Early this morning, I tried to illustrate the immediate future potential of the Internet as a multi-media source. If members of the paleomedia had read my posting, perhaps this article would not have been necessary:

As traditional news outlets like newspapers magazines and TV stations grapple with moving online, they must cultivate key audiences including 35- to 44-year-olds, who are the biggest consumers of online sources a study shows. Some 24 percent of this demographic, which includes members of Generation X and Baby Boomers, get their news online.

Most of what the old guard needs to do to be competitive online is not all that complicated. Throw a few pictures or some video online to compliment the story. Allow for blog style commentary. Quit dumping the archives after a week or two. Allow for RSS or similar syndication. Of course, other coding bells and whistles are helpful, as well. For some reason, media magnates don’t seem to get it, though:

“The issue that hangs like a cloud for everybody in this area is ‘How can I do this without harming my traditional media property?’” said Barry Parr, Jupiter media analyst and author of the report. “That’s a hard question.” The Internet has created new habits and consumption patterns as audiences migrate to the web.

The solution is so simple I’m perplexed that this is even an issue. Keep your ink or broadcast medium going as long as it is drawing a profit. At the same time, compliment your old world journalistic medium with new world enhancements. If you ever have to shut your old medium down, the new medium can be drawing a profit in its new non-geographically limited market. In the mean time, both media can compliment each other. A classic example of print and online media working together is Reason.

Those concerned about harming their “traditional media property” ought to be more concerned about some local blogger eventually shutting down their business. Market share is not real property, and it can be taken by anyone. Instead of being concerned about using monopolistic powers to protect what is not rightfully theirs, they should be concentrating on earning as large a stake as possible of the Internet.

I think I see part of the problem, though:

Indeed, traditional media has a lot of work to do on the web, the report says. Most local print media and TV news stations are reaching only one-quarter to one-third of their potential audience, Jupiter said. And it’ll stay that way unless traditional media companies begin to exploit the web’s interactivity and other possibilities.

It is kind of hard for the authoritarians of the old school to understand how to react to community, peer-to-peer and bottom-up mechanisms of communications. Imagine a reporter who actually has blog commentary about the article he/she just wrote. Better get those facts straight and report fairly, or you will get caught. Imagine having many media sources for one town, as opposed to the traditional two papers and a handful of television stations.

It’s a new world out there, which is kind of scary to those who have been able dominate their community press without having to provide quality or real time journalism. The barred windows of the traditional media are being replaced by the open doorways of the new media, and it’s about damn time!

Props.

When we one day consult the annals of legislative unintended consequences in a historical retrospect of the War on Drugs, we’ll probably laugh heartily at this nugget of wisdom from Tennessee lawmakers (via Hit & Run):

With the new year, meth offenders join sex offenders as social pariahs deserving of a permanent electronic registry in Tennessee. Just before year’s end, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) got a new, online Meth Offender Registry up and running that will enable anyone anywhere to quickly and easily look for persons convicted of methamphetamine offenses in Tennessee.

Or, as The Onion satirically predicted the direction of such a law in March 2005:

Tony’s Law would create a national public registry of drug-law offenders’ names, addresses, and pager numbers. Additionally, offenders charged with dealing marijuana would be required to either post signs or go door-to-door and let neighbors know when they’re holding.

Well, chalk one up to Tennessee lawmakers for making the jobs of drug dealers one step easier. Now all they have to do is consult the online customer database Meth Offender Registry.

With his January 3rd guilty plea to three felony counts of conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion super lobbyist Jack Abramoff sent several members of congress scurrying to their coffers to return whatever funds they received from him.

Investigations into the Abramoff scandal have revealed an impressive list of connections to politicians, pundits and even the President. A Libertarian was caught up in the mess when the now former Cato Institute Senior Fellow Doug Bandow (pictured in this post) admitted to accepting payments from Abramoff to promote his clients in his syndicated Op-Ed pieces. From BusinessWeek.com:

Doug Bandow, who writes a syndicated column for Copley News Service, told BusinessWeek Online that he had accepted money from Abramoff for writing between 12 and 24 articles over a period of years, beginning in the mid ’90s.

-SNIP-

Bandow confirms that he received $2,000 for some pieces, but says it was “usually less than that amount.” He says he wrote all the pieces himself, though with topics and information provided by Abramoff. He adds that he wouldn’t write about subjects that didn’t interest him.

On January 4th, 2006 Bandow wrote “The lesson Jack Abramoff taught me,” an article in the L.A. Times addressing the Abramoff connection which he declared would be his “last word on the past.” After a few paragraphs of humility and excuse Bandow asks the reader a series of questions in a kind of “everyone does it so what’s the big deal” type of defense:

These are not excuses for my actions — these are issues that should be addressed. Is it “journalism” if the research is helped along by a foundation whose board members have some interest in the subject? How can we be sure that newspapers keep advertisers out of news decisions? Don’t broadcast media hire consultants and pollsters to contribute to their news coverage, people who could benefit financially from promoting the ideas of their other clients? And haven’t reporters sometimes pocketed thousands of dollars speaking at conventions or corporate events and then covered those businesses — or their issues — in one way or another?

Like everyone involved with Abramoff, Bandow was offered money for his influence. Bandow says that he never wrote anything that contradicted his beliefs and that his “biases are too fixed and well known to allow a convenient conversion.” But, it really doesn’t matter in the end… it’s the association that kills your credibility.

PACs are powerful and guys like Abramoff exist because the politicians and punditry ACCEPT what they are being offered.

Maybe this will be the good in an obviously bad situation? Abramoff’s actions will push “K” street to the election podium in 2006 and force politicans to rethink who and where they get their funding from.

Hey, a guy can dream can’t he?

Update by Mike Horn:
Can dreams come true!?

With Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) formally removed from congressional leadership, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) took the next step yesterday in Republican efforts to distance the party from a growing corruption scandal, saying the House will move soon to tighten the rules governing lobbyists’ access to lawmakers. (WashingtonPost.com)

Stay tuned…

Joe Trippi wrote that the revolution will not be televised. Perhaps it will be, but not in the manner in which he referred. The Chicago Tribune bills it this way:

“…a blurring of the distinction between the TV screen and computer monitor, and yet another blow to free viewers from the tyranny of network schedules.

What they are talking about is the recent marriage of Google and CBS in their attempt to create a major new broadcast network. From the article:

“Ultimately, we will be living in a world of the smart television … where you can do anything from the television or the PC via one device,” said Robert Routh, a media analyst at Jefferies & Co. “This is the first step in the convergence that has been talked about for years by major media companies.

“I think it’s going to be much sooner than people expect,” Routh said. “All of these technologies, with the exception of digital television, have come dramatically faster than anyone anticipated. … Cable modems were ubiquitous in a matter of no time.”

For me, cable modems are the ultimate clincher. While we have the historic family home in north Alabama, I’ve had to rent an apartment in the Highland Avenue area of Birmingham due to the escalation of local political activities in which I am involved. In addition to rent, I have to consider the cost of utilities like telephone, bandwidth and television signals. The lowest cost solution for me was clearly a cable modem and VOIP. I’ve taken a junker box (E-Machines, if I remember correctly — not that it matters, anyway) and thrown a $49 TV card into it for my primary video source for cable television. I already owned a large monitor designed for computer presentations for mid-sized audiences, an old SoundBlaster card and plenty of speakers. While my television and Internet are already significantly integrated, Google just added to the mix:

“For video producers and anyone with a video camera, Google Video will give you a platform to publish to the entire Google audience in a fast, free and seamless way,” Google co-founder Larry Page said in a statement.

The involvement of CBS, which will sell commercial-free reruns at $1.99 a pop and share revenue with Google, is the latest entrepreneurial move promising to alter the relationship between TV viewers and TV networks.

While the business world is rightfully looking at the decent 70-30 split (the same split I’ve successfuly used with medical practices) on revenue-sharing, I’m looking at the political angle. The first quote I used from the Chicago Tribune article only gets half the picture: The new Google product may not only free viewers from the “the tyranny of network schedules”, it may free us from the tyranny of the networks altogether.

As a former Campaign Manager/Communications Director for two recent Libertarian presidential campaigns, I just gave the new service a shot with some of our old television commercials. The two Russo advertisments were already uploaded (by whom, I don’t know); I just uploaded a few Badnarik commercials. They are currently in Google’s verification status, but will likely be approved before most of you read this article.

To check out the Libertarian stuff already out there for free viewing, simply visit this link. There are a lot more more libertarian videos out there (but not yet on Google), ranging from the Pollie Award winning Steve Kubby ad to the ubiquitious local cable access spots people e-mail to me daily.

While they’ve not yet approved my entries, Google’s guidelines seem clear enough. If you have the rights (I used the Campaign Manager and Communications Director authority angles) to the video, you can upload it for the world to see. While I have friends on Yahoo’s front pages, I have no inside scoop as to how Google will take my upload requests. Based on my previous positive experiences with Google News, I expect a satisfactory outcome.

The most time consuming part of the process for me was remembering my Google login and password. For those of you with the rights, let’s get those videos out there for the world to see. Unless they are stupid, Google is hoping to make megabucks from this venture, and they will deserve it if their new project works. By the some token, they may be freeing us from the near monopoly and clearly collusive power of the major video media networks — which would be a major revolution in the world of communications.

A Related idea from Mike Horn:
To carry on the thought of blurring the lines between TV and the computer monitor here is a flash animation generated by the “Museum of Media History,” a fictional entity from the future which explains “Googlezon” and its release of the system EPIC. From the EPIC 2015 transcript:

The “Evolving Personalized Information Construct” is the system by which our sprawling, chaotic mediascape is filtered, ordered and delivered. Everyone contributes now — from blog entries, to phone-cam images, to video reports, to full investigations. Many people get paid too — a tiny cut of Googlezon’s immense advertising revenue, proportional to the popularity of their contributions.

EPIC produces a custom contents package for each user, using his choices, his consumption habits, his interests, his demographics, his social network — to shape the product.

I learned about this simple presentation, released in 2004, while working for a local newspaper. It made all the reporters and our editor very uncomfortable.

Flash animation: EPIC 2015

Tonight, at the Peninsula Hotel, Bangkok, (at the bar) I had the chance to overhear a fellow American talk to a gentleman of unknown origin. She regaled him with stories describing why Vegas is better than New York. She lives in an affluent Scottsdale neighborhood. She abhors Chicago, but Boston is ok. I meant to hear none of this, but she is one of “those” Americans. You know, one of the ones that speak too loudly about things they know nothing about. And, I could not help but listen. I listened as she talked about the necessity of a “pass” to scoot through security. She said she would gladly give her personal 411 to not have to take off her shoes at the airport. I am sure she pre-ordered her national ID card.

The last words were actually written at the end of November. My family went to Thailand for the Thanksgiving holiday seeking sun, shopping and adventure. I wrote those words a little tipsy- the Peninsula had offered free mini bar service in the room and if you know me at all, you know that they are surely rethinking that “special package” today. Thailand was the last place I used my almost expired passport. I renewed my passport last week- a bit early because of visa requirements for my next destination- and was shocked to see what I had to agree to for permission to travel. The application had a whole section describing how an applicant’s personal information could be used and shared.

PURPOSE: The primary purpose for soliciting the information is to establish citizenship, identity, and entitlement to
issuance of a U.S. passport.
ROUTINE USES: The information solicited on this form may be made available as a routine use to other government agencies to assist the U.S. Department of State in adjudicating passport applications and requests for related services, and for law enforcement and administration purposes. The information may be made available to foreign government agencies to fulfill passport control and immigration duties. The information may also be provided to foreign government agencies, international organizations and, in limited cases, private persons and organizations to investigate, prosecute, or otherwise address potential violations of law or to further the Secretary’s responsibility for the protection of U.S. citizens and non-citizen nationals abroad. The information may be made available to private U.S. citizen ‘wardens’ designated by the U.S. embassies and consulates. For a more detailed listing of the routine uses to which this information may be put, see the Prefatory Statement of Routine Uses and the listing of routine users set forth in the system descriptions for Overseas Citizen Services Records (State-05) and Passport Records (State-26) published in the Federal Register.
CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE TO PROVIDE INFORMATION: With the exception of your Social Security Number (see Federal Tax Law statement on Instruction Page 3), you are not legally required to provide the information requested on this form. However, failure to do so may result in Passport Services’ refusal to accept your application or result in the denial of a U.S. passport.

In today’s climate, I wonder how they will “limit” private persons and organizations from my personal information. If I go back to Amsterdam and visit a coffee shop, will my local police know it? Perhaps I am being hypersensitive. Maybe all that was included on the last passport application I signed. But I was 23 then and did not give a shit enough to read the fine print. But there is one thing on this passport application that I am sure was not ten years ago- notification of an electronic chip to be placed in the passport.

ELECTRONIC PASSPORT STATEMENT
The U.S. Department of State will begin issuing a new type of passport containing an embedded electronic chip and called an “Electronic Passport”. The new passport will continue to be proof of the bearer’s United States citizenship and identity, and will look and function in the same way as a passport without a chip. The addition of an electronic chip in the back cover will enable the new passport to carry a duplicate electronic copy of all information from the data page. The new passport will be usable at all ports-of-entry, including those that do not yet have electronic chip readers.
Use of the electronic format will provide the traveler the additional security protections inherent in chip technology. Moreover, when used at ports-of-entry equipped with electronic chip readers, the new passport will provide for faster clearance through some of the port-of-entry processes.
Issuance of this new passport will be phased in during an 18-month period. It is expected that by late 2006 nearly all U.S. passports will be issued in this new format. The new passport will not require special handling or treatment, but like previous versions should be protected from extreme bending and from immersion in water. The electronic chip must be read using specially formatted readers, and is not susceptible to unauthorized reading. The cover of the new passport will be printed with a special symbol representing the embedded chip. The symbol will appear in port-of-entry areas where the electronic passport can be read.

I am not anyone who would be mistaken as an electronics whiz. I still don’t know how to upload a photo for this blog. But I am smart enough to know that I laughed too soon at that loud woman in Bangkok. It seems that I may be getting a version of the national ID card before her. As a woman, I usually like having something first. A new Louis handbag, an Hermes scarf, or the latest Jimmy Choo shoes are fun for women. You show your friends and strike deals regarding future trades. My new electronic, “limited case” file sharing passport is not something I am proud of, even if expedited service cost as much as Jimmy Choo pumps during an end of season sale.

Nominations have opened for the 2006 Bloggie Award. Here is the official procedure:

From now until 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) on Tuesday, January 10, 2005, anyone can nominate their favorite weblogs.

That Thursday, January 12, three panels of 50 voters will receive an e-mail. It will list the weblogs that have receieved the most nominations in ten categories. They will have until 10:00 PM EST on Tuesday, January 17 to privately submit their five favorites (six for Weblog of the Year) for each category. The five (or six for Weblog of the Year) receiving the most votes will become finalists. I (Nikolai Nolan) will only vote for the panel in the case of a tie for fifth place. This panel is on an opt-in policy; there is a checkbox on this form for it.

On Friday, January 20, the finalists will be announced and voting will be open again to choose the winners.

Voting will close at 10:00 PM EST on Sunday, January 31. The winners will be posted sometime between Sunday, March 13 and Tuesday, March 15.

This year, let’s get some more libertarian sites in the competition. If you are at a loss about who to nominate, you can check out our “Recommended” list on the right side-bar. As we obviously don’t blogroll ourselves, don’t forget to enter Hammer of Truth in a few categories, too. Simply click here to nominate your favorite libertarian sites.

Props.

Note: this article contains dead links, the url is still in the hover/alt text. Keep the web working, curate content well!

While I’m not fond of promoting DailyKos, one low-level entry (19 comments at this posting time) takes exception to the rule. thehim notes the following:

In other news…

In New York, Governor Pataki has granted clemency to 28 drug offenders, but that’s only scratching the surface of the problems that New York has with its drug laws.
Here’s a Washington Post editorial questioning why there’s so much more emphasis on enforcing marijuana laws.
Here’s a San Francisco Chronicle editorial wondering the same thing.
Former Drug Czar Bill Bennett is stepping away from the craps table and joining CNN.

Rhode Island became the 11th state to legalize the use of medical marijuana.
Maryland has a strong need for more substance-abuse centers.
Tennessee is posting pictures of known meth manufacturers on the internet.  I think the theory is that making it difficult for someone to get a job or a rental, while also letting the entire meth using community aware that you know how to make it, is the best way to get someone to stop.  
About 1 baby per week in Arkansas is placed in state care because the mother is suspected of drug use.  The most common drug?  Marijuana.  (via USMJP)

A man in Texas is sentenced to 35 years in prison for having less than 1/2 kg of cocaine.
Remember the kids in Colorado who were smoking pot laced with heroin?  They weren’t.
Pete at Drug WarRant finds a Utah lawmaker desperately in need of a clue.
In Oregon, it is now legal to smoke marijuana seeds.

A Wisconsin man has been charged with murdering his friend, who died of a drug overdose after he injected him.  In Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, 2 others are charged with homicide, although in their case, the victim was a minor.
Radley Balko at The Agitator finds another “wrong address” raid in Milwaukee that made the 68-year-old victim question the use of SWAT teams for arresting marijuana users.  
He also wonders what the hell happened to George Bush since he took a more libertarian position in 1999 on medical marijuana than the Clinton Administration.

GW Pharmaceuticals will soon be able to test marijuana-based Sativex on cancer patients in the U.S.  Jacob Sullum wonders if this will eventually have a negative effect on those who believe that recreational use of marijuana should be legal as well.
An international research team has made some new findings on how marijuana alleviates the symptoms of multiple sclerosis sufferers.

Here’s a good article in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Dutch drug laws.

Justin Holmes at the DARE Generation Diary discusses a truly silly article on MDMA at The Conservative Voice.
We will soon be able to get ONDCP propaganda podcasts over the internet.  
Michele Kubby, the wife of former California Libertarian candidate for governor Steve Kubby, is challenging Canadian drug law.  If they lose, they could potentially be sent back to the U.S. on January 12.  The Hammer of Truth has more.

Peruvian rebel group Shining Path is believed to be behind an ambush of police officers.  The group has historically been funded by cocaine trafficking.

Iran has seen a 5% increase in drugs confiscated by the police from last year.
Newsweek had an article this week discussing the situation in Afghanistan.  The head counternarcotics official in Afghanistan, Gen. Mohammad Daud, is confident he can reduce poppy production by 40% in 2006.  In the Newsweek article, it mentions that General Daud is suspected of having ties to the poppy industry as well.

A Tanzanian man died on a flight from Johannesburg to Blantyre, Malawi after swalling 177 tubes of cocaine.
Despite the reclassification of cannabis, Britain still arrested over 13,000 people for possession in 2004.  Blair is considering reversing the reclassification, which apparently was never in effect in the first place.
The Sydney Morning Herald has an editorial questioning the wisdom of putting drug users in jail.
This week, I’ve been encouraging people to take the poll on the front of the Drug Free America Foundation site.  I was motivated by this letter from DFAF founder Calvina Fay.

Finally, from Texas, this is funny. (via Grits For Breakfast)

It is an awesome round-up and thehim deserves a lot of credit for a job well done.

Clearly out of ideas on how to piss off responsible drinkers, Missouri is considering a law to curb drunk driving… suggested by the informed legislators at Jefferson Country elementary. Sploid has the best overview:

At the suggestion of a fifth-grader, Sen. Bill Alter has entered a bill that would ban the sale of beer at temperatures lower than 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The idea is to lower the likelihood of folks cracking a “road brew” on the way home from the store.

“The only reason why beer would need to be cold is so that it can be consumed right away,” argues Alter, who has been a police offer for more than 20 years, said Thursday.

The bill reads (PDF) “(I)t shall be unlawful for any grocery store or convenience store … to sell or expose for sale … beer that is refrigerated below sixty degrees Fahrenheit on the premises.” Anybody not in compliance would be subject to loss of their liquor license.

More rational minded businesses aren’t enthused:

Ron Leone, of the Missouri Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association is not thrilled about the movement. “It would be an inconvenience for law-abiding citizens who want to purchase cold beer for picnics, parties and social gatherings,” he said. “People who want to drive drunk will drive drunk anyway.”

They’re scraping the bottom of the barrel to make life annoying when they’re asking kids to propose laws. Hell, a drunk driver who really wants to sate their alcoholic thirst while on the road isn’t going to be deterred by this anyways when they can simply buy a fifth of jack, mix it with an ice-cold coke and call it good.

Update: I had this queued up to post a little later, but since Free Talk Live is currently discussing it on air (8pm til 10pm ET), I thought everyone might like to call in to them. I’ll put up a link to the podcast later.

Update the Second: Link to FTL podcast hour 1 (mp3).

Apparently CNN’s Christiane Amanpour may have been investigated by the National Security Agency.

Granted, the NSA has adamantly denied doing anything of the sort, but why, then, did NBC so quickly edit its chat transcript that made reference to it?

In an interview with James Risen, a reporter for the New York Times, the following was deleted from the record shortly after being put on their site:

Mitchell: Do you have any information about reporters being swept up in this net?

Risen: No, I don’t. It’s not clear to me. That’s one of the questions we’ll have to look into the future. Were there abuses of this program or not? I don’t know the answer to that

Mitchell: You don’t have any information, for instance, that a very prominent journalist, Christiane Amanpour, might have been eavesdropped upon?

Risen: No, no I hadn’t heard that.

The blogosphere has exploded all over this story-a testament to the difficulty of keeping official secrets in the age of the internet. However, so far all we have is one interviewer’s specific mention of her name. Granted, the NSA is no reliable source, but we don’t have much to go on. Does Andrea Mitchell know something she’s not telling us? Does the NSA? Hopefully we’ll find out more soon.

Under proposed legislation, every gambler who walks into a casino in Illinois would have to present his or her driver’s license or state ID card to verify they have not flagged themselves on a voluntary “no gamble” database (via Sploid):

Anybody on the list who tries to get into a casino can be kicked out and charged with trespassing. Anybody on the list who is found in a casino also must forfeit any winnings. So far, O’Shea said, the state has collected $244,000 from 173 self-excluded gamblers who won money on the boats.

Tom Swoik, executive director of the Illinois Casino and Gaming Association, said the industry would have to look hard at the proposal but said checking the ID of all 15.3 million people who went through the turnstiles of the state’s casinos in 2004 could cause long delays.

Once again, if you can’t take responsibility for your own life, try not to take it out on the rest of us with some retarded law proposal that makes sure someone holds your hand through life. The ramifications could also apply to just about every form of gambling, including convenience stores who sell lotto tickets.

Best part is, I’m willing to bet not a single dime of that $244K will be used to pay for this, and the costs of compliance will fall squarely on the casinos (and in return, passed on to the customer). Word up for collectively enforced stupidity.

Here’s a comforting thought:

Overconfidence in its own fingerprint-identification technology and sloppy paperwork contributed to the F.B.I.’s wrongly implicating a Portland, Ore., lawyer in the deadly 2004 Madrid train bombing, a Justice Department investigation said today.

Now that the DOJ has cleared itself in an investigation of itself, let’s look at one comforting detail:

But the investigation, by the department’s inspector general’s office, said there had been no misconduct by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and no abuse of the USA Patriot Act in the case of the lawyer, Brandon Mayfield, who was jailed for two weeks in May 2004 as a material witness before he was cleared.

Guess what, folks! They didn’t violate the Patriot Act. Their claim to innocence is that they didn’t violate the law which renders most of the Constitution as purposeless as used toilet paper. This means they could have violated most of the Bill of Rights and still get a free pass from the Orwellian-named Justice Department.

Here’s another little gem from the New York Times story:

His home and office were searched. And while the inspector general found no evidence that he had been mistreated in confinement, the report noted that he was initially kept in his cell 22 hours a day.

The last time I checked, forcibly taking someone, seizing his personal property, and placing him behind bars for two weeks without charges is indeed mistreatment.

It’s no secret that online property in MMORPG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) are becoming a booming business, but it seems they may soon catch the eye of the IRS and other tax agencies who may be want to tax these property and goods sales just as freely as more traditional goods. From a speculative piece posted in the Jan/Feb issue of Legal Affairs (via Boing Boing):

The IRS has taxed barter transactions that are remarkably similar to the ones that online players engage in every day. In the late 1970s, for example, dozens of so-called barter clubs sprang up around the U.S., said Deborah Schenk, a tax professor at New York University School of Law. The clubs put out directories in which members listed themselves as providing accounting, window washing, or other types of services. Any member could buy those services with “trade dollars,” a virtual currency like Britannian gold pieces, and a member could earn trade dollars by offering his own services. By 1980 these clubs were handling an estimated $200 million worth of transactions every year, and the IRS took notice. In a 1980 ruling, the agency said that barter club transactions produced taxable income, even though no actual money changed hands. A 1982 law made enforcement of the ruling easier by requiring the clubs to provide the IRS with information about every transaction.

[...] When Mrs. Clardy [an IRS representative] returned, she was a bureaucrat transformed. “We just had this little discussion,” she said, almost giggling. “And it sounds to us like [the online trades you've described] would be… yes… Internet barter.” Here she paused, whether to catch her breath or to let the conclusion sink in, I couldn’t tell. “However,” she went on, “there are no regs, there is no code, there are no rulings, to rely upon. This is our opinion.”

Mrs. Clardy suggested I seek a more authoritative judgment. A “private letter ruling,” she assured me, was the IRS’s definitive opinion, in writing, on a particular taxpayer’s situation. And a letter ruling in my case, she believed, would probably be the closest the IRS had ever come to an opinion on the status of virtual income.

“The ramifications are enormous,” Mrs. Clardy exhorted. “Break new ground!”

Let it be no surprise that with each passing year, the IRS will find new ways to interject its way into your life, even as that moves online and into the gaming realm. Consider yourself warned.

Closed Circuit Television, tracking printed material, tracking us by our cell phones, opening our mail, tapping our phones… the list goes on and on as the government’s “war on the fourth amendment” continues.

The most recent advancement in the “spying on citizens” genre of technology is the Radar Scope. The Radar Scope will be deployed to troops in Iraq this Spring and will give “warfighters searching a building the ability to tell within seconds if someone is in the next room.”

This 1.5 pound $1000 beauty can “sense through a foot of concrete and 50 feet beyond that into a room” and is “able to detect movements as small as breathing.”

Plans are already being made to expand on this technology with “Visi Building” devices that would be:

…more than a motion detector. It will actually “see” through multiple walls, penetrating entire buildings to show floor plans, locations of occupants and placement of materials such as weapons caches… (DefenseLink.mil)

(SIGH) Hardened on the field of battle… implemented on the streets of America. I believe the future use of this device is predicted in the following statement by Edward Baranoski from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Special Projects Office:

Ultimately, servicemembers will be able to use it simply by driving or flying by the structure under surveillance.

Why do I have this notion that U.S. law enforcement agencies will be utilizing this technology on our streets in the next couple of years? In the name of the “War on Drugs” of course…

Note: this article contains dead links, the url is still in the hover/alt text. Keep the web working, curate content well!

It reads:

Assemblymen Reed Gusciora (D-Trenton) and Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Township) have introduced A.B. 4501, the “New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act,” on December 8, 2005. It is a bipartisan companion to S.B. 2200 which was introduced in January11, 2005 by Senator Nicholas Scutari (D-Middlesex, Somerset and Union). A.B. 4501 has been referred to the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee. S.B. 2200 was referred to Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. A new session begins January 10, 2006 and both chambers may again introduce medical marijuana bills. The time to act is now. It is imperative to keep this harmful schedule I drug out of New Jersey. We need your help to stop these bills from moving forward in New Jersey. Do your part to keep harmful marijuana off of the streets and away from the children of New Jersey.

Please take a minute to tell your legislators to OPPOSE A.B. 4501 and S.B. 2200. Follow the easy automated system to send pre-written letters to your legislators.

In the old days, they’d at least bring up bogus lines from Reefer Madness or something. They must be out of ammo, as they didn’t suggest that medical marijuana comes from shaman or that smoking weed will make your white daughters have sex with black jazz musicians. How disappointing to no longer have opposition with imagination any more. Props.

Forget the War on Christmas. The War on Blasphemy is over. Intelligent Design doesn’t matter anymore. Pat Robertson is now a has been — if he ever really was in the first place.

The first round in the apocalypse of online battles has just been fired, with secularists lining up against the proselytes in Italy. From Yahoo News:

An Italian court is tackling Jesus — and whether the Roman Catholic Church may be breaking the law by teaching that he existed 2,000 years ago.

The case pits against each other two men in their 70s, who are from the same central Italian town and even went to the same seminary school in their teenage years.

The defendant, Enrico Righi, went on to become a priest writing for the parish newspaper. The plaintiff, Luigi Cascioli, became a vocal atheist who, after years of legal wrangling, is set to get his day in court later this month.

“I started this lawsuit because I wanted to deal the final blow against the Church, the bearer of obscurantism and regression,” Cascioli told Reuters.

Cascioli says Righi, and by extension the whole Church, broke two Italian laws. The first is “Abuso di Credulita Popolare” (Abuse of Popular Belief) meant to protect people against being swindled or conned. The second crime, he says, is “Sostituzione di Persona”, or impersonation.

“The Church constructed Christ upon the personality of John of Gamala,” Cascioli claimed, referring to the 1st century Jew who fought against the Roman army.

A court in Viterbo will hear from Righi, who has yet to be indicted, at a January 27 preliminary hearing meant to determine whether the case has enough merit to go forward.

While this is a political site and I tire of posting religious articles, I couldn’t resist this one. Perhaps we can, once and for all, settle all these silly little religious issues in court so Bush will send our boys in Iraq back home.

From the New York Times:

“God considers this land to be his,” Mr. Robertson said on “The 700 Club,” his television program. “You read the Bible and he says, ‘This is my land,’ and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, ‘No, this is mine.’ ”

Mr. Robertson said he had prayed about a year ago with Mr. Sharon, whom he called “a very tenderhearted man and a good friend.” He said he was sad to see Mr. Sharon in his current medical condition.

But he also said that in the Bible, the prophet Joel “makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who ‘divide my land.’ ”

Mr. Sharon “was dividing God’s land, and I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease” the European Union, the United Nations or the United States, Mr. Robertson said.

Pretty sick stuff from a pretty sick man!

Russ Diamond, a Libertarian and founder of PA CleanSweep was named by the Philadelphia Inquirer as citizen of the year along with Timothy Potts and Eugene Stilp.

It all started when the Pennsylvania State Legislature at 2AM in the morning passed pay raises for themselves. They figured that voter apathy would give them outright permission to let them do whatever they felt-until Russ Diamond and his fellow patriots said “Enough is enough!”

Because of the outrage and backlash the legislators decided to repeal those pay raises but still got an automatic 3.6 percent increase in pay (they should have recinded that too!). The fight has just begun for the PA CleanSweep team. One of the founders has just filed a lawsuit over all the dandy perks the legislators enjoy at taxpayer’s expense.

Congratulations to Russ Diamond and his fellow patriots! Politics in PA needs a clean sweep!

I’m Michael Hampton, the other newest editor at Hammer of Truth, and I’m honored to be here. First, a very brief introduction.

I’ve been a (small l) libertarian for about as long as I can remember, and even so I still vote for the Libertarian Party, even though it’s in need of reform and improvements. I run my own blog, Homeland Stupidity, which is why Stephen VanDyke was surprised that I wanted to do this. My main reason for doing so is to become more active in the changes which are coming to the LP, and to help spread the message of liberty as far as I can.

With that in mind, and with all this talk about the war on terror, corruption in the Republican party, loss of civil rights, and so on, I think it’s important to remember that many Americans have other concerns which they consider far more important. And while it’s very important to address the issues which are getting headlines, it’s also important to address the issues which people consider important, and make voting decisions on, but which aren’t front-page news. I’m going to address one of those concerns today.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed one of the most comprehensive welfare reform packages to date. Ten years later, the number of people receiving cash assistance from the government has been “cut in half to 2 million,” according to a new Government Accountability Office report. This report looks at the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and suggests ways to improve it.

The two big problems facing welfare recipients right now are being unable to get work that pays enough to support their families, and being able to get stable work, that doesn’t lay them off in a few months. Either way, these people generally wind up back on welfare. GAO says that the Department of Health and Human Services isn’t doing enough to address these problems. (PDF)

GAO recommends that HHS (1) identify opportunities for additional research on increasing TANF recipients’ earnings, (2) review its existing efforts to better ensure information and implementation assistance reaches the wide range of program administrators and service providers involved in welfare reform, and (3) seek out new opportunities to collaborate with Education and Labor on research and technical assistance. In response, HHS said that its efforts in these areas are sufficient and do not warrant additional attention.

That’s right, HHS says there’s nothing wrong. Despite the fact that many welfare recipients who do go to work and don’t make enough to get by — and are no longer eligible for welfare in the process — wind up getting right back on the welfare rolls.

Ultimately, welfare for the poor is something that should be handled by private organizations, as it used to be. But in the meantime, HHS should be looking at every way possible to help people get off the welfare rolls, become productive members of society, and support their families themselves — without needing further “assistance” from the government. And that will benefit all of us.

The Washington Post reads:

Wonkette is dead — long live Wonkette.

Ana Marie Cox, the writer who made Washington politics irresistibly naughty, is giving up her job as a full-time, pajama-clad blogger to become a full-time, pajama-clad author. Cox, who just signed a contract for her second book, will hand off the political Web site to David Lat, the lawyer who secretly penned Underneath Their Robes, an irreverent blog about the judiciary world.

Law Blog adds to the story here:

Here’s the latest buzz: Queen of the blogosphere Ana Marie Cox is said to be handing over the reins at her spicy political blog Wonkette. David Lat, the federal prosecutor who revealed himself to the New Yorker magazine in November as the author of the popular “Underneath Their Robes” judicial blog, is expected to start blogging for the site. Lockhart Steele, managing editor of Gawker Media, which owns Wonkette, declined to comment. We hear that Lat will have a co-editor.

TalkLeft provides that Lat is a conservative version of our very own LibertarianGirl:

The new law blog at the Wall St. Journal reported Monday that Ana Marie Cox will be leaving Wonkette and replaced by David Lat, the male prosecutor who authored Underneath Their Robes pretending to be a female named Article Three Groupie. Lat has left his job with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Newark to write Wonkette.

I’ll be sure to miss Cox over at Wonkette. Call me a sexist, but her sex-laden reporting style of inside-the-beltway issues is unlikely to be as attractive to me with Lat sitting in the driver’s seat. I’ll miss both panda pics and butt plug commentary with the same sense of loss.

One positive I note is that her loss will likely be a gain for HoT, as our already exponential traffic growth is certain to benefit from Cox’s departure.

After being immersed in the Libertarian Party at a local level for years, I think I know the reason why the LP has little effect on anything. I was instrumental in the creation of the local Libertarian Party back in 2000 here in Sarasota, FL. I was the “membership director” and I happen to think I did a decent job. I personally funded, organized, and recruited volunteers for Operation Politically Homeless booths at the County Fair, Gun Shows, the Flea Market, Protests, Gay & Lesbian Pridefests, and more.

The reason I was successful at recruiting is because I took the initiative to just *do*. I never asked the LP for money or permission. I only asked the members to volunteer for what I was organizing.

I don’t bother with the Sarasota LP anymore. The meetings are bureaucratic and slow. Why? It’s because of the method of organization. Most LPs are run with “bylaws” in effect as well as the LP’s worshipped “Roberts Rules of Order.” Since I helped found the Sarasota LP, I was part of the bylaws creation process.

I will never be part of that process again! It took weeks of debate to hammer out the bylaws. This is time the group could have spent planning and executing outreach.

In 2005 I founded the Suncoast Free State Project Local Group. The group was totally mine. I administrated the yahoo group. I had the membership list. It was my creation. After gathering a tremendous percentage of the Suncoast area FSP members together, we started doing outreach. (By the way, one of the reasons FSP meeting turnout is so great is because the FSP members are the cream of the crop of Liberty activists.) In 2005 the FSP group easily did more outreach than did the five-year-old LP. In fact, FSP members were the ones running Operation Politically Homeless booths that the LP was paying for!

If you’re a Libertarian and you want to see your party succeed, especially at a local level, you need to decentralize. If the people in your local LP are not up to par, and your meetings are bureaucratic, throw out the bylaws and start your own group.

In short, the Libertarian Party needs competition for itself. Local LPs should be owned by an individual. If you don’t like the way that individual is running his LP, start your own group.

Competition makes everyone better, and that certainly applies to the LP. Stop the centralized decision making. Stop the bureaucracy. Private property and competition are the only things that can save the LP from a future of dreadfully slow, if any progress.

As an aside, and to the LP’s credit, the national LP has taken a step in the right direction by eliminating dues and the Unified Membership Program, which was centralized wealth distribution to the state LPs.

[Ian Bernard is the host of Free Talk Live, an internationally syndicated pro-Liberty radio show airing live six nights a week and on in 13 markets nationwide. The show is also the #1 Political Cultural Podcast in the world.]

Thanks to Stephen VanDyke and all the others for giving me a spot on this excellent blog.

As Chris Bennett introduced himself, so shall I. I’m 21 and a Christian Libertarian. While I’ve had libertarian urges all my life, I supported the Republicans until about 2000, simply because they were the supposed party of small government. I’m ashamed to admit that I cheered when it was announced that Bush won the election in 2000-but then again, in my mind I was cheering a small-government conservative who was against nation-building and who promised to privatize Social Security. Not long afterwards, I heard about the Libertarian Party and, browsing their website, I found I agreed with them. I met Michael Badnarik in Omaha while he was campaigning and from there joined his website, where I found Tim West and eventually got on his blog. From there I eventually found the bulk of the libertarian blogosphere.

Sometimes libertarians deride my Christianity, and sometimes Christians deride my libertarianism. But the way I see it, when God placed the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden in Genesis (whether it’s literal truth or not doesn’t matter to me), he placed free will in man’s reach. Man was not bound to obey God, but had a way out-that way, his worship would be more sincere. In my mind, free will is the gift of God-and he who takes away that free will is guilty of idolatry, for he thinks himself wiser than God. Therefore, the philosophy of liberty comes naturally to me. Like it says in my bio, I wish to undo the damage done by my co-religionists. And honestly, I’m more of a liberal Christian anyway so I don’t even think gay marriage or drug use is necessarily wrong… but even if I did, it’s for God and not me to judge humanity.

At any rate, I look forward to blogging here and I promise I’ll have a picture up soon.

When working for EDS years ago, I always enjoyed the independent feel of the company, dress code notwithstanding. It’s nice to know that the spirit of Ross Perot still lives on at the company. Everyone who works with the LP at any level, Libertarian campaigns or libertarian media sources is certain to enjoy this commercial from EDS. While it’s been around for months, I missed it somehow. If you also happened to miss it, check it out. Props.

While the DEA actions against marijuana seed grower Marc Emery are despicable enough, the latest drug extradition case is against a medical marijuana user who may die as a result of a final appeal scheduled for Jan. 9, 2006. This is how Steve Kubby describes his medical condition in his blog:

The bad news is that I have been diagnosed with terminal cancer and told I have as little as six months to live.

The good news is that this is the 30th year that my doctors have been telling me this. My adrenal cancer is considered one of the most deadly forms known, yet I continue to live a happy and healthy life, thanks to the only medicine I use, cannabis.

Kubby suffers from a fatal condition known as malignant pheochromocytoma. That he has survived by use of marijuana is a topic of intense curiosity by medical experts, who are not allowed to experiment with the politically incorrect but potentially life saving medication.

After being arrested on drug charges in the late 90s, Kubby eventually went into exile in Canada in the spring of 2001. Today, he is under a Canadian departure order that will deliver him to the U.S. authorities on January 12. The Kubbys plan to appeal this order three days prior to the extradition date. If forcibly returned to the United States, Kubby will be immediately jailed and deprived of the medication which keeps him alive.

Kubby has twice been held behind bars for a few days, and he nearly died both times. This time, it is expected that he would spend 90 days in jail. According to his family, this will almost certainly prove fatal to Kubby.

For those of you not aware of his background, Kubby is not the stereotypical recreational or even medicinal user. Instead, he is a professional whose immediate survival depends on the medication.

Time and time again, the government kills by incarcerating medical marijuana users.

It is important that we do what we can to help support Steve Kubby over the next few trying days. Two key things one may do are to spread the word and to donate to his legal defense fund. It’s not just important; it’s a matter of life and death.

Update: Michele (Steve’s wife) Kubby added this important comment:

If your conscience is shocked at our removal and you’d like to help immediately, please call or fax or e-mail the Immigration Minster of Canada, the Honourable Joe Volpe at:

In Ottawa at: 613-992-6361 or Fax at 613-992-9791
In Toronto at: 416-781-5583 or Fax at 416-781-5586
[You can e-mail the Minister at Minister@cic.gc.ca, but calls and faxes are more effective.]

The Minister has the legal right to stop this at anytime and he is bound by law to act, if removing us would, “would shock the conscience of Canadians.”