Busy as usual, but not doing the usual stuff (entirely). First, Penny and I have been working on getting our business up and running for the past week. We spent last Thursday and Friday in training to learn how to get the most out of our new screenprinting and padprinting equipment. We then moved that new equipment from Kirkland to our new space on Lake City Way - which is only about 5 minutes away from our house. We’ve spent every day since then assembling the various pieces, arranging the work area, and ordering catalogs from a long list of blank product suppliers. At this point, I really only have to get the washout booth plumbed and we’re ready to go. Of course, we’ll need to get a greater variety of ink colors and order blank product, but that’s no big deal.

I’ve spent the rest of my time divided between putting together a proposal for the 2006 LPWS convention, fundraising for that convention, and trying to finish the new LPWS website. I can’t believe I’m not done with the latter project yet, but I’ve been waiting on some info that I need to complete things. I have it now, so it’s just a matter of finding the time. I also have to find time to get the LPWS newsletter finished and into production. As for the convention, that’s developing quite nicely. I’ll post more in the near future.

With that, I must go for now. I just wanted to do a better job of posting stuff more often. Oh yeah, today’s my birthday. Happy birthday me!

I just stumbled across the blog of Richard Viguerie, a very outspoken conservative. In a recent post, he blasted the Republican Party for abandoning its limited government position. I decided to comment, but his website got buggy when I submitted the post. Instead, I’ve decided to post my thoughts here with a TrackBack. This is not intended to be a thorough comparison of two ideologies - just a brief observation based on what I read:

I figured I’d point out that on 5 of the 7 issues you listed, the Libertarian Party is more in line with your views than the current Republican Party.

On the issue of abortion, there is a lot of mixed opinion within the LP so that policy question sort of remains open.

As for the issue of gay marriage, most Libertarians I know would like to see the government out of the marriage business period. That’s a territory best left to clergy and other such organizations. If the issue is the “civil” or “legal” aspects of marriage, the government shouldn’t be giving benefits to people (like reduced hunting license fees) based on relationship status anyways. Nor should the government decide who you can will your estate to. Or who can visit you when you’re ill. Or any of the other issues so closely related to the current concept of marriage.

I know the LP has been a pretty ineffective organization in many ways thus far. I finally gave up on the Republicans (after first leaving the Democrats when I grew up a little) because they don’t pay anything more than lip-service to the core idea of a constitutionally limited government. That’s why traditional conservatives like Bob Barr have left the GOP in favor of the LP.

Just a thought.

Penny and I just got back from the last in the Ring cycle. It was quite amazing. I can’t imagine what opera was like before advanced lighting and other stage technology. All I know is the Seattle Opera is brilliant.

Speaking of brilliance and technology, Penny and I are staying up because we absolutely have to watch the new Battlestar Galactica episode. I loved the old show when I was a kid, but this new version is really, really good.

I mentioned at the end of my last post the Penny and I were on our way to the opera. In fact, we were on our way to the opening night of Seattle Opera’s celebrated production of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. The Ring consists of four operas: Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung.

Penny and I are attending the first cycle, meaning we are seeing the first run of the entire production. It also means were seeing a heck of a lot of opera in one week - try 17 hours!. The performances started on Sunday and continued Monday and Wednesday, finishing up on Friday.

So far, it’s been fantastic, though I must confess we left after the Act I of Siegried on Wednesday because I just wasn’t feeling well. Hopefully, we can find an opening for that part in a later cycle. Otherwise, it’s going to be years before we get to see Siegfried slay the dragon Fafner.

In other news, the 4th annual Seattle Tattoo Convention is going on this weekend. I’ll probably go on Sunday to see what’s up in that world. Should be fun, but could get expensive.

On Saturday, Penny and I will be attending Public Disclosure Commission Compliance Training with a group of friends. We figured we’d better get to know the ropes of political finance law since we’re getting more and more involved with local campaigns. Plus, I have a lot of big fundraising plans for the King County Libertarian Party and we need to get set up for operating within the law. For some reason, it’s hard to get libertarians to play by the rules .

Finally, Scott Lindsley and I met last night and have decided to launch a Public Access Channel program. The idea is to have talk/variety show that provides a forum for libertarian discussion as well as to some fun with local culture and arts. I’ll keep you posted on that, but I’m really excited about it.

Penny and I have spent the past week or so scrambling to help get some Libertarian candidates on the ballot. In particular, we were working to get four candidates for King County Council positions 1, 2, 6, and 9.

So why is this such a hassle? That’s a long story. Basically, it’s like this…

For the past few years, the Libertarian Party of Washington State was designated a “major” political party in Washington. That meant we were on legally equal footing as the Ds and Rs. As of the election in November 2004, however, we are once again considered a “minor” party (the story of the loss of status is in itself interesting). That means we have to jump through different hoops to get on the ballot.

To further complicate matters, the election law in Washington has undergone several changes of its own over the past few years. We used to have a blanket primary system in which anyone could vote for any candidate in the primary - which was used to narrow the field of candidates that appeared in the general election. That system was declared unconstitutional because it essentialyl prevented the political parties from determining who best represented their position.

We then adopted a “Montana” system in which voters had to declare party affiliation for the primary only. That meant they could only vote for members of one party during the primary instead voting for anyone. The purpose, of course, was to force only those who considered themselves Democrats to decide which Democrat went on to run for a particular office on the general election. Same for the Republicans and Libertarians (when we were a major party anyway).

People really hated this system. They felt as if their choices were being limited. I think this reaction reflects the fact that most Washington voters consider themselves to be independents, rather than strictly Ds or Rs. The ultimate result of this frustration was the passage of voter initiative (I-872) that created a “Louisiana” or “Cajun” style election system. This is a wierd one. Basically, people can vote for anyone in the primary regardless of political affiliation and then the top two vote-getters proceed to the general election. In case you didn’t catch that, if the top two happened to be Democrats - no problem - there would only be Democrats in the general election for that office. Ironically, they called this the “People’s Choice” initiative.

Turns out, the Cajun system will not be used in any election as a federal judge recently ruled it unconstitutional as well. That means we’re back to the Montana system that voters hated. It also brings me back to the story of getting on the ballot.

As a minor party, we don’t have to contend with the primary. Instead, each candidate has to gather 100 signatures of individuals registered to vote in the jurisdiction of the office they’re running for. Further, each candidate must collect the signatures at a “nominating convention” on a single day at a single location in the district of the office they’re running for.

That wouldn’t be too bad, except that the ruling only came down a couple of weeks ago. This ruling required the conventions to be held between August 13th and August 20th. But that’s not all. The candidates have to run a legal notice announcing the convention at least 10 days before the event. Combine that with the 3 day advance notice to get the announcement published and we got stuck with a very narrow window of opportunity.

Ooops. I just ran out of time to explain all this. Penny and I are going to the opera tonight. It’s the first of four parts. I’ll finish later.