I’m running because the country I’m living in, no longer resembles the country I grew up in. The constraints and hurdles associated with everyday life and normal human behaviors have become so invasive that our quality of life has become severely compromised.

The most basic rights a person can have, such as the the right to employment, the right to travel, the right  not to be incarcerated, and the right to bodily self-determination are constantly being threatened by a never ending barrage of legislation and corporate rule making.

To get a job you have to pass mandatory drug screening and background checks that even include misdemeanor offenses, activities wholly unrelated to your performance on the job.  You have to have a driver’s license and insurance, take a personality test and if you can survive the gauntlet you are rewarded with a job that pays $10 an hour with few benefits and no security.

Let’s look at the barriers to travel. When I’m talking about the right to travel, I’m not just talking about moving yourself around. In the United States when I grew up, you also had the right to grab your toolbox and go look for work, or you could load your car with groceries or laundry. You could even be like the Clampett’s and throw your furniture on your truck and move to California. When I say right to travel, I mean the right to drive, and it’s being taken away from us.

First of all, mandatory insurance laws are unconstitutional because they are a tax on the use of the public commons. A tax that goes to private companies. We have allowed private insurance companies to monopolize the public square for profit. The obvious solution to this is to insure your own property and safety instead of somebody else’s. When you buy homeowner’s insurance, you’re protecting your own, not someone else’s property. Likewise, your health insurance is for you not somebody else. If we make car insurance self-insurance, then it can be voluntary and everybody would be allowed to use the roads and highways they paid for.

We need to eliminate driver’s licenses for experienced drivers. Licenses should be for training purposes only. After ten years of safe driving you should no longer need any paperwork to drive a car. Your ability to drive a car safely is unaffected by whatever pieces of paper or plastic you have in your pocket or glove compartment.

A license is primarily used to to grant permissions, for example; it is used to grant permission to buy cigarettes or alcohol. It used to grant permission to travel to Canada or Mexico. It is used to grant permission to get a job, and soon it will be used to grant permission when you enter a government building or enter or leave a state. Whether or not you believe an ID should be necessary for these purposes should be separate from your right to drive a car.

Seat belt laws are unconstitutional because they serve no legitimate purpose of government. The statistics in Ohio show that over 40% of the fatalities in 2006 were people wearing seat belts. If you look at the injury statistics you will see that ten times as many people were injured while wearing seat belts. Adding the two categories together this is an 8:1 ratio of bad things happening to people wearing  seat belts, yet it is now a criminal offense not to wear them. These laws are a smokescreen. They are merely another pretext to make a traffic stop and start looking for contraband or to look for evidence of impairment. If a stop has already been made, these laws are a value added opportunity to write another ticket and raise revenue.

The drunk driving laws as applied in my home state of Ohio are unconstitutional because they also apply to bicycles, golf carts and lawn mowers, even on private property. Vehicles that are not responsible for death and injury on the highways in any way. A person on his riding lawn mower or farm tractor on their own property are now eligible for a Felony conviction and spending three to five years in a real prison. There is no rational basis for this. In general, the penalties for DUI are too harsh, are shown to have no value in reducing “alcohol-related” traffic fatalities” and are grossly disproportional to the harm of the violation.

There will not be a national smoking ban in my administration. Smoking, drinking and cussing are great American traditions and should be preserved.

Far too many rights have been surrendered without adequate justification, and the reason is, because we allow it.

Social Security

I have a plan to fully fund and rescue Social Security, transforming it from a  social safety net, to a full fledged retirement program, with retirement starting at Fifty Five.

Two words: ”Chain Letters.”

The problems with chain letters are possible illegality and non-compliance. In my administration, chain letters will not only be legal, but mandatory. The chains will be administered by the SSA.

Tough on Crime

It is my intent as President to be tough on crime. Remember, every time we create a new law we create new criminals. I will, in my first term, cut the Federal crime rate in half, simply by reducing the number of laws on the books. The largest perpetrators of crime in the United States today, are the Federal and State legislatures. I’m going to be tough on crime itself.

I pledge to take 100,000 police officers off the street.

I will work with congress, and if necessary, use the power of executive order to end the drug war. I will end any provision of Federal law that includes property seizure. I will appoint judges that respect private property rights and personal freedom.

We need to stop playing cops and robbers with peoples lives. There are very few negative outcomes from the use of drugs and alcohol that can compare with the negative outcomes from arrest and incarceration. Not to mention the interdictions and interventions that are associated with the war on drugs.

Foreign Policy

Let’s review: in the last seven years we have had two invasions and occupations. We’ve installed puppet regimes, had show trials, offshore detention camps, secret detention camps, torture, secret military tribunals, eliminated Habeas Corpus and caused the deaths of almost a million people. Am I still living in the United States of America? When I was growing up we sent in advisors first and then escalated.

Legal Reform

I will work to have the practice of law defined as a mental illness.

I will end the practice of overcharging defendants in order to get them to admit to something they didn’t do in a plea bargain. A citizen should have the right to a day in court, face their accuser, and defend themselves against the charges before them. Police should be made to tell the truth, and prosecutors should stop prosecuting the innocent.

Taser weapons are dangerous and should only be used as an alternative to deadly force. Any other use is torture and a human rights violation.

A criminal conviction has nothing to do with guilt and should not be used to as a cause for discrimination after a person has served their sentence and paid their fine. A person who has served their sentence has paid their debt to society and should be allowed to resume making a living. This is in everybody’s interest.

The reason that we need laws in the first place is to protect the public from the government.

Defense

As of November 2007, the current military authorization, plus supplemental to fund our current wars is almost three quarters of a Trillion dollars, for one year.

Having worked in a government bureaucracy for over a decade, I know the only way to sustain your budget year after year is to use it. The size of our military budget, by itself, justifies its use.

This is a good example of the law of attraction, the more we spend on war, the more war we will have. Likewise, the more we spend on domestic surveillance, or helicopters and tanks and arms for local law enforcement, the more we will have.

In my administration I will cut the military budget by two thirds. We will still be spending more than the next largest fifteen countries combined, which should be adequate for a robust defense.

With the possible exceptions of Taiwan and Korea, all U.S. military bases on foreign soil will be closed, and men and material will be brought home. All orders for new weapon systems will be cancelled. The lion’s share of my defense budget will be spent on pay raises and expanding the VA. The goal will be to create a whole generation of enlisted personnel who have never seen combat.

September 11

The greatest story never told. For the last seven years, we have been told, that our foreign and domestic policy are a response to September 11, 2001, and likely will inform our policies for the rest of our lives. Some of the most astonishing and newsworthy stories in the history of the world are completely ignored by the mainstream media. We should first be certain of the facts, and the perpetrators involved, before we create a Fascist utopia here in America.

Energy

As I mentioned we will withdraw our military presence around the world as well as in the Middle East. OPEC can keep their oil; we won’t need it.

World oil production has already, or will soon peak. The end of oil is inevitable. We should learn to live without it now and prioritize our remaining reserves for the creation of our future energy infrastructure and mass transit.

Ultimately the solution for our future energy needs is to take a do-it-yourself, home-brew approach. People should try to create as much of their own energy as possible through solar and wind. Power can then be generated by communities and by local and state governments and then tied to the grid where it can be shared to others who may not be having a sunny day.

Education

This is the biggest issue of all.

According to just about every authority you can find, the biggest factors impacting academic performance are the education and income level of the parents, especially the mother.

If you look at any other quality of life or social indicators, you will see the same thing over and over. From teenage pregnancies and abortion, being a victim of violent crime, perpetrating a crime, being incarcerated, access to health care and longevity, in every case, people of higher education and income levels do better.

The mission is clear; become a better educated more affluent society.

The ways we can do this is tap the savings from the reduced military and law enforcement budgets, and provide free college education, free health care, and strengthen social safety nets, so children children won’t have to go to school distracted by hunger or medical issues like asthma or head lice, or because they have had to move and change schools.

Create alternatives to criminal sentencing that include mandatory high school and college classes. Create academic curriculum for prisons. Turn prisons into campuses.

A Matter of Choice

All of this is possible; it’s up to you. I’ve tried to cover a brief assortment of topics that are not being debated by the major parties.

My vision for the United States includes

Saturday afternoons in the park, with a

picnic basket, a ham sandwich,

deviled eggs and a mug of beer, a band

playing in the gazebo, dogs running and

children playing barefoot in the grass, and

nobody having to go to jail.

An initiative is underway to get on the

ballot in Ohio. Ohio is often a critical

state in presidential elections and a

percentage point or two could be  influential.

We will try to get on as many ballots as possible depending on our resources. Please consider supporting this campaign.