libertarian compatability

Saturday I am going to the local Libertarian monthly meeting to discuss my relationship with the party, so I thought it would be fun to go through the issues to see how I line up with them. I pulled these off of http://lpmo.org/platform.shtml
One big sticking point is that I do not know if I can check the box Libertarians mark that says "YES, sign me up as a member of the Libertarian Party. To validate my membership, I certify that I oppose the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals."
There's a couple ways to look at that and I have to figure out what it means to most people. Some I have talked to take it to mean that expect me to NEVER agree to anything use tax payer dollars out side of MAYBE defense. But what is defense? Is funding fire departments a form of defense? Osama Bid Laden has said he is basically trying to spend us to death. Is education defense against economic attacks? I'll get back to you when I have surer footing on these questions.
On to policy... The bold and bullet points are what is on Missouri's Libertarian Party webpage the percentages and pondering are mine

EDUCATION  68.75% overall support for Libertarian education policy. Mostly I don't see how they can implement these actions across economic lines. Most of the goals I agree with (support homeschooling) but don't want to re-create the exact same conditions that initiated government interference in the first place.

• Restore local control of all schools. 
  75% behind and it is conditional. There must be some protection in place for poor communities. I really don't know how that will happen so that is an awfully big condition. 
   
• Remove restrictions on home schooling. 
  50% behind. As a parent that home-schools and knows many others who also home-school the restrictions are not a big problem. The larger issue is the right to privacy vs. the child's well being. I have heard horror stories of schools persecuting home school kids to boost their attendence. If this is the case the policy needs to have a higher burden of proof.
   
• Move toward privatization of government public schools.
  75% behind. Again this can create classist issues. If I come up with or across a plan that gets around that then fine.
  
  
• Repeal all Federal and State education mandates. 
  75% behind. I don't know about all mandates. I don't know what all the mandates are. The reason I favor it as much as I do is that I like the idea of different states coming up with different solutions and learning from each other.  

HEALTH CARE 89% behind. Most of my concerns are price fixing but I also have some reservations the fact that health care is often something you buy when not in a position to negotiate.

• Establish tax-free Health Savings Accounts. 
  100% behind. Part of the reason medical costs are so high is because insurance companies don't have much negotiating power.  
• Make all medical and dental expenses income tax deductible. 
  100% behind.  
• Restore patient choice in medical care by removing interference from the State including access to nurse practitioners, midwifery, alternative medicine, and self-medication. 
  95% behind.  
• Restore a true free market in health care by removing federal and state regulations which restrict competition.
  75% behind, I don't know of any restrictions I support but I would have to study up on them before tossing them all out. I do believe in regulation that prevents monopolies or price fixing.
• Oppose federal regulation of health care and government health care options.
  75% behind. same as previous point.

TAXES 33.3% I'm for smaller government but there are a lot of things government does that we have to have a replacement for before it can be eliminated. Prime example is unemployment benefits. Many people don't consider that unemployment is what pays for taking care of the mentally disabled in Missouri.

• Initiate ceilings on personal property taxes. 
  0% behind. um, land barons.... 
• Repeal the state income tax provision of the Missouri Constitution. 
  25% behind. cart before the horse. Aren't we in a budget short fall? I'm interested in consumption tax but I don't know how that would work on a statewide level when our major cities are all near state lines.
• All state and local government functions should, where possible, be funded by user fees.
  25% behind. I'm not sure how this would work in practice. Things are generally paid for by government because there isn't an appropriate consumer-product model to apply to the service.
• By Constitutional Amendment require 75% voter approval for all tax increases or new taxes. 
  25%  behind. Seems too obvious to manipulate if you can afford lobbyist.
• Enact 100% property tax credits for those who send their children to non-government schools. 
  50% behind. Again equal protection for the poor is difficult to maintain when rich people can opt out. 
• Pass enabling legislation to permit voters to repeal, and in the future prohibit sales taxes on food and prescription drugs for Counties, Municipalities and all other political entities in the state which have authority to levy sales taxes. This includes the State-wide 1% sales tax for public schools.
  75% behind. I have no problem with doing this with current tax system. But with the other tax proposals here doesn't seem viable.

PROPERTY RIGHTS AND EMINENT DOMAIN 73.75 as much as I don't like government bureaucracy there are somethings I am uncomfortable with replacing it with a for-profit honor system.

• End the practice of using eminent domain powers to seize property for the benefit of private developers. 
  100% behind. 
• Repeal the ability of local governments to turn over condemnation authority to independent parties. 
  75% behind. I don't know who would be 'independent'. It seems the more obvious solution would be to give people a fighting chance against the government's existing authority. 
• Eliminate the use of  "blight" as a rationale for using eminent domain to seize private property. 
  95% behind. Not familiar with cases described as "blight" but agree with the sentiment. 
• Oppose the National Animal Identification System. 
   25% behind. I understand the opposition but I think it's a good thing that we can track mad cow disease.

JUSTICE 85% behind. Mostly problems with where I could see potential for abuse.

• Eliminate mandatory sentencing. 
  95% behind. 
• Restore Second Amendment rights. 
  90% behind. I support drivers license style certification for people who want to bypass waiting periods on some weapons.
• Repeal statutes regarding victimless crimes. 
  100% behind. 
• Enact legislation supportive of victims' rights and restitution. 
  100% behind. 
• Privatize prison and parole programs and demand accountability. 
  100% behind. 
• Add an explicit right to a Fully Informed Jury to the State Constitution. 
  95% Sounds good but this is my first encounter with this phrase. 
• Amend Missouri's Constitution to require a 'sunset clause' for every new law. 
  100% behind. I didn't even know this was a libertarian idea. 
• Require criminals to make restitution to their victims as a condition of parole or early release.
  85% behind. I like the idea but see some potential for abuse.
• Prohibit all jurisdictions from seizing property in connection with an alleged crime until such time as the accused is tried and convicted. 
  100% behind. 
• Require Prosecutors to produce actual victims in court as witnesses subject to cross examination when prosecuting so called victimless crimes. 
  95% behind. I like the idea but it seems that someone with a slick lawyer could get off if they can make the prosecutor's choice of victim look bad.

JOBS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 67% behind. A lot of my hesitation is how it will be handled not the core concept.

• Repeal all subsidies. 
  75% behind. I rather subsidies a non-profit than create a government agency. 
• Eliminate mandated benefits. 
  25% behind. I could get behind this if the NEED was first eliminated.  
• Eliminate taxes, do not abate them for certain groups. 
  50% behind. There are things that I don't want individuals or businesses to own. And as long as we expect the government to do anything there will be some taxes. 
• Eliminate the abuse of Tax Increment Financing  (TIF). 
   95% behind. Only reservations are that I haven't spent a lot of time researching the issue.
• Sell all State agencies that duplicate services provided by businesses or charitable organizations. 
  75% behind. I'm skeptical of who would decide which niche's are being served by businesses. 
• Give responsibility for licensing drivers and vehicles over to auto insurers, including standards for vehicle inspections. 
  50% behind. Interesting idea but I'll have to think about it. It seems like a good idea but I have to figure out where the hidden incentives would be for insurance companies. I definitely don't like the inclusion of inspections unless environmental standards are put on them.  
• Oppose the use of government mandates to dictate the smoking policies of privately-owned businesses. 
  100% behind. Though begrudgingly since I hate smoking.

ELECTIONS 95% behind. I know how difficult they make it just to get on the ballot

• Support fair ballot access and free and open elections. 
  100% behind. 
• Support reduction of signatures required for ballot initiative. 
  100% behind. I have some alternative ideas as well. 
• Support proportional representation of popular vote for electors in presidential elections. 
  100% behind. 
• Support legislation requiring a "None of the above" option on all election ballots for public officials. 
  75% behind. Only objection is for the sake of taking up too much room on the ballot. 
• Support legislation requiring a "Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail" when using electronic voting equipment.
  100% behind.
• Repeal all Federal and State campaign finance laws which restrict Free Speech. 
  90% behind. I'd probably be less in agreement before citizens united ruling but seeing as how that ruling made plutocracy easy-why not jump in with two feet.
• Support legislation requiring the use of an objective scientific metric when comparing alternatives for district boundaries to eliminate gerrymandering. 
   100% behind

PRIVACY 91.66% behind. Reservations are that I don't want to implement something that would simple create the 'need' that initiated the original legislation in the first place.

• Define an explicit right to privacy in the Missouri Constitution. 
  100% behind. 
• Allow citizens to sue public officials individually and personally for violations of citizens' rights.
  

  90% behind. Public also means biggest target. While we might be keeping politicians out of trouble by keeping them wrapped up in court I could see how a lobbyist for say the banking industry could keep a say Ron Paul in an endless series of lawsuits. 
• Oppose implementation of the "Real ID Act," which requires enhanced security for state drivers licenses –  essentially establishing a national ID card.
  85% behind.  Reading the position that gave me an idea for an app that could accomplish the same thing this act would try to do without being anymore intrusive or without all the big brothery overtones

STATE SOVEREIGNTY 75% behind. just read below..

• Support efforts to assert state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment of the US Constitution for all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government under the Constitution.
  75% behind. We might not have ever had an intercontinental rail system if there wasn't a national standard for the size of rails. Most of the time this could be accomplished by a non-enforced national GUIDELINE, but I am sure that there is an occasional need for interstate standard setting.
   
  

  TOTAL 75.38% behind. The percentages were based entirely on my first gut number that came to mind (or gut I guess). On a different day I might have been a few percentage points up or down in any direction. Also note worthy is that I added up the categories and divided by nine for the total. I would probably have lower compatibility if STATE SOVEREIGNTY and PRIVACY didn't have as much weight as TAXES or JOBS.

CRAWLERS get their XP

Epilogue

Extraordinary (review kinda)

I spent the last couple hours working on getting the PS3 camera to work on my PC. Audio still isn't working so now I have an excuse to post a link to a sweet children's book that is online. It's fantastical and interesting. Check it out http://www.sarahmensinga.com/extraordinary.htm

Revisions

I have updated two sections of my political site. The first is the Farms section. I cropped the little bit where I made fun of Republicans for wearing cowboy hats and Democrats for rolling up their sleeves. I took this out because the way the joke was written it said "if i was a democrat" and I didn't want to confuse people about whether I decided what party to go into or not. Also the joke just never worked. Never happy with it
 http://www.nilvsdcbs.com/farms.html

The second revision is to the gun control section. The art is nearly identical I just changed the wording. Before I was concerned with protecting the Second Amendment and wasn't thinking about bazookas and inner city crime. The new version makes it a little clearer that I am open to certification but not bans on weapons. http://www.nilvsdcbs.com/guncontrol.html

I have made some edits to the issues page as well. Last time around I said I was against taxpayer money being spent on abortions. I took that off because in the current debate that implies I want to de-fund Planned Parenthood. I also changed my tax position description. I still like the idea of a consumption tax but my main concern is a simplification of tax code.
One of the problems with my candidacy is that I have ambitions that far exceed my office. As a member of congress I will only be able to nudge my agenda in the right direction. That is why I now have an issues and a vision section of the site. Issues will describe what I will work on in my first term or two and Vision will describe where I hope to see the country in the coming decades...

A Billy Longing for a better greener planet

The local progressives were planning on holding a rally outside Billy Long's office today, Earth Day, to stand up to him for his support of stripping the clean air act. The event ended up being canceled but I was planning on giving a speech that would go something like:

It isn't enough for Billy Long that the EPA doesn't do it's job. Billy isn't content with the fact that the EPA is run by the people they are supposed to be regulating. Billy Long will not be happy until even the threat of the Clean Air Act is gone. Why is that? Is it the principle of the thing? Is it just too much to ask industry to do as little damage as possible? I don't understand this mentality. It seems like the Billy Longs of the world think that if you are making a lot of money you can do no wrong. And if you are making a lot of money the only thing you can do is make more. I understand why the companies the EPA should be regulating  are resistant but I don't know why Mr. Long and his ilk are so invested in the profits of these companies that the rest of us should give up our atmosphere to them.

CRAWLERS fold them, walk away, or run

fold them, walk away, or run

Still doing CRAWLERS while running for office

attempted overkill

Fast talker auctioneer by day legislator by night

I've bit my lip about Billy Long as best I could. You have no idea how hard that was to do. But he isn't running again (allegedly) so I have no qualms with talking smack about him now that a couple articles have come to my attention about him.
The first one is the Joplin Globe's article about Long trying to auction off debt and establish a national auctioneer's day. This shouldn't surprise anyone. Auctioneer Billy Long is a gimmick character the same way Captain Boomerang is a gimick character. Captain Boomerang has boomerang themed weapons, and death traps. Billy Long has auctioneer powers that he uses to fight the villianous debt. The problem is both characters are fictional. Billy Long isn't an intellectually curious man who uses his insight on auctions to solve problems. He just makes shit up that sounds good (or his handlers do). He's marketing himself.
The second article is about Billy Long's closet flip flop. Billy Long voted against the budget to prevent the shut down but then came out in favor of Boehner doing the best he could on it. Sounds like re-election talk to me. If he wasn't running again the smarter thing to do would be to stand up to the tea party to build the party. Take one for the team. But maybe I am giving him too much credit.
Which brings us to exactly why I don't like Billy Long. His campaign slogan was 'fed up', but he really didn't say what he was fed up with- or at least didn't seem to understand how we got there in the first place. In the race between Bush and Gore one commentator asked why he didn't like Bush. The man said Bush wasn't intellectually curious (see it stuck with me). The questioner asked if that mattered.
Looking at myself it is very easy to dismiss me as a style over substance kind of guy. My website is all comic books after all. But it wasn't that I had to use this as a gimmick- it's just the best way I know to break down information. I was doing OpEd comics before I even considered running for Congress ( joking about running for President in 2016).
If Billy Long could use his experience "signing the front of a check" to come up with innovative ideas to fix the problems in Washington trumpeting the fact that he's an auctioneer wouldn't be a gimmick. But spending all his time writing tweets about what a great actor Clint Howard is shows that he hasn't applied that experience to the big picture.

Congressional Rerun

For Immediate Release

Springfield, MO- Cartoonist/activist Nicholas Ivan Ladendorf has officially announced he is making another go at US House seat for Missouri's 7th district. The declaration was first made at a philosophical meeting discussing morality of war, followed by a virtual announcement on Facebook and Twitter. In 2010, Ladendorf received a lot of attention on the internet thanks to his political website being made entirely of infographics and comics. This isn't to say that the candidate is all style and no substance, Ladendorf remarked "I wouldn't be running if I didn't have something different to say. I use comics because, that is how my mind works, and it enables me to express my more nuance ideas without getting caught up in politician-speak."
The updated version of his StumbleUpon favorite website features a poll asking visitors which primary (if any) he should enter. Often referring to himself as a progressive/libertarian (think Bill Maher), Ladendorf doesn't fit neatly into conventional labels. What is clear is that he isn't considering joining the Republican or Constitution party, which isn't surprising when reviewing his positions on social issues.
Keep an eye on http://www.electladendorf.us for more.
###

Class Warfare: it takes two to tango

I'm growing to resent the term 'class warfare'. Like much of the terminology we use the GOP is massaging the definition. In this case they are trying to change a term that refers to conflicts between classes to one that refers to leftists sicking the poor on the rich. They will keep on this until 'class warfare' is synonymous with 'player hating'.
I'm not sure yet if this is intentional or serendipitous. Populist uprising takes much more organizing than oppression, and hence happens more publicly. Oppression is so easy for the powerful I doubt they are aware of the extent of it when they do it or compliant with it.
When a river gets polluted by a factory, the more economically endowed can move up river. If oil platforms cause the beach to be covered in globules of tar, they buy an island. When a country descends into chaos they become ex-patriots.  The poor don't have that option.
It is important to remind everyone that it isn't the fault of everyone on the upper echelon that the working poor are shit upon- but their complacency contributes to it. I can see why social justice is obfuscated from them. The river doesn't become polluted overnight. The tar doesn't arrive all at once. Entropy becomes obvious long before a country falls apart.
Being complacent until something affects oneself is not limited to the influential. Few fisherman defend the river until the fish are already depleted. Beach goes don't worry about tar when the platforms are being built. State workers are complacent until it becomes obvious that their well being is on the line.
By the time the lower echelons are organizing- they are foaming at the mouth- and the GOP points to them as examples of what class warfare looks like. They want to make it look like one sided aggression. Because to them organizing and yelling is aggressive but using a suit to contaminate or push people out of their neighborhoods isn't.
But like I was told as a child who got in a lot of school yard scuffles- it takes two to tango. But when we don't dance, it isn't a fight, we are just allowing ourselves to be bullied.

IED CRAWLERS style

IED

CRAWLERS fail

Fails

Can we cut spending in a recession?

One of the reasons I like Ron Paul is because he is practical and compassionate enough to realize that, though he thinks the government is providing services it shouldn't, he realizes that people are dependent on those programs. If given the opportunity Paul would cut the programs, but he would do it gradually.
I bring this up in the context of the tea party fueled Republicans demanding $100 Billion in cuts. I bring it up in the context of 20% increase in CEO salary and an unemployment rate of nearly 10%.
How do you cut spending when the government is the only one hiring? Do you remember that polar bear study John McCain used to make fun of in his campaign? That spending is jobs.
In fact the entire economic strategy for our economy is subsidized by tax money. Both Republicans and Democrats are banking our future on American Innovation. But American Innovation is heavily bankrolled by Congress.
It's because we fund things like studies of polar bears that we figure out new medicines and technology. Medicines and technologies that lead to more jobs down the line. We can not both cut spending and count on the dividends of that spending.
If Republicans have a different route to ensuring America stays ahead in innovation, they have failed to share a convincing argument. De-regulation isn't an area we can compete in. There will always be another country with even lower regulations and standard of living.

Despicable Movie

Despicable Me really pissed me off. Let me back up. I have a bit that I do about reality shows.
"There are all these reality shows based on elimination. They start with fourteen or so contestants, and every week one of them drops off. So I, have come up with the next great reality show- adoption. Fourteen kids one family!" 
This is the point in the bit where people roll their eyes and express how horrible I am. I continue
"Not only would this be great television drama, but you know those thirteen eliminated kids would get adopted by families watching the program in no time!"
And that is my horribly exploitative- yet backdoor altruistic-TV show idea. Every time I've done this bit someone will tell me how horrible I am for coming up with it (until they hear the last bit). But what is much worse to me is what Hollywood currently does with adoption.
I'll give a pass to Meet The Robinsons and Paulie Shore's Mocumentary Adopted, because they highlight the reality of adoption (and I couldn't make it through Adopted). But overall film makes it look as if all these kids are getting adopted and they have paid very little attention to what happens to the kids that don't get adopted. Oh and all the orphans are white.
Despicable Me is sort of a new low. Mostly because it was completely unnecessary. I was excited about the movie until I saw in the ads that the main character adopts three girls. I wasn't even going to rent it, but I have kids. Two evil geniuses having a gadget off would have been entertaining. A movie about an evil genius with a hundred minions adopting the only three kids in the orphanage is infuriating.
I understand that no one wants to see a downer movie (or finance one), but adoption was completely avoidable in this story. As a culture we don't talk a lot about adoption. And I think we should.
Why don't more of these "quiverful" families like the Duggars start adopting to pad their numbers? Does it specify in the bible where the "arrows" come from?
I know that part of the problem is the adoption process. It must be when we have scores of parents going to china to adopt because they don't want to deal with American agencies. Some of you might be trying to write it off as a racial issue, because white families might be more willing to adopt an Asian than a Black kid. This may play some part but I know it took my aunt and uncle quite a while before they could get my cousin Jacob. Though that was almost eighteen years ago.
It just strikes me as weird that my reality show idea is so obviously cruel to most people but no thought goes to how cruel it is to the kids not being adopted to watch these kids movies where everyone gets their mom and dad eventually,,,

CRAWLERS swirly part 2

Swirly part 2

There was a CRAWLERS yesterday

It was posted on the host site but not here



Swirly

White Guilt

I've been in an argument/discussion about white privilege and/or white guilt. It would probably be less frustrating for the author of the blog if I would write my response all at once but I stop frequently to kid wrangle... read and discuss
http://social-context.org/2011/04/white-guilt/

Grrl Power v. Feminism

Our myths about sex drive tell us that men are supposed to peak in horniness in their late teens, while women only reach their full libidinousness on the high side of thirty. A lot of us suspect that to the extent there’s any truth to this at all, it has a good deal less to do with biology, and more to do with the long and difficult road so many women have to travel to discover and accept their own sexuality. Slut-shaming and sexualization work together to make girls acutely conscious of others’ wants and expectations while shutting them off from their own desires. -hugoschwyzer.net

 Writing the post about Fair Game made me start poking around about something I have been curious about for a while.  Grrl Power v. Feminism. For the sake of this article I am focusing on the sexpot aspect of Grrl Power. I don't want any one to think that all women with tatoos and piercings are sexpots. That's a good way to get your ass handed to you at roller derby.
Grrl power, from my perspective, is about embracing that which is improper for a young lady. Many of those taboos embraced are associated with "sluts" making sexuality a part of the movement, even when they are not inherently sexual.  While feminism, again from my perspective, is more about being seen as people before gender. Feminism and Grrl Power are not mutually exclusive but it's interesting to look at them as trajectories.

One source of conflict is on the subject of pornography. In general, feminism frowns on it for being exploitative, while Grrl Power more or less embraces it (especially counter-culture sites like Suicide Girls). Feminist play down the importance of body image while pornography has broadened the idea of what is sexy.
The question is to whether or not pornography has been a net gain for women. The pre-net era is most likely a net loss while post-net is probably a gain. Once ANYONE was allowed to make smut viewable by anyone in the world, it became readily obvious that every body type was sexy to someone. Where would BBW be without internet porn?
The other side of this would be escalation of expectancy, where sexual acts that were once considered kinky are now considered the norm. One example is oral sex. A better example is anal sex in the gay community. According to sexpert Dr. Drew, anal sex was uncommon in the seventies. Over time it became the norm.

What I am concerned about is that the culture is shifting towards an expectation of women to be sexpots. That will not work for everyone and could be driven to a rapey extreme. One-sized-fits-all approach is a problem in general in our culture which is why seemingly opposites like Feminists and Grrls need to critique each other in less broad strokes (pun not intended).
We want it to be okay for women to embrace their sexuality, not pressure them to live out someone else's.

Republican Feminist (and Fair Game)

Watching Fair Game I was reminded of my first thoughts when I heard the Republicans saying that Valerie Plame was more a secretary than a secret agent "Are you basing that on some misinformation or did you just assume that because Plame is a woman?"
I am not one who is quick to 'play the gender card' (or any card for that matter). But in this case it seemed to so obviously be a play into sexism. It was a play to the Bush administration's base who might only see a girl instead of a grrl. 
Fast-forward a couple of years and the question comes up as to whether or not Sarah Palin can be a feminist or not. The fact that she agreed to be John McCain's running mate to help him manipulate bitter Clinton supporters seemed to be an immediate answer.
Where were the Republican feminist when Plame was being demoted in the national consciousness? How could they let their party get away with that and then expect to call themselves feminists a few years later. I'm willing to buy that reproduction views do not a feminist make- but you have to stand up for something in the name of gender equality.
There probably were some female Republicans criticizing the tactics to diminish Plame, but there weren't enough of them being loud enough to hear them. Admittedly I was listening to NPR.


PS
That last line is a joke. Any progressive should have rolled their eyes at NPR news being a liberal filter http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/06/30/shepard