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What you're talking about is the Republican Liberty Caucus. Small l-libertarian, as opposed to the Libertarian Party. Actually has Congressional supporters, etc..., as opposed to only a couple of local school board members and a dog catcher or something like that.

I have no doubt that a portion of Iranian citizens prefer a theocracy. However if you recall the crackdowns on protestors a couple years back shows that the theocracy will stop at no bound to stay in power, despite a significant part of the population that wants them out.

Iran chooses to starve and inflict economic hardship on their own people to a near crisis level. Here are several citations and sources on how the Iranian government hurts their own people. The Iranian government chooses to spend billions of dollars on nuclear weapons and supporting terrorism over feeding and providing medicine to their citizens. In my book the government is incorrigibly corrupt and evil.

http://www.rlc.org/irans-economy-on-the-verge-of-collapse-people-suffering-due-to-sanctions-2/

The Iranian people are the ones who feel the brunt of sanctions. In the past year, the value of the rial has fallen more than 75%, and food prices have skyrocketed more than 50%.

Meanwhile, the Iranian people are starving and dying because of lack of medicine.

http://www.economist.com/node/21564229

Despite subsidies intended to help the poor, prices for staples, such as milk, bread, rice, yogurt and vegetables, have at least doubled since the beginning of the year. Chicken has become so scarce that when scant supplies become available they prompt riots. On October 3rd police in Tehran fired tear-gas at people demonstrating over the rialâ(TM)s collapse.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/10/sanctions-iran-ordinary-people-target

Activists say that, unlike ordinary people, the regime can find a way out of banking difficulties with help from its proxies.

http://www.npr.org/2012/08/16/158831342/from-all-sides-iran-under-siege

That has brought inflation and unemployment; even some food riots have been reported. The effects of the sanctions have been too apparent to deny, says Vatanka of the Middle East Institute.

"There's no doubt, based on all the figures and even statements coming from Tehran, that they are suffering," he says. "We only have to take the words of the leadership in Tehran. They are saying they are hurting."

Now, I'm not a republican and never have been, I've always been a Libertarian.

The problem with the Libertarian Party (big L) is that they're run by ideological purists. They've got about much chance of winning as the Green Party does with a purist progressive environmentalist candidate. Bother parties will get just enough votes to keep themselves on the radar, but neither will be able to win until the field pragmatic realist candidates.

The average voter could support a tax cut, but the Liberatarian Party wants to abolish the IRS. Too extreme. The average voter could support marijuana decriminalization, but the LP wants to legalize all drugs. Too extreme. The average voter could support school vouchers, bu the LP wants to eliminate all public education. Too extreme. There is a strong individualist streak in the American psyche, but there is not an anarchist streak. The LP needs to stop appealing to anarcho-capitalists and start appealing to individualists.

Either the Libertarian Party reforms, or libertarians will gravitate to other parties.

Every Free Stater that moves in has more influence than 10,000 voter-sheep.

Personally, I think every type you mention, including Libertarian, falls under the Anarcho-Capitalist banner

Anarchocapitalism is free-market anarchism; there is no government at all. All of the other types of political philosophies that I've mentioned (except for the Austrian school, which is mostly anarchocapitalistic) wants small government, not anarchy. Now, how small they want the government depends on the person and the ideology.

A libertarian isn't one who follows whatever the Libertarian Party says (for future reference, a capital L refers to the party, while a lowercase l refers to the ideology. For example, a democrat is somebody who belives in democracy, while a Democrat is somebody who follows the Democratic Party). There are libertarians in the Republican Party and in the Democratic Party (their platforms differ slightly from the Libertarian Party's platform, but are still in line with libertarianism). There are independent libertarians as well.

The problem there isn't the Republican party, which I, in theory, agree with more often than not. The problem there is the Cult of the Neocon that's risen in the past six years, and the fact the GOP leadership got all the GOP Senators rowing in whatever direction they want, which is fine when they are actually doing something useful, but is not a good thing right now.

Exactly. I'm hoping the Republican Liberty Caucus will actually achieve something.

Okay, I read your site... FWIW, I'm a Republican, of the libertarian faction.

I'm asking each and every one of you to join me in the effort to ensure our most fundamental American freedoms, a sound education for our children, health care for every American, the safety of Social Security, and a sound economic future for us all.

I'll address this in a different order than you presented them in...

a sound education for our children

That's a nice idea... will you start by removing the domination of the NEA in curriculum design? Will you promote teaching children "how to think", and not "what to think"? Will you make it easier for me to send my child to a private school where they will receive a far better education than the local school district offers, without me having to pay for both schools? (Yes, that means waivers.)

health care for every American . . . and a sound economic future for us all.

When John Kerry said something along the lines of how can the richest nation on Earth not provide health care for all its citizens, it raised the question of causality: Would we be the richest nation on Earth if we did dump all kinds of money into a national health care system?

I generally use VA health care (disabled vet), BTW, and I wouldn't wish that system on anyone. I've had an infected wisdom tooth for a few weeks now, and I think I will shell out the money for surgury myself because I can have it done before the VA has my initial examination scheduled.

most fundamental American freedoms

I consider it a fundamental freedom to be able to choose how I pay for my health care, who the money goes to, and if I need health insurance at all. This is not compatible with every proposal I've seen for universal health care. I'd like to be able to opt out of the system, thanks.

I consider it a fundamental freedom to own and legally make use of a firearm. I see a (D) after a name and I am instantly wary about their respect for my liberty on that issue.

I believe that *all* civil rights are important. I also believe that unless you can demonstrate that society itself is being damaged by a group's actions, then they should be allowed to live their lives as they see fit.

Finer points will be published as we work towards 2006. Believe it or not I am a "tech head".. By day I work for a large bank maintaining an Oracle 11i upgrade and by night I enjoy my mythtv and watching it with my family. I have a mythtv box, i've built out my own networks and i have even implemented a small asterisk box to do voip for our growing campaign. I'm just looking around to see if there is anything out there i have missed so i can get some of my techs involved or implement anything that looks helpfull. Thanks!

I wouldn't vote for anyone who writes with habitual errors in capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. One misplaced comma in a law can have dire consequences. Everyone makes mistakes, but if you want to put out a good image, you need to learn how to write better, even on Slashdot.

I'm not a party-line voter, generally I vote for Republicans and Libertarians (Libertarians especially in local races) and, in fact, I voted for a few Democrats in the last election when they were clearly the lesser evil. (Generally being those who are more aligned with the cause of Liberty than the Republican candidates.)

I .... ah whats the use, like I'm gonna suddenly convince you to forsake the Republican party when I can barely get behind the Dems anymore...

Probably not, but you might not understand my political views. As a result of these views, I'm doing my best as an active member of the party organization to change some things about the party.

Bush is a jackass - personal opinion based on countless actions

Agreed, but he's our jackass, unfortunately. I did *not* vote for him in the primaries, and probably wouldn't have if someone better and from our organization had ran against him in the last round. If we had approval voting in the general, I also would have approved Badnarik.

Kerry is SLIGHTLY less of a jackass - although, calling him a war criminal is purely uncalled for. I believe it was decorate war HERO, who went on to (GASP!) protest the war.

I disagree. As much of a jackass. War criminal? Yes. The reason I say this is if he personally witnessed, took part in, or became aware soon after the commission of the atrocities he spoke of, and did nothing during the time, then he was a de facto accomplice at the time of commission. I was in the Army. I know right from wrong, and knew what orders to question. He had a responsibility to notify someone immediately. He never claimed to have done anything about it at the time. He could have tried writing his Senator...

Oregon politics ARE a little fucked - have you been anywhere else? We ain't got the market cornered!

No, but we offer one of the best products in the business!

But back on topic, I'd just LOVE to see them try to get me to accept one of these in my truck! Mudflaps - gone, Cat-converter - gone, large-quantities-of-sheet-metal - gone, oh but lemme put that gps thingamajimmer on here! Lets see how it handles the next swamp I drive through!

Sounds like my 1970 Mustang (351W). Except I have all my sheet metal and don't need the mudflaps. If it gets a GPS, it'll be for theft prevention, not for being taxed.

Just so no one panics, this isn't a daily driver, its a low-road-mileage toy.

Same with my Mustang. My daily driver gets 30+ MPG and has all the latest and greatest efficiency-robbing emissions controls.

(Note to casual readers: Yes, certain emission controls that don't improve the efficiency of fuel combustion tend to hurt efficiency overall [EGR for reduction of NOx emissions]. I don't want to pollute the planet, I just want the car to go uphill without losing speed or drinking excess fuel.)

Indeed! How does "R-Texas ... a libertarian" work? Should that nor be "L-Texas", or does the index of senators only support 2 parties?

Clearly you know nothing about Republican internal politics. Many Republicans have a strong libertarian leaning. Evidence here.

Or lean libertarian and resent both.

I don't live in Utah, but I know plenty of people who aren't happy with Hatch who do. At least Levitt is out of there.

Hatch spends more time co-sponsoring bills with Teddy Kennedy than working on his constituents issues.

Better yet, if you don't agree to the "new" terms, then join the Republican Liberty Caucus and fight politically for your rights instead of just running away to some other country. :)

The line item veto was passed years ago, then found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
(See Cato for more details.)

Most politicians are simply responding to what gets them the most power and influence, just like most other people. The big difference is that in their case, they also drag a lot of the rest of us into the results of their bad decisions. There are a very few (like Ron Paul, see RLC) politicians that will put the interests of the country above their own, but most will keep voting to approve government programs that take away freedom and actually hurt their supposed beneficiaries because the programs are popular with the media and those who support them.

I need to point out that while there's a certain group of "evil," censoring Republicans, there's also a great number of libertarian Republicans. Check out the 2000 Liberty Index of Congress and see what I mean.