Steve Kubby's blog

Dear friends,

As the "major party" primary campaigns start to heat up, it's more important than ever for the Libertarian Party to get its own message out to a politically sensitized electorate. You can smell it in the air: Voters aren't happy with the choices they're being offered. They want something better. We have it, but they can't choose it if we can't reach them. And we can't reach them without your help.

I'd like to ask you to do two things: Contribute to my presidential campaign, and contribute to the Libertarian Party. Read on for more on why and how.

The cream white American car in my rearview mirror has an "E" on the license plate, the official designation for California State agency vehicles. The driver exited my private road and then did a U turn when he saw me turn and head down my road. When I arrive at my gate, I leave my car and turn to meet the intruder. With an odd sort of smile on his face, he hands me an official envelope from the California Secretary of State. He tells me to have a nice day and quickly leaves.

As I ponder what might be waiting for me inside the envelope, I reflect upon the overdose of government that has been my constant companion since helping to pass a law the police and prosecutors don't like. For a moment, I am transported in my head back to a time when I found myself lying shivering and vomiting on the concrete floor of a freezing jail cell, wondering how any society can treat a cancer patient like this.

[Note: This blog entry was submitted to several California newspapers for publication last week. While it addresses a "state issue," I believe that the sentiments expressed herein are also applicable to the presidential campaign]

Since his election to office, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has carefully cultivated his image as a "moderate," plopping himself down in the muddled middle of every issue -- often to the detriment of the very Californians he's sworn to serve. In no case is that more true than with respect to issues of family and marriage.

In 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill which would have recognized same-sex marriages in California, citing an inapplicable referendum result (Proposition 22, which applied to marriages solemnized outside California and which is void due to its conflict with the US Constitution's "Full Faith and Credit" clause). He matched that veto with a pledge to uphold the state's current "domestic partnerships" scheme. Now he's making the same promise again versus AB 43.

This is the "middle" that Governor Schwarzenegger stands astride: Not slavery, just segregation. Not extermination, just "second class citizenship."

There are two sides to marriage, and neither of them are the government's business.

I've recently been asked a number of times -- by friends, fellow Libertarians, supporters of other candidates and even my own campaign volunteers -- if my personal legal situation has any bearing on my presidential candidacy.

More pointedly, I've been asked if the fact that I'm on probation in the state of California might not disqualify me as a candidate, if for no other reason than that it might limit my ability to travel.

I'd like to turn these questions into an opportunity: An opportunity to explain my situation, and to explain why it's not only not a problem, but a positive factor in my campaign.

(This is the order I will sign after delivering my inaugural address)

Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 2009, which becomes effective on January 20th, 2009, among other things eliminates the Drug Enforcement Administration in the Department of Justice. In my message to the Congress and to the nation transmitting that plan, delivered this day immediately following my inauguration, I stated that all functions of the Drug Enforcement Administration (established pursuant to Executive Order No. 11727 of July 6, 1973), would, together with the Drug Enforcement Administration itself, be eliminated.

NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. The Attorney General, to the extent permitted by law, is ordered and authorized to coordinate the cessation of all activities of executive branch departments and agencies which are directly related to the enforcement of unconstitutional laws respecting narcotics and dangerous drugs; the reimbursement of all unused funds in the accounts of those departments and agencies which are directly related to the enforcement of unconstitutional laws respecting narcotics and dangerous drugs, to the national treasury; and the reassignment or termination of employment of non-appointed employees whose jobs are directly related to the enforcement of unconstitutional laws respecting narcotics and dangerous drugs.