Despite flight delays caused by the heavy rains on the east coast, most of the national staff has arrived at the LP Convention in Portland. Delegates are starting to show, and the Bylaws and Platform committees are already meeting.

We managed to get Michael Dixon national television yesterday, where he discussed smoking bans on CNBC. Shane Cory went on Air America, where he covered the LP convention.

The convention also drew some pretty good local press, including this one from The Oregonian. Here’s a clip:

The party is all about personal tolerance and fiscal responsibility, which is why it attracts a broad spectrum of political types, said Richard Burke, executive director of the Libertarian Party of Oregon.

The party chose Portland for this year’s meeting because the Oregon chapter has become increasingly visible in state politics, Burke said.

“We’re not dominant,” he said, “but we’ve crossed the threshold of being relevant. They wanted to reward that.”

Party officials will meet Thursday, and a number of committee and caucus meetings and workshops are scheduled for Friday. But the main action gets into gear Friday night with a reception at the Hilton hotel in downtown Portland, followed by floor sessions Saturday and Sunday to put together the party’s national platform.

Oregon’s Libertarian candidate for governor, Richard Morley, will talk at Friday night’s reception. Burke said he invited Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Republican candidate Ron Saxton as well. Kulongoski won’t make the event, a spokeswoman said. Saxton’s campaign could not be reached on whether he will attend.

We’ll try to cover as much as we can from the key convention activities on this blog, so stay tuned.

From US Libertarian Party

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

While the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment failed again, it picked up some new votes. Here’s the take from MPP:

An amendment to stop the U.S. Justice Department from arresting medical marijuana patients in the 11 states where medical marijuana is legal received a record vote on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives today. Although the measure failed to pass, 163-259, medical marijuana advocates hailed the record vote as the result of a growing groundswell of support for medical marijuana from across the political spectrum. Last summer, the amendment received 161 votes, which was the previous record until today’s vote.

The improvement was due to Republican “yes” votes, which increased from 15 last year to 18 this year.

“Support for medical marijuana has hit yet another high-water mark in Congress, 11 states have legalized medical marijuana in 11 years, and the latest national poll shows that an astounding 78 percent of voters want to see medical marijuana legal,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) in Washington, D.C. “It’s hard to imagine a scenario where Congress will not pass our medical marijuana legislation by, say, 2009.

We’re gaining votes each time the bill comes up for vote. We even gained some in the middle of the election season, which indicates we’ll get even more next year. Let’s continue keep up the pressure on this good piece of legislation.

From US Libertarian Party

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Another shining page for the annals of democracy. Kuwait is a fookin' monarchy for cryin' out loud. Their tinker-toy parliament is about powerful as is a typical high school student council is in terms of actual political power. Buts it's…

From Strike The Root

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

In prison you spend the majority of your time in an 8′x10′ cell. At work you spend most of your time in a 6′x8′ cubicle.
In prison you get three meals a day. At work you only get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it.
In prison you get time off for good behavior. At work you get rewarded for good behavior with more work.
In prison a guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you. At work you must carry around a security card and unlock and open all the doors yourself.
In prison you can watch TV and play games. At work you get fired for watching TV and playing games.
In prison they allow your family and friends to visit. At work you cannot even speak to your family and friends.
In prison all expenses are paid by taxpayers with no work required. At work you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.
In prison you spend most of your life looking through the bars from the inside wanting to get out. At work you spend your time wanting to get out and inside bars.
In prison you can join many programs which you can leave at any time. At work there are some programs you can never get out of.
In prison there are wardens who are often sadistic. At work there are managers.

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

We should distrust politicians who tell us that draconian new legislation will be used in only the most extreme cases, and the rest of us have nothing to worry about.

Well, three UK investment bankers have a great deal to worry about, having lost their appeal against extradition to the United States under the Extradition Act of 2003. That law was introduced after the 9/11 attacks, aiming to speed up the exchange of terrorist suspects. It means the US can extradite British citizens without providing any evidence against them. But the US has not reciprocated the measure, and most of the extradition requests made under it have targeted businesspeople rather than terrorists.

The three in this case are accused of conspiring with Enron executives to sell a stake in an Enron company to Greenwich NatWest for less than it was worth. They protest their innocence, and say that since the alleged victim was a UK bank, the case should be investigated and tried in Britain.

But any day now they will be taken under armed guard to the US. And there, because they contested their extradition in the courts, they will be regarded as ‘fugitives’, denied bail, and held for at least a year in a maximum security jail, along with rapists and drug dealers, while a case is compiled against them. They will have to find about $2 million to defend themselves; and even if cleared, they will not be able to recoup those costs, as they could in the UK. If convicted, they could be jailed for up to 23 years.

Another law, designed to catch mafia bosses but now mostly used against businesspeople, has also conspired against them. It is the US Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Prosecutors routinely threaten people with its draconian penalties in the expectation that they will plea-bargain, admitting to some lesser offence and fingering lots of other people. And of course, Andrew Fastow, Enron’s former financial chief, with whom the Natwest Three are accused of conspiring, did exactly that.

The NatWest Three defrauded nobody in the United States, but they can be extradited because any alleged crime involving telephone calls, faxes, or emails to the United States counts as ‘wire fraud’ which carries stiff penalties. In the worst traditions of US legal imperialism, this means that almost anyone in international business can fall victim to some zealous American prosecutor.

If even innocent people can face extradition, a year or two in jail, and a $2 million defence bill, it is a wonder that anyone does business with the United States at all. And it is just as remarkable that we believe politicians when they say that innocent people have nothing to fear from their laws.

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Empires have collapsed for different reasons. The end of the Roman Empire seems the most pleasant, attributed by some to Bacchanalian orgy fuelled by wine. The American Empire collapse is forecast by some around 2040. When it does happen, it promises the most boring death of all — Ruin by Regulation. The US Supreme Court has joined the acrimonious climate debate (AP Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

It’s pillory Hillary time, and she deserves it. David Boaz at Cato Institute Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

I just discovered that O.G. blogger Acidman passed away last Monday, which is really too bad as he was a splendidly cantankerous and hugely entertaining SOB. I always thought of him as the Ted Nugent of the blogosphere. If my blog does not meet your standards, then LOWER YOUR STANDARDS. Who the hell do you think you are, anyway? Rock on, Rob….

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Writing on the CNE Competition Blog, my co-Samizdatista Brian Micklethwait responded to my post on the present anti-trust investigation of British Airways, by in response to a mention on my part of "landing fees", bringing up the question of whether there should be a free market in airport landing slots. Brian clearly has in mind something like an airport charging a fee for aircraft to land that is driven by demand, and setting it at…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

My home town of Perth recently bore witness to perhaps the most shocking crime in recent memory around these parts - earlier this week, an eight year old girl was raped and murdered, her body dumped in the disabled toilet of a popular Perth shopping centre just minutes after she was separated from her parents. Now a strange twist has created even more public interest in the case. The individual apprehended and charged with the…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom