The Libertarian Party has struggled with its identity since its founding in 1971. Technically America’s third largest political party, the LP’s political efforts have often made it seem like America’s Third Largest Debate Club. The LP has elected only a handful of its members to state legislatures, and elected no candidates to federal office. In 2008, the party broke with tradition by nominating a carpetbagging repentant drug warrior, former Republican congressman Bob Barr, whose nomination over LP mainstay and perennial candidate for office Mary Ruwart nearly tore the party in half.

It appears the party has found a balance with the nomination of former two-term New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson for president and Judge Jim Gray of California for vice president. Both men are former Republican officeholders with high media profiles, both are committed libertarians, and both won their respective nominations at the Libertarian National Convention in Las Vegas by large margins and after only one round of voting.

Yet shortly after confetti cannons fired celebratory glitter directly in front of C-SPAN’s cameras, the party resumed its internal squabbling, and a confusing and frustrating fight over who would chair the Libertarian National Committee lasted two days. Eventually, a candidate from the more purist wing of the party, Geoff Neale, won out, defeating two candidates from the more electorally focused wing of the party. LP delegates then cleaned house, replacing every party officer.

With the LP slated to have its highest profile presidential ticket since Ed Clark and David Koch ran together in 1980, hundreds more candidates running for lower offices across the country, and Americans more interested in libertarian ideas than ever before, the Party of Principle still has some questions it needs to answer. Can it qualify for the ballot in all 50 states? Can members stop fighting each other over who is more libertarian? Can the Libertarian National Committee do its job?

Can the LP qualify for the ballot in all 50 states?

CONTINUED at Reason. Written by Mike Riggs & Garrett Quinn.

Are you a liberal? If so, Dr. Stephen Davies provides a few compelling reasons to consider libertarianism. For instance, both liberals and libertarians want to eliminate poverty and offer more opportunities to the population at large. Liberals and libertarians also emphasize the importance of freedom and human well-being. From a libertarian perspective, government is not the answer to these problems. In fact, libertarians view concentrated political power as the single largest threat to individual liberty. They also see wealth as a liberating force, creating more choices and opportunities for all people.

Want to advance liberty?: http://lrnlbty.co/ABw93P

*Written by Rob Rimes.

Super Tuesday came and it went and we really aren’t any better off because of it. Going into the big day, the delegate count was as follows: 207 for Romney, 86 for Santorum, 46 for Paul and 39 for Gingrich. After Super Tuesday, the delegate count swelled to 429 for Romney, 169 for Santorum, 118 for Gingrich and a dismal 67 for Ron Paul. Out of the ten states, Romney walked away with six wins, Santorum with three and Gingrich with a win in his home state of Georgia. Ron Paul didn’t win a single state and is the only candidate left in this race that hasn’t gotten a first place victory, at least officially – considering he was screwed out of Maine. At this stage of the race, Dr. Paul is 0 for 23 in winning over states. I don’t think I am being pessimistic or disloyal here when I point out the fact that Paul’s efforts to win this primary have been seemingly all for naught. Then again, his message has reached more people than it ever has before – in that, there is a very solid victory.

Mathematically, Ron Paul is still technically in this thing but he’d have to string together about two dozen miracles over the next month or so to eclipse Mitt Romney in the delegate department. Hell even that piss midget Rick Santorum is way ahead of Dr. Paul now. Gingrich who fell to fourth place behind Paul last week, is now back up in third and after his Georgia win, is now ahead of Paul pretty significantly. Now the Paul campaign keeps telling us that the delegates that the media is reporting on don’t matter and that it really comes down to the amount of “secured” delegates. While they continue to claim that they are incredibly successful in the secured delegates department, I don’t know if their numbers are skewed or if it’s just a pile of giant bullshit. I don’t want to call out the Paul camp for misleading their supporters but all these mystical revelations and inspiring speeches can’t discount reality and reality is that the Paul campaign is suffering horribly.

I’m not going to sit here and type away telling the Paul camp to walk away. Hell, I want to see this thing through to the end, no matter what the outcome is. However, ignoring the fact that this is certainly not working out in Dr. Paul’s favor really needs to be addressed. It needs to be touched on because the strategy, as good as it is at throwing rallies and raising money, somehow cannot turn that passionate support into votes. Where it really counts, this amazingly run campaign is falling flat. I don’t know if there is a way to turn this thing around. The most logical way of doing so would be to continue to educate the fickle and fair-weather Romneycons, Gingrichers and Santorumites. However, these people seem to greatly outnumber the Paul supporters and their brains are nothing more than a thick pile of coosh suffering from decades of indoctrinated neocon rhetoric from soulless bastards pontificating from boutique soap boxes wrapped in soft Corinthian leather stitched with golden thread paid for by Goldman Sachs campaign contributions.

The truth is, that it is the young generation that is getting Dr. Paul’s message and it will ultimately be up to them to turn things around. The true positive of all this is that the old guard is decaying, albeit slowly. It may take years for them to all keel over and die but their message and their rhetoric doesn’t seem to be penetrating the minds of most of the conservative and libertarian people under the age of thirty. The unrelenting truth however, is that even though this message is spreading like wildfire, by the time that this young generation grows, has children and goes on to educate them and teach them these principles, it might be too late. However, a little anarchy and total collapse may be what’s necessary at this point. Maybe the country needs to fall like Rome so we can wash our hands with it and build up something more solid and sustainable. Maybe that’s what needs to happen for these neocons and progressives to finally accept the fact that they’re sick and that their disease has killed a once great nation. Then again, we all know that they’ll just continue to point the finger, divide the masses and pimp out their consistently disastrous formula that they refuse to see as economically genocidal. We have a choice however, we don’t have to listen to them.

I know, this article really isn’t about Super Tuesday, it is about trying to find a shred of hope and promise after living through another dark day in American history. We have to accept the fact that Ron Paul is not going to win this election and he also isn’t going to return to his seat in Congress. We only have a few months left with this man in office fighting for us. So what’s going to happen when he takes a step back and hands the reigns of liberty over? Will Rand Paul or Justin Amash take them and lead us towards the promised land that those of us that understand the mechanics of this twisted game are trying to find? Or does this movement and this mindset die with this election? I am trying to stay motivated and positive and continue the fight for all that’s right from a journalistic standpoint but it is incredibly hard. I know you all feel my pain and my dissatisfaction but we need to turn these negative emotions into fuel. Yes we are all tired, we are all at our wits end and every time Ol’ Mittens or that bag of dicks Mr. Santorum give us another victory speech we want to smash our television sets with our passionate and loud voices. This is why we can’t give up, this is why we have to push forward through thick and thin, this is why our voices MUST BE LOUDER!

We don’t need to look for someone to lead us. We are the leaders! We are the revolution and the resurgence that this country needs. No, I don’t have all the answers and I can’t tell you what must be done next but if we are vigilant, never let up and march forward, the ideas and the action will come. Mankind is smart enough to fix their own problems and to take responsibility for itself, contrary to governmental rhetoric, as they would rather see us dependent on them – remaining zombified and subservient to no end. That’s all bullshit. We are human beings, which is the greatest force this universe has ever created! We have what it takes to lead ourselves again and to defeat this two-headed mastodon. We’ve done it before and we WILL do it again! There really isn’t any other option, is there? We have to want it, we can’t settle for less, we have to see the evil bastards for what they are and not take their lies and deceit at face value. Where is the rage in America? Where is that pure and refined anger that we used to aim at those who tried to oppress us on every level? When did we become such big pussies, afraid of our own goddamned shadows? We’ve become a nation of obedient toddlers that can’t change their own diapers. The cure to this statist addiction is to quit it. There is no rehab, we must quit cold turkey or there isn’t a chance for us. We have to face the fact that there’s no better time to make this shift than now!

Often times, positivity is created by staring into the face of negativity and committing oneself towards making a change.

So the question I asked was, “Who is going to take the reigns from Dr. Paul?” Well, we are.. ALL of us!

The full Libertarian Presidential candidades debate on 2/25/2012 in Athens, GA.

Moderator: Sharon Harris (TheAdvocates.org)
Candidates: Gary Johnson, Carl Person, Leroy Saunders, Bill Still, R. Lee Wrights

Former Georgia Republican Rep. Bob Barr supports Newt Gingrich’s campaign for president, and told The Daily Caller other libertarians should consider joining him.

Barr was elected to Congress in 1994 and worked alongside Gingrich as he became Speaker of the House. Barr left office in 2003 and in 2008 ran as the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate, receiving more than 500,000 votes nationwide.

Explaining his support for Gingrich, a politician not often considered a libertarian darling, Barr told The Daily Caller, “I’m very comfortable and happy supporting Newt,” adding, “it’s not to say that other candidates like Ron Paul don’t have very good ideas.”

The former congressman has served as a surrogate for Gingrich’s campaign, primarily reaching out to groups supportive of the Second Amendment. He said he has some policy differences with Gingrich, but finds his political track record reassuring.

“Of all of the Republican candidates, he is the one best equipped and with an actual track record of accomplishing important conservative and libertarian goals,” said Barr. “A track record to me is a much better indicator of where these candidates truly stand than what they may say.”

Barr specified three particular legislative accomplishments as reasons why libertarians and others should entertain voting for Gingrich. (RELATED: Full coverage of the Gingrich campaign)

“Under Newt’s leadership we balanced the federal budget, we cut taxes significantly and we reformed welfare substantially and permanently,” he said. “Those three things stand out as irrefutable evidence that Newt is committed to and knows how to accomplish goals that are important to libertarians and conservatives because they shrink the size of government and empower the people and businesses and states.”

CONTINUED at The Daily Caller.

Murray N. Rothbard presented this speech at the Michigan Libertarian Party Convention, held in Southfield, Michigan, in May 1989. This selection also includes a question and answer session. Special thanks to Bob Roddis for making this video available.

As current drive time radio host on KYSR in Los Angeles and former MTV VJ Kennedy explains it, early reactions to her political leanings were pretty consistent. “Your name is Kennedy, and you’re a Republican, and you’re on MTV? What?!”

At Reason Weekend 2012, Reason Foundation’s annual donor event, Kennedy sat down with Reason’s Nick Gillespie to discuss her transformation from Dan Quayle fetishist to hardcore libertarian, a Republican tattoo, and her recent fight with HBO’s Bill Maher over atheism.

About 28 minutes. Filmed by Joshua Swain and Anthony Fisher. Edited by Meredith Bragg.

Napolitano signs off from Freedom Watch with promise to keep “defending freedom whenever I can”.

Judge Andrew Napolitano signed off onFreedom Watch this week with a salute and a promise to keep “defending freedom– everyone’s freedom, whenever I can,”, following the announcement that the show has been axed by Fox Business News.

The Judge closed the last edition ofFreedom Watch in the same way he normally does, with a message regarding adherence to the vision of the founding fathers and the hard fought liberties protected by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

Napolitano flagged up the fact that only a third of Americans supported the revolution and another third expressed no interest in the matter. In a clear message to his critics, the Judge noted “The founding fathers risked their lives, their fortunes, and their honor, [but] they were not saints, and originally their cause was not popular.”

As of now, Freedom Watch will be replaced by reruns of The Willis Report.

Watch the last ever segment of Freedom Watch below:

CONTINUED at Prison Planet. Written by Paul Joseph Watson.

*Written by Rob Rimes.

I’m finally back home and have enough time to actually sit down and write. The drive back from Orlando last night, immediately after the debate was insane! Drivers on Interstate 4 are beyond awful and they have no regard for the written and unwritten rules of the road. I nearly died a few times and by the time I got home, I just needed to chill out with some rum and watch ‘Firefly’ on Netflix. I intended to write this immediately after the debate but it just wasn’t possible. Between the lack of sleep the night before, the traveling and the two days of heavy discussions and debate, I was a vegetable. Thank God for my own bed and a bottle of Cruzan Black Strap rum as I feel much more alive this morning.

To start the day, I rolled out of bed at 7:30, which was pretty hard considering I was up late writing and drinking the night before and I just couldn’t get to sleep in a strange bed. I’ve always had trouble sleeping on the road. In fact, the only hotel that I’m comfortable in is the Hampton Inn across the street from the New Orleans Convention Center. Hell, I even have a hard time sleeping in Vegas without a ton of alcohol as a sedative, which is still partially ineffective, as that oxygen they pump through the vents has me wide awake pretty quickly.

So I woke up, got ready and suited up for my day, packed my suitcase and took a few minutes to watch part of the first half of the Liverpool v. Manchester United game before I had to check out. I went downstairs about twenty minutes into the game and ate breakfast with my friends from the Libertarian Party of Collier County. Shortly after this, we headed into the banquet room for the Libertarian Party of Florida’s business meeting. I’m not going to discuss the details but the meeting was informative and entertaining. Like one would expect, peering behind the scenes of politics at any level, the meeting had it’s fair share of heated debates between different factions all vying for control of the Party. Don’t take this the wrong way, this isn’t a bad thing, it is a very healthy way of addressing issues and concerns. All in all, it was a cool experience to see how the Libertarian Party operates in Florida.

At around 11:30, we split for lunch and I took that time to go upstairs and meet with Gary Johnson one last time before the debate. It was your typical meet and greet but there were more people present at this one than the two that I went to on the previous day. I listened in for awhile but I didn’t really interject myself this round. I asked a lot of questions the day before and I felt it was only fair for those who missed out on the earlier meet and greets to have their chance at asking Governor Johnson whatever it was they wanted to know.

I left after about a half hour, as the subjects being covered were already addressed at the previous meetings. Plus, my claustrophobia was kicking in as ten to fifteen people in a small hotel room is too many. I went downstairs, had some killer buffalo wings and spoke to congressional candidate Calen Fretts. If you live in the Florida panhandle, you should vote for Mr. Fretts. He’s got a good head on his shoulders and is a true representative of liberty. I think that may have been an endorsement. Anyway, we all headed back into the banquet hall at 1:00 for the second part of the business meeting. At 3:00 the debate officially started.

Contrary to what I wrote before, Roger Gary was not a part of the debate. Also, Leroy Saunders, a candidate from the State of New York joined the debate. I don’t know much about Mr. Saunders but his involvement added some energy to the event. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a Facebook page or anything else on the social networking level and that can only hurt his campaign, in my opinion. He does have a decent website however. The other candidates were mentioned in an earlier article, they are Gary Johnson, R.J. Harris, R. Lee Wrights, Bill Still and Carl Persons.

Before the debate, those of us who are members of the Libertarian Party of Florida were asked to write down any questions they had for the candidates. Two of my three questions were used in the debate and in fact, they were the first two questions used after the moderators were done asking theirs. The first question, which I asked in an effort to give a boost to Bill Still, went directly to Mr. Still first – how’s that for luck? The question was “What’s your plan to bring about economic recovery? Is it as simple as abolishing the Federal Reserve, returning to a gold standard and significantly cutting spending?” The reason I wanted this question to go to Still is that he takes the stance that a gold standard isn’t the answer. I wanted to give him the opportunity to explain his position, which he did by stating that the majority of the gold is held by the elite, so it isn’t a good way to give control of money back to the people and that throughout history, the gold standard hasn’t been as great as many economists claim.

The second question I asked that was used was “Is there ever a time when U.S. military intervention is necessary?” Most of the candidates said “no”. Gary Johnson however pointed to the Afghan War and said that he was for us going over there and wiping out Al-Qaeda but that we should have come back six months after going to war, as we sent the “evildoers” running for the hills. Leroy Saunders pretty much agreed with Johnson and added that if we are attacked, we have the right to go after the attacker and seek justice but other than that, we need to stay out of the business of all these other countries, except for trade – which should be free.

My third question “How would you curb the Supreme Court from making unconstitutional decisions?”, wasn’t asked. In fact, there was nothing asked about how they would work with the judicial branch, which was unfortunate. This is a subject I don’t hear libertarians discuss very often.

While watching the debate, I noticed that there weren’t a lot of philosophical differences between the candidates. They had different ways to achieve certain goals but for the most part, everything they said, I found to be correct and pretty on point. It’s hard to do a proper critique of the content, as these men know their stuff and were all pretty damn effective at expressing it and hammering their points. It’s really different when you have a debate where the candidates aren’t idiots and they don’t have to constantly explain their stance to an idiot crowd. Libertarians are cut from a different cloth and they typically educate themselves on a variety of topics. They are a group that is constantly in the know and on top of things. I’m not trying to toot my own libertarian horn here but those who truly represent our beliefs, don’t need to have everything explained to them. They are the self-educated minority and have reached a higher plane in their political philosophy that one can’t get to by blindly following mainstream ideas and not questioning what they’ve always been taught.

In the end, I felt that Gary Johnson did a solid job and articulated himself well. Bill Still did really good when the questions were economic based but needed to say more on some of the other subjects. R. Lee Wrights was great and really won me over. Even though I hope Johnson gets the nomination, I’d love Mr. Wrights as VP. R.J. Harris did alright but I was expecting a little more thunder, especially after hearing all the positive things my friends and colleagues have said about him. I wasn’t disappointed by my expectations of him but I wasn’t really impressed either. Leroy Saunders did a pretty good job but often times went on some tangents. He needs to get his talking points down and sharpen his skills. He’s a young guy though and he has a lot of time to get it right, just not in this race. Carl Persons had some sharp insight but he just didn’t bring the fire. I honestly can’t see him as a leader, which is unfortunate, as I did like the things he had to say. Truth be told though, I would take anyone of these guys over Barack Obama or the GOP contenders minus Ron Paul.

After the debate, I immediately left and drove home. I wish I could’ve mingled some more and gone to the Libertarian Party dinner but I really needed to get back. All in all it was a great weekend, I got to spend a lot of time picking Gary Johnson’s brain and I met a lot of like minded people from all over the country. It’s not everyday that an average joe can sit down with a presidential candidate and ask them questions face-to-face. I got to do it twice in one day.