Lately I have been thinking about the Boy Scouts of America. In my earlier days I was a cub scout and I think I got up to wolf or bear. In my morning walk I took the time to pick up a few pieces of litter, business cards in this case.

Is the charity Bush Clinton Katrina fund (.org) a good thing? My first impression is that it is not, but please read up on them and decide for yourself. If you have anything to say, good or bad, please put a comment and tell us your story.

This is what I did this morning. I got up, took a bath, brushed my teeth. I had slept all the way through till past noon. I had broken two pledges. I was supposed to visit a friend and also give a ride to a friend of a friend. I felt bad. My first friend doesn't have a telephone so I hope she will forgive me. I hope acquaintance Mr. Y. will forgive me. I hope I can find Mr. Y's phone number so I can ask for his forgiveness as well. In any case I was ready for the day. I ask my nephew (his name is not John) if he wants to go on a walk. He says OK. I get my keys, hand Not John a empty food container with plastic pieces in it, turn of my light and get ready to go. I lock the door behind us. Not John has a baby baseball bat. I have on my lyme disease education program wrist band on my left arm. So we start off and I start telling him a story about a lady in New Hampshire. I say

There was this lady in New Hampshire and she was driving somewhere and the police stopped her. The police officer walked up to the lady and asked the modern day equivalent of Your paper's please.

TO BE CONTINUED.

1st Question: Why Did Ron Paul Give Up on the LP?

Answer: Courtesy Christine Smith.
2nd Opinion: I would ask Ernest Hancock.

2nd Question: Why is the Libertarian Party the only principled choice?
Answer: I would ask Barry Hess

Today I feel Zen.

The folks at Slatecard.com have a cool tool. It is limited to Republicans. How long will it take to find one for Libertarians?

If you enjoy watching ABC's "The View" and you want to learn more about Ron Paul the candidate for President, these two video clips will help. The first is 10 minutes, the second is 9 minutes. The first is Rosie O'Donnell and co. discussing Ron Paul. The second is Whoopi Goldberg and co. *with* Ron Paul discussing his positions on all the important issues.

In the battle for ideas, mindshare and money you can find some awesome clashes. Christine Smith of Colorado (Libertarian Party) is battling Ron Paul of Texas (Republican Party) for mindshare (and the rest). The debate floor is the campaign for President of the United States. If you look at the Googlebattle between these two contestants you will find that Christine Smith is currently the underdog. Who will prevail? I don't know.

It looks like John McCain's pulse is doing much better than assumed by Blog for Arizona back in April. After watching the CNN Youtube Republican Presidential debate last night one thing that I have to give kudos to John McCain for is his unequivocal and dogged defense in favor of decency (e.g. absolutely, positively no torture). Mitt Romney sadly was not able to 2nd the vote in favor of decency and instead repeatedly defended the pro-Bush position that the water cure AKA water torture AKA waterboarding is OK.

In the hustle and bustle of reading emails from Bob Lord crowing about how much money he is raising and how much he is not (repeat not) John Shadegg it is easy to overlook the fact that there are more than two announced candidates for AZ-3. Michael Shoen is running as a Libertarian Party candidate. I couldn't produce his web site and I won't attempt to summarize it. I encourage you to visit his campaign web site as well as the great news site that helped me remember that sometimes there *are* more than only two choices: freedomsphoenix.com

H/T to wikipedia for their article on 1984's Inner Party.

John Trasher, Democratic opponent to Trent Franks (AZ-2), says the US Army should leave Iraq... eventually. I wonder how many US soldiers and innocent civilians will die in the meantime. I predict that voters will fail to be inspired enough to put stamps on their absentee ballots for Mr. Thrasher unless he learns to turn up the VOLUME and the inspiration. Quiz for Mr. Thrasher: The US Army should be located and defend which country A) Iraq, B) Kuwait, C) South Korea, Japan and Germany or D) None of the Above?

As requested, I get a steady stream of email from Bob Lord, Democratic candidate for Arizona district 3. So far it appears that he is running a John Kerry for president 2004 campaign. Most of what I remember from the 2004 presidential campaign era is the meme "Anybody but Bush". Mr. Lord's meme of choice seems to be "I am not John Shadegg". I imagine for some positions, like Shadegg's opposing more government health care, this angle is sufficient. I am still hoping that Mr. Lord will add some positions and press releases that state what *he* believes in rather than casting himself as the anti-Shadegg. Hint, hint: there is the little matter of the ever-ongoing US occupation of the Iraq that you might want to mention sometime soon. Bringing American troops home to protect America is a rather popular position.

Just a reminder, "Anybody but Bush" didn't win. "I am not John Shadegg" is not a winning campaign slogan.

In case anybody wondered what happened to The Libertarian Enterprise. Two lives down, seven to go. And if you haven't read the fine libertarian comic Roswell, Texas, please do.

When is a picture worth a thousand words? or even $97.4 million dollars. When it comes to crony capitalism within the City of Phoenix, it continues apace. Why do we need to subsidize development in Phoenix? Luckily voters in Phoenix have a principled candidate running for Phoenix City Council District 3, James Iannuzo.

Mitt Romney, gun control cheer leader or Mitt Romney, protector of the second amendment? Will his support of the right of self-defence disappear as quickly as his web site article on the second amendment?

Of course, it looks like someone has already done a fine job of documenting Mr. Romney's history on that boogeyman "the assault weapon".

And while Mitt Romney's Second Amendment page is 404, Ron Paul's page is here and shows what someone who really trusts the people would do to repeal unconstitutional gun prohibition in the US. Or you could read Ron Paul's own articles about firearms.

JPFO Founder and Gun Owners of America Founder Speak

To me nothing goes to show who relies on emotional and illogical arguments than the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and its VidiVoice.com campaign with comedian Lewis Black as its lead celebrity. Using the three videos I watched from their "Speaks Out!" series, not a one had its comments enabled. I did a search for youtube.com videos from the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) and the very first video I watched had comments enabled. It seems like the JPFO isn't afraid of someone commenting on their video but the trust always in government rules crowd doesn't want to risk that someone might get any viewpoint or comments but their own. I'm not afraid that a rational thinking person might learn something from "the opposition" but apparently the gun control advocates are.

Huckabee Wins, Paul Loses.

In absolute terms, absolutely so. Mike Huckabee should be rightly proud of his campaign's achievement in Ames, Iowa. Ron Paul came in fifth with 1,305 out of a total of 14,302 votes (9.1%) in the Ames Straw Poll.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has a fantastic statement about why the people should support the Second Amendment limitation on the government. If only he didn't support the horrid Fair Tax (and the continued indefinite occupation of Iraq by the US Armed Forces) he might be worth considering.

Luckily there is a candidate who supports the right of the people to defend themselves against crime and oppressive government, Republican Ron Paul from Texas.

Ron Paul's position of freedom is uncompromising and in a environment where many claim that compromise is key I find that to be quite inspiring. 9.1% in the straw poll means that there is still plenty of work to be done to advance the Ron Paul for President campaign to the winner's circle. I'm not afraid of a little hard work and one less than glamorous turnout in one poll isn't going to dampen my enthusiasm one bit.

This is the source of the picture.

I plan to be listening to the Smith vs. Kubby debate on The Liberated Space. I imagine that I will learn something new. I spoke with candidate Christine Smith recently. I imagine she will have something good to say. I believe that Steve Kubby will share some wisdom as well.

Free speech vs unfree school. Nobody knows how this will pan out but it sure does remind me of Penn Jillette's chiquita banana story. I am so happy that there are people out there with guts.