I saw the first gubentorial debate between Mark Taylor, Sonny Purdue, and Garrett Hayes. I am not too impressed with Sonny Purdue or Mark Taylor all they wanted to do in the debate is try to sell land to each other. I like what Garrett Hayes said" There they go again". Garrett Hayes wanted to talk about the issues, and He had better ideas than Taylor or Purdue. On November 7th Garrett Micheal Hayes got my vote.

I plan to move to Georgia, from Florida. Having that "potential" stake in the race, I'd say to Liberty21 that the best thing he or she can do at this point is to tell that story to anyone and everyone who will listen.

It's getting close to "crunch" time. I tell friends about my plan to vote "Against All" in the write-in slots for all positions that are not sought by Libertarians or independents. For a change, they are listening. Forwarding pro-Libertarian e-mails and blog posts to such people helps a lot, in my view.

Were it not for my wife, our vehicle would be sporting a bumper sticker with the old-but-never-obsolete phrase, "Throw the Bums Out."

Chip,
If you come to Georgia. Please check out www.lpgeorgia.org. Reguardless if you live here in Gwinnett or in South Georgia. LP Georgia is always looking for support and people like Garrett Hayes and David Chastain are looking for votes to turn the tide towards Libertarianism here in Georgia.

Liberty21 -- you bet I will do that. We have been looking in Carroll and Floyd Counties -- I'm retired, so we don't need to be in close commuting distance to Atlanta.

Chip:

Yer not the only one planning on bailing out of Florida. :) Heading towards Tennessee myself, hopefully fairly soon.

In Florida, the Libertarian atmosphere isn't all that good. I don't know what the situation is in Tennessee, but I guess I will find out soon enough when I get there. I would figure that the Tri-Cities area, where I am headed, would be a fairly Libertarian friendly area.

Basically, I am just tired of living in a sauna 7 to 8 months out of the year.

I'm unable to get either recording to play properly. The debate with Hess plays with good video, but the audio is choppy and echo-like -- you can make it out but it is completely unlistenable. The debate with Hayes doesn't even play, whether or not I click the "Can't see the video? CLICK HERE" link on the TV station's webpage.

Is anyone else having technical difficulties with these items? I'm watching many other videos (CSPAN, YouTube, etc.) with no problems at all.

For the purposes of expediting activism, the LP website could post videos such as these in a consistent, downloadable format (e.g., WMV), wherever copyright law permits. Just linking to a candidate or TV website leaves open the possibility that many who use the link will find themselves unable to play videos that are provided in a mish-mash of formats.

The good news about the Hess debate is that the TV station offers a transcript also, so at least I can see what was said.

My last three posts were supposed to be one, but the website wouldn't let me post them. I separated the message into three sections. The last one had only the tiny single paragraph. The first two posted, and the last was continually rejected. Eventually, I got the idea of removing three-dots from the end and replacing them with a single period. Amazingly, that allowed the final message portion to be posted. I think your site is broken.

Flipping channels, I stumbled upon the latest AZ debate between Hess and his Demo and GOP opponents, this time from Tucson (last night). Thank you C-SPAN!

Hess got some good applause and held his own against the major-party pols in terms of quick-wittedness and poise. Unfortunately, he was often at a disadvantage when discussing specific policy areas, because his basic response was "get government out of it." It was a good, honest response, and he often backed it up with specific reasons and practical scenarios. But just as often, he seemed to come up short against the more detailed policy responses that the GOP and Demo contenders could articulate, based on their shared assumption that, "OF COURSE big government will continue to be in the middle of things, the only question being, 'who will be running the big machine and who will they favor?'"

This attitude was illustrated by the GOP guy when he spoke of "two competing visions" on stage (not including Hess' third-party, alternative vision), or when the Demo lady (the sitting governor) brushed away Hess' comments about the current student-testing by saying that, "of course" testing in question would continue because it was part of NCLB. Hess was able to correct the GOP guy about the number of competing visions. The debate format left him unable to follow-up on the testing question, letting the Demo gov's dismissive comment stand. (Actually the testing in question ISN'T required if Nevada doesn't want NCLB money, and it is clear from some of his other answers that Hess would take AZ more in the direction of being independent of the federal education-welfare system than his opponents.)

Anyway, it was a good debate, and so very nice to see the LP guy making good points in general, mixing it up effectively with the other two, and also scoring applause points with the crowd. Win or lose, I think Hess is getting a fair shake in these debates, and I hope that his performance generates vote totals that prove the wisdom of having alternative party candidates participate.

Arizona and Georgia are in my thoughts and prayers.