The Lessons Continue

Why do political campaign advisors urge against having an active blog or engaging in dialogue with opposition? Because it's bad enough to have negative linkage to one of your blog entries, but worse if they start hammering you with repetition. Most advisors will tell the candidate- dump the blog and ignore the blogger.

Consider the dialogue. I said I thought his analysis was too literal, extracting a few words at the expense of the spirit of the commentary. He turned that around to suggest that I should therefore never be taken literally, on anything, especially on policy issues. His third post willfully ignores the fact that my comments were on a radio network, which is an interest of mine, and tied it to my candidacy. It's a ridiculous stretch, but that's what opponents will do, which is why you shut up; stick to the talking points; be an empty suit; and if you're going to blog at all, keep it to tales from the trail and pictures with farmers, auto workers, and retirees.

Oh well, I guess it's just not my style. For one thing, I tend to agree with the Oscar Wilde wisdom on being talked about or not. I have faith that many of the readers of his blog will read what I've said and not find it a reason to actively campaign against me. True, others won't be so open minded, but that being the case, I probably never would win them over anyway.

Really, if anyone wants to put my picture and name in a prominent place on their blog, all I ask is that you link back to this blog or my campaign site and spell the name correctly: K-O-L-E. I'd be delighted if a 1,000 bloggers assailed my comments on Air America within the next three days. Or, perhaps Daily Kos could. That would be delightful!

Lesson For A Candidate?

Quite a few people have advised me to kill this blog, or at least turn it into milquetoast, such as most other candidates have.

I don't especially like that advice. I'm not most candidates. I don't like their empty suit presentations that are long on smiling pictures and anecdotes about places they've been, and very short on what they think. I have a wide variety of interests, and I like to talk about them. I like to talk about social and cultural trends, too. What's the harm? Must I only offer safe, boring fare, devoid of taking a position? Must I always and only speak on-message, and in soundbites?

I found out today why candidates do avoid speaking freely:

• The more you say, the better the chance someone will disagree with you.
• Many people will dismiss you on just one area of disagreement.
• Some will even dismiss you despite 99% agreement elsewhere.

A blogger found one article I penned on Air America, found my source biased, and dismissed me out of hand. (There was irony in the dismissal of my right-wing source, while touting left-wing Al Franken's new book in the same entry.)

What about the several hundred other articles I've written? Nevermind that. There's this one area of disagreement.

The lesson most candidates will learn from an experience such as this is to shut down the blog, to shut up as regards innocuous topics, and speak only on message.

As I said, I don't like that lesson. I want well-rounded candidates. Do you?

Don't you want well-rounded candidates? Aren't you completely underwhelmed by soundbite speak and empty suits that try to limit their entire dialogue to three talking points vetted by polling data? I know I am.

This isn't unrealistic, is it? I don't expect to get total agreement from people. My own experience is that I've never met a single person I held complete, 100% agreement with. Should I shut them down because of the differences? Isn't it better to build bridges on the areas of agreement?

I say 'YES' to that latter question, but the reality is that most people zero in on disagreements with candidates for office. This blog entry helps illustrate the point.

Because I am committed to being the best candidate I can be, I really have little choice but to seriously consider my presentation. I have to consider streamlining my subject matter and my words, lest I unnecessarily alienate potential supporters and voters.

I am very interested in public comments on this. Please chime in!

What Does Your Team Stand For?

Several months ago, I was repeated observing that the two major political parties were ignoring the wishes of their bases, and crossing over to the other side. The main point was that when you vote, you give 100% of that vote to whomever it is cast. If you give $100 to a candidate, they got 100% of that money. Are you getting 100% value in return?

OK, politics is a game of compromise. So, are you getting 50% value in return? Remember, you still gave 100% on your end. If you are a Republican, keep in mind that I penned this column prior to the Bush nomination of Harriet Miers, and prior to all of the smoking bans that have been proposed for imposition on Hoosier businesses.


You Have To Know What Team To Root For

The beauty of being a sports fan is that it is always easy to root for your team. Whether you pull for Purdue, IU, or Notre Dame, for the Pacers, the Colts, or the Komets, you’ll root for the team wearing the right colors, no matter what players are wearing them.

That’s important, because players come and go. College teams completely turn over every four years. Colts fans have been pretty lucky in that the high-flying offensive nucleus of Peyton Manning, Reggie Harrison, and Edgerrin James has been powering an exciting team together for six seasons.

Five years down the road, the blue and white could become a defensive juggernaut. A problem for Colts fans? No way- they will be thrilled and will cheer the Colts, hopefully to a Super Bowl victory.

It doesn’t matter who is on the team or how the game is played. As long as your team wins, you’re happy.

That’s a fair summation of Hoosier politics these days, too.

For 16 years, faithful Hoosier Republicans have been pulling for their team in the hopes of an electoral Super Bowl victory. For 16 years, the Democrats retained the governor’s office, even while slowly losing their grip on the legislature. Finally, this past November, the GOP won all the trophies, with Mitch Daniels elected governor, and a Republican majority in both statehouse chambers.

Republicans were ecstatic- at first. But, just eight days after his inaugural, Daniels used the platform of the State of the State address to announce his support for a temporary tax hike on Hoosiers earning $100,000 or more. Republicans in the club seating were stunned by the move.

While there is nothing quite so permanent as a temporary tax increase, they swallowed hard and cheered, but because they support their team, and their team is in charge!

The Indiana Constitution requires the state’s budget to be balanced. This posed the new governor with a challenge, as the outgoing government left Daniels with a $600 million deficit. The quickest way to erase a deficit is to cut spending, and with Daniels earning the nickname ‘The Blade’ while on President Bush’s staff, this seemed like a lock. However, Daniels’ budget would have spent $1 billion more than with the previous budget. The two highest percentage increase items? Teacher retirement up 73%, and something called ‘general government’ up 29%.

Hmm. Well, Daniels is just the quarterback, and he’s a rookie. Why dwell on him when the Republicans have a whole team of players on this winning team to idolize?

Early in the legislative session, Senator Beverly Gard (R-Greenfield) authored a tax on food and beverages. Not to be outdone, Representatives Tom Saunders (R-Lewisville) and Matt Whetstone (R-Brownsburg) co-authored two bills that would tax food and beverages. Republicans leaving their seats thought about heading for the concession stand after the first quarter, but then chose to mill around the hallway instead.

Representative Timothy Brown (R-Crawfordsville) authored a bill giving the green light to counties to raise taxes on gasoline from 4 to 8 cents per gallon. Jeff Espich (R-Uniondale) introduced another gas tax bill, but with a tax per mile formula that makes the tax specific to your vehicle. Senator John Waterman (R-Shelburn) has even written a bill that would forbid retailers from selling gasoline at below cost. If someone wants to sell gasoline at a loss right now, I want to declare him a hero, not send the Attorney General after him. Can we go back to the huddle?

Politics and sports goes together so well that Peyton Manning stopped by the Statehouse and threw passes to the lawmakers. Soon afterwards, several Republican lawmakers forwarded a game plan of tax packages in support a new stadium for the Colts.

Reps Luke Messer (R-Shelbyville), Michael Murphy (R-Indianapolis), and Ways and Means Chairman Espich all issued plans that combined taxes and gambling. Senator Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville) offered yet another plan, minus the gambling, but including taxes on most service industries in Marion County. Not one of them thought of leadership as using the prestige of their office to bring prospective investors together to create a private investment. All went straight for tax packages.

When the fiscal conservative looks at the GOP team in their uniforms, they will see that the familiar elephant logo is there, but the Gipper’s government-off-my-back players are on the sidelines. Those are the Libertarians.

Governing is not sports. When governing, the policy is far more important that the colors the winning team is wearing. If you are a fiscal conservative, what is the point in continuing to back the Republican Party? The GOP has run the ball to the wrong end zone and scored a safety for the Democrats.

Learning From Others

Some are complaining that Tom DeLay's mug shot is too upbeat, glib, or stinking happy to befit the occasion of his booking.



















Let's just assume that Mr. DeLay has taken the opportunity to learn a lesson from others who have found themselves in the unfortunate position of having their mug shot taken.




















Lesson: Just because you are the Senate majority leader, you shouldn't lose sight of presentation just because you've been indicted on money laundering charges. The day in court means the opportunity to debate what the meaning of the word 'is' is, so the charges may or may not stick. The mug shot, however, is forever.

Interesting Perspectives on Sewers

There is a word I would not choose to describe Mayor Peterson's sewer initiative: timely. The the letters to the Indy Star are full of praise for the mayor, despite the fact that this is an ages-old problem. I'll take just one of the recent ones, a glowing letter of praise from today's Star:

Improving Kids' Environment commends Mayor Bart Peterson for taking a crucial step toward reducing the threat to Indianapolis' children posed by overflows in the city sewer system. His plan would provide resources, through increased sewer fees, to pay for much-needed upgrades.

The streams in our neighborhoods often contain human waste where the bacteria count can be more than 100 times the standard and kids are exposed to raw sewage. Whenever there's more than 0.1-inch of rain, these overflows of human waste threaten kids as well as the integrity of our neighborhoods. That's not what we want for our city or our children. You're doing the right thing, Mr. Mayor!

Janet G. McCabe
Executive director
Improving Kids' Environment
Indianapolis

True enough, the Mayor is doing the right thing. But, how long has he been Mayor? Since taking office on January 1, 2000. Five-and-three-quarters years is a long time to go between starting the job and identifying a major problem that affects the entire Central Indiana region.

Of course, the Peterson Administration shouldn't have had to deal with this at all. It should have been tackled by at least the two prior administrations- of Mayors Goldsmith and Hudnut. All this means is that no matter if we're talking Republicans or Democrats, we're talking about a lack of diligence in identifying and solving major problems.

The Libertarian Party had been talking about the third-world condition regarding Indianapolis sewers whereby any time more than a quarter-inch of rain fell over a short time span, the sanitary system would overflow and discharge raw sewage into the White River.

Although many Libertarian candidates made this an issue over the past several years, major media ignored them, as did mayors and city-county councilors.

So finally, Mayor Bart Peterson announced an initiative to fix the sewers, once his top priority- the Indianapolis Colts- was satisfied. Great, but let this be the start of a new day where actual priorities are identified and tackled first, not last.

Another Intrusion

I generally don't have a problem with carrying a picture ID. I am who I say I am, and am not affronted by proving it occasionally.

I am affronted by the idea that anybody can get ahold of my info. Hence my indignation at the ability of anyone to take a peek at my driver's license.

I just searched for it and there it was.. . picture and all!! Fortunately, you can remove yours from the searchable archives. I certainly did. Link to remove.

Just enter your name, city and state to see if yours is on file. After your license comes on the screen, click the box marked "Please Remove". This will remove it from public viewing, but not from law enforcement.

Another Day, Another Smoking Ban

Debbie Harbeson reports on Clark County's introduction of anti-smoking legislation, and tackles the personal experience method of advocacy used by one Jefferson City Councilor.

As with all laws that would regulate personal behavior, we have to ask how far you want to take this? To it's logical conclusion? From Harbeson's report:

Since she brought her personal experience up as important to her reasoning for promoting more government interference in our lives, we now have to consider how her situation has any relevance to banning smoking in other’s private businesses. If we follow her reasoning, then her proposed law makes no sense whatsoever. She should have introduced an ordinance that a non-smoker cannot marry, or live with, a smoker. Do you think she would have liked to see a law like this in place when she was choosing her mate?

I'd like very much to hear this Councilor's response. I mean, it's a health issue!

Meeting Tonight

The Libertarian Party of Hamilton County will meet tonight at Barley Island in Noblesville, with the honorable Chair Rob Place presiding. Meeting start time is 7pm.

Two topics for discussion tonight: candidacies for 2006, and the proposed smoking ban in Carmel.

Update: Sneaky Carmel is at it again. They've already had the first reading of their smoking ordinance, at yesterday's inconvenient dinner time meeting.

Hat tip, Rob Beck.

What? Revenues Are Down?

This morning's Indy Star report had me laughing out loud. It seems the suburban counties tax haul from the new food & beverage taxes is less than was expected.

No! You're kidding! Combine higher gas prices with higher menu prices and add a flattening housing market, and you just might have people thinking twice about going out to eat as often as they were when the projections were made. Throw in the perception that patrons might not be able to smoke in bars. I said this all along- if you want to grow revenues, you have to create incentives for people to participate in the taxed activity, not disincentives. Well- duh.

But nobody should be given to panic on this. Any time the Colts want to kick in that user fee- the $3/per ticket tax they stubbornly refused to abide by as 'their share'- they can easily replace any revenues not generated by the food & beverage taxes. From the Star:

State finance officials are counting on $3.5 million a year from the new 1 percent restaurant tax in six surrounding counties, or about $300,000 a month, to help pay for the new stadium. But this month, when money was distributed from August restaurant visits, the stadium project netted a little more than half of that, or $164,376.

Remember that we've been told that the ticket tax was unnecessary, that there was plenty of money to go around without it. It was once considered crucial, but then the government's negotiators went weak at the knees, caving in to the Colts on the ticket tax. But, if there is concern, consider this:

The RCA Dome has a seating capacity of 57,890. At $3/seat, revenue of $173,670 would be generated per game. The average month has 2 games, which would mean generating $347,340.

Do the math. The ticket tax could replace the food & beverage tax. It would have been more fair to tax the actual users of the football product, and would have left diners alone. And apparently, donut county restauranteurs need the disincentives removed.

TV Time in Fort Wayne

Big thanks to Doug Horner, Jeanette Jacquish, and Robert Enders for their efforts on producing their Libertarian Perspectives TV show, and for inviting me to return for my second and third appearance on the program.

The shows were taped yesterday, and will air over the next couple of months. The topic on the first show is the Libertarian Party of Indiana's Small Business Initiative, which is being employed in the defense of the owners of small businesses such as restaurants & bars, as shown in the previous two blog entries. The topic of the second was regulation and the construction and development industries, and the labor market.

Watch Libertarian Perspectives in the greater Fort Wayne area on Comcast channel 57, Saturdays at 4:00 pm.














Two shoots require two suits.

The first shot reveals the whole set. It's amazing how the two minutes prior to beginning the programs drag endlessly, as shown in that shot, and yet, the 30-minute program zips by and is complete before you know it. Even though I've always been a radio guy, I really like TV.

I Said, GOP Leads Charge Against Property Rights

Same stuff, different day. This time the Republican Mayor of Carmel, Jim Brainard, shows the way away from Ronald Reagan and towards control and command. From Saturday's Indy Star:

Smoking in many Carmel public establishments might soon be extinguished.

On Monday, the Carmel City Council will introduce an ordinance to impose tighter restrictions on smokers, patterned after the workplace smoking ban approved by the Indianapolis City-County Council in May. The council is expected to vote on the plan next month.

...

Mayor Jim Brainard said it's important for Carmel to be consistent with Indianapolis because they share the 96th Street border, a popular strip for restaurants. Plus, tighter smoking restrictions will save lives and taxpayer dollars, he said.

"All society pays the cost of people who get cancer and other diseases from breathing secondhand smoke," Brainard said. "We just think it's a quality-of-life issue and an economic issue."

John Livengood, president of the Restaurant and Hospitality Association of Indiana, said the proposal is another example of government trying to take away citizens' rights. He fought the Indianapolis ordinance.

"We are against a government-imposed smoking policy," Livengood said. "We think that ought to be left up to the consumer to make up their own decision if they want to patronize that establishment."

That's true, but only if you believe in property rights. Mayor Brainard and the Republicans clearly do not support property rights. Look for the pub crawl soon.

And check out that load of hooey the Mayor tried to pass off as reasoning: Indy does it, so we should too. Say, Carmel residents... Do you want your city to resemble Indianapolis in any way? Many Carmel residents fled Indy to avoid the sort of policy mistakes made there. Why re-invent Marion County in Carmel?

GOP Leads Charge Against Property Rights

Greenfield is the latest Indiana community to advance anti-smoking legislation that would extend into private business establishments. Per today's Indy Star report:

Smoking would be prohibited at virtually all Greenfield businesses under an ordinance that won initial approval Thursday from the City Council.

Despite the 5-2 vote, the ordinance is not a done deal. Council members will have a second chance to discuss, tweak and vote on the measure in the future.

Be sure to note that all seven of the Greenfield City Councilors are Republican. The vote would have been 4-3 had Libertarian Phil Miller been re-elected in 2003. As usual, they bought this as a health issue while ignoring the property rights angle. Business owners, of course, did not miss this assault on them.

But the operator of Zoobie's, a local restaurant and sports bar, disagreed. "It's my right as private enterprise to run my business in the best way I see fit," said Sam McClarnon, 46, a smoker and the restaurant's general manager.

Government regulation is the wrong device for attacking the problem of secondhand smoke or influencing businesses' practices, said Jennifer Bradshaw, a nonsmoker.

Instead, she advocated "voting with your pocketbook, voting with your feet."

Jennifer is a Libertarian, but the paper failed to mention political affiliation throughout the story. I'm not sure why the identifications were deemed unimportant.

Fortunately, there is time for those who advocate the right of business owners to set their own policy to get into action to persuade the Council to reverse itself. A pub crawl that visits Zoobie's and other Greenfield establishments would be an extremely effective way for Libertarians to show that we are on the side of business owners, the rights of property, and the right to choose, while the Republicans are on the side of trampling property rights and eliminating the right to choose.

Marion County's pub crawl got Indianapolis City-County Council Greg Bowes to show up in order to defend his position, and to allow bar owners to see that he had to acknowledge their participation- something he wouldn't have done without the pressure the crawl caused. Hamilton County's crawl was instrumental in helping defeat a food & beverage tax in Fishers, after the Libertarians got front page coverage in the Noblesville Daily Times.

If the Libertarian Party of Hancock County holds a pub crawl, I'll give my support and participate.

Side Note: As usual, the market responds quickly to new laws. A German brewer is developing a beer called NicoShot, which includes nicotine in the brew. That sounds disgusting to me, but I'm a beer snob who insists on beers that satisfy the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. For others, this allows smokers to stay in the smoke-banned bar to drink the spiked beer to get their nic fit instead of running outside for a few quick puffs.

Meeting With Notre Dame Libertarians

Tuesday's meeting with the Notre Dame Libertarians was quite an exciting evening, as about 20 or so enthusiastic members attended. They allowed me the opportunity to discuss my campaign. Brad Klopfenstein spoke about the state party's recent successes and the opportunities that lie before us. I hope that most of them will remain in Indiana after graduation. These future leaders will be an asset not only to the Libertarian Party, but to the state as a whole.















I am flanked by some of the Notre Dame Libertarians, along with Brad Klopfenstein at the far right.

A summit of Hoosier College Libertarians is in the offing, probably in February of 2006. In the meantime, I will plan to visit other CLs across the state.

Mitch's Reading List

Brian Howey's recent article features Governor Mitch Daniels and his perspective on the new shape of policy. He looks past left-right, and thinks in terms of stasis-dynamism.

The source of this new outlook? Libertarian Virginia Postrel, former editor of Reason magazine, in her book, "The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress." Interestingly, when I was an MBA student in 2001, I gave copies to fellow students and professors. We had lengthy discussions over coffee.

Governor Daniels is apparently deeply influenced by Postrel's book. From the Howey Report:

“In my view, we have a new politics shaping up in this state,” Daniels explained. “The dividing lines, the fault lines, are not quite the ones we are so familiar with for most of our past. They are not the old categories: the party, left-right ideology, even geography. Those things were all deemed important and I think they are a little less important now. The new fault lines in Indiana politics are between the forces of change and the forces of standing still.”

Gov. Daniels turned to the book by Virginia Postel: “The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress.”

Daniels said that Postel identified reactionaries which she called "stasists," people who are wont to keep things as they are, make few if any changes, and "dynamists," those who are comfortable with change, moving forward, finding new solutions.“

She made a very important point,” Daniels continued. “There are two kinds of reactionaries or stasists. One kind are those who are naturally apprehensive and fearful. And that's a very human thing; we're all a little that way.

“There's another sort of stasist and those are the people who know exactly what they are doing,” Daniels said. “The status quo serves them well. They organize and lobby for it. They form special interests. It puts money in their pockets, it puts power in their brief case. And these folks have very, very specific reasons for opposing change of any kind.”

Libertarians are also part of the fracturing of the old fault lines. Fiscal conservatives used to mean Republicans, but no longer. Daniels may have missed a point when opposing the status quo that exists for its' own sake: Change for its' own sake is no better. Creativity and productivity should not be unduly restrained. Government can employ creativity and greater efficiency, and should, but it should also be restrained as well.

More Drumbeat

The ability of true believers to bury their heads in the sand is at once amazing and frightening. Many fiscal conservatives have noticed that the Republicans they have elected are spending like drunken sailors and have begun to react, anywhere from grumbling to fleeing. Other notice and pretend it isn't happening. A check of the Indy Star's message boards reveals a great deal of this latter.

The latest intellectually honest conservative think tank to rat out the GOP is the Heartland Institute. Joe Bast reminds fiscal conservatives of who pays taxes in this country, compares our current tax burden to that which helped spark the American Revolution, and the degree to which the GOP is making things worse- all worthy considerations. From Bast's article:

If government is too big, as Republicans love to chant, why is it growing larger and at a record pace with a Republican president and Republicans in control of both houses of Congress? Why did it grow at a slower rate when Bill Clinton was in the White House?

Meanwhile, state governments have been indulging in their own spending orgy. Between 1990 and 2000, total state spending grew by a staggering $512 billion, or 89 percent. All of that new built-in spending is moving through today's budgets like a pig through a python, causing state politicians to cry about "budget cuts" even as they reap record revenue increases due to the reviving national economy.

Voters need to hold to the fire the feet of elected officials, and especially Republicans who pretend to be pro-taxpayer. Officials who cut taxes and balance budgets need to be rewarded with success at the ballot box, and those who raise taxes and increase spending should be targeted by taxpayer groups and lose elections.

The best way to get what you want is to support the Libertarian Party before the elections. Why?

1. If you are a libertarian philosophically, and believed voting Republican the best route to get your policies enacted, you probably should have been voting Libertarian as a means of empowering those who agree with you more completely.
2. If you aren't a libertarian philosophically, but agree with Libertarian fiscal conservatism, you should use Libertarians as a lever. If the GOP sees its' support drain away from them and over to the Libertarians, they will investigate and figure out why. They will at long last begin to reclaim you and focus on cutting government instead of growing it.

It's all about getting what you want. No matter how you slice it, the Libertarian Party can help. Support us!

Check Your Date Book

If you are a Hoosier Libertarian and looking for something to do, tonight's your night.

Radio talk show host Neal Boortz will be on the north side of Indianapolis signing copies of his Fair Tax book. WXNT 1430-am will host a special reception for Neal with a small number of its listeners. Info.

The LP of LaPorte County and Monroe County host their monthly meetings. The Notre Dame Libertarians are also meeting tonight. LPIN calendar page.

For me, as a candidate, this presents a problem I like to have: so much to choose from that I cannot possibly do it all. Memo to those who want me to appear: Schedule me sooner rather than later. Indiana is jumping with Libertarian activity, even on a year like this when there isn't even a ballot.

Isabel at 4 Months

It's amazing how fast time flies with a newborn. It's only about 120 days, but the development in that time is incredible. She rolls on her side with ease, and sometimes onto her tummy. If you place her on her stomach, she'll do a little push-up, propping her head up.

Here are two pictures of Isabel on her 4-month birthday. She's ready for hockey season, just like her daddy.

Road Trip!

Brad Klopfenstein & I will be heading up north tomorrow to visit the Notre Dame College Libertarians, and then we'll head over to Elkhart, where Rick Bowen is hosting a meet & greet coffee. I am excited for both events.

The College Libertarian groups are becoming amazingly energized across the state. Tomorrow's leaders are coming from these groups. We'll talk strategy for the 2006 cycle. Ultimately, I want to have a statewide CL summit, probably in February. It would be quite a great thing to get the groups from the numerous schools talking to one another and building a statewide team.

The meeting of the Notre Dame College Libertarians is Tuesday at 6:30PM in the McNeil Room of the Lafortune Student Center--directly across from Subway.

Rick's coffee is an excellent outreach tool, and one we should use more frequently. I have personally attended these kinds of events for organizations like PETA and ACLU- not because I have great affinity for the groups, but because friends of mine are deeply involved with these groups, and they asked me to attend their functions, so that I could learn more about them.

I believe that Libertarians have outstanding policy solutions and candidates, and yet, more people get introduced to largely misguided groups like PETA, only because their supporters do a better job than ours do of setting up personal, intimate meetings on the strength of friendship or relationships.

Making Strides

Ame, Isabel, & I... and even our dog Shasta, participated in this morning's annual American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, in downtown Indianapolis.














My grandmother, Mary Kole, was afflicted with this disease, as was my good friend and one-time radio co-host Shelly, plus a co-worker. I think my experience is typical. We all have important women in our lives. This disease afflicts too many of them. When you have a wife and a daughter as I do, this hits home for you.

The turn-out was excellent, and I'm confident a lot of money was raised for important research. I urge my fellow Libertarians to participate in future events, including this one next year, and the Susan Komen Race for the Cure, next Spring.

Great Blog Reading

It's not the first time I'll make this recommendation, and probably not the last either: Check out Rob Beck's blog, Shall Not Perish.

As I am a candidate for statewide office, I tend not to get too deeply involved in Federal or international issues. Rob takes care of that for me, and with a subtly biting wit.

Daily Times Letter

The Noblesville Daily Times ran another one of my letters on the GOP and the abandoment of fiscally conservative principles.

Republicans showing they are not fiscal conservatives

There is a drumbeat of discontent with the Republican Party and the performance of its elected official building to a crescendo on the issue of taxes and spending.

Articles in the Noblesville Daily Times by small business guru Raymond Keating and popular radio host Greg Garrison, Republican supporters both, point out the latest spending sprees and express concern for the damage out-of-control spending promises to bring to our economy. The editorial cartoon with the offended drunken sailor pretty well sums it up.

Voters have come to expect that Republican officials will cut spending and taxes. This is not their track record, at any level of office. From President Bush’s failure to use the veto even once, to Governor Daniels recommending a tax hike in his first 10 days, to the all-Republican County and municipal councils in Carmel, Noblesville and Westfield voting for tax increases — it all adds up to dissatisfaction for fiscal conservatives.

Sooner or later, fiscal conservatives have to face the reality of this track record: If you voted Republican because you wanted smaller government, you wasted your vote. In order to get what you want, you have to vote Libertarian.

Mike Kole, Fishers

Mike Kole is a Libertarian candidate for Indiana Secretary of State, and is the former chair of the Libertarian Party of Hamilton County.

The placement was especially nice, with a suck-up column from GOP State Chair Jim Kittle on how conservatives should be thrilled with Bush's latest nomination, right above my letter. It's great because social conservatives are not thrilled, and they're eyes will go from Kittle's column to my letter and they'll be thoroughly aware that they are thoroughly dissatisfied with the Republican Party.

Friday's Drunken Sailor Report

If you read a news report that contained text such as the next paragraph does, do you think the Senate would be approving or rejecting a bill that calls for more money? From an AP report:

...public support for Bush and the Iraq fighting has slipped, U.S. casualties have climbed and Congress has grown increasingly frustrated with the direction of the conflict.

The President's recent speech on Iraq and his War on Terror was not given for no reason. The Senate approved another $50 billion for efforts in Iraq & Afganistan.

Before my friends on the Left point the finger across the aisle, you have to understand the score on the vote.

97-0

That's unanimous, and it's incredible.

My Republican friends, you have to talk to your team about the spending, or at long last come over to the Libertarians, who mean what they say about cutting spending. You aren't getting what you vote for.

My Democratic friends, you have to talk to your team about their position on the war. They're glad to exploit Cindy Sheehan while she exploits her son, but all of your Senators voted essentially to extend the war. Come over to the Libertarians. You aren't getting what you vote for.

Hat tip: Gregg Puls. Thanks!

Ah, the NHL

I was so dismayed at the idea that I might not get to watch any hockey action last night, outside of the highlights on SportsCenter. ESPN dropped the NHL contract, and the NHL Center Ice package is not being carried by Insight. It had been some 500+ days since I watched the 2004 Stanley Cup finals, and I positively missed the NHL.

So, big thumbs up to my local cable operator, Insight. For reasons unknown to me, Insight carries the St. Louis feed for FSN. Why not the feeds from closer cities like Chicago, Detroit, or Columbus, OH? Who knows, but FSN St. Louis carries Blues games, and at least for last night, it was completely satisfying to watch a Blues-Red Wings game. I'll at least get the four Blues-Sharks games, and that will be excellent. It's not the same watching the Blues lose without Chris Pronger there anymore.

You Own Yourself

This is the simple, three-word philosophy that is libertarianism. I've never found a single person who would express to me that he or she did not hold this notion to apply to themself. Of course, it's not an absolute. Libertarians believe that you should be the ones who make the decisions that affect your life, with the exception being that you cannot initiate force or fraud against another person. Do that, and the aggrieved party can rightly call on the government for protection against you.

The problem is, most people have a streak of anti-libertarian in him: authoritarianism, which is the idea that you can tell other people how to live their lives, even in areas that do not affect them.

Authoritarianism is winning the battle across the United States, unfortunately. This was made astonishingly plain to anyone who has put eyes on some hideous legislation proposed by Pat Miller, regarding reproductive rights.

I'm not talking about abortion here. Miller drafted law that would make it illegal to have a child out of wedlock, without a permit.

It's bad enough that you have to get a license to marry, but this is getting ridiculous. A permit? If you own yourself?

I understand that there a lot of lousy parents out there. Many of them are married, straight, church-going, the lot... and yet beat or molest their kids. Is this preferable to a single mother who raises kids to be respectful and studious? Is it better than a lesbian couple that raises kids in a loving, caring household? Why do we want government overseeing any of this anyway? Government fails at anything it touches, from preventing levees from bursting to producing high school graduates, with the notable exception of making war. That government does pretty well.

Fortunately, we do not want this. Miller has since withdrawn the legislation, under a ton of well-deserved heat. While obviously eager to throw the social conservative base a bone, there is enough libertarianism left in this state to kill this thing before it got out of committee. Nuvo ran a major article. Liberal blog Daily Kos posted on it, with comments generally trashing Indiana to follow.

Let's make sure to run somebody against Miller the next time her State Senate seat comes up. She was sorely underchallenged in 2004. While this could be the result of district gerrymandering, her positions on self-ownership and the right to reproduce regardless of marital status is reason enough to put up a serious challenge. She obviously needs to learn that there is more to governing than throwing your party's social conservative base the kind of bone that would make some people's lives unnecessarily miserable.

At Last, The NHL

Tonight is the night I have been waiting for. The NHL gets back to what it does- playing hockey. As a San Jose Sharks fan, I was greatly tempted to drive to Nashville for tonight's season opener, but it's a four-hour drive, and there's a County Council meeting I'd rather sit in. You never know when they might propose a new tax or a new spending package. The Council is all-Republican, after all.

NHL's opening night schedule.

More Drumbeat

Q: How do you set up the Republicans with minority party status?
A: Give them the majority and wait a while.

From Clark County Libertarian Debbie Harbeson on local Republicans in today's Jeffersonville Evening News:

Time To Really Control Spending

In September 2004 I received a campaign flyer from the local Republican Party. I still have it. The flyer contains signatures of local candidates pledging to oppose frivolous spending. I remember wondering how they defined frivolous. After the Clark County Council's recent budget process, I bet constituents are wondering too.

From small business guru Raymond Keating, in today's Noblesville Daily Times:

Discontent rises over out-of-control government spending. In fact, frustrations can even be detected in our nation's capital. Now that's saying something, and might even be a bit unnerving to some.
...
Some have thought over the years that Republicans were for limited government. But little evidence can be found today of such principles. Unfortunately, though, this is not too surprising. Since taking over both the White House and Congress, Republicans have been on a spending binge.

Consider that total outlays grew by an annual average of 7.1 percent from fiscal year 2002 through fiscal year 2004. That was more than three times the rate of inflation.

The GOP has been alienating its fiscal conservative base for some time. The list could be exceedingly long, but just consider:

• The President has not issued a single veto
• The GOP-dominated Congress has raised spending at levels greater than LBJ ever dreamed of
• Gov. Mitch Daniels' offered an income tax hike within his first 10 days in office
• Daniels swiped the Colts stadium deal from Mayor Peterson and publicly funding what should have been private
• Tax hikes on food & beverages were approved by all-Republican County Councils in Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, and Shelby Counties
• Likewise these taxes passed by all-GOP councils in Carmel, Martinsville, Noblesville, and Westfield.

Then the GOP alienated its socially conservative base with the tepid nomination of Harriet Miers, when the base wanted the knock-down, drag-out fight on abortion.

I know that most of the socially conservative Republicans won't be joining the Libertarian Party over this. They're spitting nails right now, but they haven't been trashed as relentlessly as the fiscal conservatives have.

If you are a fiscal conservative and you voted Republican in 2004, you wasted your vote. It's time to get what you want- smaller government, lower taxes and lower spending- by voting Libertarian in 2006.

Tuesday Morning Radio Note

Brad Klopfenstein will be filling for Abdul in the 8am hour of WXNT's "Abdul In The Morning" show on Tuesday morning. Be sure to tune it to hear the Executive Director of the Libertarian Party of Indiana. You may even hear me for a few minutes!

Freudian Slip?

I was doing my morning blog surf, and while at Alchemy For Dummies, I noticed a link to the US Constitution, so I thought I'd click it and refresh the memory on some of those you don't think of much, like the 9th or 12th Amendments.

It was gone. The link turned up a, "this item has been removed" message. The host site is the National Archives! How can the US Constitution be gone?! Is this some kind of gag?

Then I remembered what year it is, and how far our country has wandered from the vision of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe... heck- even Hamilton looks like Ludwig von Mises in retrospect.

Yes, maybe the Constitution is gone. Most people would never miss it. Even the ACLU, who self-bills as a defender of the Bill of Rights, isn't interested in several Amendments, such as the 2nd. From the ACLU's site:

Majority power is limited by the Constitution's Bill of Rights, which consists of the original ten amendments ratified in 1791

Oh yeah- the Bill of Rights is also gone from the National Archives site. *Sigh*

More Political Cartoons

I've been familiar with Chip Bok's work for better than 10 years, and was delighted when he signed on to the Akron Beacon Journal as their political cartoonist. Check out this link to his recent cartoon on what kind of filling it will take to rebuild New Orleans.

I'd clip the cartoon for you to see here, but the Beacon Journal requires permission to republish. Here's the master link to all of Bok's stuff.

Blog To Check Out

Fiscal conservatives will enjoy having their blood pressure elevated by reading Indy Tax Dollars, a blog that has recently been relentless on the public funding of the stadium & convention center. I don't believe the writer is a Capital 'L' libertarian, but definitely a fiscal conservative... which is to say, he should be a Libertarian.

Drumbeat Continues to Continue

Today's Indy Star editorial calls the GOP out on ethics and out-of-control spending. From the editorial:

Republicans have reason to worry

Our position: House leadership increasingly shows signs that it's arrogant and out of touch. The word from Washington is that Republicans who have been in control of the U.S. House for the past 11 years are worried about their prospects in next year's midterm elections. They should be.

And not only because Majority Leader Tom DeLay was indicted this week on charges that he violated Texas election laws.
...
House Republicans' problems, however, neither start nor end with DeLay. The leadership in particular has been sending the same type of arrogant and out-of-touch signals that cost Democrats their majority in 1994. Witness the dressing-down Indiana's Mike Pence recently suffered from House Speaker Dennis Hastert for daring to observe that federal spending is out of control.

Smart Republicans, both in the House and elsewhere, should take the DeLay indictment as a warning. Either live and govern by the principles that supposedly guide the party or prepare to lose power.

People of principle would have done so without requiring the fear of a backlash. Alas. The Pence case shows that the GOP has no commitment to smaller government and restrained spending. Honest fiscal conservatives need to disassociate themselves from the Republican Party in order to remain clean. They need to support the Libertarian Party.

Here's a message to the Star, who is late on this missive. The word across Indiana from fiscal conservatives is deep dissatisfaction with the GOP's misuse- or underuse- of their majorities at the Federal and State levels. These voters have expected tax cuts, spending cuts, even the evaporation of a few levels of bureaucracy. Instead, taxes have gone up, spending has gone up, and new levels of bureaucracy were added.

Libertarians will get the job done.

Drumbeat Continues

Real Clear Politics is merely the latest to chronicle the GOP's shift to the economic left. From Terry Michael's latest article:

Republican "conservatives" have lost their way during the Bush big-spending era.

Now, they've lost their collective mind.

Pigging out at the pork barrel is nothing new for the congressional GOP. They've competed with liberal Democrats to bring home the bacon for years -- though they both went for the whole hog in this year's assault on the treasury.

Useful Junk Mail

In with the cell phone bill was an ad. These usually go straight to the cylindrical file, but the screaming headline, "Tax On Talk!" caught my eye. Here's the text:

The Spanish-American War ended 107 years ago - so why are you still paying a 3% monthly excise tax to help fund it?

In 1898, President McKinley imposed the Federal Excise Tax law, or "Tax on Talk". It was supposed to be a TEMPORARY "luxury tax" on the very wealthy - who were the only ones that had phones at the time.

But a grassroots move is underway to wipe out this unfair and outrageous tax!

There are bills now in Congress to repeal this outdated and unfair tax - and we need your help!!

Two things come to mind:

1. There is nothing quite so permanent as a temporary tax
2. Today's luxury is tomorrow's common staple

Of course, this is in no way a grassroots movement. It's the effort of an industry to make their product marginally less pricey by eliminating a tax that brings no value to the consumer. This is, of course, very commendable and makes me think, "Where have you been the last 25 or 50 years?"

There is an online petition that foes of this tax can sign.

Wither Air America?

The development of a radio network is not an easy thing, it turns out. Programming and show hosts have to develop over time. It isn't a simple as saying, "phooey on that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity! We need a left-Democrat equivalent"! While you can trot out boring ratings-free crap on Federally subsidized NPR, radio on the free market has to actually be entertaining and draw listeners.

Alas, Air America is as entertaining as reading the legal notices in the newspaper. Because nobody listens, they can't sell ads. Because they can't sell ads, they fall back on the NPR model of begging for financial support. From Joe Kovacs' article at World Net Daily:

"We know we can't achieve this next stage of growth without significant help from you, our loyal listeners," said the network in an e-mail to supporters, according to Mediaweek, which said the "unusual move for commercial radio" was "more common to noncommercial stations and political action committees."
...
a California radio station pleaded for advertisers to sponsor the liberal programming of Air America shows it broadcasts, claiming it could not get a single ad.

Supply and demand, as ever. I'd actually like to see it succeed, just for the sake of having unfettered liberal bias on the air. I like a crowded marketplace of ideas. However, I'm afraid the 'talent' and business model are so weak that the thing will die on the vine.

WXNT Poll

My favorite Indy radio station, WXNT 1430-am, has a poll on its webpage.

Which party is worse about pork-barrel projects?

• Democrats
• Republicans
• They're the same, vote Libertarian!

Check out the results. They might surprise you.

Request of my libertarian friends: Don't stuff the ballot box. I know, it's tempting. I also know that these things aren't scientific in anyway, and this poll is skewed just by my sending you to it. I just want to see how libertarian WXNT's audience is.

Latest Russmo

Great stuff from Russmo, as usual. Be sure to keep it in mind when reading Dr. Schansberg's article, below.

Libertarian Disaster Analysis

Dr. Eric Schansberg has summed up many of my own thoughts on government & Katrina in a few short paragraphs, in his latest Libertarian Writers Bureau article.

Afterthoughts on the Aftermath of the New Orleans Flood
by Eric Schansberg

A month after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the debacle of the ineffective levees surrounding New Orleans, and the disappointment with the government's relief efforts, let's look back at the lessons we should have learned from this disaster.

The disaster was much more about the flood than the hurricane. Many people seem to be missing this point. The over-estimation of Hurricane Rita's predicted impact is one symptom. Another side-effect is that, relatively speaking, the damage wrought by Katrina outside of New Orleans was ignored by the media. When we think about the devastation of hurricanes, unfortunately, we're far more likely to remember flooded New Orleans than flattened coastal Mississippi.

The blame game never ends—and rarely takes a break. It was good to see the Democrats and Republicans wait, oh, a few hours before they started blaming each other. Instead of a dispassionate analysis of the debacle after the dust had settled, we were mostly left with partisan hacks throwing mud at each other almost as soon as they could grab a handful.

All levels of government bear some blame for the debacle. The federal government could have responded quicker and better. But state and local plans were woefully inadequate and their implementation was inept. Anyone who tries to ascribe blame to only one level of government is remarkably blind or politically motivated.

The federal government bore too much blame and is now trying to bear too much responsibility. Why do people expect the federal government to be the chief solution to an essentially state and local problem? The federal government is not especially competent; it's out of their jurisdiction; and it's not as if they don't have enough to do already! And not surprisingly, local officials want boatloads of federal taxpayer dollars while being given as much control as possible over how those resources will be spent.

Far too many people depend on government far too much. Let me get this straight: government failed at all levels—before, during, and after the disaster—so the solution is to get the government much more involved. Hmm…Moreover, for the last 40 years, the federal and state governments have been busy subsidizing bad decisions by individuals through public policy. The result: many people have been left unable to make decisions to promote their own well-being—or unwilling to do so, knowing that the government would probably bail them out. Natural disaster plus government ineptitude plus sin nature equals a debacle of biblical proportions.

Politicians really enjoy spending taxpayer money. President Bush has said that he wants to spend $200 billion post-Katrina and cut spending elsewhere so that overall spending does not increase. He might as well say he'd like to see cows fly. The few Republican fiscal conservatives in Congress have run with this charge by proposing 'Operation Offset"— a plan to reduce pork-barrel highway spending and to postpone the recently-passed prescription benefit for seniors. For their efforts, they have already been brow-beaten by the House leadership. And Bush has repeatedly shown that he has no stomach or backbone for fiscal discipline.

Your taxes will rise dramatically. Bush says that he is committed not to raise taxes. If so, this means an increase in the national debt—in other words, higher future taxes. At this point, Congress is now looking to spend $250 billion—over and above the amount that private insurance will pay in claims. This turns out to be more than $3,300 in taxes from the average family of four—and almost $200,000 per person in the New Orleans MSA before the flood. Honesty and candor would require a mention of the spending's impact on taxes. Unfortunately, another Category-5 hurricane is more likely.


D. Eric Schansberg
Professor of Economics
Indiana University (New Albany)
Adjunct Scholar, Indiana Policy
Review and the Acton Institute
Author, Turn Neither to the Right nor to the Left: A Thinking Christian's Guide to Politics and Public Policy

What's In It For The Taxpayers?

The Indy Star ran an article today on the lavish nature of the soon-to-be-built Colts stadium.

Fireplaces in club lounges. Pool tables in the quarterback suites. Wireless Internet access throughout. A little more room in the seat.

The nearly 500-page stadium plan released Monday details how nearly every inch of the new building will look and be used -- from the size of potted plants to the width of the seats.

Why not make it lavish? After all, the taxpayers are paying for it! Interestingly, the article's headline reads, "What's in it for the fans"? The better question is in my headline, "What's in it for the taxpayers"? Certainly not a thank you, as Sam Goldstein pointed out in the Sunday Star.

No thanks for people footing the big bill

I was just watching the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Downtown stadium and I heard Mayor Peterson thank a wide range of people for their support in getting this boondoggle. The only group the mayor forgot to thank was the long-suffering taxpayers of Marion County and now most of the surrounding counties.

We have funded facilities for professional sports teams and still have storm sewers that do not function, and our public safety professionals are in jeopardy of losing their jobs. We have given tax breaks to corporations who leave town without consequence while many homeowners are at risk of losing their property due to outrageous tax increases.

I would ask Mayor Peterson and the tax-and-spend Democrats and Republicans on the City-County Council to keep this in mind. The Libertarian Party of Marion County certainly will over the next two years.

Sam Goldstein
Vice Chair, Libertarian Party of Marion County
Indianapolis

Giving Drunken Sailors a Bad Name

How far out of control is spending in the Republican-controlled halls of government? In very current articles, Alan Greenspan, Pat Buchanan, Robert Novak, and even local GOP shill Greg Garrison call out the Republicans on spending.

Garrison's article is largely incoherent rambling. In between, he managed to accurately sum up the thoughts of anyone who voted Republican in 2004 and isn't living in complete denial:

But his stewardship of the people's money and his vision for the role of government in our lives have left me more than disappointed with his leadership of Congress and his direction of his own administration.

Or, as Glenn McCoy's recent cartoon summed up...


The Noblesville Daily Times ran the McCoy cartoon and the Garrison article on the Viewpoint page today. The drumbeat is growing. Per Buchanan, at World Net Daily:

The Taft-Goldwater-Reagan-Helms Republicans were prepared to pay the political price for saying "No." But just as the Democrats of the 1930s found the formula for permanent power in "tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect," as Harold Ickes Sr. put it, the Bush Republicans and Big Government conservatives of the 1990s believe they have found an even surer formula for permanent power: "Cut taxes, spend and spend, elect and elect."

Per Novak, at Town Hall, discussing the treatment given Indiana's Mike Pence for daring to be a fiscal conservative:

Pence was far more discreet in Tuesday's session with his party's leadership, but that did not save him a going over, led by two powerful committee chairmen: Rep. Don Young (Transportation Committee) and Rep. Bill Thomas (Ways and Means
Committee). The harshest treatment of Pence, however, was administered by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who does not like his rank-and-file members depicting a free-spending Republican Party.

Even though Pence is correct, and it's absolutely true. It is incredible to think that President Bush has not used he veto power even once... until you recall and consider the formula identified by Buchanan above. Republican leaders like Tom DeLay don't want fiscal conservatives to be shown enough of the Goldwater-Reagan legacy to think carefully about it. They want fiscal conservatives to waste their votes on the GOP on the mere, fading memory of those legends, despite the reality of the spending actions of the Republican-led Congress.

Mona Charon, the American Conservative Union, Matt Towery, the Cato Institute... these aren't the liberals calling out the GOP. Five years of denial is enough for them.

The real question is: have you had enough? Isn't it enough that the GOP has ushered in more real liberalism than the Democrats could have? Isn't it enough that no Democrats had to be elected President, or gain control of Congress, in order to have their agenda so thoroughly advanced?

When you've had enough, and have decided that you are serious about smaller government, with lower spending, the only sane thing you can do is back Libertarian candidates (or become one), and vote Libertarian.

Libertarians Oppose Estate Taxes

I check the Noblesville Daily Times every day, even when I am out of town, as I am now. I found an article in the op-eds that just infuriated me. It made the assertion that planning and saving for the purpose of providing for your children and grandchildren somehow made the poor poorer.

The Daily Times ran the thing, and it deserved a response. This topic deserves a Republican response, but typically, they are absent on all things economic anymore. I submitted a Libertarian response, and NDT printed it, with a nice headline of their own:

Estate tax is unjustified government intrusion into
inheritance

The headline announcing Marian Wright Edelman's column on the estate tax, "Permanent repeal would hurt poorest", (Viewpoint, Noblesville Daily Times, Sept. 20) helps one understand the misguided economic thinking of the Left and the threat such "thought" poses to individual liberty and financial security.

Should the descendents of the person who has worked, planned, and saved for the purpose of providing for them be punished only because the offspring of the poor were not so cared for by their own? What message does the Left send in opposing estate transfers? It can only be that planning and thrift are to be discouraged at the penalty of theft, and that a lack of planning is to be encouraged and rewarded.

Your money was earned by you. It should be directed at your passing by you and you alone. The state should have no claim on the money you earned, merely because you pass away. Nor should the poor and their apologists, who would use the state as the means to steal what you earned. The well-to-do have not merely hit life's lottery. They have made the life choices that result in the creation of wealth. These choices should be encouraged by all public policy, including estate policy.

Edelman makes the assertion that working hard and saving for the purpose of ensuring a more secure future for your children and grandchildren somehow worsens another person's lot in life. In fact, the poor's lives are utterly unchanged by this action. It is absolutely true that the descendents of the person who worked, planned, and saved benefit enormously from such forethought. What makes that a bad thing? That such people will not be dependent upon the welfare state, and therefore, will have no need for the Left and their statist politicians?

Republicans should be at the fore in removing the immoral estate taxes from the books. Unfortunately, they are mired in a directionless muddle on all things economic and drifting ever leftward, moving away from their fiscal conservatism. We hear precious little from them on this subject.

Libertarians grasp these concepts completely, which is why Libertarians oppose all manner of estate taxes.

Mike Kole, Fishers

Kole is a Libertarian candidate for Indiana Secretary of State. He is the former chair of the Libertarian Party of Hamilton County.

Who Causes Price Gouging?

In a few days, when gasoline pump prices soar again, the public at-large will be blaming gas retailers of 'price gouging'.

Understanding that prices are always a function of supply and demand, what happens if the public decides to stock up? That's right, the prices go up faster because the supply diminishes faster. By the way, Consumer, what you are doing is called HOARDING. From Norm Heikens' excellent Indy Star article:

Experts say gas prices could rocket above $4 a gallon, and oil refiners hope consumers won't worsen already-tight supplies by filling tanks like they did during Katrina, when demand shot up as much as five-fold at some locations, said Marathon Petroleum Co. spokeswoman Linda Casey.

Not since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks had Casey seen such hoarding, she said.

Casey is at the bat. She describes the behavior correctly. Don't complain about high prices, especially if you participated in the hoarding that led to the scarcity that drove up the prices.

Greetings From Hilton Head

I am on a vacation with Isabel at Hilton Head, while Ame attends a medical conference. You gotta love the medical profession. They know where to hold a conference!

My blogging activity may be a little short, but I'm still keeping tabs on Indiana. For instance, I'll direct you to Rob Beck, who attended and testified at yesterday's hearing on Eminent Domain at the Statehouse.

Hamilton County Meeting

Hamilton County Libertarians met tonight for a business meeting at Barley Island in Noblesville. This is the same restaurant we put on the front page of the Noblesville Daily Times, thanks to our pro-restaurant/anti-tax pub crawl.

Chair Rob Place had an excellent agenda, including a focus for the 2006 ballot, a possible Fair Tax presentation & discussion, and one of our members' outreach to a significant PAC. Sheri Conover Sharlow came down from Grant County to discuss her campaign for US Representative in the 5th District. She'll be running against Dan Burton, and looking for the support of Eli Lilly employees and their families & friends.

Rob allowed me to speak about my Secretary of State campaign. The photo captures my credit card merchant's display. I let everyone know that I am serious about all aspects of campaigning, including fundraising.

Media's Blind Eye

There was plenty of media coverage for the Colts' stadium groundbreaking, and all of it extremely favorable. Not like there was much questioning of the validity of the project as a matter of public policy from the media during the mostly Republican campaign to raise taxes for this private project, but the questioning period is clearly over.

Some libertarians attempted to get the attention of the media and passersby with pickets. Here is Kevin Fleming's account:

Fred Peterson and myself stood at the corner for approximately 90 minutes. Fred's sign read "Sewers not Stadiums" and mine read "Cops not Colts". The first two reactions we got were negative. One guy wanted to debate why we were there, and another woman yelled sorry about your luck. After this the reactions were extremely positive including three passing police officers, one ambulance driver, and one water company driver giving us the thumbs up. I would say overall there were 35 to 40 thumbsup signs we received. We had three people ask why there weren't more protesters there including one woman who blocked traffic to do so.

We had our photograph taken by someone who worked for a couple of newspapers but would not say which ones. Had a reporter for the Louisville Courier Journal interview us also. Then we had a good conversation with the traffic control officer at the end, he too wondered why there were not more protesters but we found out the he too is a Libertarian and agreed with us wholeheartedly. I think Fred left disappointed because the local media ignored us, but I guess I'm used to it, so I have to say I think it was well worth the effort.

Update: The Louisville Courier Journal ran an article on a stadium proposal in that city, with the telling headline, "Arena Favored, But Not Tax Paid". I think the sentiment was identical here in Central Indiana, which is why the County Councils voted on it and not the citizens. The Libertarian position is not anti-Colts or anti-stadium. The Libertarian position is private ventures should be privately funded, and, public health and safety are top priority- especially in times of budgetary distress.

Think About It

Fiscal conservatives often have a hard time enunciating their care for fellow man while in the process of trying to guard the purse strings. This is as evident in the wake of Katrina as ever.

It's simple, though. The burden the Bush response will put onto every American for generations to come is who fiscal conservatives are looking out for. If you believe in doing best by the majority, as so many Americans do, then this should be easy logic to follow, and therefore begin to question the enormous pricetag to this bailout.

Here's a good way to understand the scope of the $200 billion Bush will spend to show that he is compassionate: That amount represents $400,000 per displaced household. $400,000!!! From Stephen Moore, in the Wall Street Journal:

Conspicuously missing from the post-Katrina spending debate is a question for some brave soul in Congress to ask, What is the appropriate and constitutional role here for the federal government? Before the New Deal taught us that the federal government is the solution to every malady, most congresses and presidents would have concluded that the federal government's role was minimal. One of our greatest presidents, Democrat Grover Cleveland, vetoed an appropriation for drought victims because there was no constitutional authority to spend for such purposes. Today he would be ridiculed by Ted Kennedy as "incompassionate."

We all want to see New Orleans rebuilt, but it does not follow that this requires more than $100 billion in federal aid. Chicago was burned to the ground in 1871; San Francisco was leveled by an earthquake in 1906; and in 1900 Galveston, Texas, was razed by a hurricane even more ferocious than Katrina. In each instance, these proud cities were rebuilt rapidly and to even greater glory--with hardly any federal money.

What's amazing to me is that the Left continues to scream about how cheap the GOP is. I know that the screaming merely reflects political strategy. It's completely disingenuous, but utterly effective. The objective of the Left is to create socialism, and as Bush & DeLay also move left with their spending, if the call is to keep moving further, Bush & DeLay merely help the Left achieve their objective without even having elected majorities. It's quite brilliant. Bad for the country, but brilliant strategy.

What point is there to electing Republicans who do little but forward the Democrats' agenda? Fiscal conservatives need to change their ways and vote Libertarian.

Anniversary of Note

The date September 9th of any year has always jumped off the calendar for me, especially seeing it noted 9/9. The reason is that on 9/9/1980, at the age of 12, I took on my first daily newspaper route. We received a weekly bill for the papers we bought and then re-sold. Every bill had the carrier's start date printed on it. My 25th anniversary recently passed, and I didn't want it to slip by without comment.

Remember the old newspaper carrier, who delivered the paper at 6am, putting it inside the box, or the screen door, per your instructions? That was me, the paperboy. We didn't toss the paper from a moving car. We walked from house to house and delivered the paper to a place convenient to the customer, even if it was a little less convenient to us.

Of course, we were hoping for tips. We made 4 cents per paper Monday through Saturday, and 20 cents per paper on Sunday. 44 cents a week was ours out of a weekly charge of $1.50 to our customers. If the service was good, I would often see a tip greater than the expected profit- $2 tendered, and I could keep the change. Today's carriers are generally adults. They take several routes and work on volume, with no expectation of tips, and moreover, no expectation of getting to know the neighbors.

It frosts me to get a wet newspaper today. The carriers wrap the paper in a plastic bag, but because they toss it from a moving car onto concrete, the bag rips open, and if its raining, the paper gets soaked and ruined. We prided ourselves on delivering dry papers without using bags, and while running through the rain. (Yes, you can begin the "It was better in my day, son!" routine now.)

I crabbed about having to get up at 5:30 every morning, but I look back fondly at the experience. I did get to know everybody in the neighborhood. I did learn how to do a job, even on the days I didn't feel like it, or when the weather was lousy. I learned how to manage purchases and inventory. I learned how to make customers happy- all at the age of 12. In sum, it was a valuable experience.

I have unfortunately learned that most morning newspapers no longer employ kids for delivery. As employers, they would rather not deal with liability and child labor issues. Parents would rather not have their kids out in the wee hours, for fear of the boogey-man.

It's too bad. As you can see, I learned very important lessons as a young independent contractor. It was better training than a fast food job, because I had to know my route. If I bought too many papers, I was cutting into my profits. Not enough, and I disappointed some customers. That's training and responsibility that mere burger flipping doesn't provide.

By the time I was 16, I also had three other part-time jobs in addition to the paper route. I loved working and making money. But the work ethic was formed on the paper route, some 25 years ago.

No More Pork?

Tom DeLay's comments that there is no fat to cut from the Federal budget have gotten the lampooning they so richly deserve. But will the mutiny by fiscal conservatives from within the GOP ever take place? Comments as absurd as these certainly should be launching some sort of overthrow from within, if it is ever to happen.

Alas. Get over it. No takeover will be forthcoming. The fact is that the Republican Party is not the party of smaller government, lower taxes, and general fiscal conservatism. That's the Libertarian Party. Fiscal conservatives need to do the reality check on themselves if they are sticking with the GOP. Wake up and smell the sodium pentathol!

Or, at the very least, take a look at The Truth Laid Bare's Porkbusters page, where you can see the pork itemized, in all its grisly detail.

Hat tip to Kevin Fleming!

Saturday's Campaign Trail Notes

Yesterday was a day that felt like a full campaign day, with two excellent events to participate in.

The first was the annual La Plaza event in downtown Indy. Ame & I have attended this event before, as we enjoy Latino culture. Conveniently, Ame was also involved with the event this year, staffing a booth for her employer, distributing new baby kits to anyone who had an infant or was pregnant.

I was glad to have former LPIN staffer Robert Butler over from Ohio to help us speak Espanol. I can get around town, ordering meals or finding the train station, but curiously enough, I cannot speak Spanish regarding politics. We'll have to remedy that. Big thanks to the Marion County Libertarians, and to former gubernatorial candidate Kenn Gividen, all of whom participated here.

The Mariachi band insisted that I take their guitar. I protested that I really only know how to play a few chords, and barre chords. They enjoyed a good laugh.

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson stopped by our booth, and Sam Goldstein asked him to take the World's Smallest Political Quiz. The Mayor asked what would happen if he scored Libertarian. We told him he could bring in his $25 membership fee and attend Monday's meeting at Shapiro's. This prompted a huge round of laughs.

The second event was a radio appearance on WXNT. Guest host Andy Horning & I engaged listeners and callers in a great conversation about the role of the Libertarian Party, especially for fiscal conservative who aren't getting what they bargain for with the two older parties.

Andy Horning, as guest host fill-in for Greg Browning.

Be Careful What You Grandstand For

As always, the Law of Unintended Consequences must be considered prior to any political grandstanding.

The opponents of President Bush, in their eagerness to portray him as aloof and uncaring in New Orleans, have gotten an over-the-top response. The result will be an enormous addition to the deficit spending they had also been correctly attacking the President for. Per today's Indy Star editorial:

President Bush in his nationally televised speech Thursday night clearly was determined to prove he has empathy for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Perhaps too determined.

It's unusual that any newspaper suggests one interest group should do without in favor of a priority item. It's refreshing when it does.

But fiscal reality can't be ignored, and the federal deficit will soar beyond all reason without further thought about how to pay for the president's and the nation's generosity.

One cache of gold worth mining: The $286 billion highway bill that Congress approved in July. The president and Congress should insist on revisiting the legislation, packed with more than 6,300 pork-barrel projects worth $23 billion. Congress could, for example, save more than $430 million simply by canceling work on two bridges in Alaska that will serve few people and little purpose.

Back home in Indiana, Congress should tell the Indianapolis Children's Museum to no longer count on $12.5 million stuffed into the highway bill for building new loading docks and a visitors entrance. A tough loss for the museum? Sure. But it never made sense for the federal government to give a local museum money in the first place. That, and other federal handouts around the nation, can in no way be justified now in light of the massive and expensive emergency on the Gulf Coast.

How great to read the words "fiscal reality can't be ignored" in a major American newspaper! Of course, it would have been vastly better had the items identified here not been in any spending package from the beginning. Alas, this is the Federal government, as brought to you by a Republican majority in both houses, where pork barrel-r-us, Tom DeLay's recent absurdities notwithstanding.

Radio Reminder

I'll be joining Andy Horning on WXNT's Greg Browning show Saturday at 4pm. Andy's filling in for Greg Browning for the full show, from 3-6pm. Remember that if you want to listen from outside the greater Indy area, you can do so by getting the streamed signal from WXNT's website.

Our Libertarian Newspaper, II

The Noblesville Daily Times continues to be a very satisfying read, as they continue to include libertarian content. Today's edition contained Sheri Conover Sharlow's op-ed on full-day kindergarten. Excerpt:

All-day kindergarten's defenders say that its effects carry on long after the kids have turned the yarn tassels on their construction-paper mortar boards. American students'' standing among those of other countries has fallen behind, and we must do everything we can to put our kids back on top. That includes all-day kindergarten.

However, studies cited by the Goldwater Institute, Thomas Sowell and others suggest that any education advantage of all-day kindergarten disappears by middle school, even among so-called at-risk children. Besides, our nation's elementary students with only half-day kindergarten already compete on even footing with students of other nations. Our students stay near the top until middle school. Seeing as our nation's education shortcomings start in middle school, putting the burden on kindergarteners seems misdirected.

While I tend to think of it as one more year of warehousing of kids, Sheri urges flexibility and parental involvement. That latter is always the most important key to education, in my book.

Who Would Lead The Investigation?

It seems that Indiana's Attorney General Stephen Carter has issued a news release- at taxpayer expense- urging our Senators Lugar and Bayh to support the confirmation of John Roberts to the Supreme Court. Indy Star report.

Indiana ethics rules prohibit state employees from engaging in political activity while on duty or acting in an official capacity.

The news release troubled Sheila Suess Kennedy, associate professor of law and public policy at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Indianapolis.

"I don't know whether it is unethical, but I don't think it is appropriate," said Kennedy, a former Republican candidate for Congress and former director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union.

I'm with Kennedy. There's nothing wrong with an elected official having an opinion and making an endorsement, so long as the taxpayers aren't paying for it. Carter should make amends with an apology and with a reimbusement to the state from his own pocket or his political committee, which has a balance of over $68,000, according to the committee's filings with the Secretary of State.

Indy Star Asks

What is your favorite political blog? I see that this blog has been named on the Star discussion, thanks to one "Lazarus Long", and I appreciate that very much. (Lazarus Long is one of Robert Heinlein's many fictional characters.)

My favorites, at the moment:

LPIN State Chair Mark Rutherford's blog. I really enjoy being connected to the activities of my fellow Libertarians statewide. Mark shows that we are up to a lot of good. From here, I link to Mike Sylvester of Fort Wayne, and fellow Hamilton County blogger Rob Beck, among others.

Liberty For Sale. Tim West leads the discussion for an incrementalist approach. I've said many times here that if Libertarianism is to be an all or nothing proposition, we can expect to get nothing.

Reason Hit & Run. Continuously updated, and loaded with sharp wit.

Blogcritics. While I haven't contributed lately, I still enjoy popping in to get a finger on the pulse of bloggers at any given moment. Also, a strong Cleveland flavor as proprietor Eric Olsen hails from the North Coast- my former stomping grounds.

Another Radio Guest Appearance on WXNT

Greg Browning has recently returned to Indy's airwaves, on Saturday afternoons from 3 to 6. Already the guy is taking a day off. Where do I sign up?

Enter guest host Andy Horning, who asked me to appear on the show this Saturday. Tune in to WXNT 1430-am. For those outside the broadcast area, listen to the streamed signal, available on the WXNT website.

9-11 Thoughts Unchanged

I have had plenty of time to sort out my thoughts and feelings on the terror strikes of four years ago, and the rebuilding.

The Pentagon has been rebuilt. I imagine and hope that if the White House, the Capitol, Washington Monument, or any other D.C. landmark were struck (heaven forbid) that these would all be built to the original specifications, except maybe reinforced or otherwise made stronger.

Thus, my dissatisfaction with the treatment of the World Trade Center and the Twin Towers.

The following essay has been revised only slightly from my posting on Blogcritics last year. The sentiment is 100% unchanged.

My feelings about the terror attacks three years ago are as fresh as the day after. My palms still sweat when I think about it. When I saw the first images on TV, before the second Tower was struck, my mind was on the ground in Manhattan, where I had a dozen friends working and making their homes. I felt that sick choking feeling until I knew each of them was okay. Then I felt raging anger.

Even though the attacks weren't personal, I felt as though they were. My friends being in Manhattan was just part of it. The World Trade Center was a personal favorite of mine. I thrilled to the sight of them from any angle, but especially when viewed from atop the Empire State Building, or from the Statue of Liberty. I am a capitalist, and no place on earth defines capitalism better than Wall Street and southwestern Manhattan.

So, try as I might to like the proposed designs for the memorialized World Trade Center site, I still absolutely detest them. The memorials fail to memorialize what the Towers were about.

They were selected for destruction by the terrorists for being symbols of capitalism. The Twin Towers were the defining skyscrapers in the defining skyline of the world's definitive financial center. To stand today at the Statue of Liberty and look across the River is to feel the void like a lost love as much as to see the void.

There was a lot of talk in the days following the attacks that the American people must not allow the terrorists win, that we must proceed in the spirit of that hated capitalist mantra, 'business as usual'. How right that common wisdom was.

Well, THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON. It isn't that they ended business as usual. Thankfully, that has resumed. But the premier symbol of capitalism is gone and won't be replaced.

I know that the primary focus of the memorials is those who lost their lives at the site. I have every interest in the world in seeing a fitting tribute paid to them. However, I would be sure to include the spirit that was attacked.

If I was in charge of the process, I would give the greatest tribute to those firefighters who ran up the stairs and to the people who perished while conducting business as usual. I would rebuild the Twin Towers IN EXACTLY THE SAME PLACES UPON WHICH THEY ONCE STOOD, with all dimensions exactly as before save one: the buildings would finish one story higher.

To let the terrorists know that they will not win, they must be given the symbolic 'up yours' that they gave to the American Spirit. Raising the Twin Towers for all to see is the greatest pair of raised middle fingers the haters of America would ever see.

THAT would be the greatest tribute to those who died in the World Trade Center attacks. No candles or mirrors or list of names will EVER come close to honoring them- or the American Spirit- as new Towers would.

In contrast, observe the treatment given the Pentagon, the greatest symbol of the American military. While the scale of destruction visited that building was not nearly as total as that brought to the Twin Towers, what was damaged was repaired and fully operational without any hesitation or debate. Business as usual prevailed at the Pentagon.

It shows you symbolically what is sacred in our country (the military) and what is subject to demolition by group-think (capitalism).