Email from the Libertarian Party. However, I noticed that “Content authorized by the Barr 2008 Presidential Committee.” -Paulie.
From the desk of Bill Redpath:
Dear Paul,
Are you ready to have your personal information controlled by the “National Coordinator of Health Information Technology?”
Because Barack Obama sure is.
Tucked away into his $1.1 trillion Frankenstein’s monster of welfare transfers and explosive spending is a provision essentially centralizing all health care information into a Washington, D.C. office who will “guide” your doctor’s decisions, Bloomberg financial news columnist Betsy McCaughy reports this week.
She reports the plan is based on “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis,” a recent book by failed Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Tom Daschle.
In the book, Daschle claims health care is expensive because doctors keep finding new medications and technologies, driving up costs.
Daschle warns doctors they must give up the ability to make decisions for patients and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners” so the federal government can drive down the costs of health care.
Paul, will you help your Libertarian Party stop their plans for federally-controlled doctor’s offices by rushing me your most generous gift of $25, $50, $100 or even $250, or whatever you can afford, by clicking here
?
Any contribution in any amount would be greatly appreciated and budgeted wisely.
The LP is hard at work spreading the word about the waste and abuses in this spending plan. We are hitting the airwaves on radio stations all over the country, and our office is churning out press releases and commentaries blasting this explosion of government spending and control.
We cannot continue to fight without your support. Can you please respond right now with your most generous gift of $25, $50, $100 or even $250, or whatever you can afford? You can simply click here
to give.
The public is on our side. Rasmussen found this week a majority, 51%, oppose the bill and that number grows every day. 62% support the Libertarian approach of tax cuts over the Republican/Democrat plan to increase spending.
And all that is before they’re even told the stimulus means a federal bureaucrat can tell your doctor to stop treating you if saving your life costs too much.
Your Libertarian Party is working hard every day to organize opposition to the stimulus plan – and the American people are willing to listen.
Won’t you support us today? Please rush your most generous gift of $25, $50, $100, $250, or whatever you can afford today by clicking here
.
I would greatly appreciate it, Paul. Let’s work together to save our liberties.
In liberty,
William Redpath
Chair, Libertarian National Committee
P.S. Bloomberg columnist Betsy McCaughy reports the massive “stimulus” bill contains new rules giving all your health care information to a “National Coordinator of Health Information Technology,” who will “guide” your doctor on how to treat you.
Your Libertarian Party staunchly opposes this plan to have the government meddle in your health care, and we’re leading the fight against it.
Paul, please support our fight to preserve your liberty with your best gift of $25, $50, $99, $250, or whatever you can afford today by clicking here
.
Paid for by the Libertarian National Committee
2600 Virginia Ave, N.W. Suite 200, Washington D.C. 20037
Content authorized by the Barr 2008 Presidential Committee.
37 responses so far ↓
1 Michael H. Wilson // Feb 13, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Mr. Redpath writes: “The LP is hard at work spreading the word about the waste and abuses in this spending plan. We are hitting the airwaves on radio stations all over the country, and our office is churning out press releases and commentaries blasting this explosion of government spending and control.”
What radio stations? And why not email our Congress critters and tell them to bring the troops home. Then ask for an accounting of how much money has been spent to keep those troops overseas.
I’m willing to bet the annual figure is around 25% or more of the DoD budget and in the neighborhood of $20 trillion since the end of WWII.
2 Steven R Linnabary // Feb 13, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Email from the Libertarian Party. However, I noticed that “Content authorized by the Barr 2008 Presidential Committee.” -Paulie.
Personally, I don’t care who gets the credit for trying to stop this invasive monstrosity.
Further, I am happy that somebody appears to be addressing this issue. But NOTHING appears on either the LP website or on the Bob Barr website!
So who exactly is pushing this? Where is the organization?
FWIW, I have not received this email.
PEACE
3 paulie cannoli // Feb 13, 2009 at 8:39 pm
http://www.lp.org/blogs/donny-ferguson/obama-stimulus-includes-federal-control-of-doctor-decisions
4 Steven R Linnabary // Feb 13, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Ok, it IS there! But you really have to did to find it. How many people are going to do that?
PEACE
5 George Phillies // Feb 13, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Why is the LNC allowing the Barr Campaign to censor its own press releases?
6 Libertarian Joseph // Feb 13, 2009 at 11:02 pm
George, you’re a child.
7 Gene Trosper // Feb 14, 2009 at 12:27 am
@4
I totally agree with you.
These types of alerts and actions need to be on the home page, front and center.
8 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 4:22 am
I should point out that in fact, it was front and center, but the pace of the LP blog has picked up, and it dropped off the front page since then.
It was also mentioned in
http://www.lp.org/blogs/donny-ferguson/obama-gives-bailout-details-market-plunges-382-points
9 Scott Lieberman // Feb 14, 2009 at 7:08 am
“paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 4:22 am
I should point out that in fact, it was front and center, but the pace of the LP blog has picked up, and it dropped off the front page since then. ”
**************************************
If I remember correctly, Paulie is an LP Radical. But – I notice that when he or another LP Radical who posts on IPR says something factually incorrect, even if correcting that falsehood will not help the LP Radical Cause, Paulie still will correct the error.
Paulie – your efforts to be fair and honest in these blog postings does not go unnoticed.
10 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 8:46 am
Thanks, Scott!
btw, I have some people who are calling me a sellout, or whatever, because of this.
I assure you that I remain an anarchist, extremist, and left-leaning radical libertarian. My ideology generally lines up with Roderick Long (praxeology.net).
But, I believe that the nastiness of the infighting within the LP, and the extent to which it has been the focus of many within the party, is detrimental to the libertarian cause in general, and to the radical agenda within the LP in particular.
I think we need a practical nuts and bolts focus, and to move the party to a field organizer based model, and a focus on youth recruiting and activism, and focused outreach to the left-libertarian-center cluster which is the plurality distribution at campus OPH events; I have thousands of data points from all over the country I collected on this.
See also
http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/02/libertarian-party-blog-free-republic-poster-gives-republicans-a-recent-history-lesson/comment-page-2/#comment-40267
For further explanation.
Much more if you have time.
11 Scott Lieberman // Feb 14, 2009 at 9:08 am
“paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 8:46 am
I assure you that I remain an anarchist, extremist, and left-leaning radical libertarian. My ideology generally lines up with Roderick Long (praxeology.net).
But, I believe that the nastiness of the infighting within the LP, and the extent to which it has been the focus of many within the party, is detrimental to the libertarian cause in general, and to the radical agenda within the LP in particular.
I think we need a practical nuts and bolts focus, and to move the party to a field organizer based model, and a focus on youth recruiting and activism, and focused outreach to the left-libertarian-center cluster which is the plurality distribution at campus OPH events; I have thousands of data points from all over the country I collected on this. ”
*********************************
I think the LP needs to reach out to ALL voters, even those with only the most minimal of libertarian leanings.
Paulie – I have one question for LP Radicals that has never been answered to my satisfaction.
Why do LP Radicals INSIST on using the Libertarian Party to educate people about libertarianism, but they are unwilling to be held to having to achieve measureable results.
IOW – as a member of hte Reform Caucus, I am perfectly willing to be judged how many Libertarians I can get elected or appointed to office. However, LP Radicals seem to be unwilling to let us measure their success by the number of new LP members their campaigns get on a per dollar basis, and compare that number to direct mail prospecting. Or, how about continually increasing vote totals with
hard-core Radical campaigns? Or maybe poll results in a district that prove the people are more libertarian in their views?
Until that question gets answered, I think the Reform Caucus is going to assume that LP Radicals are perfectly willing to judge Reformers based on their results or lack thereof, but that they are unwilling to let themselves be judged on the ability of their Radical campaigns to get measureable results.
12 Gene Trosper // Feb 14, 2009 at 10:01 am
@8
I understand, but things as important as this should have their own action alert section prominently displayed on the main page. Blogging about it is fine and appropriate, but no one should have to dig through a lot of postings just to find an action item.
13 Gene Trosper // Feb 14, 2009 at 10:27 am
@11
Scott, I consider myself philosophically radical. I want to see the state shrunk as much as possible. That said, I recognize that I joined the LP in 1990 NOT to merely educate voters, but to engage in electoral politics as a means of turning statist public policy to a libertarian direction. I recognize that electoral politics and radical libertarianism are concepts that can be difficult to reconcile on it’s face, but I approach electoral politics in two ways:
1. As a tool to gain liberty.
2. As a form of self defense.
I could have chosen the educational route through organizations such as the ISIL, but I chose electoral politics. Though some radical libertarians believe engaging in electoral politics is immoral, I happen to believe it is moral to defend one’s self, family and friends from the evil that inhabits city halls, statehouses and DC. If that means casting a vote, then so be it.
That said, if some is facing a mob of looters, does one just say “come, take what you like” or do you face them with a BB gun or an automatic weapon? As for me, I choose the automatic weapon. The LP should be approached in the same manner: take on an “automatic weapon” attitude with regard to partisan Libertarian politics. Aim for the head whenever possible! That means aiming for success. It doesn’t mean lusting after state power. It means turning the state back on itself by using the ballot box, public opinion and by lobbying.
The United States is facing a destructive “stimulus” bill and California is facing a despicable round of tax increases. I see the outrage on libertarian blogs, but where is the organized Libertarian action? I ask that question not of radicals, but reformers as well.
It’s time for the radicals and reformers to stop the schoolyard squabble over who gets to run the sandbox because guess what? There may not be a sandbox left to squabble over if things get much worse.
Grow up, everyone.
14 libertariangirl // Feb 14, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Well said Gene!
15 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Why do LP Radicals INSIST on using the Libertarian Party to educate people about libertarianism, but they are unwilling to be held to having to achieve measureable results.
IOW – as a member of hte Reform Caucus, I am perfectly willing to be judged how many Libertarians I can get elected or appointed to office. However, LP Radicals seem to be unwilling to let us measure their success by the number of new LP members their campaigns get on a per dollar basis, and compare that number to direct mail prospecting. Or, how about continually increasing vote totals with
hard-core Radical campaigns? Or maybe poll results in a district that prove the people are more libertarian in their views?
Until that question gets answered, I think the Reform Caucus is going to assume that LP Radicals are perfectly willing to judge Reformers based on their results or lack thereof, but that they are unwilling to let themselves be judged on the ability of their Radical campaigns to get measureable results.
Scott, I agree completely with what Gene says.
I don’t think radicals should be held to any less objective performance standard than moderate libertarians.
I think both should be held to higher standards than at present, and to achieve them, we’ll need to spend more time on that – and less on infighting.
Wes Benedict explains it well here:
http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/01/libertarian-national-committee-budget-controversy/#comment-36890
I highly recommend reading that letter to see how we can move above and beyond our current predicament, and be more.
16 Michael H. Wilson // Feb 14, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Scott writes: “Why do LP Radicals INSIST on using the Libertarian Party to educate people about libertarianism, but they are unwilling to be held to having to achieve measureable results.”
Scott I cannot answer for other radicals and I’m not sure I belong in that camp, but some have told me I do. That being said I have long suggested that the LP needs to set goals for fund raising and membership recruiting as well as membership retention. Having been a candidate in the past I seriously consider electing people to office a substantial goal. In fact goal one, but that is not going to happen without an adequate support system. I also think we need updated literature, and much improved website and timely news releases. An all around improved public relations program would be a nice start.
Additionally the national office needs to help the state parties develop because national cannot be expected to do everything some expect. To do that national needs to develop a few training brochures.
In my experience those those who have argued against these types of goals have been those who want to soft pedal the philosophy. I certainly could give you a specific name of someone who fought tooth and nail against an outreach plan I had when I was a party officer and this person is well known to many in the uper ranks of the LP. From most that I know this person would be called a moderate, or maybe an opportunist.
17 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Since people generally don’t follow links, I’ll reproduce my comment that I linked to above, here:
I think George (Phillies) makes good points e.g.
http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/02/libertarian-party-daily-poll-which-libertarian-idea-most-helps-your-family/#comment-40184
Ending the war on drugs and restoring civil rights to millions of convicted Americans, thus allowing them to work for a living.
Repealing DOMA and protecting millions of LGBTQPL Americans, which includes children and relatives of a fair number of us.
Ending wiretapping of your phones, so that your private matters and business calls are not sold to the highest bidder by corrupt NSA employees.
Barring torture and prosecuting the torturers. all of them, before your children are tortured by your local drug police.
The Libertarian Party — it flies less well on two right wings.
See subsequent discussion on some of the terminology issues.
For that matter, I think that having watchdogs in the party to make sure the party and its candidates spend money wisely, and on what they raised it for, and that the candidates and staff of the party don’t misrepresent its platform, are all useful functions.
However, I fully agree with you about the importance of doing so in a civil manner and giving each other the benefit of the doubt.
Likewise, I think we really need to stop making these internal battles our primary focus. The party desperately needs to move to a field organizing base model (rather than just money, meetings, offices and ballot access by itself).
We need active youth organizing, precinct and county level organizing all over the country, project based fundraising (not just general fund), street activism – not just monthly supper clubs; and we need to database, coordinate and utilize members time, skills and volunteer abilities at least as much as their money.
We need to diversify our membership in every demographic category, and reach out to the large population of left-center-libertarians which we have never attempted to tap nearly as much as converts from the right.
There is a ton of work to be done in all these areas. I understand that some people who share this ultimate vision feel that the first step has to be to fight an internal party battle to get rid of the people in charge now, yet I think this is the wrong end from which to approach the problem.
If our main focus is on infighting – particularly in a nasty way – then all it does is turn members and prospects off, and none of our good ideas get implemented. Even if we win the battle, we lose the war. The entire “inside clique” of the time, which some people spent just as much energy to get rid of, was gotten rid of in 2002. Things did not get better; they got worse.
The opposite of this approach is illustrated by Wes Benedict in the comment I reproduced above and the letter it links to.
I think the approach that Wes explains in that letter is a much better way of solving the problems which Dr. Phillies and I agree on than the constant perpetuating of inside baseball, with the pitchers on both sides aiming for the batter’s nuts, and the batters for the pitcher’s head.
18 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I understand, but things as important as this should have their own action alert section prominently displayed on the main page. Blogging about it is fine and appropriate, but no one should have to dig through a lot of postings just to find an action item.
I agree that an “action items” section would be good. There’s a “take principled action” section on the site, but no effort to match it to specific issues of the moment, such as are addressed in the blog and news releases.
Here are my ideas for a Liberty Activists website. I haven’t re-edited it, but I think a national office which was interested in doing so could incorporate many of these elements into a future LP.org:
Liberty Activists website.
The idea is to create and share effective outreach material for activists who are guided by the non-initiation of force principle in the political arena. Although I don’t think LP infighting is the most productive focus, message boards for things like ride and room shares would help get more of “our” people to be able to afford conventions.
Here’s what I am thinking:
Having effective outreach tools will help recruit the kind of people we need in the party as well; we especially need young people, women, artistic types (including musicians, etc), racial/ethnic diversity. Having tools like youtube clips, flier designs, etc. created and passed around will help with such recruitment efforts.
The boring and stodgy, unupdated in a gazillion years, outreach materials LP national has are not very attractive, thus ensuring an aging, non-diverse, left-brained thinking predominated, non-activist membership base. This is bad both for the LP and the radical agenda within the LP.
Materials should be available for downloading as well as editing multiple versions, wiki style.
The website should be a hub of activity and a place for activist tools.
There should be a PHP board, or something where ideas for action can be kept in one place.
Libertarians are aging; where is the concerted effort to reach a new generation? For the most part there is a lack of creative youtube clips and art and street activism, such as we saw with the Ron Paul campaign. I don’t think it’s because we are more liberal on some social issues.
The party is overly focused on left brained logic – not enough on music, art, different ways of reaching more people. Activism is not encouraged or nourished; the party is mainly interested in members for their money only. No activist culture; main activity is monthly get together boring bitch and moan fests.
Some useful feature this website should have:
19 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 2:37 pm
A member of the LNC answered the question Dr. Phillies posed in comment 5. It was by email, so I’m not including his name in case he wanted to be anonymous:
George Phillies said: “Why is the LNC allowing the Barr Campaign to censor its own press releases?”
I contacted Robert Kraus and it appears they were using an old e-mail template. The problem should be fixed for future e-mails.
20 Gene Trosper // Feb 14, 2009 at 3:19 pm
@16:
Those are goals we should have achieved ten years ago *at least*.
Times have changed. The situation for liberty has gotten much worse.
Fundraising and membership retention isn’t going to stop the stimulus bill. It’s not going to stop the California legislature from massively increasing our taxes. It’s not going to stop the nationalization of banks. It’s not going to stop DEA raids on medical marijuana dispensaries.
The LP may be small in comparison to the Ds & Rs, but it’s still a significantly large organization.
Mobilize the membership.
Get them writing letter, faxes and emails.
Get them making angry phone calls.
Get them involved in street-level activity like protests.
Liberty is under assault like never before, but one question remains: where is the Libertarian Party? For people who style themselves as “freedom fighters”, I don’t see much fighting for liberty at all. Our priorities are absolutely backward. All these years (decades) later, the LP is still trying to dick around with the bylaws and platform and dreaming up new ways to administer the database, raise funds and garner new members.
Jesus H. Christ.
Something has got to be done.
21 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Gene,
Those are goals we should have achieved ten years ago *at least*.
To the extent that we didn’t, we still need to achieve them.
Times have changed. The situation for liberty has gotten much worse.
Fundraising and membership retention isn’t going to stop the stimulus bill. It’s not going to stop the California legislature from massively increasing our taxes. It’s not going to stop the nationalization of banks. It’s not going to stop DEA raids on medical marijuana dispensaries.
No, but no organization that doesn’t take them seriously will be of much use in helping to stop any of these things.
The LP may be small in comparison to the Ds & Rs, but it’s still a significantly large organization.
Mobilize the membership.
Get them writing letter, faxes and emails.
Get them making angry phone calls.
Get them involved in street-level activity like protests.
I totally agree. That is much of the point of comments 15, 17 and 18.
Liberty is under assault like never before, but one question remains: where is the Libertarian Party? For people who style themselves as “freedom fighters”, I don’t see much fighting for liberty at all. Our priorities are absolutely backward. All these years (decades) later, the LP is still trying to dick around with the bylaws and platform and dreaming up new ways to administer the database, raise funds and garner new members.
Jesus H. Christ.
Something has got to be done.
That has been the case all along. But, we won’t be able to seriously do a great deal to solve any of the problems which we agree exist unles s we “dick around with the bylaws and platform and dreaming up new ways to administer the database, raise funds and garner new members” to some extent. At the same time, if that – or, worse yet, nasty infighting – is our focus, you are absolutely right: we get nowhere.
22 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Expanding on the field organizing model I alluded to in several comments above, here is a plan on how it would look if adopted at a state level. Of course, one state adopting it doesn’t make it happen – we still have to be able to raise the money.
The LPA’s tentative plan for 2010 and 2012 ballot access, and for building our issue coalition:
For elaboration on some of these elements see
http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/01/alabama-libertarians-prospective-candidates-upcoming-coalition-meetings-business-plan-progress/
and
http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/01/sponsor-for-alabama-ballot-access-bill-found-update-on-libertarian-party-of-alabama/
This model can be adopted by any state, and possibly at some point by national.
It can also be adopted by independent organizations. More on the last point in my next comment.
23 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Field organizing by independent organizations.
Outreach materials/resources: See 18 above regarding “Liberty Activists” website.
College organizing:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2421661756
http://pauliecannoli.wordpress.com/2007/08/03/college-libertarian-organizing-committee-2/
Has some further discussion of the idea.
ballot access: In addition to state plans such as what I propose above, there is also Freedom Ballot Access
http://freedomballotaccess.org
Yes, the website is not great, and you may or may not like the people involved. I’m talking here about the general concept.
The same type of outside groups can exist for other aspects of party and/or movement operations.
24 Michael H. Wilson // Feb 14, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Yes Gene I agree with what you say. I just wrote my U.S. Senators and have written my Congressman. I have a letter ready to go to some locals as well. I understand all that.
I posted a piece to an email list I am on suggesting that folks write their U.S. Senators on a specific issue and had it kicked back to me as not relevant to the function of the list.
I also sent an email post to Mr. Redpath & Mr. Sullentrop and cc’ed all the other members of the LNC regarding the literature in the hopes that they will do something at the upcoming LNC meeting. I did receive replies from some of the regional reps I am pleased to report.
However, as of this date I have not had the courtesy of a reply from either Mr. Redpath or Mr. Sullentrop.
MHW
25 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Michael,
I imagine that as national officers, they tend to get inundated with email from party members.
Did you send your email to Donny Ferguson also?
As well, depending on how many people you copied, it may have gotten caught in some people’s spam filters. There more people CCed on a given message, the more spam filters it will get caught in.
26 Michael H. Wilson // Feb 14, 2009 at 6:59 pm
paulie I did not send it to Donny Ferguson. It was prior to his employment.
I realize that they get a lot of junk stuff and some angry ones as well, but my U.S. Senator gets a lot more and manages to reply to me as does my Congressman and the City Council person and some state legislators I have emailed. And so does the president of the corporation I work for. Frankly he makes it a point of trying to read customer mail daily as I have been told and it is a big corporation.
27 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 7:04 pm
paulie I did not send it to Donny Ferguson. It was prior to his employment.
In that case, you may wish to send it to him now.
I realize that they get a lot of junk stuff and some angry ones as well, but my U.S. Senator gets a lot more and manages to reply to me as does my Congressman and the City Council person and some state legislators I have emailed. And so does the president of the corporation I work for. Frankly he makes it a point of trying to read customer mail daily as I have been told and it is a big corporation.
All those folks get paid to do those respective jobs, plus have staff. That’s somewhat different from being a volunteer officer of an organization, on top of your job or business, family, etc.
28 Michael H. Wilson // Feb 14, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I understand all of that, but still there needs to be a mechanism, or person in place to handle some of this.
One post that Stephen Gordon wrote was about the phone calls he received daily and how those call cost him time at work. I realize that people in those positions get a lot of junk mail, emails and calls, but somehow the wheat has to be seperated from the chaff. This party has been around long enough to figure that out I hope.
29 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 7:44 pm
One post that Stephen Gordon wrote was about the phone calls he received daily and how those call cost him time at work. I realize that people in those positions get a lot of junk mail, emails and calls, but somehow the wheat has to be seperated from the chaff. This party has been around long enough to figure that out I hope.
It isn’t always an easy thing to figure out. In proportion to other organizations, LP members love to complain to and about staff and party officers.
There is a ton of turn-over, because the party can’t afford to pay well for people to do those jobs, and the party members (and ex-members, or non-members with some reason to be interested in the LP) often make them highly unpleasant.
I think the party should utilize college interns a lot more.
Also, it should make a much more concerted effort to get volunteers to help the paid staff.
In other words, make a concerted effort to survey members – by email, snail mail, phone, in person, and repeatedly – not just in what ways they are able to help financially, but also what issues they are most interested in, what their skills and talents are, and how they may be willing to put those to work to help the party.
Then, contact them continuously asking for specific help on specific projects, which can also be maintained open-source style for other people to make suggestions who were not contacted to work on them.
So, for example, if the party knows that certain members are graphic designers, it could contact them for help with graphic design. If it knows that some members are most interested in gun issues, while others are more interested in drug policy, it may prioritize contacting different people for different projects.
Somehow, there must be a way to make our resource more optimized to our ostensible purpose. I grant that it is not the easiest thing to figure out, but it’s worth a good try.
30 Austin P. // Feb 14, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Hey Paulie, I thought you should know I have 9 college student interns at the national office. They have recently completed a project doing zoning and eminent domain research for Bob Johnston of Maryland. I hope more state chairs will contact me for help with their projects as I have a strong pool of volunteers and interns at the National office ready and willing to help!
31 paulie cannoli // Feb 14, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Austin: awesome! I hope this info is getting out to the state chairs list, state yahoo groups, etc. Also, I hope you are including it in a presentation for Charleston.
I’d recommend making it an LP blog post also – I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you do those as well, although Donny (and Andrew before him) was/is doing most. Then I could repost it here, since I’ve been told more people actually read LP blog posts here than at LP.org.
As Michael suggests, they could be helping with literature redesign as well.
I would suggest making an effort getting future interns from UDC, not just schools such as GWU and Georgetown.
32 Steven R Linnabary // Feb 14, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Austin-
If your interns are sitting around with nothing to do, I would suggest looking into the recent trend toward “metro” government.
This is an idea that was strong 30 years ago, and is currently gaining traction.
Cuomo and Lazio are speaking about it recently, and I have found several reference to it in my local paper. Even today there was a letter to the editor promoting the idea.
http://dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2009/02/14/Fusch_SAT.ART_ART_02-14-09_A9_HRCT318.html?sid=101
I have found only one think tank promoting Metro government, the Center for Government Reform.
http://cgr.org/research_shared.aspx#ConsolidationAlbion
This is an emerging issue that we should be prepared for.
PEACE
33 Gene Trosper // Feb 15, 2009 at 12:06 am
Paulie: I think those of us who have actually made some successful impact politically should come up with a field organizing manual with sample activities *any* Libertarian can do. In fact, while my wife ran into the grocery store today for a few items, I was listening to a radio show talking about bureaucratic impediments to green technology such as small wind power generators being installed at residences. In Los Angeles, it can cost around $1ok and take a year to have a government bureaucrat approve the installation of a small wind power generator at one’s own home??? And that cost more than the generator itself!
This is a golden opportunity for Libertarians to not only help eliminate needless bureaucracy and save homeowners lots of $$$, but to reach out to a constituency (the left) who are concerned about the environment and alternative energy sources. Plus, with the economy tanking, people are going to be more concerned over having reliable sources of energy and saving $$$ that could be better spent on damn near anything than some endless barrage of government-imposed “fees”.
34 paulie cannoli // Feb 15, 2009 at 12:11 am
I think those of us who have actually made some successful impact politically should come up with a field organizing manual with sample activities *any* Libertarian can do.
A few have – but they are not widely publicized. Of course, more would always be welcome – as would an effort to collect and publicize those that already exist.
35 Gene Trosper // Feb 15, 2009 at 12:19 am
In terms of optimizing resources, I have been a big proponent of finding ONE issue and then hammering away at it until some measure of success is reached.
Each city or county affiliate should be able to easily find one thing in their area. Sometimes these issues are easy. In Riverside County, California, I noticed that the county government website was placing ‘cookies” on visitors’ web browers. This being ten years ago, there was much more paranoia over things such as cookies. I wrote to the county bureaucrat in charge and then sent out a news release on the situation.
Two week later, the county stopped placing cookies on web browsers and actually adopted a privacy policy for their website. No one was paying attention to that issue and in the end, Libertarians got credit.
Hmmm…now that I think of it, I should take a peek at the privacy policy and see what (if anything) has changed.
36 paulie cannoli // Feb 15, 2009 at 12:37 am
I have been a big proponent of finding ONE issue and then hammering away at it until some measure of success is reached.
It seems that the ‘bailout/stimulus’ (ripoff) has been a singular focus for the LP blog and most of their press releases recently, but I can’t say that this is an area where we have had measures of success reached, unless they are internal ones, such as numbers of interviews or membership inquiries generated – and I have not such internal measures reported, the way they were being reported about ten years ago.
37 Gene Trosper // Feb 15, 2009 at 1:10 am
Getting interviews is a good thing, as it identifies the LP as a brand that opposes the bailout. It also helps to rally people reading and listening to our message. There has to be more done though. I had a thought earlier today about becoming more “in your face” against the governmental thieves. It would be nice to organize protests against local Democratic arty meetings. Imagine 50 or more pissed off people outside a county Democratic party meeting!
Rule 11 of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals:
Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
In this case, not necessarily the Democratic party, but Obama, Nancy Pelosi and possibly the local representative who may have voted for the “bailout”. Take the fight to them. Make them get defensive. Make them DEFEND the actions of their party leaders who ripped off the taxpayers.
Bring children to the protest to demonstrate this will affect them. After all, aren’t Democrats for the children?
Rub it in their goddamn noses.
Of course, make certain the media will be on hand.
If Seebeck is reading this: interested?
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