April 14, 2008

Paying the Piper

At the end of what would be my failed attempt to get on the ballot in the 2006 campaign, the LPNY Senatorial candidate, Jeff Russell and I crashed a MoveOn.org event. The purpose and the tone of the event was a criticism of the war on Iraq and a display of the opportunity cost for the district if the tax dollars stayed at home. piper.jpg

While we were there to criticize Hillary Clinton and John Sweeney for their support of the war , there were a couple cat calls in regard to the current Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand. She obviously had not taken a strong enough position against the war and the leftists and brave progressives were taking her to task about it. While its not very puzzling strategically to see why the Gillibrand campaign avoided this event, it remains equally dubious that the current mailer her five offices has mailed out amounts to fiddling with the tax code in light of the major crisis that Empire has driven. While it stresses property tax relief, one has to wonder whether the current CongressCritter would have been suited for the Assembly or State Senate instead of waddling around under the auspices of the nation's Capitol. It was a question many asked of me as I was running. My answer was always . . 'the war, the war'.

If you're still with with me on this post, which have been rare and infrequent here, here's an in depth criticism of the whole approach. Of course I saved the top shelf stuff for the real blog. This hardly seemed like worthwhile there, but it was something that had to be said in case there are a few willing donors to pop a few grand off a piece for another insurgent effort that dealt with the war and the trillions of dollars of unfunded mandates that our children and grandchildren are stuck with . . . .

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September 16, 2007

Capital Outsider Website

Please visit http://capitaloutsider.org

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September 10, 2007

Capital Outsider: Warren Redlich

Warren Redlich was our first official guest on Capital Outsider this past week. Special thanks to Warren for this appearance and the help he gave that 'libertarian' candidate last year.

July 31, 2007

Capital Outsider

Former and current State Chairman of the LPNY, Bill McMillen & Jeff Russell are featured on a new public policy program called Capital Outsider. Here's some clips from our pilot program. Bill ran for Senate in 1998 and Jeff last year against Hillary.

We hope to refine our skills, presentation and line up new and exciting guests in the months to come. Thanks to Schenectady Public Access for allowing us to start this exciting project.

July 7, 2007

Papa Joe & the Rich Kid too . . .

All my life it's always been the Republicans blaming the downstate Democrats and vice versa. The naive expectation that somehow Eliot Spitzer could walk into Albany and transform politics as usual makes me happy that the 5200 signatures we collected last summer for the LPNY effort was not as futile as the current regimes are making it. Even after plundering the taxpayers of 120+ billion dollars, they're still bickering about stuff. eliot_joe.jpg

Didn't everybody get what they wanted ? Who got left behind ? Helicopters, police details and all types of chicanery are the talk of the town. Nobody that I come across cares or is even paying attention. I'm always embarrassed to be from NY wherever I go. Between Hillary & Chuck and any other typical pol, people in Texas & California are amazed at us and happy they're not here.

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Rabble in Arms

There's a lot of chatter about libertarian GOP candidate Ron Paul. The upcoming prospect that he may have raised 2.4 million doesn't put him in the Obama netroots category, but the average GOP folks don't have as much experience as the other side. Whatever online support, YouTube viewers or whatever metric one wants to attribute or take away from the campaign, he is getting MSM coverage. That's something no declared Libertarian candidate can ever really claim.minutemen.jpg

While there are prominent naysayers in the LP camp over Dr. Paul, the spirit of the Ron Paul supporters is something to be carefully watched. The creative videos and quasi-commercials on the Net may never reach the encrusted GOP'ers in paneling graced family rooms with land lines who get most of those random poll calls, but those willing to go out and reach out is increasing. This seems more so than any other 'second-tier' candidate as some in the elite core of the MSM like to call them. The question for us hardcore LP'ers is not whether we can compete with the Paul campaign, but is whether this enthusiastic rabble in arms not in the clutches of corporatism and special interests will have any interest beyond the brief glimpse and hope that Paul offers in terms of message.

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July 6, 2007

Another Unreasonable Man: Alan Chartock

Tuesday morning I caught a stint on WAMC about Patriotism and Dr. Cahrtock was a guest. While people called in with their conception and definitions of Patriotism, an otherwise innocuous show on July 3rd, Chartock and some callers took the opportunity to bash non-voters. The idea being that unless you have indeed voted, any thought or protest in regard to government was illegitimate. Thus blaming any aspect of government and democracy for our ills requires one to vote. alan_ralph.jpg

While it's obvious that this doctor of communications and politics is not familiar with the concept of consent withdrawn and its electoral relationship to voters, the underlying theme for Alan on frequent occasions is that even voting third party is wrong when someone as evil and wrong as Bush can assume power and drag us into conflicts like Iraq. In many ways I opted out of voting for Harry Browne a second time for Ralph Nader precisely because of this elitist tripe that is peddled at every opportunity by charlatans like Chartock.

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