The Senate remains the best chance to divide this government in 2012. Predictions three years out are indeed foolish, but barring some as of yet unrevealed scandal close to the President, I expect he will be reelected. The best chance to restore fiscal rationality in 2012 is for Republicans to take the Senate, and that will take two election cycles. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, and the first step is for Republicans to pick up a couple of seats in 2010.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

Wherever independents fall on the supposed political “spectrum”, if they ARE on the political “spectrum”, (i.e. they do exist!) Many MSM publishers seek increasing irrelevance if they don’t see the direction that the American people are headed…. While it’s clear that independents are “all over the map” on social issues, they increasingly come together [...]

Boo!

And yes, I know it’s a joke and I actually found parts of it funny, but do they honestly think things like this will be effective?
Let me put it another way…do libertarians not realize that our system, which doesn’t cover 40M+ people and is bankrupting our country, needs serious reform?
And I’m talking real reform, [...]

I thought it was a joke when I first heard about it, but “Seasteading” is a serious idea, it’s being backed by Milton Friedman’s grandson and they’ve apparently already raised more than a half a million dollars to realize their dream of building communities…on the sea!
Here’s more from Reason:
Patri Friedman was doing all right himself, [...]

I usually wouldn’t embed a video of Rachel Maddow’s show, but the following is compelling enough to share.
Long story short…abandon the culture wars, embrace real fiscal conservatism and stop being war mongers.

Can Libertarianism save the Republican party or will it split it in two?
Also, can election laws be reformed to allow a viable 3rd party [...]

Thanks to John, I am pointed to these two rather strange arguments in favor of the Drug War and against libertarian use of statistics on race against the Drug War from Jonah Goldberg. John does a pretty good job explaining why Goldberg’s arguments are so strange. The only thing I’d really add is [...]

As expected, it’s the “gateway drug” theory v. reality of human existence.
Guess which one sounds more credible…

I do still love Ron Paul in many ways, and I wish he wouldn’t have been mixed up in that remarkably dumb newsletter operation he was. Because then he’d be a viable third party candidate.
Oh well.

Robert Stacy McCain has a scathing post that seeks to permanently douse the concept of a left-libertarian coalition ever being a real possibility, which includes this little bit:
As a political impulse, the sort of libertarianism that scoffs at creationism and traditional marriage wields limited influence, because it appeals chiefly to a dissenting sect of the [...]

Me, elsewhere:
Over the last few months, there has been much finger-pointing as to which particular sect of the old GOP coalition is to blame for the policy failures of the last 8 years and the electoral failures of the last 2 years…..I think these accusations are deeply misplaced – the problems have not been caused [...]

As a result of mushy thinking, we are now given to understand the “free market” problem that was created by too much government spending, too much government debt, too much government sponsored credit via easy monetary policy, and a market wildly distorted by government intervention to meet social goals (along with a large helping of corporate criminal fraud that slipped through the existing government regulatory framework) can only be solved by increasing government spending, increasing government debt, have an easy monetary policy and create more market distortions with more government intervention to meet similar social goals.

Yes…the Chuck Baldwin, candidate for the Constitution Party.
So why not the Libertarian candidate Bob Barr?
Well, it appears as if Paul didn’t like the fact that Barr didn’t show up to his press conference recently…
The Libertarian Party Candidate admonished me for “remaining neutral” in the presidential race and not stating whom I will vote for [...]

This election choice is not really between “Experience” vs. “Change”, nor is it between “Experience” vs. “Experience”, nor is it between “Change” vs. “Change“. This election is not really even between McCain vs. Obama considered in a political vacuum. Since the Democrats will increase their majority in the House and Senate, this election is actually about choosing between single party or divided government in 2009.

As expected, Ron Paul’s big announcement at the National Press Club today turned out to be as anti-climatic as I anticipated:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas called on voters to back a third-party candidate for president Wednesday, rejecting his party’s nominee and offering equally harsh words for the Democratic candidate.
Paul, who unsuccessfully [...]

The Republican Party in Texas is concerned it may lose control of the state House in this or the next election. Republicans currently occupy 79 seats and the Democrats 71. The House handles the redistricting for the state, including Congressional districts.  A political party’s electoral fortunes depend on how creatively a political party draws the [...]

Will Libertarian Party presidential nominee Bob Barr be a threat to John McCain? Apparently, McCain doesn’t think so. Often, the two major parties will try to deal with third party threats by knocking the third-party challenger off the ballot in as many states as possible. For instance, Democrats tried to block Ralph Nader’s ballot access [...]

The Carnival of Divided Government is a monthly compilation of writing from around the blogosphere and main stream media on the single topic of government divided between the major parties. The carnival offers links, excerpts and commentary from and about writers both pro and con, who are thinking and writing about the topic.

He admits he was wrong and that it’s now time to call this “war” off because it’s doing far more harm than good.
From Huff Post:
For years, I served as a federal prosecutor and member of the House of Representatives defending the federal pursuit of the drug prohibition.
Today, I can reflect on my efforts and see [...]

But it wasn’t an easy nomination process…
Denver — Georgia’s Bob Barr won a long and tense battle Sunday for the 2008 Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination and now faces the daunting task of doing what no third-party candidate has done: Win in November.
It took six ballots and nearly five hours of voting at the Libertarian National [...]

 
I’ve been dying to draw a Ron Paul cartoon, especially as a lesbian! The Libertarian convention is happening this week, and with Georgia congressman Bob Barr coming out of the closet, the Republicans are afraid…very afraid of the L word.

Could he be McCain’s Nader?
From AP:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr has announced that he’s running for president as a Libertarian.
His candidacy would be a wild card in the White House race and many believe it would hurt Republican Sen. John McCain.
Barr made the announcement Monday at a news conference. He first must [...]