LPSF poster project - I'm excited!

Here's the rough draft just in from Scott -- I don't know about you all, but I love it! Of course not every panel looks quite like I envisioned, but I think he's done a fantastic job, as I knew he would. Scroll down to see at bottom (hopefully it will show up on the list -- I've also uploaded it to the LPSF yahoogroup files section just in case).

  Here are my ideas for slight changes for the final version, listed by panel, going clockwise from the top middle. My goal in most of the suggestions is simply to try for as much realism as possible. It's possible that some of the things I'm noticing that I would fix are simply a result of it being a rough draft. Let me know if any of the rest of you have suggestions.

1. Make the guy on the ground look a little more afraid, and a little more distinctly African-American. Have the three police officers standing in the background instead standing more around and over the victim, in more natural poses so they don't all look identical. Have at least one of the officers be distinctly black too. Not all should be smiling, some are obviously angry as well -- they're cowboys in a situation where they've got adrenaline surging through them. Even the cops who are laughing or smiling appear to have "harder" smiles, not too jovial.

2. The guy in the doorway has the right sympathetic look, but the woman ought to be kind of looking up with a tired, almost pleading, but more resigned look. Also, she looks like she's wearing pajamas with a frilly thing around the neck -- could be taking the grandmother thing a bit *too* far. Maybe someone who looks like a slightly older version of Mary Jane Cratchet (see http://www.adrugwarcarol.org/ADWC.php?next=9). Make sure what she's smoking looks like a joint and not just an ordinary cigarette.

3. Have the kids in a few different poses, and make at least one of them obviously a girl. I'm torn about the sign -- realistically it would probably be all text, without the picture of the skateboard, or if there was a picture of a skateboard it would be smaller and more line-drawing style, like the handicapped symbols one sees all over the place. Decrease the height of the sign and make it a little wider, so there's room to have it read "NO SKATEBOARDING" (instead of "NO SKATEBOARDS") with a smaller crossed-out skateboard graphic, and add the words "NO BICYCLE RIDING" and "NO LOITERING" in smaller letters underneath. Remember all these words may look fairly small to read if you just applied them to the drawings below, but the actual poster will be significantly larger. Show decoration on the bottoms of the kids' skateboards, including one covered with stickers, one of which says "Skateboarding Is Not A Crime!" and another one that says "Bureaucrash" with the website's logo (see www.bureaucrash.com, which by the way looks good after their recent redesign!).

4. Have one of the officers saying to the woman, "Keep walking, sweetheart!" Maybe a street pole or street lamp or something in the background?

5. This panel looks great. The only possible change would be in what the guy is carrying, depending what kind of store is depicted in the illustration. [I'd like to find an actual San Francisco business that has had to close because of losing some kind of permit, and put its name in the window. Please let me know if anyone has any leads on a former business that fits this profile! Preferably it shouldn't have the words "San Francisco," "California," or other location-specific words in the name. I was previously thinking to make the poster as San Francisco-specific as possible, but on reflection, we want something that will be readily usable by LP chapters and libertarian groups in other areas. In the version below, the Green Cross (panel 2) and Third Street (panel 1) are SF-derived, but the names are generic enough that they could be anywhere.]

6. Just one tiny change -- have one of the gay men wearing a Pink Pistols button (graphic attached) on his jacket. Might as well give our allies a small subtle plug.

7. Have the sign specifically read "Redevelopment Agency"* and not just "Redevelopment." Also have it read "New London Resort Hotel Coming Soon!" and include a small artists' sketch showing the planned hotel. [*This isn't actually consistent with the details of the Kelo vs. New London case (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._New_London#The_development_plan), but we want to make it clear here that it's the government doing the dirty work.] Add police tape around the edges of the lawn, separating the family from their house.

8. Make the "coyote" guy in the hat a bit shadier looking, not so upstanding -- a little intimidating and perhaps not the nicest guy. The expression on his face is one of impatience. The truck should be more of a modern semi trailer truck, with one of its back doors open just enough for people to climb inside. Show the sun in the sky blazing down, and a long line of people standing in the shade of the truck (on the side toward the viewer, not visible from the border) waiting in line to get in -- mostly men, but one woman with a child. (The idea is for viewers to think about the fact that all the people will be sealed inside in the heat for the long drive north.) Show one person in the process of climbing into the truck (no ladder or anything of course). I think the border looks great in this photo, and I love the touch of the small cactuses on the ground!

9. Love it! Especially the little details of the cross on the woman's necklace and the weeping willows in the background adding to the New Orleans atmosphere. Can't see a single thing I'd change, except to make sure the thought bubbles coming out of her head are included in the final draft.

10. Basic execution is great. I like that the parents aren't paying attention to the child, because they are preoccupied with their tax preparation woes, and he looks kind of unhappy because he can tell they aren't happy but he's too young to understand exactly what's going on. I think I'd just have the man and woman mirror each other a little less -- one a bit more centered in the frame than the other, and in a slightly different posture, perhaps the man kind of supporting his face and chin, looking tired and harried, while the woman looks worried, or vice-versa. The scene looks perhaps a little artificial just because it's framed so perfectly. Making it a little more off-kilter might also make it easier to connect the thought bubbles to the woman's (or the man's) head.

General suggestions/observations:
-Make the word "our" in the central though bubble slightly more boldfaced, or with a slight underline.
-Make sure the victims in each panel look enough like distinct individuals that they could potentially be used in later projects -- for example a comic book telling the stories of the people in the panels or something.
-I like that the panels are mostly drawn so that the victims' heads are near the central thought bubble so they can easily have their thoughts connected to it. This could be achieved in panel 5 by doing a mirror version of what appears now so that the building is on the right side of the panel and the man is walking on the left. On the other hand, there's a certain appeal to the way it is now.
-The whole poster might look better if the panels weren't contained within distinct boxes, but either had more irregular (non-straight line) frames, or weren't framed at all, but kind of bled into each other. I'm not sure about this though.
-I had envisioned all the text at the bottom of the poster as being centered, with the head of the and perhaps a bit slicker looking,.

Yours in liberty,
        <<< starchild >>>

(Attachment LPSFPoster_layout.jpg is missing)

This does indeed look great, Starchild. Your suggestions also sound good.
Thanks for keeping this rolling.

One minor suggestion from me: ditch the quotes around our "slogan". The
quotation marks make it sound a bit "insincere", as though it's something
we "say", but don't necessarily *mean*.

Oh, and I don't think the cops are telling the streetwalker to move along;
from her hands, I'd say she's cuffed.

~Chris

Hi Starchild,

What a terrific poster! My thanks to you for conceiving this idea
and bringing it to fruition; and to Scott for such great work. Your
suggestions are good, but I would weigh them against how much
time/work it would take Scott to implement them vs. leaving the
poster pretty much as is. If changes are too difficult, I would
suggest focusing on:

1. Having one of the police officers look distincly African
American. Regarding having the officers around the victim, I would
think that would cover the word "Police" on the car.

2. Maybe just make the senior citizen lady's shoes a little smaller,
so they do not look like bunny slippers. I agree with the expression
of the guy as it is, he is concerned not impatient.

3. (Looks good to me)

4. (Looks good to me)

5. I agree the poster should not be city specific. We might be able
to sell it world wide! I am dubious about the wisdom of using the
name of a specific store, especially without the store's permission.

6. The messages are nicely loud and clear. I would not mix messages
by adding the Pink Pistiols button, especailly since we already have
a panel addressing guns.

7. Here again, I would leave the message clear, not confuse the
issue with specific names such as Redevelopment Agency or New London
Resort.

8. I would bet Coyotes don't look too sinister, since they do such a
land office business. I would leave the panel as is. However, I
would change the wording to be correct in Spanish: "Quieren ir al
Norte" and "Deben darme el dinero"

9. I agree this panel is terrific (remember little Elian's terrified
look as the guns pointed at his face?)

10. (Looks good to me)

I very much like the distinct square boxes for each panel, makes the
message in each panel quickly go from eye to perception.

I agree that the bubbles need to be emphatic, so that the "our" in
the center is clear.

Just my own suggestions. The poster looks great as it is.

Marcy

  Here's the rough draft just in from Scott -- I don't know

about you

all, but I love it! Of course not every panel looks quite like I
envisioned, but I think he's done a fantastic job, as I knew he

would.

Scroll down to see at bottom (hopefully it will show up on the

list --

I've also uploaded it to the LPSF yahoogroup files section just in
case).

  Here are my ideas for slight changes for the final version,

listed by

panel, going clockwise from the top middle. My goal in most of the
suggestions is simply to try for as much realism as possible. It's
possible that some of the things I'm noticing that I would fix are
simply a result of it being a rough draft. Let me know if any of

the

rest of you have suggestions.

1. Make the guy on the ground look a little more afraid, and a

little

more distinctly African-American. Have the three police officers
standing in the background instead standing more around and over

the

victim, in more natural poses so they don't all look identical.

Have at

least one of the officers be distinctly black too. Not all should

be

smiling, some are obviously angry as well -- they're cowboys in a
situation where they've got adrenaline surging through them. Even

the

cops who are laughing or smiling appear to have "harder" smiles,

not

too jovial.

2. The guy in the doorway has the right sympathetic look, but the

woman

ought to be kind of looking up with a tired, almost pleading, but

more

resigned look. Also, she looks like she's wearing pajamas with a

frilly

thing around the neck -- could be taking the grandmother thing a

bit

*too* far. Maybe someone who looks like a slightly older version of
Mary Jane Cratchet (see http://www.adrugwarcarol.org/ADWC.php?

next=9).

Make sure what she's smoking looks like a joint and not just an
ordinary cigarette.

3. Have the kids in a few different poses, and make at least one of
them obviously a girl. I'm torn about the sign -- realistically it
would probably be all text, without the picture of the skateboard,

or

if there was a picture of a skateboard it would be smaller and more
line-drawing style, like the handicapped symbols one sees all over

the

place. Decrease the height of the sign and make it a little wider,

so

there's room to have it read "NO SKATEBOARDING" (instead of "NO
SKATEBOARDS") with a smaller crossed-out skateboard graphic, and

add

the words "NO BICYCLE RIDING" and "NO LOITERING" in smaller letters
underneath. Remember all these words may look fairly small to read

if

you just applied them to the drawings below, but the actual poster

will

be significantly larger. Show decoration on the bottoms of the

kids'

skateboards, including one covered with stickers, one of which says
"Skateboarding Is Not A Crime!" and another one that

says "Bureaucrash"

with the website's logo (see www.bureaucrash.com, which by the way
looks good after their recent redesign!).

4. Have one of the officers saying to the woman, "Keep walking,
sweetheart!" Maybe a street pole or street lamp or something in the
background?

5. This panel looks great. The only possible change would be in

what

the guy is carrying, depending what kind of store is depicted in

the

illustration. [I'd like to find an actual San Francisco business

that

has had to close because of losing some kind of permit, and put its
name in the window. Please let me know if anyone has any leads on a
former business that fits this profile! Preferably it shouldn't

have

the words "San Francisco," "California," or other location-specific
words in the name. I was previously thinking to make the poster as

San

Francisco-specific as possible, but on reflection, we want

something

that will be readily usable by LP chapters and libertarian groups

in

other areas. In the version below, the Green Cross (panel 2) and

Third

Street (panel 1) are SF-derived, but the names are generic enough

that

they could be anywhere.]

6. Just one tiny change -- have one of the gay men wearing a Pink
Pistols button (graphic attached) on his jacket. Might as well give

our

allies a small subtle plug.

7. Have the sign specifically read "Redevelopment Agency"* and not

just

"Redevelopment." Also have it read "New London Resort Hotel Coming
Soon!" and include a small artists' sketch showing the planned

hotel.

[*This isn't actually consistent with the details of the Kelo vs.

New

London case (see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._New_London#The_development_plan),

but we want to make it clear here that it's the government doing

the

dirty work.] Add police tape around the edges of the lawn,

separating

the family from their house.

8. Make the "coyote" guy in the hat a bit shadier looking, not so
upstanding -- a little intimidating and perhaps not the nicest guy.

The

expression on his face is one of impatience. The truck should be

more

of a modern semi trailer truck, with one of its back doors open

just

enough for people to climb inside. Show the sun in the sky blazing
down, and a long line of people standing in the shade of the truck

(on

the side toward the viewer, not visible from the border) waiting in
line to get in -- mostly men, but one woman with a child. (The idea

is

for viewers to think about the fact that all the people will be

sealed

inside in the heat for the long drive north.) Show one person in

the

process of climbing into the truck (no ladder or anything of

course). I

think the border looks great in this photo, and I love the touch of

the

small cactuses on the ground!

9. Love it! Especially the little details of the cross on the

woman's

necklace and the weeping willows in the background adding to the

New

Orleans atmosphere. Can't see a single thing I'd change, except to

make

sure the thought bubbles coming out of her head are included in the
final draft.

10. Basic execution is great. I like that the parents aren't paying
attention to the child, because they are preoccupied with their tax
preparation woes, and he looks kind of unhappy because he can tell

they

aren't happy but he's too young to understand exactly what's going

on.

I think I'd just have the man and woman mirror each other a little

less

-- one a bit more centered in the frame than the other, and in a
slightly different posture, perhaps the man kind of supporting his

face

and chin, looking tired and harried, while the woman looks worried,

or

vice-versa. The scene looks perhaps a little artificial just

because

it's framed so perfectly. Making it a little more off-kilter might

also

make it easier to connect the thought bubbles to the woman's (or

the

man's) head.

General suggestions/observations:
-Make the word "our" in the central though bubble slightly more
boldfaced, or with a slight underline.
-Make sure the victims in each panel look enough like distinct
individuals that they could potentially be used in later projects --

for example a comic book telling the stories of the people in the
panels or something.
-I like that the panels are mostly drawn so that the victims' heads

are

near the central thought bubble so they can easily have their

thoughts

connected to it. This could be achieved in panel 5 by doing a

mirror

version of what appears now so that the building is on the right

side

of the panel and the man is walking on the left. On the other hand,
there's a certain appeal to the way it is now.
-The whole poster might look better if the panels weren't contained
within distinct boxes, but either had more irregular (non-straight
line) frames, or weren't framed at all, but kind of bled into each
other. I'm not sure about this though.
-I had envisioned all the text at the bottom of the poster as being
centered, with the head of the and perhaps a bit slicker looking,.

Yours in liberty,
        <<< starchild >>>
  
> Attached is a layout/pencil rough for the Poster. Putting in the
> details was a bit less onerous than I feared, but I did have to

make

> some minor changes from the list you gave.
>
> Also, for the closed business, I'm still waiting for a business

name

Is anyone really suprised that the Vice
President shot first and asked
questions later. Isn't that the kind of
thinking needed to run the New
American Empire. No hesitation, no
weakness, Ever!, or the Babarians will
be at the gates. War must be taken to
the Enemy. (After all, if we don't keep
those birds in thier place, Alfred
Hitchcocks vision could become real,
and the Birds could eat our lunch!)...
but seriously...
Is there any real opposition to the
American Empire of Endless War. No.
In the last elction the choice was
between Less troops, or More troops.
Between Yale and Yale.
The Democrats voted en mass to
divest themselves of responsibility or
accountability for the second Iraq war
by going AWOL of thier responsibility
to vote a Declaration of War. No
opposition.. No hearings held to
check the President's assertion about
WMD. No witnesses called in public or
in secret to probe the intelligence
gatherers about what they really
thought. No, the polls supported the
(Vice) President. The public wanted to
watch war on thier new Digital Wide
Screeens, made in China, and bought
on home equity credit card. The
Democrats folded with barely a
wimper. Some Democrats from anti
war districts, like Nancy Pilosi, voted
against the war proposition but vated
the funds. And on the Sunday after
the proposition was passed
overwhelming, Representative Pilosi,
the leader of the LOYAL Opposition
was there on the 50 inch widescreens,
dressed in Red scarf, White Blouse
and Blue suit, with an American Flag
lapel pin, assuring America that she
and the Democrats would support the
President in whatever decision he
made.

Was Ms pilosi's behavior in the lead
up to the war out of character for a so
called Liberal Democrat. After all,did
the Democrats when they last
controlled the House, the Senate,and
the Presidency, dismantle any of the
Empire of War?. Did they finally
execute an exit strategy from
Germany, from Korea, from NATO.
No they dabbled here and there but
had no vision to make us a normal
country again.

San Fransicans are Peace loving
people. We know in our hearts and
our minds that we don't have to be
Emperor of the World. The world
hates empires and always works to
destroy them. To maintain Empire
means Endless War.

San Fransicans are progressive
liberals in large measure. We hate
war.
Then why have San Francisaca voted
for tacit supplicants to war? Who
knows. But the party of Classic
Liberalism is hereto give San
Framncisco a choice.

Libertarian is just a funny sounding
word for Classic Liberal. It's a weird
word for a great tradition. Like Geico
is a strange name for a car insurance
and Trader Joe's sounds like a tackyy
suburban hotel cocktail lounge, it a
word that San Franciscans can learn
to love once the product is tried.
Libertarians oppose all but directly
defensive War. We unequivocally
oppose Empire and endless war.
San Fransicans have a choice in
November, they can vote for Nancy
Pilosi, and maybe get a little less
Empire, and a littlemore or less War.
or they vote for the Classic Liberal,
the Libertarian, a strange word for a
great idea.

When San Francisco elects s
Libertarian to congress it has the
potential to set off a Revolution
against the Empire of Endless War. It
even has the potential to end the civil
war between Red and Blue. There is a
large number of traditional
Republicans who detest the towering
debt supporting empire. Following our
lead, middle america might rise up
against the tyranny of the status quo,
and vote out the Republican Empire
Builders.

The strtegy is simple, give the Neo
Conservative Republicans what they
say they have always waqnted and
Give it to them GOOD and HARD.
Give them Limited Government, Give
them the Constitution. Give them
income tax cuts to zero. Give them
hard money they cannot just print to
pay for Empire with inflation. Make
them come begging to the States for
an aircraft Carrier. Take the money
out of the Empire of War and put it
into Sacramento and Annapolis and
Albany. Then we Libertarians can
have agood old fashioned Political
fight with the Socialists over wether
compassion begins at Home or in
Sacramento, but at least we will have
resources to fight over, not just the
scraps after War has eaten the
countryies financial heart out.

Only Libertarians have the best
product , less war, more filling. Try it,
take a taste in November. You have
nothing to lose, I mean it's not like a
Republican can win here.

Off to the movies, This is first of my
website for Congress's lead article..
Cash for caring not war.

ignore the rest...

When a Libertarian beats the sitting
Democratic Minority Leader in the
most Liberal district in this once good
land, some amazing things might
happen. It could be the first step in
amarch to Peace. Libertarians offer a
way for traditional peace loving
Democrats and traditional peace
loving Republicans to pave the way to
end war and destroy the ability of the
US Government to fund the Empire of
Endless War.

.

Fact checking and spelling checking
and any suggestions are warmly
welcomed.

--- In lpsf-discuss@yahoogroups.
com, "ricochetboy" <philzberg@...>
wrote:

Is anyone really suprised that the

Vice

President shot first and asked
questions later. Isn't that the kind of
thinking needed to run the New
American Empire. No hesitation, no
weakness, Ever!, or the Babarians

will

be at the gates. War must be taken

to

the Enemy. (After all, if we don't

keep

those birds in thier place, Alfred
Hitchcocks vision could become

real,

and the Birds could eat our lunch!).

..

but seriously...
Is there any real opposition to the
American Empire of Endless War.

No.

In the last elction the choice was
between Less troops, or More

troops.

Between Yale and Yale.
The Democrats voted en mass to
divest themselves of responsibility or
accountability for the second Iraq

war

by going AWOL of thier

responsibility

to vote a Declaration of War. No
opposition.. No hearings held to
check the President's assertion

about

WMD. No witnesses called in public

or

in secret to probe the intelligence
gatherers about what they really
thought. No, the polls supported the
(Vice) President. The public wanted

to

watch war on thier new Digital Wide
Screeens, made in China, and

bought

on home equity credit card. The
Democrats folded with barely a
wimper. Some Democrats from anti
war districts, like Nancy Pilosi,

voted

against the war proposition but

vated

the funds. And on the Sunday after
the proposition was passed
overwhelming, Representative

Pilosi,

the leader of the LOYAL Opposition
was there on the 50 inch

widescreens,

dressed in Red scarf, White Blouse
and Blue suit, with an American

Flag

lapel pin, assuring America that she
and the Democrats would support

the

President in whatever decision he
made.

Was Ms pilosi's behavior in the lead
up to the war out of character for a

so

called Liberal Democrat. After all,did
the Democrats when they last
controlled the House, the Senate,

and

the Presidency, dismantle any of the
Empire of War?. Did they finally
execute an exit strategy from
Germany, from Korea, from NATO.
No they dabbled here and there but
had no vision to make us a normal
country again.

San Fransicans are Peace loving
people. We know in our hearts and
our minds that we don't have to be
Emperor of the World. The world
hates empires and always works to
destroy them. To maintain Empire
means Endless War.

San Fransicans are progressive
liberals in large measure. We hate
war.
Then why have San Francisaca

voted

for tacit supplicants to war? Who
knows. But the party of Classic
Liberalism is hereto give San
Framncisco a choice.

Libertarian is just a funny sounding
word for Classic Liberal. It's a weird
word for a great tradition. Like

Geico

is a strange name for a car

insurance

and Trader Joe's sounds like a

tackyy

suburban hotel cocktail lounge, it a
word that San Franciscans can learn
to love once the product is tried.
Libertarians oppose all but directly
defensive War. We unequivocally
oppose Empire and endless war.
San Fransicans have a choice in
November, they can vote for Nancy
Pilosi, and maybe get a little less
Empire, and a littlemore or less War.
or they vote for the Classic Liberal,
the Libertarian, a strange word for a
great idea.

When San Francisco elects s
Libertarian to congress it has the
potential to set off a Revolution
against the Empire of Endless War.

It

even has the potential to end the

civil

war between Red and Blue. There is

a

large number of traditional
Republicans who detest the

towering

debt supporting empire. Following

our

lead, middle america might rise up
against the tyranny of the status

quo,

and vote out the Republican Empire
Builders.

The strtegy is simple, give the Neo
Conservative Republicans what they
say they have always waqnted and
Give it to them GOOD and HARD.
Give them Limited Government,

Give

them the Constitution. Give them
income tax cuts to zero. Give them
hard money they cannot just print to
pay for Empire with inflation. Make
them come begging to the States for
an aircraft Carrier. Take the money
out of the Empire of War and put it
into Sacramento and Annapolis and
Albany. Then we Libertarians can
have agood old fashioned Political
fight with the powers that be in

Sacramento over wether

compassion begins at Home or in
Sacramento, but at least we will

have resources for compassion.

, not just the
scraps after War has eaten the
countrys' financial heart out.

Only Libertarians have the best
product , less war, more filling. Try

it,

take a taste in November. You have
nothing to lose but your chains, I

mean it's not like a

Republican can win here..

When you elect me, the first vote I
take will be for which party will run the
house. If only one party promises
immediate withdrawal from Iraq, I will
vote for that party, wether it be
Democrat or Republican. If neither
party will make that promise, I will
bargain for as much peace and as
little empire as possible. The
Democrats will probably win my vote.
Steny Hoyer would then become
Speaker of the House. I met mr Hoyer
once. A friend asked me to take off
work and drive to Saint Mary's County
Maryland to appear on behalf of a
Seventy year old man on trial for a
parole violation from a long ago child
molestation conviction. It seems the
old man had recently babysat for a
family member and in the heat of an
internal familyy dispute the old man
was turned in for babysitting, a
violation of his parole. The prosecutor
was going for broke. Mr. Hoyer had
defended the man years before, and
took time off from Capitol Hill to come
defend this most unpopular defendant.
This makes Mr. Hoyer a man of honor
in my eyes, so you needn't trouble
yourselves that in Ms Pilos's absence
the Speakership will fall to a rogue.

While we are talking about Maryland,
that is where both I and Ms. Pilosi hail
from. I remember her brother as
Mayor when I was a teen. He was a
really nice guy. He was sort of the
Rodney King of the Baltimore riots
following Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's
assination. Why can't we all just get
along. What I do not remeber was him
standing up and saying" no, not in my
city," when then Govenor Spiro Agnew
issued shoot to kill orders to the
Maryland National Guard. The shoot
to kill order got Presidential candidate
Richard Nixon's attention and the
Governor moved on to greater infamy.
Mayor D'alesndro seemed never to
recover from the trauma and quitly left
office after only one term.

Like her brother, Nancy Pilosi is a
very nice lady. And like her brother,
she has not stood up effectively to the
Republican empire builders. She
needs to be asked to take her good
heart to somewhere else besides the
House of Representatives.leaving the
public stage for someone who has a
clear vision on how to stand up for
Peace.

Looking at how we got into this mess
can show the way out. Teddy
Roosevelt stands tall in the rogues
gallery of war mongers. His powers
were slightly diluted by surviving
respect for the Constitution's limits on
the powers of the central government.
The best he could do was make war
with a by then fifth rate power, Spain.
It was an ugly part of our history, but
the worrst was yet to come.
Woodrow Wilson was intent on War
from the day he was inaguarated. He
was the model Gerge Bush follows.
He was intent on making war and
making the world "safe for
Democracy." What stood in his way
was the Constitution's prohibition
against personally levied taxes and
paper money. In a coup of
machiavellen statecraft he engineered
the questionable ratification of the
sixteenth ammendment and convinced
Congress to pass the Federal Reserve
Act which established a privately
owned central bank to ensure an
ample supply of credit for a soon to
be world power. The US was now
financially prepared for Empire.
The Federal Reserve Bank ws at least
the third attempt to establish a
national bank. The Democratic Party
was essentially founded to oppose the
Second National bank, and that is
exactly what Andrew Jackson, the first
peoples president did.

The Federal Reserve is a privately
owned bank whose shareholders
include Lazard Freres spelling", the
Rothschild Bank of Englamd, Morgan
Chase, and Citi.

When the Federal Reserve was
established in 1913, Congress was
promised that preservation of the
value of the currency was to be it's
primary mission. In less than 100
years the value of the dollar has been
reduced to two cents. Since the
election of George Bush the Federal
eserve has doubled the amount of
dollars in circulation *I need to fact
check this.....
If you had put one hundred dollars in
your dwarer on the first tuesday of
November of 2000, by some accounts,
especially considering the amount of
gas or helath insurance or house that
one hundred dollars can buy, it is
only worth fifty dollars now. You open
the drawer five and a half years later
and found someone stole fifty dollars
from your drawer. If a thief did that
and he was caught , he would go to
jail. But the thief speaks in strange
tongues, is knighted by The Qween,
and hailed as the greatest central
banker ever. Who got your fifty dollars
and half of every dollar that any
American was foolish enough to leave
in cash over the last six years/? The
owners of the Fed and other New
York Banks were the first to get the
newly printed money. When the Fed
prints up new money or actually just
pushes a button on a computer and
creates money out of thin air, the first
people to get that money are the New
York banks. Only the New York banks
get first dibs on the fresh new money.
Why?. Because they wrote the
Federal Reserve Act and did not want
to share the booty with any other
banks. The Fed can create money out
of thin air in many different ways, but
each way is like reaching in your desk
dwarer and taking out a ten spot. The
number one purpose of the Fed in
President Wilsons mind was to give
Washington the ability to fund war
with debt and reduce the burden of
debt with inflation. Real bullets have
to be bought, and something else has
to be sacrificed to pay for the bullets.
But inflation is invisble to the public.
John Maynard Keynes said that not
one person in a million can detect the
theft of inflation and identify it's cause.
This is how Lyndon Johnson paid for
the war in Vietnam and put the bill to
the American people in the form of the
nasty stagflation that poor Jimmy
Carter got blamed for. The Fed has
been running the printing pressing red
hot for years. Inflation of 4 percent is
the tame inflation the government
admits to. But you can look at your
health insurance bill, or your,gas bill,
or housing prices and tell me what
inflation really is when the pencil
meets the kitchen table. Four percent
inflation led President Nixon to declare
a National emergeny and institute
wage and price controls. Of course
that did not work because the grocer
is not the cause of inflation. The
Federal reserve and only the Federal
Reserve creates inflation/.
Once before I went legally blind, I
stopped for gas on I 5 and the sign at
the cashier's station read, Please do
not yell at the clerk, the clerk does not
make pricing decisions for the Shell
Oil company. Well neither does Shell
Oil. The price of a gallon of gas is in
the usnits dollars per gallon. If there
are twice as many dollars floating
around the world now as there were
when GBII was first appointed, is it
any wonder it costs twice as much in
terms of dollars to buy a gallon of gas
..

Inflation absolutely screws poor
people the elderly, the sick , and the
disabled. Few if any have income
that is properly indexed to inflation.
Savings are destroyed by inflationn.
Renters have no asset to climb the
inflation ladder.This punishes the
young and the newly arrived
immigrant. Stocks have not gone up
since 2000 and are pretty much where
they were in1997.They are a nearly
guarnateed loser for the small guy as
the insiders make the big bucks and
know when to sell.. The ultimate
insiders are of course the New York
Bankers. they get the hundreds of
billions of newly minted money first
and then lend it out to the rest of the
country and world. In turn, when the
Fed's presses are running, thier profits
are lets say, nice. Last December,
according to the New York State
Comptroller, the New York City
employees of the money center Banks
collected just under 25 Billion Dollars
in bonuses down a few Billion from
the previous Christmas.
Both Republicans and Democrats
coddle Wall Street. Huey Long, the
colorful maverick Govenor of Lousiana
was famous for saying, the Congress
is like a restaurant, you have
Democratic waiters and you have
Republican Waiters, but they both
save the same expotive deleted
cooked in the Wall Street Kitchen/

Inflation is the number one cause of
economic misery and the number one
reason the rich get richer and the poor
get poorer. The only way to stop
inflation is to abolish the Federal
reserve.and have sound money of
fixed supply that cannot be created
out of thin air whenever the
republicans or Democrats wannt to
fight another war on the backs of the
poor and middle class. America did
without a central bank for most of the
period between 1789 and 1913. By
looking at old real estate records and
newspaper ads one can see that
prices were pretty much stable during
that whole period, with small bouts of
inflation and deflations whenever the
government tried a National Banking
scheme or some other schem to
artificailly increase credit. There was
no Great Depression until the federal
reserve made the massive credit
expansion to pay for World War One
and fuel the boom of the roaring
twenties that led directly to the Great
Depression.
I know this is a lot to read and a lot to
take in, but the point I want to make is
that by voting for a Libertarian you get
someone who knows how the game of
endless war is played and knows what
to do to end it.
There already is another Libertarian in
Congress. He is a nominal Republican
but he was the Libertarian Presidential
Candidtae in 1988.His name is Doctor
Ron Paul. He is an outspoken
opponent of the War and has
frequently shared stages with Terri
Sheehan. He only votes Republican in
procedural votes. I will follow his lead,
and promise you I will vote Democrat
in procedural votes unless olny the
Republicans promise immediate
withdrawal from Iraq. I will however
play hard to get to get as much peace
promises out of the Dems as I can.
But I know the hearts of San Francisco
hate the Repubblicans and I respect
that. I will vote no on any defense
appropriation that includes funds for
foreign based troops unless the US is
directly attacked by a clear enemy, or
the threat of an attack is real and
imminent.
My goal will be to help make the
United States just another country,like
Switzerland or Costa Rica. Nuetral in
foreign affairs. George Washington's
major policy statement in his farewell
address will be my guide.

Here are some tough divisive issues...

As for Israel, so long as it's neighbors
threaten it's right to exist, I will lobby
for a bill giving a one hundred percent
federal income tac credit for every
dollar donated to the state of Israel.
The credit will be fully transferable to
any other person's income tax the
person wishes to give it to. If Israel is
attacked, any American wishing to
defend it will receive immunity from all
Federal taxes for life. If Israel
launches an unprovoked attack on it's
neighbors, I will propose that similar
income tax breaks will be granted for
those who wish to defend against
aggresion.
I will support very liberal immigration
policies for any who are threatened by
tyranny throughout the world.
I will not vote for any appropriation
that leaves any US troops stationed
overseas. I support complete
dismantlement of Empire. Who needs
it. Costa Rica and Switxerlad should
be our models and George
Washington our guide.,

Thats enough for tonight>

.
Suggeestions and criticism and fact

checks appreciated.

Phil,

  In general I agree with Michael Edelstein's well-taken point. A website can have a lot of material on it of course, and this essay could go up there somewhere, but it seems a bit long to serve as your main general appeal to voters. Catchy choice for a website name, by the way.

  Knowing your views it's probably a wasted plea, but I hope you won't focus only on the Iraq war, or only on wars the U.S. government is involved in. If war is bad because it kills people, then wars that kill more people are worse -- not enough attention is paid to Sudan relative to Iraq. Even though you don't think the U.S. government should do anything about the slaughter in Sudan, Congress can still be a bully pulpit to draw attention to such things -- indeed I believe it is all the more vital that the bully pulpit be used when one's intention is to take no real action.

  I would also suggest not calling libertarianism or freedom a "product," or comparing the LP in print to companies like Geico and Trader Joe's. There is too much corporate wannabe-ism going on in the LP, and the LP is too closely tagged in the public mind as a defender of corporations, as it is.

  Oh, and you're misspelling Nancy Pelosi's last name. Better get that right!

Yours in liberty,
        <<< starchild >>>

  > Libertarian is just a funny sounding
> word for Classic Liberal. It's a weird
> word for a great tradition. Like
Geico
> is a strange name for a car
insurance
> and Trader Joe's sounds like a
tackyy