United Liberty

CBS & the NYT released what will probably be their last Presidential Approval poll for George W. Bush as a sitting President. The results were, well, unsurprising at 22% approval.

(CBS) President Bush will leave office as one of the most unpopular departing presidents in history, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll showing Mr. Bush’s final approval rating at 22 percent.

Seventy-three percent say they disapprove of the way Mr. Bush has handled his job as president over the last eight years.

Mr. Bush’s final approval rating is the lowest final rating for an outgoing president since Gallup began asking about presidential approval more than 70 years ago.

The rating is far below the final ratings of recent two-term presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, who both ended their terms with a 68 percent approval rating, according to CBS News polling. - CBS

Hopefully this will be seen as a final indictment on the evil ideology that is neoconservativism, though I do readily expect them to work their way back into positions of power after a few years of laying low.

I’ve gotten a bit of hostility for being a libertarian. While I can only think of one person in my experience who really gave me serious crap for it, more than a few have created stereotypes in their head due to my political leanings. I must be a gun owner, a pot smoker or a well-to-do man who doesn’t want to share loot with anyone. I am not even close to being any of those.

I lean with the libertarians because of my philosophy of life, which is strongly rooted in my life experience. Throughout my public school days, I could not understand why I had to take part in activities I didn’t enjoy or succeed at, why nothing was done when kids bullied or harassed me or why some bureaucrat who had never met me decided where I would spend the majority of the day. I tend to get angriest and lash out when people box me in, keep me from choosing my own path or tell me what I cannot do. If allowed a large degree of freedom (within reason, of course) I’m fairly happy.

Indiana State Senator Greg Walker (R) has introduced a bill before the General Assembly to require the State Treasury to accept gold as a competing currency in the state of Indiana.

The Libertarian Party of Indiana has taken this stance:

STRONGLY SUPPORT: We liked the idea when LPIN gubernatorial candidate proposed this at an October press conference. We liked it more when he talked about it during the debates. We liked the idea at a national level when Congressman Ron Paul championed this message on the campaign trail. Imagine a currency that has real value and the effect this move would have on stabilizing a very unstable economy.

The complete details can be found here.

Economist Ludwig von Mises, a man who witnessed the rise of totalitarian systems of fascism and communism, noted that totalitarian governments thrive in the soil of etatism, or “the trend toward government control of business”. On Mises’ view, etatism went hand-in-hand with economic nationalism and the glorification of war. There is no better example than Nazi Germany, the home of national socialism. Before Hitler could mobilize resources and support for his Lebensraum-oriented war machine, he first nationalized businesses, turning them from entrepreneurial market ventures to servants of the state. But what does that have to do with us?

Despite a hard-fought campaign, and despite the help of thousands of people across our country, our Congressional campaign in North Carolina’s 4th District suffered a decisive defeat. We received many compliments on our campaign, which featured a well-attended debate at UNC, a brief but focused media campaign (see Your Money at Work, and Your Money at Work Part 2), fifty thousand copies of our United States Constitution, and hundreds of great volunteers across the district engaging voters at the polls. While compliments don’t win elections, I was proud to represent the cause of a Constitutional federal government, and principled government that upholds the rights of individual Americans.

Americans may be growing tired of biannual belligerent escalations in the Middle East, or more Generation X and younger commentators are getting jobs in media and thus publishing views more complex and nuanced than the blind support of Israel that characterized the Baby Boomers. Whatever the case, we now live in a political climate where Wall Street Journal’s op-ed page, a friendly place for neoconservatism, includes articles such as this one by the Palestinian American professor George Bisharat:

In case you missed it, George Will wrote a great column on December 21, titled “The Final Blow Against Congress” in which he shows how superfluous Congress has become in the age of presidents who prefer to govern without constraint of any sort.

Of course, our Founding Fathers wanted Congress to be the strongest branch of government—that’s why they gave them the “power of the purse” (the right to coin money, raise taxes, and spend money).

Will condemned President Bush for completely snubbing the clear will of Congress in rejecting the “Big 3” auto-manufacturer’s bailout. Not only did President Bush ignore Congress’s authority, but he thought their $14 billion proposal was too skimpy. So he authorized $17 billion from the $700 billion bailout package previously passed by Congress to be spent on the failing US auto industry.