Partisan Civil Liberties Disorder

I love political cartoons for their ability to sum up so much using so few words.

Major hat tip to Varangianguard, who directed me to this very recent Matt Bors comic:

This is what I've been on about lately! The hypocrisy of both Left and Right is absolutely on parade these days, as each winks at their own side's transgressions, while jumping up and down about the other side. Here's an idea: hold your own side to the fire. You might get something done!

Or, for a lack of cognitive dissonance, just back the Libertarians who are always pro-civil liberties.

New Podcast Posted

For LPIN Weekly Podcast #19, I took a different approach, reaching outside the roster of Libertarian Party leaders and recent candidates to Doug Masson, a Lafayette blogger and lawyer who has common ground with libertarians, especially on civil liberty issues, but is not a partisan Libertarian.

Several things occurred to me in leading me to ask Doug to sit down at the microphone.

1. One strategy employed by the Libertarian Party has been to court disaffected supporters of the party with majority power. For several years, it was a courtship of disaffected fiscal conservatives, as Republicans delivered smaller government rhetoric alongside exponentially growing budgets and bureaucracies. As power has shifted to Democrats, we are quickly seeing the delivery of pro-civil liberties rhetoric met with restrictive policy by the Obama Administration.

2. When you only talk amongst those who completely agree, the tendency to develop blind spots grows. I wanted to hear from someone outside the partisan-Ls in what ways the Libertarian Party is missing the opportunity to draw from the Left.

3. Doug's blog, Masson's Blog, is really excellent. It is the one on the Left that I read daily, without fail.

This and all podcasts are available via this archive link. You know what to do.

Many thanks to Doug for taking the time to sit down with me for this interview.

Today's Government Spending, Graphically Explained

If reckless spending is what got us into this mess, is more spending really the answer?



As Democrats were pointing out during campaign season, one of the great hallmarks of the glorious Clinton Adminstration was the SURPLUS left behind. Anyone think there's a snowball's chance in hell that the Obama Administration will measure up to Clinton's record? Bush's?

Obama Indistinguishable From Bush, Yet Again

Civil libertarians are getting a real good look at what Obama meant by 'change'. It means, 'status quo'. Cue up that line from that Who song, and read this item from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Friday evening, in a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA, EFF's litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans, the Obama Administration's made two deeply troubling arguments.

First, they argued, exactly as the Bush Administration did on countless occasions, that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue out of hand. They argue that simply allowing the case to continue "would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security." As in the past, this is a blatant ploy to dismiss the litigation without allowing the courts to consider the evidence.

It's an especially disappointing argument to hear from the Obama Administration. As a candidate, Senator Obama lamented that the Bush Administration "invoked a legal tool known as the 'state secrets' privilege more than any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil court." He was right then, and we're dismayed that he and his team seem to have forgotten.

Sad as that is, it's the Department Of Justice's second argument that is the most pernicious. The DOJ claims that the U.S. Government is completely immune from litigation for illegal spying — that the Government can never be sued for surveillance that violates federal privacy statutes.

This is a radical assertion that is utterly unprecedented. No one — not the White House, not the Justice Department, not any member of Congress, and not the Bush Administration — has ever interpreted the law this way.

Ok, so I was wrong. Obama is worse than Bush. Yikes.

I guess power is so tempting, so delicious, that when the people around you build you up endlessly, you start to believe that even though that same power was dangerous in the other guy's hands, because you and you alone are righteous, the old arguments don't apply.

That's hypocrisy, of course. Pure civil libertarians like EFF are noting it. The partisan left seems defensive, not wanting to face up to the disappointment of the Administration not yet 100 days old. When you bought the lines "hope" and especially "change", you might have thought it could wane in time, as memory fades. But in less than 100 days? We're in for a long, rough ride.

Free Speech Under Attack

The wolf comes wearing sheep's clothing. American newspapers are faltering for their refusal to evolve (covered in this previous post), and here comes a US Senator, offering to 'help'. From Reuters report:

With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.

"This may not be the optimal choice for some major newspapers or corporate media chains but it should be an option for many newspapers that are struggling to stay afloat," said Senator Benjamin Cardin.

A Cardin spokesman said the bill had yet to attract any co-sponsors, but had sparked plenty of interest within the media, which has seen plunging revenues and many journalist layoffs.

Cardin's Newspaper Revitalization Act would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits for educational purposes under the U.S. tax code, giving them a similar status to public broadcasting companies.

Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements. (Emphasis supplied.)

From time to time, I feel the need to remind readers that I am a former Democrat. This becomes necessary because I so frequently write about things economic, and because I defend the free market as generally the best solution to issues surrounding exchange, I get pegged as a Republican of some sort.

No, I was a Democrat. My biggest issue was the 1st Amendment. So, the first big doubts I ever had with the Democratic Party came in the late 1980s, when Al Gore's wife, Tipper Gore, began railing against music with salty lyrics. It hit me like a total betrayal. I was always told by my fellow Dems that it was the Republicans who had fascistic tendencies. So, how to explain Tipper Gore?

So, this just looks like part of a continuum to me. Just as Republicans love to enjoy the reputation of being free marketeers and friends of smaller government, but aren't, Democrats love to enjoy the undeserved reputation of being steadfast defenders of free speech.

In either case, D or R, the commitment is to government control. This bill is an attempt to worm control into the newspapers, as government worms into anything- slowly, and in the guise of 'help'.

I'm glad there are no co-sponsors to date.

Note to my Democratic friends: Your party is becoming just as drunk with power as the Republicans were after the 2002 elections. Be on guard! You need to smack your party down, lest they go the way the Republicans went, crossing their base over and over again, especially on the things the base is correct about, to the extent that you eventually lose the entire middle.

Here's the text of the First Amendment, for those who need the refresher, including Senator Cardin:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (Emphasis supplied.)

Pretty simple.

The More Things Change...

So, Obama has ordered more troops into Afghanistan. I get the feeling the nation could have had that by voting for McCain. From Time Magazine's article, "Obama Afghanistan Plan Breaks Old Ground":

Did George Bush leave one of his old speeches in the Resolute Desk? As President Obama unveiled his Afghanistan-Pakistan policy Friday, it was hard to miss the echoes of his predecessor's "surge" strategy in Iraq. Indeed, says James Dobbins, the State Department veteran who served as President Bush's first envoy to Afghanistan, Obama's plan is "largely an extension of where the Bush Administration, in its last years, was heading, with some refinements and additions."

Will we be seeing lefties putting bumper stickers on their cars with an 'O' with a circle around it and line through it? Or perhaps an "01.19.2013 - Obama's last day in office" sticker? The wars were the Number One reason the left was against Bush until the economy tanked. Well, Obama is doing exactly what Bush did to prop the economy- stimulus packages and bailouts.

I imagine that dissent isn't as patriotic to some as it was a half-year ago. Imagine that? Partisan blindness. Who'd a thunk it?

I admire the protesters I saw in San Francisco last Saturday. They were not blind partisans. They believe in their anti-war positions enough to see the continuation of the same policy for what it is, and they called it out. What about our Blue Hoosiers? Will they just shove it on down and look the other way? Or, will they call Obama out on it?

More Change You Can Believe In

I might have thought that this one was made up by The Onion. Alas. The Washington Post reported this item, that should turn anyone who is half-conscious or has even a shred of intellectual honesty into a cynic:

The Obama administration appears to be backing away from the phrase "global war on terror," a signature rhetorical legacy of its predecessor.

In a memo e-mailed this week to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department's office of security review noted that "this administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' [GWOT.] Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.' "

And the stand-up comics lamented the passing of the Bush Administration. Bwaaaahahahahaha! The White House is always a barrel of laughs.

RIP, Jonesy's Jukebox & Indie 103

You may have noticed a little set of links to the lower right under the header of "Stuff I Like". Nothing political there, just other things that brighten the world for me.

Well, sadly, Indie 103, a Los Angeles radio station, was plowed under in January in favor of programming in Espanol.

I loved that station, as much as a guy in Central Indiana could. Steve Jones was the main attraction for me. The Sex Pistols guitarist did a very entertaining daily show, where he played things he liked, because he wanted to hear them. He invited guests from his musical background, but also tapped into the Hollywood celebrity network to do interviews that were not the standard.

Jones would often break out his guitar and into song mid-thought. He would whistle a tune. It was decidedly unformatted, and a lot of fun for this college radio lifer. I listened to every podcast, and often listened to the live stream while I worked at my desk. Now it's gone.

I completely relate to what Jones had to say about his future prospects in radio, via the LA Times:

"Wherever I go, I will still do my show the same; I wouldn't change it. I don't think I should, and I hope any of these people that are thinking of hiring me aren't going to try to mold me into something else," Jones said. "I'd be bored out of me brain. I'd last two weeks if they had me reading some nonsense. If you want someone to read a piece of paper, just hire someone else. There's loads of people that do that."

Bingo. That's exactly why I never ventured into commercial radio after the college radio days, because after having the freedom to do exactly what I wanted as a creative process, I couldn't take being on a radio assembly line. I can't listen to it, either.

I had a brief exchange on Facebook about self-indulgence and artists, where this quality was issued as a put-down. For my money, the best art is created by the self-indulgent, perhaps narcissistic individuals. I don't think of Jonesy as the latter, but certainly his show was the former, and it was all the better for being a reflection of him rather than being something that pandered to an audience, or tried to generate an audience via calculated moves. When I think of my favorite artists (Dali), authors (Clancy, Quinnell, O'Brien, Dostoyevsky, Rand), bands (Sex Pistols, Gary Numan, Minutemen/Mike Watt), it is the idiosyncrasies and self-indulgences that make them notable, distinct, and worth my time.

Jonesy's Jukebox was spontaneous and riveting, which is about the best compliment I can issue to live radio. Commercial radio has generally choked the daylights out of spontaneity and wonders why it is dying on the music side. Notice that the talk thrives, even if it is doctrinaire, because the hosts have talent enough to be spontaneous.

It's a shame to see Indie 103 and Jonesy's Jukebox go. I'm glad the station was podcasting highlights of JJ, because I still have the MP3s. Sadly, I'll have to delete something special from the "Stuff I Like" list.

Yes, We're In San Francisco Now

(San Francisco, CA)- A notice was just slipped under the door by the hotel's management. It seems that there is going to be an anti-war rally and march very near to the hotel, and management wanted to let patrons know so that they could allow extra travel time.

I thought about it for a moment. March 21... Hmm... Why, that's the day the US began, not declared in the Congress, war against Iraq. So, I did a generic Google search on 'anti-war San Francisco' and turned up this link, for the sponsor of the event. 

There are still references to President Bush as a 'war criminal'- one that is carefully worded to give President Obama a pass on that charge. Check out the language from their flyer:

The U.S. leaders who have initiated and conducted this criminal war should be tried and jailed for war crimes.

The war in Afghanistan is expanding. Robert Gates, Bush's defense secretary, who was kept at his post by President Obama, has announced that the troop levels in Afghanistan may double in the coming months. Both he and Vice President Biden predicted higher casualties in the coming period.

Amusingly partisan. If one official is a criminal for conducting a criminal war, how is another not a criminal for continuing to conduct that war? Nation of laws, not of men, folks.

Don't give Obama a free pass. He has been in office for 60 days now. He could have withdrawn the troops by now, if it were any priority to him. It obviously isn't. If he were an anti-war politician, he wouldn't be planning to expand in Afghanistan. He obviously isn't. If the left gives Obama a free pass, they will get delivery on anti-war issues in the same way conservatives who gave Bush a free pass on fiscal issues, which is to say, no delivery. 

So, the protest. I might go out there and support a limited anti-war part of their message, nad tweak 'em on their warmongering President Obama.

My Mecca

(San Jose, CA)- After about 30-35 road trips to see the San Jose Sharks play places other than San Jose, I finally went to the HP Pavilion, aka the Shark Tank, to see my favorite team play. It was an excellent experience!

I started the evening with the CalTrain trip from San Francisco. It was great to see Sharks fans board at the stops along the way, wearing their Sharks jerseys.

It was really great not being one of the odd fans wearing the road team's colors, 'accidentally' having beers spilled on me when my team scores. Loads of fun to see fans having jerseys with names from the past, like Gaetz, Wilson, Makarov, Nolan, and Damphousse.

CalTrain station at 4th & King, SF

I went to the fights and a hockey game broke out. Staubitz vs. Tootoo, win Staubitz

Staubitz is the new local hero. Big cheers during the post-game interview

Bay Area Fun

(San Francisco, CA)- I have often raved about the medical profession, for their genius in placing conferences in places people actually like to visit. This stands in stark contrast to the engineering profession. I've gone to conferences in Madison, WI in January, Pittsburgh and New Jersey. No, with Ame's conferences, we've gone to Hilton Head, Los Cabos Mexico and now San Francisco.

The Bay Area has so much to offer. Yesterday, I took Isabel to Ghirardelli Square for ice cream and chocolate, and then Ame jogged up the Embarcadero to meet us at Pier 39 for lunch.

One happy little girl!

Isabel watches the sea lions struggle for territorial dominance on Pier 39.

Today's adventure involves a trip north across the Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods, and perhaps a trip on a ferry!

New Podcast Added

This week's edition of the Libertarian Party of Indiana's Weekly Podcast features 2008 candidate for governor Andy Horning. We discussed the Indiana Federalism bill vis-a-vis state sovereignty, and why he loves constitutions: rule of law vs. nation of men.

Check it out via this link.

Andy surprised me a bit in not being thoroughly ecstatic with the bill proposed in Indiana. As always, though, Andy has deep thoughts to back up his positions.

Longest podcast to date, and very substantial.

New Podcast Posted

I spoke recently with Chris Spangle, the Libertarian Party of Indiana's Executive Director, about the sort of nuts-and-bolts things an executive does to run a state party.

The thing that struck me is that he's an organizational person. That's different, because when there are many hats to wear, EDs tend to be Political Directors, since the policy is what got them into the game in the first place. Chris is very interested in social networking, and is looking to recruit the people best suited to wear the hats he isn't best suited to wear. Sounds like a good plan.

Check it out by way of this link.

New Podcasts Posted

Go to the LPIN podcast archive to check out the following:

3/9: Two-term Hagerstown Judge Susan Bell discusses her election and re-election, and her acceptance as a Libertarian office holder.

3/6: Tim Maguire talks about the political fallout related to Ed Coleman's party switch. He discusses the rules that address the inclusion, or exclusion, of third party council members. It is clear that most government bodies lack rules that fully address the integration of third party members.

From the archive page, you can subscribe and have new podcasts automatically downloaded to your iTunes. Pretty snappy.

Dying Newspapers

A friend who grew up in Cleveland with me sent me a link to a Time Magazine article, saying that Cleveland's only remaining daily newspaper might close, and is among the 10 most endangered US papers.

I have a twinge of sadness about that, because I was a carrier for the Plain Dealer when I was a teen, and was a big team player. (We hated the Cleveland Press, advancing the rivalries managements had. We had rivalries with the kids who carried The Press, and celebrated when The Press folded. We picked up many of their former customers.) I have a twinge of sadness now for the rapid death of the newspapers, because they were once great institutions, at least when there were the rivalries, and papers tried to get the scoop on- get this- the local news!

But I do like to chuckle and enjoy the idea that the writers at any American daily tend to be left-of-center, that those left-of-center tend to believe in evolution, and that their livelihood is dying because they have failed, no, refused to evolve.

Going back to Cleveland, I'll never forget how The Guild refused to write for Cleveland Live when it started, because they were The Guild, and therefore above that newfangled internet fad. Cool by me! I was a free lance writer, and picked up some supplemental income on the 'fad'. Then The Guild reversed course after boatloads of money was spent on freelancers- because they were The Guild! The true professionals that belonged as the face of the 'newspaper'! Bwaaahahahaha!

I believe that newspapers made themselves irrelevant by refusing to be local. Hell- I can get all the national news I want as it happens- on cable news, talk radio, and internet. What do I need a repeat of what I know for, especially when that AP report is printed tomorrow? Even if they gave it as they happened, what makes their carriage of an AP report different than anyone else's? Look at the Indy Star, the Plain Dealer, or any other American daily, and you'll see the bulk of the paper filled by AP reports, or articles from the Washington Post or New York Times.

It's foolish. We have the national papers that have made their national niches: the NY Times, by virtue of being in NY; the Washington Post, by virtue of being in DC; the Wall Street Journal, by virtue of being on Wall Street. Every other paper in the US is dooming itself to go the way of the dinosaur, for refusal to evolve. Hell- those papers are national in a large way because they are local! Their locality happens to generate news of national interest.

Most papers have pretty good sports sections. Well, that's local news. How can they be so blind?

Darwin, newspaper! Darwin!

Yet Another New Podcast Posted

Beyond the petty retribution Ed Coleman received, another thing revealed was that the City-County Council may have rules that address the political parties and where they fit into the structure of power, those rules are vague at best, and at worst do little more than protect the two parties currently holding power.

As the Ds and Rs consistently fail to deliver, I can foresee a greater number of third party victories at all levels of government, not just for Libertarians, but for Greens and perhaps a new party or two. The voters aren't going to be happy to learn, when the day comes, that the people they elect are essentially without a voice- and that it's all perfectly within the rules.

I spoke with Tim Maguire about the rules. Maguire is the Chair of the Marion County Libertarians.

Link to the podcast archive.

More Podcasting on Ed Coleman

When then-Republican City-County Councilor Ed Coleman left for the Libertarian Party, I felt 100% certain that there would be a political price for him to pay. Talking with party insiders, the general consensus was that he would probably be removed from one or more of the committees on which he served.

In fact, he was removed from all of them on Monday. Again- no real surprise. Politics is a bare-knuckled game, and retaliation, no matter how silly or childish it may seem, is a way of political life just as much as favors and back scratching is on the flip side.

I got a better sense of why Ed left yesterday, when I interviewed him again for the Libertarian party of Indiana's Weekly Podcast. This wasn't the first retaliation against Ed by the Republicans, nor the first time he was stripped of a committee appointment. Because Ed was speaking out on issues against the grain of his former party's leadership, he was stripped of committee appointments, and then assigned to different committees. To summarize Ed, he was advised that being reassigned was a warning, and that he should shut up and toe the line.

Here's the link to the podcast archive. Check out Podcast #011, released March 5. It is incredibly revealing in details about how local government works. Or doesn't.

I asked Ed if the members of the City-County Council read the ordinances they vote on. Interesting answer, to say the least.

Still In Iraq

Barack Obama has been President 42 days, and we're still in Iraq, and looking at the prospect of increasing war activity in Afghanistan.

If McCain was elected, I doubt that the left would agree that August 2010 would be soon enough for withdrawl from Iraq. Why is it ok for the Obama Administration?

Latest Podcast Posted

#10 features Ed Angleton, the former 2-day Jeopardy champ and recent candidate for Indiana House in Marion County's District 100. Ed contributes to the Libertarian Party of Indiana's legislative review blog, and shared his thoughts on the best and worst law before the state's legislature this session.

Link to the podcast archive.

LPIN's legislative review blog is yet another thing the other parties won't do, because it entails taking a broad stand for or against a bill. Sure, there's room for diverging viewpoints, but if a political party is supposed to be a vehicle for moving public policy in a defined direction, how can it hope to do so unless it is willing to publicly take a stand one way or another? Is it any wonder our states and nation seem to be busy, but never moving the policy anywhere in particular?

Great Oratory

I watched the Obama speech last night, and on the whole found it pretty useless, even though it was excellent oratory. He's easily the best speech giving President in my lifetime, better than Reagan or Clinton even. Impressions:

Obama is a quick study. After months of campaigning on Hope(tm) and then ditching Hope (tm) for Fear Itself in his first press conference, Obama rediscovered Hope(tm). It was a campaign speech, loaded with platitudes and warm fuzzies.

Like any campaign speech by any politician, it promised all kinds of goodies, all while cutting taxes and the budget. Well! The Obama Administration, with the help of his rubber stamp Congress, has already doubled the deficit 'he inherited' in just one short month with the 'stimulus'. How is it going to be possible to spend even a penny more and yet manage to cut anything? This I want to see.

Obama talked about 'not governing from anger', and yet couldn't resist taking jabs at the CEO who spent bailout money on drapes, and the CEO who bought a corporate jet. That's one of the sources of popular anger, as if he didn't know.

The Republican response was hilarious, except that The Office wasn't going to be on for another half hour. It may not have seemed like an actual response, because it didn't address the speech terribly well and sounded like one man's campaign and story time. But, that's what made it an actual response, because Obama's speech didn't address the country's problems terribly well and sounded like one man's campaign and story time.

If anyone, Obama of the Congress, would like to address the real problems, here is where to go to work:

Cut spending
Cut spending
Treat the banks like you treat the automakers
Cut spending
Stop printing money without value to back it
Cut spending
Cut spending
Get out of Iraq already
Cut spending

Pretty simple, but then, our problems are actually pretty simple: We borrow and spend too much.