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.