Virginia Libertarian

[sarcasm]Lets vote Democrat! That’ll get our message across that we’re not happy with the status quo. Lets go from the party that was somewhat in line with our goals (smaller government, notice the empahsis on was), to one that is moving more and more toward socialism as they fall further out of power. That will fix things![/sarcasm]

Ok, now how about a better suggestion. I want the GOP out of power in at least one of the houses this year. How about instead of voting for one of the big two party candidates you vote for a 3rd party candidate. I don’t even care which 3rd party it is (of course I would prefer libertarian). That would get the message out that the goals of both the big two are out of line with what mainstream America wants. We just want to be left alone to do our thing, by both our own government, and by foreign governments, and we’ll stay out of their way as well. That’s the kind of message we need to send this fall.

Left Behind Economics
…the real income of the richest 1 percent of Americans surged by almost 12.5 percent. Meanwhile, the average real income of the bottom 99 percent of the population rose only 1.5 percent. In other words, a relative handful of people received most of the benefits of growth.

I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking that this is related to this. When you teach the people to be mindless sheep, why act surprised when they turn out to be that way?

Telegraph | Money | US attack on online gaming
US authorities have arrested five people connected to online gambling group BetonSports, including British chief executive David Carruthers, and are seeking the extradition of six others in an unprecedented industry crackdown.

Someone please explain to me how we can issue arrest warrants for people who are not citizens of the U.S., and are not breaking any laws in the country they are doing business in.  This kind of crap is just beyond me.

The Blog | Eric J. Weiner: You Can Lead GM To Water, But You Can’t Make It Drink | The Huffington Post
That our health care system is wasting enormous amounts of cash while failing to provide for average Americans has been well documented. (I wrote about it here, here and here.) We pay far more for health care than any other developed country on the planet, more than $6,000 per person per year, or 15.3 percent of our gross domestic product. The average for the 30 countries in the OECD is $2,550, or 8.9 percent of GDP.

Hmm, could the reason that we pay more for our health insurance possibly be because we expect and get better health care?  Hmm, could it?  I don’t know about you, but I don’t know of 30 other countries that have anywhere near the standard of living that the U.S. has, so I’m thinking that the only reason that 30 countries were included in this average is to bring that number down.  I’d like to see a comparison of health care costs (true costs, not just what people pay out of their pocket to insurance companies and health care providers, but what they pay to the government for those countries with government funded health care) of nations with similar standards of living.  I’ll see if I can find some data on that, and post it if I do.

Hammer of Truth - Bill Peirce Wants to Be Your MySpace Friend
Over the past month, the Peirce for Ohio campaign has taken their netroots operation deep into the youth vote using popular social software. Plowing into the MySpace territory in a short time-span, Bill Peirce’s profile has managed to amass roughly 45 new Ohioan friends and supporters every single day since June 18th, for a recent total of 1365 friends.

I think this could be another great campaign tool, fitting side-by-side with YouTube, until the FTC get hold of it and tries to regulate both of them to death.  I’m going to wait and see how long it lasts, I say it won’t make it until November before someone tries to file a suit against one or the other of the two under McCain-Feingold.  Hat tips to the guys at Hammer of Truth, definitely one of the best libertarian sites out there.