"Contemplating" ...

Your humble host
agrees with the signers of
Declaration of Independence
that all men are created equal,
endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights,
including the rights to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness

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t-shirt
'I promise
not to talk politics
during dinner'
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Steve's favorite news links

* The Newseum's daily compendium of front pages from around the world

* Google News, Constitution Party items, updated continuously throughout the day.

* nuclear.com - Steve's own site

* calamitology.com - another of Steve's sites

* The Compleat Advocate - Steve's new public policy discussion site

* Constitution Party - the official site

* Alan Keyes for President

April 17, 2008

Today's this site's eighteenth birthday (that's 18 days)

According to the most recent analysis of USA voter registration statistics by Ballot Access News editor Richard Winger, the Constitution Party ranks third nationally amongst all US political parties in registered voters. Winger found that our party had 366,937 registered members as of November 2006. I think it's pretty cool that my humble website has gone from nothingness to being selected by the national party as the place to find out more about happenings here in The Free State. I feel like I've made a difference already. And you and I and many of our fellow liberty-loving neighbors can make an even bigger difference every day between now and November. It was my enthusiasm for Alan Keyes that brought me to Constitution Party, and the content I've put up reflects that. But I am happy to post other Marylanders' views, too. Email me if you'd like to help with content or any other aspect of getting Constitution Party on the ballot, fielding candidates, and winning elections.

April 16, 2008

Update on President Bush's climate policy remarks today

He stopped short of the kind of mandatory cap program proposed by McCain, Clinton/Obama and rest of the nincompoops on that side of the issue, but he surely gave aid and comfort to the alarmists today. There's no excuse for President Bush to get this wrong. Yet, here we are. Many will take some cheer that he praised nuclear power several times. Well, I'm pro-nuclear even without giving a whit of credit to the CO2 alarmist view.

April 16, 2008

PLEASE CONTACT WHITE HOUSE BEFORE 2 PM TODAY

The folks at RightMarch.com emailed a plea a few minutes ago which prompted me to write the following letter, using their automated system:

SUBJECT: Please don't lend credence to the CO2 alarmists

Dear President Bush:

I have spent literally thousands of hours since early in your administration reviewing the scientific basis for the type of alarm about CO2 expressed by your first Treasury Secretary. Claims by alarmists that the science is settled enough for purposes of major policy change are bunkum. The field of climate science encompasses so many specialties that few, if any, scientists have time to really understand the limitations of research commonly touted as authoritative. A great example is the so-called hockey stick graph which was quickly embraced by IPCC as sort of a poster child for their 2001 report. The hockey stick graphic was even portrayed as policy-relevant by its inclusion in the Policymakers Summary document which was leaked in the autumn of your 2000 campaign. The full report wasn't released until 9 months later. By then, the hockey stick had become what I've come to think of as an "icon of calamitology". I urge you not to give the alarmists the slightest benefit of any doubt you may have. I've long told folks that abundant and cheap electricity gives your average Joe today a life better, in many ways, than Kings used to enjoy. Unnecessary CO2 controls are bad for liberty, bad for the economy, and the notion that the results will have any predictable effect on global or regional climate is an exaggeration.

Mr. President, my industry is nuclear power. If these CO2 controls are adopted, my industry will surely benefit, at least in the short run. But every appeasement of the CO2 alarmists further empowers them and their shoddy science. And I have no doubt that these same fraud-mongerers will not long tarry before turning their attention to other targets, including my industry.

Please don't empower the alarmists!

Very truly,

NUCLEAR.COM

Steve Schulin,
Founding Editor

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Here's the text of the alert which prompted me to jot off the above missive:

URGENT -- CONTACT THE WHITE HOUSE BEFORE 2:00 PM TODAY (WEDNESDAY):

http://capwiz.com/sicminc/mail/?id=20004&type=PR

ALERT: This is an URGENT EMERGENCY ALERT! President Bush is scheduled to give a major speech on global warming policy TODAY at 2:45 PM. A former WH official has warned us that "It will be very bad." Our intel is that he will not support the environmentalists' "cap-and-trade" or a carbon tax explicitly, but he WILL call for setting national mandatory targets and lay out principles for the kind of legislation he would sign.

This is exactly what we were afraid of. We've been able to STOP the implementation of "Kyoto Accord" environmentalist extreme measures in Congress -- but now, the President might side-step our efforts and do it himself!

We MUST try to convince him NOT to!

TAKE ACTION: Enacting further mandatory limits on emissions would be especially unwise at this time, as the U.S. economy totters on recession and consumer confidence sags from rising food and energy prices. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Kyoto process, with its built-in momentum for ever more unrealistic emission reduction targets, is economically ruinous and, hence, politically unsustainable.

We need to try to stop this nonsense QUICKLY -- before the President's speech. Please CALL the White House at 202-456-1111 NOW -- or email comments@whitehouse.gov -- and urge President Bush NOT to give in to the radical environmentalists and abandon the prudent and successful course he's followed during the past seven years. Or, click below NOW to "compose your own letter" to him now:

http://capwiz.com/sicminc/mail/?id=20004&type=PR

P.S.: This is URGENT-- the President's speech is TODAY, Wednesday, April 16th. Call or send him a message RIGHT AWAY. Thank you!

- - - - END OF RightMarch.com's email - - - -

April 16, 2008

I've asked C-Span to broadcast Constitution Party national convention next week, and I hope you ask them too

C-Span urges folks to send requests for coverage of public events, via fax. Here's what I faxed yesterday. Please send a fax of your own to them if you agree:

Fax to C-Span 202-737-6226

From: __________________

re: A public event C-Span should cover

The Constitution Party is having its national convention in Kansas City next week -- www.consitution party.org

This is USA's 3rd largest party in terms of # of registered voters. This is worthy of gavel to gavel coverage April 25-26, and even committee meetings like platform committee on April 23-24

April 13, 2008

Alan Keyes, scholar of our Declaration of Independence, will be making his own declaration Tuesday night about the many ways our sovereignty is being assaulted

On Tuesday night at an event in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Dr. Alan Keyes will elaborate on why the coming election is important, and the reasons he can no longer support the Republican Party. He accepted the invitation of folks in Hazleton to come to their beleaguered city to make the announcement. [update: video of his speech is now available on the main page at the Keyes campaign website -- http://www.alankeyes.com.]

Dr. Keyes has been working on the speech for several weeks, and I have no doubt it will be a real humdinger. Tuesday is April 15, and that's a fitting day to hear Alan describe the many reasons that our federal income tax system ought to be replaced by the excise taxes and tariffs used before the 16th Amendment was added to our Constitution. Hazleton is an incredibly appropriate place for the speech. The event was organized by people of Hazleton to help focus attention on the problems caused by illegal immigration, the compounding of the problems by federal government, and the intentional snubbing of the town by the Democratic and Republican candidates in the current primary campaign -- and they invited Alan to come. A Philadelphia Daily News columnist this week called candidates McCain, Obama and Clinton "fraidicats" for not coming to Hazleton during the primary campaign. I suspect Alan will discuss much that our entire nation can learn from the story of the town's troubles in recent years. This is a town of 50,000 -- and 20,000 of them are here illegally, according to Dan Smeriglio, the Hazleton resident who extended the invitation to Alan on one of the conference calls early last month. Town officials asked federal immigration control agency, ICE, to set up a branch office in the town. No, said ICE. Then, in 2006, after a man was murdered, while on an outing with his son at public park, by MS-13 gang members, the town council passed law that included significant fines for employers who hired illegals and landlords who rented to illegals. A federal district court judge ruled the law to be unconstitutional, a ruling which Don reports to have prompted "Illegal-and-Proud" rallies in the town.

C-Span, and every TV network news organization, ought to cover this event. I hope you'll join me in contacting as many of the TV news organizations as you can, urging them to be there with cameras rolling and microphones on as Alan Keyes tells a tale that you won't hear from the Democrats or Republicans. For more information, see the Keyes campaign press release. And if you can, check out the audio archive of Dr. Keyes' views of our tax system and how best to replace it in interview by Tennessee talk radio host Steve Gill yesterday. Keyes explains why the income tax is a "bad, enslaving, anti-freedom system that cannot be administered without destroying one of our fundamental Constitutional rights." His favored proposal would also lead to "more businesses, more job creation, and an expansion of the horizons of our productivity as a people like nothing we've seen." And Steve Gill's commentary was lively too: "... if King George, instead of imposing tax stamp on tea, but had just taxed the tea companies, we might still be speaking with an English accent." The interview is archived at WLAC radio. It takes up most of the third hour of his April 12 show.

April 11, 2008

Maryland's 4th Congressional District: the million-dollar special election might end up benefitting the people more than any other money the Democrats have caused to be spent

Maryland Gov. O'Malley has to decide whether or not those of Prince Georges and Montgomery County, currently represented in Congress by Albert Wynn, will have a representative or not during much of the rest of this year. His fellow Democratic Party member, attorney Donna Edwards, won the party's primary and reportedly wants to have the special election. I do too, because this is a unique opportunity for Constitution Party candidate to win the seat in this District -- it's my district, by the way. In fact, if a Constitution Party candidate can win the special election, the million-dollar estimated cost of the election might come to be viewed as saving the state (and the nation) much more than the costs.

One of the issues on which I disagree with McCain, Hillary/Obama, Wynn, and Edwards is what I've come to call their CO2 alarmism. In his statement yesterday, announcing that he's relinquishing his House Energy and Commerce Committee seat (and subcommittee chairmanship), Rep. Wynn gave his reason: he wants to avoid distracting "the critical work of the committee to combat climate change, achieve energy independence, and protect our environment". You notice that climate change was the first issue he mentioned. On her campaign web site, Ms. Edwards explicitly claims that global warming is a crisis: "Forget voluntary limits on carbon emissions - they don't work and we're in a crisis. It's time to set mandatory limits on emissions with a goal of 20 percent reductions by 2020 and 80 percent reductions by the middle of the century. This is the call for this generation of leaders if we're serious about tackling global warming."

Marylanders have been hit hard with electricity price rises since the last general election. That the national Democrats and McCain, and Edwards, are determined to implement mandatory CO2 caps is a sorry state of affairs for every citizen. The science these leaders portray as warranting crisis mode is actually very speculative.

I hope you agree that this million-dollar election might end up being the best million that Edwards has ever wanted to be spent. If you'd like to be or support the Constitution Party candidate in the upcoming election, drop me an email at steve.schulin@ConstitutionPartyMD.org

April 10, 2008

The first ConstitutionPartyMD.org conference call will be ...

I'd like to suggest that Marylanders interested in Constitution Party get together regularly via telephone conference call. Here's a post I made eliciting suggestions this morning over at the Alan Keyes campaign discussion board, since it was the Keyes campaign's use of this idea that makes me so enthusiastic about it. If you think you might want to participate in such calls, please feel encouraged to send me an email with any scheduling preferences. I'd sure hate to exclude folks from live participation due to the scheduling.

Using conference call idea for local outreach

I've found the Tuesday and Thursday night conference calls to be uplifting, informative, inspiring and energizing. I think the same concept could be used to good advantage here in Maryland as we build the Constitution Party. I'd appreciate any suggestions or other comments from you folks about how best to adapt the idea.

I've obtained the basic free service from freeconferencecall.com, which will allow up to 99 folks to dial in to the same number anytime.

The dial-in number they gave me has an Iowa area code - long distance from here. That prompted me to call them and see if I could offer a local number to my callers instead. The answer to that is no, although they do offer an 800 # service where you get charged six cents a minute for each of up to 200 callers. That means it's possible to rack up fee of $720 an hour. Sheesh, that's no good, although I guess it's a bit presumptuous to imagine that so many would participate :)

A lot of folks have cell phones with free night and weekend minutes. I see that Verizon's basic plan offers unlimited free night calls starting at 9:01 pm (and unlimited weekend calls), and AT&T's basic plan offers 5000 minutes of free night calls starting at 9:00 pm. (weekends are all-day free, with minutes counting towards same 5000 limit).

So one thing I'd appreciate comments on is what's the best day/time to conduct such calls.

Another topic is whether and/or how to publicize the calls to get attention of folks who are unaware that a Constitution Party affiliate is being formed in our state. I'll probably suggest press releases to newspapers, local political blogs, and other web sites covering Free State news. And maybe classified ads or other paid ads too.

And another thing (I've prayed about this one) is whether or not (and how) to start and end the calls with prayer. I recall that I knew I was in the right place when I heard the prayer on the first Keyes campaign call in which I participated. I note that our national House and Senate have Chaplains who start off each day's proceedings with prayer.

Anyway, thanks in advance for considering these kinds of things. I don't know what kind of role I'll have in the Constitution Party's efforts here in Maryland, but I've offered to help as best I can, and I think the adage I've heard on the Keyes campaign calls -- "If you don't see a leader, be a leader", is part of what's happening here. To keep tabs on progress in Maryland, please check out my infant web page at www.ConstitutionPartyMD.org -- I've offered to transfer it to the party when it gets organized, and to have it listed on the state contact page at ConstitutionParty.com

April 9, 2008

Last year's opinion by Maryland state Court of Appeals on petition-related matter

Here's pdf file, obtained from state judiciary web site, of the opinion in Nader For President 2004, et al. v. Maryland State Board of Elections, 399 Md 681 (2007).

The Greens submitted a petition in 2004 similar to the one we're planning now. They obtained about 15,000 signatures, but many were not counted as valid by the state, so many in fact that the number of valid signatures was determined by the state to be too few to meet the 10,000 minimum. The Nader folks filed lawsuit, focusing on those hundreds of folks who were not counted because they were not residents of the county that was specified on the signature page they signed. The decision is an interesting read, and one of the lessons I take away from it is that petition circulators ought to ensure that if a prospective signer resides in different county, then a separate sheet ought to be started for him or her with the right county specified. Another lesson is that the earlier the petition is submitted to the state, the better.

April 8, 2008

Petition signature page pitfalls

We are embarking on a petition drive to get Constitution Party candidates on the ballot in Maryland. The following list of criticisms of a recent referendum petition in Montgomery County includes a lot of information that petition circulators should keep in mind when gathering signatures and submitting the pages:

Source of the following, excerpted from legal challenge to the petition, is www.teachthefacts.org

* The Petition contains Petition sheets with the names of persons who did not sign the papers in their own proper persons, and such signatures are not genuine and are forgeries, in violation of the Maryland Election Code, applicable COMAR regulations, and the Montgomery County Charter.

* The Petition contains Petition sheets with the names of persons who are not registered voters, or who are not registered voters at the addresses shown opposite their respective names ...

* The Petition contains Petition sheets with the names of persons for whom the addresses stated are not in Montgomery County, and such persons are not registered voters in Montgomery County ...

* The Petition contains Petition sheets with the names of persons for whom the addresses given are either missing entirely or are incomplete ...

* The Petition contains Petition sheets with the names of persons who have signed the Petition more than one time ...

* The Petition contains Petition sheets with the "signatures" of persons which are not signed but rather are printed, and said signatures are not genuine signatures ...

* The Petition contains Petition sheets with signatures that consist of neither the individual's name as it appears on the statewide registration list nor the individual's surname of registration and at least one full given name and the initials of any other names ...

* The Petition contains Petition sheets which bear a circulator's affidavit which is not signed by the circulator, and every signature on such sheets is invalid ...

* The Petition contains Petition sheets bearing a circulator's affidavit on which the circulator's address is incorrect in that the purported circulator does not reside at the address indicated on the Petition sheet, and every signature on such sheets is invalid ...

* The Petition contains Petition sheets bearing a circulator's affidavit which is not signed by the circulator in his/her own proper person, and such signatures are not genuine and are forgeries ...

* The Petition contains Petition sheets that the purported circulator did not personally circulate and every signature on such sheets is invalid ...

* The Petition contains Petition sheets bearing a circulator's affidavit on which the circulator's address is incomplete, and every signature on such sheets is invalid ...

* The Petition contains numerous Petition sheets reflecting alterations indicative of fraud by the circulator such as circulator and/or signer information that appears to have been covered with "white out" ...

* The Petition contains numerous Petition sheets on which it appears, that individuals signed Petitions not in the presence of the purported circulator as evidenced by numerous Petition sheets with only one signature with the same circulators, including but not limited to Ruth Jacobs and Theresa Rickman. Such activity demonstrates a pattern of fraud and disregard for the Maryland Election Code, applicable COMAR regulations, and the Montgomery County Charter, to such a degree that every sheet circulated by said individuals should be invalidated in order to protect the integrity of the electoral process.

* The Petition contains numerous Petition sheets on which the circulator purported to attest to his or her own signature ...

* The Petition contains numerous Petition sheets on which the date of the circulator affidavit is before the date of the signatures purported to be attested to ...

* The Petition contains numerous Petition sheets on which the date of the circulator affidavit appears to have been altered, and that without such alteration, the date of the circulator affidavit would have been prior to the date of the signatures purported to be attested to, in violation of the Maryland Election Code, applicable COMAR regulations, and the Montgomery County Charter.

* The Petition contains numerous Petition sheets on which other disqualifying errors, not specifically enumerated herein, are contained ...

* Defendant BOARD OF ELECTIONS ignored the deficiencies in the Petition's form and content, and the unfair, inaccurate and misleading tactics used by its proponents to obtain signatures ...

* Although certain signatures were invalidated during its review, Defendant BOARD OF ELECTIONS either ignored or did not properly analyze the categories set forth above.

April 8, 2008

Petition drive - 10,000 voters needed

For the Constitution Party's presidential nominee to be a choice on the ballots here in Maryland come November, all that's needed is for at least 10,000 registered Maryland voters to sign a petition which will be circulating soon. I expect to post a copy of the approved signature sheets here for folks to download and print for use. Please send me an email at volunteer@ConstitutionPartyMD.org if you'd like to help in the signature-gathering. You have to be at least 18 years old to be a petition circulator. I've been convinced of the wisdom of having a lot of people in such tasks, each doing an easy share. A thousand folks could probably each get 10 signatures in less than an hour. We could have this vital step behind us in a day. Please volunteer!

April 6, 2008

What do conservatives believe these days?

The term conservative originated back in the days when folks were trying to "conserve the monarchy" -- that is, to keep kings in their place against the onslaught of democratic tide like the French Revolution. Lots of folks in the USA consider themselves conservatives today, but they have no interest in conserving any monarchy. So the definition of conservative has changed.

The single most important factor in US conservativism in recent years, as best I can tell, is a desire for smaller role of federal government than currently exists. But I'm not the guy who gets to define what conservatism is. A popular way to think about conservative voters today is the "three-leg" model: national defense conservatives, economic conservatives, and social conservatives.

A complicating matter in defining conservatism is the use of the term conservative in the specific context of describing part of the continuum spanning from reactionary to radical. In this context, conservatives are those who hold significant general presumption against change.

Here's how one of the leading candidates for Libertarian Party nomination for President this year defines conservatives:

"We real libertarians have a challenge," Phillies said. "Some conservatives pretend to be Libertarians. Fifty years ago, conservatives claimed states had a right to keep persons of color from voting. Conservatives were wrong. Now, conservatives claim states have a right to keep women from having abortions. That claim is the same old racist Jim-Crow states' rights doctrine. It's still wrong. Our Constitution's 14th Amendment makes things crystal clear. If Congress isn't allowed to do it, neither are individual states."

Mr. Phillies continues "[D]on't let conservatives take over our party. America already has two conservative parties, Republican and Constitution. We shouldn't become the third."

I thoroughly disagree with Mr. Phillies' equating of those opposed to abortion with those who adopted Jim Crow laws. It seems to me that one can be a libertarian and still consider abortion to be murder, and thus the just subject of criminality. And that one thinks that states are the proper level of government to adopt laws against murder, rather than federal, does not make one a Jim Crow kind of advocate.

One of the things I like about the Constitution Party is the pro-life plank in their platform. And Alan Keyes is one of the most eloquent advocates against abortion I've ever heard. As a debate coach at The Catholic University of America in the late 1970s, it was my pleasure to work daily with students who advocated against legalized abortion at debate tournaments across the country, week after week. These kids were good. Keyes would have been a good addition to the team, just as he will be, if you and I help elect him, a great President. The Keyes campaignwebsite -- alankeyes.com -- has a lot of archived speeches of his, and I hope you'll watch and listen to a bunch of them, so that you too can stand against the "culture of death", of which the so-called "pro-choice" movement is a part. A hugely tragic part.

March 31, 2008