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L. Neil Smith's
THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE
Number 476, July 13, 2008

"Empire is a Negative-Sum Game"


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Letter from L. Neil Smith

Letter from The Editor

Letter from Dennis Wilson

Letter from Jim Davidson

Letter from Darian Worden


L. Neil Smith on Antiwar Radio Monday at 12:15 Eastern Time

Yep, I'm gonna be on the radio at Antiwar.com. Please give it a listen. I'm looking forward to it very much.

L. Neil Smith
lneil@netzero.com


Swedes Massively Protest Wiretap Law
Written by Ernesto on July 07, 2008

"In June the Swedish parliament passed a controversial surveillance law that gives authorities a mandate to read all email and listen in on all phone calls without warrant or court order. In response to the law, The Pirate Party organized rallies, bloggers and journalists turned into activists, and even Google decided to relocate their servers."
Read More

Need I ask what us Americans are doing?

The Editor


The frustration of Scott Graves

Dear Mr. Graves,

Regarding your letter in TLE.

In my TLE article "Superstate North America vs. Individual Sovereignty" I both describe (in the first part) a frustration similar to what you apparently feel (and that I used to feel as recently as 4 years ago) and I offer (in the second part—after the three *'s) a course of action which you appear to be seeking. Furthermore, you don't need to "give up" all the benefits available in our capitalist, division of labor society. However, thru careful analysis, you may realize that using some different alternatives, you can effectively rearrange things in your life to gradually stop supporting your enemies and gradually Free Yourself. If you decide to Free Yourself, PLEASE, treat my suggestions as only a starting point rather than a complete course of action.

One of the suggestions—getting most of your money out of the banking system (I only keep enough to pay bills conveniently)—is not solely a way to remove support from the tyranny. It is a sensible way to protect yourself from the very real, pending collapse of many banks and probably the entire banking system. For one of many early warning signs of that collapse, see [this link] It is message #5 of a series that contains other articles of warnings that also deserve review.

Best regards

Dennis Wilson
DennisLeeWilson@Yahoo.com


Dear Editor,

Scott Graves continues to appeal for party loyalty to the Libertarian Party, in spite of the national party having chosen Bob Barr for president. Curiously, so have other correspondents who have been in touch with me since the Boston Tea Party nominated Charles Jay for president and Tom Knapp for vice president, formed ten new state affiliates, and recruited a full boat to our national committee. Guys like Jake Witmer have scared the pants off me by explaining that there is a secret inner clique that owns the national LP. Ladies like Susan Hogarth have driven me up the wall with the assertion that the radical caucus of the LP can fix it, if only everybody would please stay in the party.

Meanwhile, Chris Bennett has dramatically announced that he's finished with the party as soon as his commitments for this year are up. He's leaving the Libertarian Party. Angela Keaton has made it clear that she's frustrated with the national committee of the LP. Chris and Angela have both joined the Boston Tea Party. Tom Knapp founded our party and has been a member ever since, and is not leaving the LP, but he's running for Vice President on our party's platform. We've also begun endorsing other sincere radical Libertarian Party candidates such as Morey Straus, Phil Rhodes, and Jim Casarjian-Perry.

But, the most exciting development this week was when someone forwarded a note from Susan Hogarth's lpradicals mailing list on Yahoo. And I found out that Bob Barr is against the right to keep and bear arms.
See: http://waronguns.blogspot.com/2008/05/raising-barr.html

"Rep. Barr was also one of the Representatives who voted last September [note: 1995] in favor of the Lautenberg gun ban as part of the omnibus spending bill (H.R. 3610)."

Nobody seems to be able to get him to recant this position. There's even a poster contest about it now.
See: http://waronguns.blogspot.com/2008/06/bob-barr-poster-contest-its-on.html

"Since that time, there has been no response from either the Bob Barr campaign or the Libertarian Party. Indeed, the LP continues to beg support from gun owners via solicitations that ignore emails we have sent to them. They even issue media statements saying the other candidates ... 'get free passes on [the] gun issue.'"

So, let's review, shall we. You can remain loyal to the Libertarian Party and vote for Bob Barr. Bob Barr as USA attorney in Georgia used to put people in prison for possession or sale of contraband items like drugs or some types of guns. Bob Barr, two weeks before being handed the LP party nomination in a dirty back room deal in Denver was on Fox News telling Hannity and Colmes that he was not in favor of legalising any drugs. Bob Barr was on CNN the day after receiving the nomination defending his Defense of Marriage Act and telling gays and lesbians to go to the back of the bus. Bob Barr is a militarist who voted for funding the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and the proxy war in Somalia, without bothering with constitutional niceties like declaring war. Bob Barr has voted in favor of spying on Americans and other unconstitutional activities in the USAPATRIOT act.

Some people say Bob Barr has recanted, but I don't believe him. He is, after all, a politician. If he's truly sorry for all the evil he's caused, he can start by crawling on his hands and knees over broken glass to the homes of every family of every person he ever convicted of a victimless pseudo-crime and apologise for having destroyed their families—that would indicate to me a sincere level of contrition.

Until then, my choice is to support Charles Jay for president. See his site at www.cj08.com Charles is also the candidate for president of the Personal Choice Party. We've worked to put him on the ballot in Colorado, and I think we'll be approved there. We also have a very active team in Florida working on ballot access there. We are starting to raise money to put Boston Tea Party on the ballot in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee.

I'm supporting Tom Knapp for vice president. His site is myfrontporchcampaign.com and we're planning to endorse his candidacy in Missouri for USA Congress.

I'm supporting Darryl Perry for USA Senate from Alabama. His site is senate.dwp2016.org

I'm supporting Jason Gatties for Lake Michigan College Board. His site is votegatties.org

I'm supporting Phil Rhodes for Lt. Governor of North Carolina. He recently accepted the Boston Tea Party's platform and has been endorsed by our national committee. His site is www.philrhodes2008.com

I'm supporting Morey Straus for statehouse in New Hampshire. He has a really great video on Youtube right now. vote.stra.us is his campaign site.

I'm supporting Jim Casarjian-Perry for Billerica, Massachusetts planning board. Jim is the founder of the Liberty Party in Massachusetts and plans to bring it into the Boston Tea Party as a state affiliate. www.casarjianperry.com is his site.

Why am I supporting these candidates? I don't expect all of them to get elected. Since Jay and Knapp won't be on the ballot in very many states, I don't think they have any chance of being elected. And, being elected is not the main point of having a libertarian candidate in the race.

The main point has always been to educate voters on the nature of government and the opportunity to live with less government. The main point of libertarian candidates in the elections is to tell people what it means to be a libertarian, and point out that many of them are libertarians whether they know it or not.

For the national headquarters staff and nationalist socialist committee members of the Libertarian Party, the main point of having a political party is to raise a few hundred thousand dollars every year or so and allocate it as corruptly as possible. The main point for guys like Aaron Starr, Bill Redpath, and Admiral Colley, and Bob Sullentrup is to be at large, in charge, and corruptly dealing with everyone else in the party—the mere members whose membership fees they exploit, whose inquiries they ignore, and down whose throats they are trying to force Bob Barr's tiny little member.

Many of the state LP organizations are still effective. Some, like New Hampshire and Massachusetts, are not going to be putting Barr on the ballot in their states. Others are corrupt. You can stay in the LP, and still join the Boston Tea Party. You can leave the LP and join the BTP.

Whatever you do, take the time this year to do something about liberty, something for liberty. If you aren't interested in politics, and goodness knows there is no sign your liberty is going to be approved by a majority of voters, then learn to use Gnu Privacy Guard for e-mail encryption, and get involved with some of the exciting new work in private economic transactions at Loom.cc and eCache TOR sites.

And don't listen to Scott Graves, he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.

Regards,

Jim Davidson
planetaryjim@yahoo.com
www.bostontea.us


Re: "Letter from Dennis Wilson"

Dennis,

Thank you for your comments. In addition to Southern militia campaigns, you might be interested in the use of militias in New Jersey. During the winter of early 1777, they kept the British largely confined to their outposts. There were several engagements where militia performed well. Unfortunately I can't find too much online about this. This page has some good info but is not well organized.

I would also note that the militia possessed few bayonets, making it difficult to stand against British charges. Also, several battles have been called the "turning point" of the war by various people, but one would think that King's Mountain would at least be mentioned by the History Channel.

Darian Worden
darianworden@gmail.com


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