Ron Paul is Winning Converts in Congress
 

"Ron Paul's Economic Theories Winning GOP Converts: Congressman's Clout Grows Within GOP Minority, Among Some Dems."
 
That was the headline of a recent article in the respected and influential Washington Independent online newspaper.
 
"A funny thing has started happening to Paul since his long-shot presidential campaign ended quietly in the summer of 2008," says the article, by journalist David Wiegel. "More Republicans have started listening to him. There are the media requests from Fox Business Channel and talk radio, where he's given airtime to inveigh on sound money and macroeconomics. There is HR 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, a bill that would launch an audit of the Federal Reserve System, and which has attracted 112 co-sponsors."
 
(Since this article appeared, still more representatives have signed on to Paul's bill. Also, here's another example of Paul's ability to reach across the aisle: HR 1207's identical Senate companion bill is S604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act -- sponsored by Democrat and avowed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.)
 
The Washington Independent further notes that Paul hosts weekly lunches with several Congressmen, at which Paul presents them with a libertarian or free market speaker. The article says the attending members of Congress "grab something to eat off of a deli plate. They take notes. They loosen up and ask questions."
 
"Paul's unexpected and sudden clout with his fellow Republicans -- even some of Paul's staff have been surprised with the momentum of his 'Audit the Fed' bill -- comes as the GOP engages in a tortured internal dialogue about its future," the article says.
 
This can only be good for liberty. Let's hope Paul's educational work within Congress continues to gather momentum.
 
Gov. Mark Sanford: Libertarian Label is "A Badge of Honor"
 
Here's another sign that libertarianism is definitely on the rise.
 
This past weekend at the South Carolina Republican Party convention, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) attacked libertarians and Ron Paul.
 
"I am not a libertarian," Senator Graham declared. "If you are, you're welcome to vote for me and build this party, but we're not going to build this party around libertarian ideas."
 
It's hardly news that the big-government Graham is not a libertarian. But immediately after those words, libertarian activist Amanda Moore asked South Carolina's Republican governor Mark Sanford -- who has often been considered sympathetic to libertarianism -- to respond.
 
And did he ever.
 
"It's funny, there was almost a pejorative comment a moment ago," Gov. Sanford said. "Senator Graham spoke and said 'I'm not a libertarian' -- as if that's an evil word.
 
"Liberty is the hallmark of the American experiment. That is the distinguishing characteristic of our republic and frankly, what's made it great.
 
"In my comments last night I said that is the genius of America, of affording liberty so that in your pursuit of happiness versus my pursuit of happiness and the dreams that went with that you unleash individual initiative that can't be there with central planning.
 
"People say, 'You know, Mark, you're kind of libertarian' and they'll say it as if it's an evil word, like 'You're a communist' or something. I'm like, 'Throw me in that briar patch. I'm guilty. I love liberty.' I think that ought to be a good thing and I don't think that it should be something that people back away from.
 
"I've been accused of being a libertarian and I wear it as a badge of honor, because I do love, believe in, and want to support liberty."
 
Now we're not saying Governor Sanford is a libertarian. (Though a recent profile in American Conservative magazine indicates he has far more libertarian leanings than most of his GOP colleagues.) But this exchange shows how politicians are increasingly being forced to encounter and evaluate libertarian ideas, and to take positions on them -- in front of a growing and very vocal libertarian voting bloc. And that's a very good thing.
  
Portugal's Wildly Successful Drug Decriminalization
 
In 2001 Portugal abolished all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs -- marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and others.
 
Instead of jail, those found possessing drugs for personal use are offered treatment -- and that treatment may be refused without punishment. (Drug selling continued to be illegal.)
 
How is that bold experiment working? Astonishingly well, according to a new study by the libertarian Cato Institute.
 
"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says attorney and author Glenn Greenwald, who conducted the Cato study. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."
 
Examples: 
 
* Decriminalization has had no adverse effect on drug usage rates in Portugal, which are now among the lowest in the European Union (EU), particularly when compared with nations with strong drug criminalization laws.
* Deaths due to drug usage have decreased dramatically.
* Rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles has dropped.
* Drug use among teens in Portugal has declined.
* Resources spent on pursuing drug users are now directed to treatment or to other law enforcement needs.
* The number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction has more than doubled (due to greater opportunity for treatment and the removal of legal threats).
* Fears that Portugal would be plagued by addicts and "drug tourists" seeking drugs proved to be groundless.
* Portugal's decriminalization is popular among the citizenry and political leaders. There is no serious political opposition to the policy.
 
Greenwald notes that one of the biggest reasons the Drug War in the U.S. still enjoys support, despite its obvious failure, is fear that relegalization of drugs could lead to increased drug use, especially among the young. In Portugal, the data clearly shows this did not happen.
 
Reviewing the Cato study, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorialized: "...by almost every measure, the drug situation in Portugal is better than it is in other European nations that still criminalize personal usage. ... [The Obama administration should] use Portugal as a powerful example in urging an end to the U.S. drug war that's a losing effort for all concerned."
 
Glenn Greenwald concludes: "Within [Portugal's] success lie self-evident lessons that should guide drug policy debates around the world."
 

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Quick Shots...
 

JAY LENO STAMPS THE GOV'T MAIL MONOPOLY:

"The price of a postage stamp went up to 44 cents this week. Isn't that unbelievable? They said they had to raise the price because fewer and fewer people are using the mail these days. That's government thinking, isn't it? 'Hey, nobody's buying our product. Let's raise the price.'" -- Jay Leno, May 12, 2009.
 
LETTERMAN STAMPS THE GOV'T MAIL MONOPOLY: "Anybody ever mail anything any more? Well, the price of a stamp is going up to 44 cents. Pretty soon, it will actually be cheaper and easier to just put a little glue on a dollar bill and stick it to an envelope." -- David Letterman, May 12, 2009.
 
CANCER AND GOVERNMENT: "The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network announced recently that it will spend $3 million over the next several months not on urging Americans to stop smoking or get mammograms, but on campaigning for a government takeover of the U.S. health-care system. This is perverse: It's hard to imagine anything worse for cancer patients than government-run health care. For all its faults and all the criticism that it has received, the United States' free-market health-care system has made America the place you want to be if you have a serious illness." -- Michael D. Tanner, Cato Institute op-ed.
 

BLACK AMERICA'S SUCCESS: "Race talk often portrays black Americans as downtrodden and deserving of white people's help and sympathy. That vision is an insult of major proportions. As a group, black Americans have made some of the greatest gains, over the highest hurdles, in the shortest span of time than any other racial group in mankind's history. This unprecedented progress can be seen through several measures. If one were to total black earnings, and consider black Americans a separate nation, he would find that in 2005 black Americans earned $644 billion, making them the world's 16th richest nation -- that is just behind Australia but ahead of the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Black Americans are, and have been, chief executives of some of the world's largest and richest cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. ... Black Americans are among the world's most famous personalities and a few are among the richest. Most blacks are not poor but middle class.
 
"On the eve of the Civil War, neither a slave nor a slave owner would have believed these gains possible in less than a mere century and a half, if ever. That progress speaks well not only of the sacrifices and intestinal fortitude of a people; it also speaks well of a nation in which these gains were possible. These gains would not have been possible anywhere else." -- libertarian economist and syndicated columnist Walter Williams.