Cypherpunk voting - ITAR or CDA

[Jim Ray]

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To: cypherpunks at toad.com
Date: Mon Aug 26 14:32:37 1996
I sent this earlier, but evidently toad.com ate it, so I am sending again, 
despite Bill Stewart's excellent post on the subject. BTW, Bill is one of 
the nicest guys you would ever want to meet, and all cypherpunks should try 
to meet him if they get a chance.

Apologies if you get this twice, and I would only add that in any election 
there are winners and losers, and the sets of losers on cypherpunks if 
Harry Browne wins or does does well are:

1. Lawyers. If laws are simpler and better-written in something approaching 
the English language and judges who respect the constitution are 
selected-for, lawyers and law-professors would feel the economic effects of 
less demand for their services.
2. Accountants. If the tax laws are simplified and the IRS is eliminated, 
there will be less need for accountants to figure out what people actually 
owe in taxes.
3. Offshore dataheaven providers. ;) If the above happens, running 
businesses from the US will be relatively more attractive than running them 
from Anguilla, all other things being equal.

Vincent Cate wrote:

> Dole says he would fix the ITAR problem, but try to keep something like
> CDA. 

He would say anything to get elected.

> Clinton is keeping ITAR and signed CDA.  But not having the religious
> right he might soften on CDA.

Lame ducks don't have to soften, on anything. That's what's so fun about 
being a lame duck.

> The courts seem to be throwing out CDA much faster than ITAR (some fast
> track to the supreme court built into the law).  It also seems like
>  ITAR
> is the more important thing to fix (it is easier to move pornography
>  etc
> out of the US than major software companies). 
> 
> So it seems Dole is the better vote.  Is this important enough to many
> cypherpunks to actually determine their vote?

If the Republican candidate had been Forbes, there might have been a "don't 
let the great be the enemy of the good" argument against voting for a
Libertarian. As it stands now, Dole is, at best, arguably the "lesser of 2 
evils," which still comes out evil in my book. As the designated partisan 
Libertarian on the list, I urge all cypherpunks to vote their consciences 
and pick Harry Browne and Jo Jorgensen. The mere fact that the media is 
[grudgingly] covering us suggests we are finally doing something right, and 
Harry is winning many Internet polls despite much fawning, hopeful coverage 
for the big-eared billionaire hypocrite stealth-candidate, who has no 
position on much of anything, but certainly would enjoy having the TLAs 
investigate his enemies.

I fully accept that it is likely Dole or Clinton will win, but I think it 
will fill an important cypherpunk goal if the Libertarian Party candidates 
get a vote large enough to be the margin of victory, and I will be very 
proud of my vote, no matter who wins this election. Vote your consciences 
for your own sake, and the sake of the children who, no matter what, will 
inherit the debt of the irresponsible statists in power now.
JMR

Regards, Jim Ray -- DNRC Minister of Encryption Advocacy

"'Filegate' is starting to make _Ed_ _Meese_ look ethical."
 -- me
 Defeat the Duopoly! Vote "NOTA," not Slick/Dull in November.
 Harry Browne for President. Jo Jorgensen for Vice-president.
 http://www.HarryBrowne96.org/
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Ross Perot is now on welfare.<sigh>
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