Thanks to the Libertarian National Committee ...

... for doing the right thing and dumping the registration fee requirement for delegate floor access and voting rights at this year's Libertarian National Convention.

Without belaboring any "who was right, who was wrong" points, thanks especially to those LNC members who may have been on a fence of conscience, or who supported the fee but felt constrained by direction of the affiliate parties they represent to take it down for the moment. There was a train wreck waiting to happen there and they helped put the brakes on.

I expect that we'll see a bylaws amendment proposal at the convention itself to specifically provide for registration fees / floor fees (or more explicitly forbid them) in the future. While I'm worried about the possible legal problems that the LP might be in for if we adopt a registration fee, that doesn't mean it's a necessarily a bad idea and I hope we can work through the issue more amicably than we were able to when it was -- at least in the opinion of many, myself included -- a matter of bylaws compliance versus bylaws violation.

Instead of Instead of a Speech

No, the headline is not a typo. "Instead of a speech," etc., was part of the working sub-title of a speech I was scheduled to give at the Free State Project's 2010 Liberty Forum in Nashua, New Hampshire next month.

The Liberty Forum is a fine event with a great reputation for being incredibly fun and productive, and I hope that as many of you as can go, will go. Without going into excruciating detail, a combination of travel plan troubles and health issues has driven me to cancel my appearance there.

I was planning to use my speech there to make a specific announcement. Since I won't be making the speech there and then, I'll go ahead and publish the first part (still in rough draft, but it gets the point across) here, so as to get the announcement out:

Good morning/afternoon/evening!

My name is Tom Knapp and, as your schedule notes, my talk today has a long, unwieldy title: "What Is To Be Done? The futility of traditional politics: Why the Libertarian Party fails in its mission and how it can renew itself to become the vanguard of a successful American freedom movement."

Let's shorten the title a little. It will be easier to remember that way. Let's change it to "Instead of a Stump Speech, by a Man Who's No Longer Running for President."

With those words, I'm attempting to convey this announcement: Effective immediately, I'm no longer seeking the 2012 nomination of the Libertarian Party or the Boston Tea Party for President of the United States. Announcement ends.

I can see that most of you didn't know I was running for President when we walked in here.

I can see that a few of you who did know are relieved to learn that I'm no longer doing so.

I'm pretty sure that not a soul walked into this room, heard my melodious voice, and said to himself "now THERE is a man of presidential timbre!"

So, enough of that, anyway. This speech isn't about the fact that I'm no longer running for President, but it is at least in part about WHY I'm no longer running for President.

When I sat down to write this speech, I didn't know I'd be writing this speech. I thought I was writing the introduction of my presidential campaign book. But my son's hamster's wheel squeaks, and for that reason I ended up writing this speech instead of that book.

I'm sure you've heard the analogy of third party electoral politics to a hamster on a wheel -- it runs and runs and runs, but never gets anywhwere. It's a great analogy. And every time I sat down to start my campaign book ... squeak ... squeaaaaaak ...

I had to go look, and when I did I discovered that my son's hamster is different with respect to the analogy.

He doesn't just run on the wheel. He runs on the wheel for about five minutes, then he stops, gets off, walks to the front of the wheel and looks. He looks at the wall of the cage, then he looks back at the wheel. Then he looks at the wall of his cage some more, and looks at the wheel some more. Then he gets back on the wheel and starts running again.

From analogy to cliche: The definition of insanity -- or possibly the result of having a brain the size of a pea -- is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

As a libertarian political activist, I could handle being a hamster on a wheel. But when the full weight of the fact that that damn wheel hadn't taken me anywhere and that it was never GOING to take me anywhere landed on my consciousness, I was forced to choose between the insanity of returning to the wheel and the saner approach of taking a closer look at the cage wall and thinking about how one might actually chew through it.

As a side note, the hamster died last week.

Superfrap Mobile/Micro/Live-Blogging Bleg

Update, 02/27/10: I've had to cancel the New Hampshire trip, and see no reason to ask my readers for help getting a device to liveblog a trip I won't be taking. Um ... as you were, as it were - TLK /end update

After looking at various cell phone and text messaging options, I'm right back to a device I mentioned awhile back: The TwitterPeek.

Before, I just liked it. Now I have a reason to bleg my readers for it. Here's the skinny:

I'll be attending at least two "away from keyboard" events this spring -- the Free State Project's 2010 Liberty Forum in March, and the Libertarian Party's national convention in May.

I expect both of these events to be things where I'll have little time to sit down in front of a desktop or laptop computer and make lengthy reports. What I will be able to do is text message or tweet about them, if I have a handy device for doing so. My cell phone does not meet the description of "handy" -- last time I tried that, I spent more time fumbling with the phone than getting the scoop to y'all.

I thought about getting a better phone, etc. -- and I still may -- but the $99.99 TwitterPeek comes with six months of service ($6.95/month after that). I'd like to have it. If I do, then I'll just use my phone to take/send pictures, not to actually do the blogging on.

I think I can give better mo/micro/live-blog that way. Not just at these two events, but for the foreseeable future. I may even attend events that I wouldn't otherwise have bothered with if I can effectively mo/micro/live-blog them.

If you think that sounds worth supporting, then check out my Kickstart Pledge Drive to raise the Ben Franklin for it in $10 per person increments. You only pay your pledge (you'll get instructions on that when the time comes) if ten people join to make the thing happen by March 1st. Otherwise, it just goes away.

Bonus rounds:

- For $199.99, I can get the thing with "forever" service -- no monthly fees, ever. If you're the magnanimous person who's willing to match the original $100 with $100 of your own to make that happen, email me.

- If you want to just get the thing (either version) for me directly and have me cancel the pledge drive, see my Amazon wish list in the right sidebar. Both versions are on it.

If I don't have the money to order the TwitterPeek by March 1st, I'll try to find some other way to mo/micro/live-blog these events ... but I don't think it will work as well. So, think it over.