Specialist was made possible by the generous contribution of $20,000
dedicated specifically for this position.
Finally, I’d like to publicly recognize and thank Arthur DiBianca for
his work for the Libertarian Party for over ten years in various roles. I
first had the opportunity to work with Art significantly in 2004 while
volunteering for the LP Texas petition drive that collected over 80,000
signatures. I was serving as the volunteer coordinator for that drive and
Art was one of the rare volunteers who would actually go out there with me
and collect lots of signatures without getting burnt out too easily. I
then asked him to help me validate the signatures. He ended up setting up
a database and validated probably over 40,000 (I don’t remember exactly).
I later hired him to work with me for the LP Texas where we broke
fundraising and candidate recruitment records. He managed our database,
helped assemble fundraising letters, edited nearly everything I ever
wrote (including the book I wrote a few years ago), called people to get
them to run for office, helped them fill out their applications, and even
helped many candidates get fines reduced or waived for filing late
campaign finance reports. His work was so versatile and productive, I just
had to hire him to work for the national LP after I started working here
myself.
Art has worked just part-time for the national LP for the past year and
recently decided it was time for him to move on other things. He remains a
supporter of the Libertarian Party, I just couldn’t convince him to
continue making it a professional career.
Once again, I’d like to thank Art DiBianca for his more than ten years of
service welcome Lauren Daugherty and Andy Burns to the team.
—
Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
New address: 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232, [email protected]
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
More from Liberty for America
LNC Continues to Stagnate
Stagnate? That’s being somewhat optimistic. But since we published the last issue, the LNC announced a solution: They hired more staff members. However:
National Membership (active with membership) at the end of June is down to 11640, relative to 14136 a year ago. Donating nonmembers are down to 546 from 1146 a year ago. The drop from last month is quite small, primarily because the number of people whose membership lapsed was small. Unfortunately the number of new donating members also continues to be small, under 300 for the last three months. There are several counts of active members, notably the “Bylaws-Defined Sustaining Member”, the count of which is very slightly different that the count of Active Members.
LNC Income for May was quite low. Indeed, the May receipts were about as low as any I can off-hand remember.
May receipts were $70,107.65.
May expenditures were $90,110.23
End of May cash on hand was $41,566.
On the bright side, matters could bs worse. Wes Bemedict forwarded the outcomes for the other two third parties:
Green Party revenue:
2012: 255,249.92
2013: 123,621.19
2014: 99,392.27
Constitution Party revenue:
2012: 177,517.80
2013: 85,542.77
2014: 85,115.39
The sensible comment from National Secretary Mattson, who is at least paying attention to the situation, is “Given our pitiful financial state,…” Mattson also pointed out that the LCN 2015 budget set aside no money for 2016 ballot access costs, a precaution that has been taken in some past years. Mattson circulated a spreadsheet of estimated 2016 ballot access costs. The Massachusetts Presidential Ballot Access estimate looks to be low by 20 or 50%.
Valid LNC Actual Expected Cost Per
State Sigs Expenditure Expenditure Sig
DC 4,600 $15,000 $3.26
SD 6,936 $20,000 $2.88
OK 24,712 $65,000 $2.63
NH 3,000 $15,000 $5.00
AR 10,000 $26,000
CT 7,500 $25,000 $3.33
PA 25,000 $70,000 $2.80
IL 25,000 $66,500 $2.66
MA 10,000 $25,000 $2.50
KY 5,000 $15,000 $3.00
AL 5,000 $15,000 $3.00
RI 1,000 $2,500 $2.50
NY 15,000 $30,000 $2.00
IA 1,500 $0 $0.00
ME 5,000 $0 $0.00
MN 2,000 $0 $0.00
NJ 800 $0 $0.00
TN 275 $0 $0.00
VA 5,000 $0 $0.00
WA 1,000 $0 $0.00
OH ———————–pending litigation————————-
Mattson sent to the State Chairs some entirely sensible clarifications: “To clarify a bit, the expenditures on my spreadsheet are only what the LNC expects it will have to spend. It does not show any expenditures the state affiliate will be expected to make in addition to the LNC expenditures. The cost per signature is only the cost to the LNC per valid signature, not total expenditures (by both the LNC and the affiliate) divided by raw signature counts.
This is not an all-inclusive picture of the petition drives, how many raw signatures will be collected, or the total of all funds that will be spent. The limited purpose of this data subset was for the LNC to think about the best uses of our strained resources. If we don’t have enough funds to do them all, which ones give us the biggest bang for our buck?
In the rest of my original email message sent with the spreadsheet, I also mentioned that we need to insist that state affiliates contribute their fair share to the efforts.”
The LNC has passed a motion, sending money to Oklahoma for petitioning, the motion reading: “Motion: Increase the Ballot Access Expense line item by $65,000, from $57,500 to $122,500, contingent on the LNC receiving cash receipts, that are earmarked for a 2015 Libertarian Party of Oklahoma petition drive, of at least $60,000, and cash receipts (net of associated fundraising costs) of at least $55,000.” The motion passed 8 (Craig, Feldman, Hagan, Hayes, Johnson, Katz, Kirkland, Lark, McLendon, O’Toole, Redpath, Sarwark) to 4 (Goldstein, Mattson, Olsen, Wiener).
The most important point on the above is, as observed by Sherlock Holmes, the dog that did not bark. Robert Kraus has faithfully been turning out membership and financial reports, month after month, showing the progress decline in party income and membership. And the response of the LNC, other than the Mattson quote above, has largely been…crickets.
I did on the State Chairs list get a response from Bill Redpath, who is an LNC member and a State Chair. He asked what the point of my report on LNC finances was. I suppose if LNC Executive Committee members do not see the point of paying attention to LNC finances, then it should not be surprising that the rest of the LNC will also not find these numbers interesting. Redpath also blamed part of our financial issues on the LNC’s 2008 ballot access expenses in Massachusetts. Readers may see the connection between spending then and fund raising nearly a decade later. I certainly do not.
I suppose silence is better than debates as to whether or not Starchild should be addressed as “Mister Starchild”, as we heard in a previous term.
And now a section from Jake Porter’s forthcoming book Gold State Plan. Jake worked on my 2008 Presidential nominating campaign, doing a fine job, and has run for statewide office in Iowa. Copyright on the following material is owned by Jake Porter.
Liberty for America
July 2015
Volume 8 Number 2
Your Editor expects that issues will in the future be less frequent. I have another project. I am working on an analysis of the Johnson 2012 campaign, which spent most of its money of staff salaries and still owes well over a million dollars to various people. Now, there are sources that claim that those reports are not reflective of reality, and that they had one intent or another. All I can say on this point is that filing false or misleading financial reports…a claim for which there seems to be no evidence, only whispers…is using fraud for political purposes, an action entirely contrary to basic Libertarian principles.
I emphasize that I have seen no credible evidence for claims that the Johnson 2012 reports are anything but honest. However, a claim that the reports were deceptive is a claim that the situation is even worse than expected, because it is a claim that Johnson supports the use of fraud for political purposes.
In the rest of this issue, we have a view of the known 2016 Presidential candidates, a consideration of what past campaigns have done for the party, notes on the dismal condition of our national party, and a section from Jake Porter’s forthcoming book Gold State Plan.
First, the 2016 Presidential Candidates
I begin by commenting that so far as I know theya re all nice people and good Libertarians. However:
Darryl Perry of New Hampshire only accepts campaign donations in the form of bitcoins and in the form of historic coins made of gold and silver. This restrictive fundraising plan corresponds to Perry;’s general political position: He is a radical. It also means his campaign will have almost no money.
LNC member Marc Feldman has a different take on campaign finance restrictions: He will not accept donations that are larger than $5. It is a radical isea. It also means his campaign will have almost no money.
Cecil Ince has spoken up on the Confederate flag issue in terms that seem to imply that he is a Confederate apologist. Perhaps he is not, but that is how he came across to me.
JoyWaymire–Miss Joy–is a nice person, but when the ran in 2012 her campaign was not very visible. I do not have the sense that she will improve, but might be wrong.
Steve Kerbel is making a serious and legitimate effort to set up a campaign, or so my sources say. However, he seems to have no record of activism, so his familiarity with ballot access and nominating convention issues may be a bit limited.
In addition to these people, there is the question of whether or not Gary Johnson will run. His one campaign did well in 2012, but it was was less effective at building the party. Many Libertarians view his hypothetical running mate, Judge Gray, as having been too supportive of some police tactics. I have received contradictory reports as to whether or not he will run again. Expect an announcement in October or so.
You may correctly infer that I view the Presidential candidate field for 2016 as being extremely weak. I do not off hand have a solution.
Asleep at the wheel just like the general population, Andy.
Hey, what happened to the round table discussion about how $140,184.25 of the LNC’s ballot access money, which was about 40% of what the LNC spent on ballot access in 2012, went to one ballot access mercenary? This is MORE THAN TRIPLE the amount of money that went to 2nd biggest recipient of LNC ballot access money in 2012 (another mercenary), and it is far more than that compared to what others received. These payments included the low validity fiasco in Pennsylvania, which was early in the process, and continued well after this.
This disparity in payments was NOT based on merit, and it damn sure was not based on Libertarian activism.
So what in the hell is going on here?
If this is not a RED FLAG that there is a problem, I don’t know what is.
Libertarian Party members, are you listening, or is everyone asleep at the wheel?
Fantastic. Letting us know on only one thread would have probably been OK, though.
Hey, Riley Hood finally did an article on the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling-
http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=73003895596e10218e5ef8b4a&id=a60b067e68
I understand that the “Know Nothing” Party is for sale!
I’m sure the Chump can afford it!!
Politico: Donald Trump declines to rule out third-party bid
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/donald-trump-republican-independent-119846.html#ixzz3feVNZ9Nw
Ventura/Trump 2016?
Maybe it depends on what mood he is in that day.
Liberty for America
July 2015
Volume 8 Number 2
Your Editor expects that issues will in the future be less frequent. I have another project. I
am working on an analysis of the Johnson 2012 campaign, which spent most of its money of
staff salaries and still owes well over a million dollars to various people. Now, there are sources
that claim that those reports are not reflective of reality, and that they had one intent or another.
All I can say on this point is that filing false or misleading financial reports…a claim for which
there seems to be no evidence, only whispers…is using fraud for political purposes, an action
entirely contrary to basic Libertarian principles.
I emphasize that I have seen no credible evidence for claims that the Johnson 2012
reports are anything but honest. I will be writing the analysis based on that fact. However, a claim that the reports were deceptive, a claim for which there seems to be no evidence only a whispering campaign, is a claim that the situation is even worse than expected, because it is a claim that Johnson supports the use of fraud for political purposes.
In the rest of this issue, we have a view of the known 2016 Presidential candidates, a
consideration of what past campaigns have done for the party, notes on the dismal condition of
our national party, and a section from Jake Porter’s forthcoming book Gold State Plan.
Sandy Hook Hoax for DUMMIES!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYqONkcnX1E
Doubleplusgood!
In reference to mass murders in Charleston “gun free zone”!
Roof had been arrested in late February at a Columbia shopping mall and charged with possessing Suboxone, a controlled substance commonly used to treat heroin addiction. He was indicted by a Lexington County grand jury on a state drug charge.
Federal law prohibits the sale of a gun to anyone who is “under indictment for” a felony.
A separate provision of federal law prohibits the sale of a gun to anyone who is “an unlawful user” of any controlled substance. A provision of the Code of Federal Regulations, which defines that term in the gun law, says habitual use can be inferred from evidence of recent use, examples of which, it says, include “a conviction for use or possession of a controlled substance within the past year,” or “multiple arrests for such offenses within the past 5 years.”
1. So much for background checks, even the FBI can’t get it straight; who would suggest that the State Police would do any better.
2. So possession of a drug used to TREAT “heroin addiction” is against Federal Law.
A great example of one stupid law creating another stupid law.
Check out this video from the Carl Loser campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKpaAibwGSo&feature=youtu.be
>There are lots of other people who will happily rip off the California LP for only $250 per hour. Maybe they should shop around a little more.
Hilarious!
Page not found
Small typo in the link. Try this:
http://www.latimes.com/visuals/graphics/la-me-g-census-latinos-20150708-htmlstory.html
A little off topic as Clinton is the epitome of duopoly politics, but it’s great that Slate (i.e., Washington Post) is taking her to task on her sanctimonious evasiveness.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/07/07/hillary_clinton_cnn_interview_a_heavily_edited_transcript_of_the_first_national.html?wpsrc=slatest_newsletter&sid=53bd83fedd52b80a3700116e
Page not found
Something noteworthy has finally happened in California::
http://www.latimes.com/visuals/graphics/la-me-g-census-latinos-20150708-htmlstory.htmomet
Selfies AND a hash tag? Wow, that’s like so totally #2015 !
Booth #231 if you want to stop by and get #SelfiesWithSarwark.
I’d rather be there, but gotta sweat in the Bessemer, Alabama sun getting signatures instead.
I’ll be at Freedom Fest manning the Libertarian Party booth this afternoon through Saturday. If you’re there, stop by and say hi.
That is one interpretation. Others were offered in the comment threads you linked.
I’ve done further analysis of the LNC’s FEC reports from 2012, and I have found out that the $140,184.25 for ballot access received by one individual was actually MORE THAN TRIPLE what anyone else received for ballot access.
Is anyone going to do anything about this obviously corrupt insider cronyism?
Thanks for the links, Columbo. I believe I will send them to Mr. Brown.
Just one more question. The California LP is planning to use Michael Cloud to do their fundraising?
Let’s not forget his last fundraising dealings with the national party:
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2013/11/2012-libertarian-audit-committee-out-of-control/
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2013/12/libertarian-party-more-questions-surface-about-michael-clouds-payment-as-vendor/
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2013/12/libertarian-party-michael-clouds-invoice-from-may-to-december-2012/
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2012/05/geoff-neale-on-the-situation-with-michael-cloud/
In summary. His friends helped him cheat to get elected to the LNC, while he was an LNC member he first told the LNC he would do fundraising work at Walmart rates, then billed the LNC a ridiculous amount for very little work, faked documentation after the fact when his invoices were questioned, billed for work that was actually done by an LNC employee, claimed that every penny of convention revenue was because of him, billed for work that he had agreed to do for free, and received on the order of $400-$500 per hour for his time.
There are lots of other people who will happily rip off the California LP for only $250 per hour. Maybe they should shop around a little more.
Sounds like possibly sour grapes. Just guessing.
Steven, what is your purpose for already complaining about the new administration? It’s been, what, 5 weeks? AT LEAST HE’S DOING SOMETHING.
Ex Com members talk things through. I believe they’ve already compromised on an issue or two. Hopefully they’ll approve a course of action most can agree with.
I assume you’ll be at the July 18th Ex Com meeting to lodge your complaints there, right?
Seems like something someone could easily forget.
Just found out some surprising data on the new LPC chairman Ted Brown.
He sent two or three emails to the executive committee this month with the following items:
“I noticed that the pledge has been changed from 5 years or so ago,
‘I certify that I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving social or political goals.’
to
‘I certify that I oppose the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.’
Does anyone know when this was changed? “.
So; that was changed in 2012 in convention to match the national party pledge. There was very little opposition to the change then and there appears not to be much support among the EC to change it back. – Mr. Brown, were you asleep? I thought you were going to be better than Takenaga.
Then:
“We used to have a life membership category, but it seems to have disappeared somewhere over the years. I am going to put this on the agenda for the meeting, but wanted to get everyone’s input on how much you think the life membership should be. I was thinking $2,500.”
Does any one know if LPC ever offered a lifetime membership? I hear that it was only though the ‘Unified Membership Program’ (UMP) offered by LPN where LPC only got 50% of $1000.00 and most of those were never heard from again. According to the LPC Secretary they are artificially inflating the membership numbers. They were LPN members not LPC members.
And finally:
“Our fundraiser-to-be, Michael Cloud, suggested that we use a common sales ploy for new memberships, i.e. that our membership is $39 but we’re discounting it to $25 for new members.”
and after some challenges:
“I was presenting one of Michael Cloud’s suggestions. That could have gone either way. I’m more of the opinion that we should raise the basic dues, since they have been at $25 since the 1980s. Probably $35 would be good.”
Some EC member are quite put off by these tactics.
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25234667/bucks-president-without-arena-funding-team-will-move-to-las-vegas-or-seattle- Looks like Las Vegas or Seattle will get a basketball team if those folks in the Wisconsin Legislature don’t give the current team 250-million dollars for a new building. Where are the investors? Would the Wisconsin legislature make the whole state a TIF district and extort money that way from property owners and tax payers. This could be a good issue for libertarians in Wisconsin.
Most of those who came to the LP in 2008 were because of Ron Paul, not Bob Barr.
looking at year to year numbers doesn’t tell you how many were brought in because it doesn’t tell you how many left.
It doesn’t tell you whether they were brought in by the LP candidate or for some other reason (for example, frustration with how the Republicans treated Ron Paul at their convention, or some local LP campaign, etc).
More importantly, it doesn’t tell you how many of those members are active.
I dug up the membership numbers going back into the past. The number is for the end of the indicated year, except 2015, where the indicated number is the end of June 2015.
You will see that 1992 brought in a lot of people, 1996 brought in a lot of people, 2000 lost ground, 2004 brought in 873 people, 2008 brought in 1177 people, and 2012 brought in 281 people.
Remember that the Presidential campaign is not everything in terms of member recruitment, but it can help. The the extent we credit the Presidential campaign: Note that Barr was more effective than Badnarik or Johnson at bringing in people, and Badnarik was more effective than Johnson, but all of them were more effective than the second Browne campaign.
For 2009 and after, there are three columns. The second column counts people who signed the oath and sent us some money during the year (or are life members), while the third column lists “sustaining members” as defined in the Bylaws. 2006 is an anomaly because dues changed several times in different directions.
1988 – 6253
1989 – 8211
1990 – 9130
1991 – 9162
1992 – 11416
1993 – 9539
1994 – 10641
1995 – 13658
1996 – 21580
1997 – 23345
1998 – 30007
1999 – 33007
2000 – 32922
2001 – 27731
2002 – 22871
2003 – 19410
2004 – 20283
2005 – 15575
2006 – 11014
2007 – 14181
2008 – 15358
2009 – 14076 – 14096
2010 – 14077 – 14309
2011 – 13468 – 13589
2012 – 13749 – 13824
2013 – 13670 – 13869
2014 – 12053 – 12526
2015 – 11640 – 11723 (June)
And for those of you who want the month by month in an election year:
Here are the month by month numbers for 2004, 2008, and 2012
2004 — 19084 18826 19276 19107 19306 19834 ** 19982 19747 19830 19913 19929 20283
2008 — 14171 13908 13809 13579 13820 ** 14121 14581 14970 15378 16099 16079 15358
2012 – 13492 13538 13406 13179 12923 ** 12870 12960 13361 13788 14070 14182 13749
So. look at the month-by-month
Badnarik brought in under 500.
Barr brought in 1530.
Johnson brought in a bit over 800.
Readers may reasoanbly say that while Badnarik was a radical, he was a Constitutionalist radical, not a Libertarian radical, and his knowledge of the Constitution had some deficiencies. The guy who did best was clearly not a radical.
Andy–
Some of the LNC members might not have paid attention after the money was allocated for 2012 petitioning, but I can confirm that Redpath certainly did. 25K of that money was spent in New York and I had to approve every penny and report to Bill regularly on expenditures and results.
Speaking of Harry Browne, does anyone have an image that they took of him that they would be willing to donate to Wikipedia?
The current photo is not that great https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Browne
Andy>: “Not all states have voter registration by party. I think that only 26 states have partisan voter registration.”
THIS FACT, is the central issue (I believe). Clearly, MUCH more effort (and money) should be directed to establishing viable local and state parties and removing LOCAL restrictions on such activities. “All politics are local”: [a phrase that Tip O’neil made famous] is perhaps over-stated but bodies on the street is much more effective than a bigger bank account.
.
>”Also, signing the party’s oath and sending in a donation is a bigger sign of commitment than checking a box for Libertarian Party or writing in the word Libertarian on a voter registration form.”
Clearly the NAP is absolutely essential but political contributions can easily be a can of worms!
Does the name “Koch Brothers” ring a bell?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not attacking them for supporting those causes and candidates that
coincide with their own ‘self-interests’. I am merely pointing out how vulnerable we are to that class of “fat cats” who MAY or MAY NOT have the best interest of the country OR “libertarian” principles” in their portfolios. Please note that the Koch Brothers announced in January that they plan to spend $ .9 billion on the 2016 election,.
ALSO, consider the undeniable fact that $ = political power
.
RE:
For your 4th of July viewing pleasure, a Canadian. 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqX16hX8nsg
Did you post on the wrong thread?
@Winger’s thrdr paragraph says Gen. Washington “disclaimed party adherence.” I believe Gen. Washington. Apparently you take him as a liar?
You know, with all of the frivolous issues that have been discussed here over the years, you think a bigger issue with the LNC’s budget, as in how in 2012, $140,184.25 (far more than what anyone else received for ballot access work), roughly 40% of the money that the LNC spent on ballot access, and around 10% (or higher) of the LNC’s budget as a whole, went to one ballot access mercenary, in a no-bid, no-merit based, insider crony deal, with no accountability or transparency, and so far, not that many people have weighed in on the issue.
Do Libertarian Party members not care how party money is spent?
All of this can be verified by checking out the Libertarian National Committee’s filings at http://www.FEC.gov .
“[email protected]
July 3, 2015 at 3:36 pm
Andy: I have been a registered Libertarian since 1976, so I wouldn’t say that I’ve “quit” the party.
Ironically, the number of “registered” Libertarians is a much better gauge of one’s commitment.
On the other hand. the PTB should be aware that my money worth more to me than it apparently
it is to the party.”
Not all states have voter registration by party. I think that only 26 states have partisan voter registration.
Also, signing the party’s oath and sending in a donation is a bigger sign of commitment than checking a box for Libertarian Party or writing in the word Libertarian on a voter registration form.
Having said this, given the way that the party has operated in the last 15 years, I can see why dues paying membership is down, even though Libertarian Party voter registration has reached an all time high (mostly thanks to people like Ron Paul, Andrew Napolitano, and John Stossel promoting the word libertarian from outside the party).
Roderick Long is still around….
http://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/27638
That Harry Browne article is a great blast from the past. I sure do with Harry Browne was still around.
Uncelebrating the Fourth
by Harry Browne
July 4, 2003
Unfortunately, July 4th has become a day of deceit.
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress formally declared its independence from Great Britain. Thirteen years later, after a difficult war to secure that independence, the new country was open for business.
It was truly unique — the first nation in all of history in which the individual was considered more important than the government, and the government was tied down by a written Constitution.
It was the one nation where you could live your life secure in the knowledge that no one would ask for your papers, where you weren’t identified by a number, and where the government wouldn’t extort a percentage of your income as the price of holding a job.
And so each year July 4th has been a commemoration of the freest country in history.
False Celebration
But the America that’s celebrated no longer exists.
The holiday oratory deceitfully describes America as though it were the unique land of liberty that once was. Politicians thank the Almighty for conferring the blessings of liberty on a country that no longer enjoys those blessings. The original freedom and security have disappeared — even though the oratory lingers on.
What made America unique is now gone, and we are much the same as Germany, France, England, or Spain, with:
confiscatory taxes,
a Constitution and Bill of Rights that are symbolic only — merely documents used to justify governmental actions that are in fact prohibited by those documents,
business regulated by the state in the most minute detail,
no limits on what Congress or the President might decide to do.
Yes, there are some freedoms left, but nothing like the America that was — and nothing that you can’t find in a few dozen other countries.
The Empire
Gone, too, is the sense of peace and security that once reigned throughout the land. America — bound by two huge oceans and two friendly neighbors — was subject to none of the never-ending wars and destruction that plagued Europe and Asia.
Now, however, everyone’s business is America’s business. Our Presidents consider themselves the rulers of the world — deciding who may govern any country on earth and sending Americans to die enforcing those decisions.
Whereas America was once an inspiration to the entire world — its very existence was proof that peace and liberty really were possible — Americans now live in fear of the rest of the world and the rest of the world lives in fear of America.
The Future
Because the education of our children was turned over to government in the 19th century, generations of Americans have been taught that freedom means taxes, regulations, civic duty, and responsibility for the whole world. They have no conception of the better life that could exist in a society in which government doesn’t manage health care, education, welfare, and business — and in which individuals are free to plot their own destinies.
Human beings are born with the desire to make their own decisions and control their own lives. But in most countries government and social pressures work to teach people to expect very little autonomy.
Fortunately, in America a remnant has kept alive the ideas of liberty, peace, and self-respect — passing the concepts on from generation to generation. And so today millions of Americans know that the present system isn’t the right system — that human beings aren’t born to serve the state and police the world.
Millions more would be receptive upon being shown that it’s possible to have better lives than what they’re living now.
Both groups need encouragement to quit supporting those who are taking freedom away from them.
You and I may not have the money and influence to change America by ourselves, but we can keep spreading the word — describing a better society in which individuals are truly free and government is in chains (instead of the opposite).
And someday we may reach the people who do have the money and influence to persuade tens of millions of Americans to change our country for the better.
I don’t know that it’s going to happen, but I do know it’s possible. I know that the urge to live one’s own life is as basic in human beings as the will to live and the desire to procreate. If we keep plugging away, we may eventually tap into that urge and rally the forces necessary to restore the real America.
And then the 4th of July will be worth celebrating again.
——–
Harry Browne was the Libertarian Party presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000. You can read more of his articles at HarryBrowne.org.
I don’t know about Rosanne’s political affiliation,
but she is still a practicing Mormon. Since they
consider themselves (or at least Mr. Smith) as
descendants of the (Lost) Tribe of Israel that may
explain her loyalty to Israel.
Andy: I have been a registered Libertarian since 1976, so I wouldn’t say that I’ve “quit” the party.
Ironically, the number of “registered” Libertarians is a much better gauge of one’s commitment.
On the other hand. the PTB should be aware that my money worth more to me than it apparently
it is to the party.
Response to Dave41:
1) People quitting the party does not solve any of these problems. Lot of people have quit the party, and the only result so far has been a smaller party.
2) I use the term mercenary to describe anyone who is not really committed to the party and ideology and is just out to make money off of the party.
@Craig — The invitation was extended through Gov. Ventrua’s son. And the mysterious LP reached out to the Venturas, not vice versa.
1. We have all been through this before. From my standpoint I refuse to renew my membership at least until this issue is addressed by LNC.
2. Andy, it isn’t necessary to use the term, “mercenary”
At least not yet!!
What was the total LNC budget for 2012? I’m thinking that it was around $1 million.
Assuming that I am correct about what the LNC budget was in 2012, this would mean that one mercenary petitioner received 10% (or perhaps higher, given that this person received $140,184.25 from the LNC) of the LNC’s entire budget.
I’d say that one person getting 10% (or more) of the LNC’s entire budget is something that ought to raise some alarm bells, and get some people asking questions. I don’t know which is more disturbing, one ballot access mercenary getting 10% (or more) of the LNC’s entire budget, or the fact that nobody questioned it.
He’s probably just bloviating, by my guess is he talked to somebody at LNC, they were polite and cordial and gave him accurate information about the process, and then he took the lack of immediate and total rejection as an invitation.
Alternately, somebody told him the same thing as Andy above- that if he wants to seek the nomination, he has to actually show up in Orlando and seek the nomination, not this half-baked “give me your ballot access but I’m too good to join you.” nonsense.
Besides, didn’t Ventura support Trump in 2000? Has anybody asked him if he plans to do so again?
I sure hope that Ventura is flat out lying about being contacted by a “high level” person from the LP. Of course, that could mean anything or just about anyone. I have voted for every LP national ticket since 1976 (except when I lived in a state without ballot status or no write ins) and I think it is time the LP gets back to nominating a libertarian rather than a “name”. No more excuses.
“independent voter
July 3, 2015 at 12:49 am
Gov. Ventura was on Alex Jones’ show today. Ventura said a “high-level” person in the Libertarian Party has extended him an invitation to attend the 2016 convention and compete for the party’s Presidential nomination.”
“Jill Pyeatt
July 3, 2015 at 1:17 am
“Ventura said a “high-level” person in the Libertarian Party”.
This surprises me, but you never know, I guess.”
I heard this today as well, and I was wondering who this “high level person in the Libertarian Party” is too.
Unfortunately, Jesse Ventura still thinks that the Libertarian Party should nominate him without him joining the party. I don’t think that this is going to fly with convention delegates.
If Jesse wants the Libertarian Party nomination, he needs to do two things:
1) Join the party, which includes signing the party oath.
2) Read some free market economics books and brush up on some of the issues where Libertarians would consider him to be weak, but don’t lie about your views. Either embrace the Libertarian views or find another party or run as an independent. I don’t think that a candidate has to be 100% anarcho-capitalism now, but they should still be pretty high on the Nolan Chart to be a candidate.
There are a lot of things that I like about Jesse Ventura, and he has the potential to be a very good candidate, but he is weak on a few issues, and he needs to join the freaking party if he wants the party to nominate him.
“Ventura said a “high-level” person in the Libertarian Party”.
This surprises me, but you never know, I guess.
Gov. Ventura was on Alex Jones’ show today. Ventura said a “high-level” person in the Libertarian Party has extended him an invitation to attend the 2016 convention and compete for the party’s Presidential nomination.
Registered independent Lt. Gen. Russel Honore announced that he will not be competing in the Louisiana governor’s election this fall.
No, I just ballot access contracts. You can have multiple contractors do pieces of the same job.
“[email protected]
July 2, 2015 at 10:16 pm
Doesn’t the LNC have an audit committee.???”
They are not doing a very effective job if there is one.
Doesn’t the LNC have an audit committee.???
This is AT LEAST as important as a “judicial committee”!!!!
Also, it is not like the money above was really well spent, because it was not. Thousands of dollars of it was completely wasted.
Is this what we are about as a party, polishing the knobs of cronies with lucrative insider no-bid and no-merit contracts (some of them monopolies), with no accountability and no transparency?
I can think of far more effective ways that that money could have been allocated.
Are other LNC members asleep at the wheel or what?
Paul said: “The LNC does not really discuss who gets the ballot access contracts (other than conflict of interest issues with LNC members).”
You make it sound as if there is some magic sole provider contract for which lots of people are vying, but only one person shall be chosen to be the sole source provider (as in a monopoly contractor), and that this is based on some mysterious criteria than nobody knows what it is.
Just for those reading this who may not know what is going on: THIS HAS HISTORICALLY NOT BEEN THE WAY THAT LIBERTARIAN PARTY BALLOT ACCESS HAS OPERATED.
“The discussions about ballot access that the LNC has center around whether the party has the money to do this or that drive at any given time and how much of a priority it should be vis a vis other things that the party is or should be doing.”
You know, I had a conversation with a former LNC member who confirmed something that I had suspected, and which I find to be disturbing, and which every other LP member ought to find disturbing as well, and that is that most LNC members have NO IDEA what happens with the money after the vote to allocate it takes place. All they know is that they voted to allocate money to _____________ (fill in the blank), but beyond this, the bulk of them have no clue about how the money is actually being spent, who exactly is getting the money, the quality of the good or service being purchased with the money, whether or not they are getting a good value for the money, etc….
The former LNC member that I spoke to was not even aware that $140,184.25 of ballot access money, roughly 40% of the money that the LNC spent on ballot access, went to one person, or that much of it was used to pay for the low validity fiasco in Pennsylvania, or anything else about how the money was spent.
This is pretty sad, and it sure does explain a lot, and it illustrates why the party is not more successful.
This is something that ought to change as soon as possible.
If one person getting $140,184.25, about 40% of the LNC’s ballot access allocation for 2012, does not set off alarm bells for corrupt cronyism, I don’t know what does.
“George Phillies
July 1, 2015 at 9:17 pm
The LNC needs to exert more active supervision of how its spends are spent, or at least get a report afterward.
George Phillies
July 1, 2015 at 9:19 pm
The LNC needs to exert more active supervision of how its funds are spent, or at least get a report afterward. And I need to be less clumsy hitting the wrong keys and settings.”
I don’t know what is more alarming, the fact that every LNC member is not given this information, or the fact that most of them are not even seeking it out.
And thanks to Michael Pakko for voting for me!
https://www.facebook.com/kevinludlow?fref=ts
Votes were: round one
Ludlow 2
Barnes (MS) 2
yours truly 1
Daniel Hayes (LA, currnt alt) 1
Round 2 runoff Ludlow over Barnes 4-2
Kevin Ludlow TX elected to replace Jay Estrada TX as region 7 rep on lnc
Libertarian drama in the Great White North:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/02/canadian-libertarians-in-revolt-after-party-leadership-suspends-anti-feminist-candidate-lauren-southern/
Latest development in the political lexicon: the term trump is NOW pronounce chump!
That being said; anyone who serious believes that the Confederate Flag represent evil and
should “come down”, I suggest they should all be sent to the trump chump, who is running
for national demagogue!
I think that the same thing has gone on here with government trolls as described in the article below.
http://www.infowars.com/government-trolls-are-using-psychology-based-influence-techniques-on-youtube-facebook-and-twitter/
Free State Project voters had more choices in the West in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The East just had NH, so that state got the votes. We were fractured in the West. An informal poll at a Montana meeting way back when had Montana number one. On many issues Montana is becoming more libertarian, then most states. Gary Johnson had the 3rd highest percentage in Montana and Montana’s Libertarian vote total in 2012 was 290892 who cast a vote for a Libertarian candidate. I imagine that total is in the top 10 Libertarian vote totals of the 50 states.
The LNC needs to exert more active supervision of how its funds are spent, or at least get a report afterward. And I need to be less clumsy hitting the wrong keys and settings.
The LNC needs to exert more active supervision of how its spends are spent, or at least get a report afterward.
I’d be particularly interested in hearing from anyone who was on the LNC during this time period
I was on the LNC during some of this time period, and have read discussions from the last few LNCs before that as well as the current one.
The LNC does not really discuss who gets the ballot access contracts (other than conflict of interest issues with LNC members).
The discussions about ballot access that the LNC has center around whether the party has the money to do this or that drive at any given time and how much of a priority it should be vis a vis other things that the party is or should be doing.
Montana (and Wyoming) have a much stronger social conservative streak, a less open political system, as well as practical geographical considerations, that weighed against being chosen by the FSP. A decision that was made long before any of the data compiled in that map even existed yet.
The number of movers is still <2k. Spread over the size of NH, that's hundreds of people living mostly within a couple of hours of each other. Spread over the size of Montana, they'd be six or eight or twelve hours apart. Montana is big.
I’d be interested in getting a round table discussion going about why 40% of LNC ballot access money in 2012 got funneled into the pockets of one ballot access mercenary. I’d be particularly interested in hearing from anyone who was on the LNC during this time period about why they think that this was OK (note that these payments included the low validity fiasco in Pennsylvania).
FYI, a couple of days ago I combed the LNC FEC reports from 2012, and I found that one person was paid $140,184.25 for ballot access (far more than anyone else received), and this does not even include any additional money that was paid out by Gary Johnson for President (which, unfortunately, we do not have a clear record since the Johnson campaign’s documentation of expenses was very vague), nor does it include any money that may have been paid out by state parties.
Indeed!
Any open thread that starts off with a Pope Francis music video is a good thread.
Google search count
Democratic Party — 65 million
Republican Party — 35 million
Libertarian Party — 2.7 million
http://reason.com/blog/2015/06/26/this-map-shows-how-many-libertarians-are Montana should have been the Free State of the Free State Project. In this study Montana ranks number one. Have a good 4th.