The Free View (Old Style) - 12-12-00
-The Free View-
Issue 2
December 12, 2000
411 weeks until election day
In This Issue:
-Defection 2000
-Part of the Plan: The List, cont.
-Campaign News: Interviews, Speaking Engagement
-What Do I Do?
-Articles and Links
-How to Unsubscribe/Subscribe
Defection 2000- more coming soon
--------------------------------
I have been working on summarizing my thoughts on this
disgraceful election, and as I have, the article has grown, to
the point where it looks like it will probably end up being 2 or
3 articles. I have to do some more work to straighten it out,
and I didn't want to delay mailing this newsletter out...so,
look for those articles in upcoming issues. Maybe we'll even
have a winner by then. ;)
Part of the Plan: The List, cont.
------------------------------------
I am also working on a couple new episodes of "Part of the
Plan," but this has not been the week to complete them. A new
topic will be touched upon in next week's campaign update.
In the meantime, here's another bit of food for thought about
"The List":
If this list were to double each week, it would have 50,000
subscribers in 9 weeks! This means that if each person who gets
this newsletter can recruit one new subscriber each week, we
will soon have a HUGE community of freedom fighters who are
hearing about, and getting excited about, this campaign.
Now, don't think I'll just be using this momentum for my own
promotion- there's a lot we can do as a group of like-minded
people, and I will do my best to help subscribers obtain freedom
in their lives (and towns, and states), in the short term, as
well as, obviously, the long term. Together we can make a big
difference in the national conversation- and we don't have to
wait 8 years to do it. All we need to do is get together.
So bring your friends, your family members, your boss, your
buddy list...anyone you know who wants to join history's first
nonviolent political revolution. If we double each week, we'll
be unbeatable in 2008! (Literally, since to double over 400
times would make this list thousands of times larger than the
world's population! :)
Campaign News: Interviews and a Speaking Engagement
---------------------------------------------------
-->Interviews: My position as founder of StopCarnivore.org
( http://stopcarnivore.org ) has resulted in a small wave of
interviews in recent weeks.
First, I was interviewed by Karen Robb, who writes for Federal
Times ( http://www.federaltimes.com ), a publication that writes
on issues that confront Federal Agencies. I'll let you know when
that article comes out, and if I actually appear in it. (Update:
I checked with Karen yesterday, and she wrote back that not only
was I not in the article, but the article has been cancelled
anyway. Oh well. :( )
Next, I was interviewed by a college student, who I won't name
for his privacy's sake. He is writing a research paper on
Carnivore, which he says he will share with me when it is done.
I will let you know when that is available for reading.
And most recently, I spoke with Steve Tanner, from Silicon
Valley Biz Ink ( http://www.svbizink.com ), who is doing a story
on the effect of Carnivore on businesses. This article is
supposed to appear on this coming Friday the 13th, and I will
post a link to it next week. My talk with Steve was very
friendly, and I expect he will be a valuable media resource for
years to come.
Slowly but surely, my media presence (and address book of media
contacts) is going up. Obviously, this is one of the most
important part of the campaign, and I look forward to expanding
the amount of contact I have with the media about my various
projects. Look for more news coming soon!
-->Speaking Engagement: I received an invitation from Jeanie
Kennedy, Director of "Free Exchange," a San Francisco supper
club. They meet every two months to hear a featured speaker on a
freedom issue- and they want that speaker to be me! I am in the
process of designing a speech topic and short bio, and I need to
pick the date I want to speak, but it will probably be April 21
or June 16 of next year. I will let you know of further details
as they become available.
What Do I Do?
-------------
A lot of people wonder what I do for a living, and what my job
experience, or qualifications for President are. This week, I'm
going to talk about what I currently do with my time. Next
issue, I'll get into my job history and general qualifications.
I do a lot of things with my time right now- some people would
say too many. First, my "for pay" job is working as CEO of
PeoplesForum.com ( http://peoplesforum.com ), a web debate site.
I'm also co-founder and part owner of this company, which was
founded in April of 1998. PeoplesForum.com is quite small- we
have only 3 people working for us, including me- and so my job
as CEO involves a wide array of tasks. For the most part, I
function as webmaster, graphic designer, copywriter, editor,
marketing manager, and pretty much any other task that comes my
way. PeoplesForum.com has existed on a very small amount of
investment money (by Internet Company standards), and, due to
this, our staff has remained small, and so has our site and our
company. The upside of our smallness is that we have been able
to survive, while Internet giants have come and gone. It's hard
to say if or when PeoplesForum.com will become a big
money-maker, or a "famous name" on the Web, but whatever
happens, the experience has changed me forever, and has taught
me a lot about entrepreneurialism.
The two biggest changes are that I am now hooked on both
self-employment, and working at home. It is highly unlikely that
I will ever spend a substantial amount of time working for a
boss again, and equally unlikely that I will work a full-time
job that requires me to work at a conventional workplace again.
Fortunately, in my "dream job", President, my only "boss" is the
Constitution and the people of the U.S., and I don't mind
working for them. I do that every day anyway. :) Also, the
Presidency will allow me to continue to work out of my home,
which is important to me. No one would claim that the White
House is a conventional workplace.
In addition to working for PeoplesForum.com, I am also CIO of
Rent-a-Court/Dispute Solvers ( http://rent-a-court.com), a
company which provides online mediation services to disputing
parties. This company is a start-up which is currently a
subsidiary of PeoplesForum.com. Due to a number of
complications, Rent-a-Court has had a slow time getting off the
ground, but we do have a lot of the details in place to make
that happen. The staff (and funding) of Rent-a-Court is quite
tiny too, and as a result, I perform most of the same tasks I
listed for PeoplesForum.com, and whatever else comes my way as
well.
That's what I do to pay the bills, so to speak. But that's
certainly not the only work I do. I say "work" a bit hesitantly
here, because my non-profit and freedom work is so satisfying
that it functions both as work and play for me. I spend almost
all of my "free time" pursuing my goals in the areas of freedom,
education, and activism. These days, I am spread pretty thin in
these pursuits, and I rotate through a long list of projects
that are in various stages of development. Here are the main
"non-pay" projects that fill my time:
-Freedom2008.com/Campaign for President-
Since the turn of the year 2000, I have had an acute sense of the
fact that it is time to pump up the volume on my Presidential
campaign. As a result, I have made efforts to regularly update
and add to the campaign site, and to further promotion of it.
This has gone very well, I think, and the site is getting more
thorough and professional with each revision. It's safe to say
that I have the most legitimate-looking "future presidential
campaign" site, and it could be said that my site would stack up
well against most political candidate sites out there. Just imagine
what it will be like after 8 more years of growth and development. :)
-Future Solutions-
In 1995 I founded The Future- Media Solutions, my first effort
at sole proprietorship. It was intended to be a desktop
publishing, marketing, and public relations firm. In an effort
to develop a portfolio, I ended up doing a lot of "pro bono"
(free) work, for friends and others who I encountered. This work
ranged from writing press releases and résumés, to designing
business cards, posters, flyers, and web sites, to legal help,
business plan assistance, and more. After a while, I came to the
conclusion that my talents and qualifications were such that I
wasn't a "billable" professional in any particular area, but
more of a jack-of-all-trades type. Around that time, I shifted
my approach to where I had basically two roles: one was doing
contract work for odd jobs in the "media solutions" field, and
the other was developing several non-profit ventures that had
come to mind. I did contract work for a few projects, while I
held my last "regular" job, until I had the opportunity to start
PeoplesForum.com. Since then, Future Solutions has been devoted
exclusively to doing pro bono work for worthy projects, and
bringing to fruition my many ideas for social and political
reform.
So, it could be said that, aside from my two jobs and my campaign
for president, I work for Future Solutions
( http://www.futuresolutions.org), on the following projects:
-->StopCarnivore.org: This could probably be called my most
successful activist effort of the past few years, as it has
provided a vehicle of activism for a growing community of
people, and attracted media attention, as well as a fair bit of
fame and notoriety on the Internet. Many of you found out about
me through StopCarnivore.org, and that fuels my idea that I will
be able to gain credibility, and a "following," through my
online activist efforts. There will be a lot more projects like
this- at least in form, if not in substance. If you haven't seen
StopCarnivore.org, you can take a look at it here:
http://StopCarnivore.org
I have been spending a bit less time on StopCarnivore.org
lately, and I intend to try and recruit a crew of activists to
"take it over," in a sense- so I can put more time into
launching and developing my other projects.
-->The Free School on the Internet: I've said it before, and
I'll say it again: I consider the Free School on The Internet to
be my best idea ever. It has been taking shape, very slowly, for
almost 4 years now, and I have been making a serious effort to
devote a greater chunk of my time to it. I'm in the middle of
developing a semi-formal concept summary, which will then become
a grant proposal, which I hope to begin seeking funding for in
the first quarter of next year. You can look at what has been
done so far here:
http://futuresolutions.org/futsols/freeschool/. There's a lot
more to it than I've written so far, but you can start to get a
feel for it through what is done so far. I have been spending
more time on this in the past few months (after the idea lay
dormant for around two years), and I hope to continue to pick up
the pace on it. You will have plenty of chances to hear more
about The Free School in the future. :)
-->NoMoreDrugWar.com: I began NoMoreDrugWar.com a few months
ago, and have worked on it sporadically since then. It isn't
quite ready for prime time yet, but it is beginning to take
shape. I want to make sure it doesn't end up being just another
site against the drug war- there is, after all already a
StopTheDrugWar.com, run by a great group of folks (DRCNet) who
are doing a fine job. One of the focal points I want to develop
the site around is the Drug War Treaty. I'm still mulling over
exactly what this site is going to turn into, but I do a little
work on it here and there. It will probably be ready for the
general public within 2-4 months, or sooner if I get inspired or
particularly motivated on it. You can take a look at what is
done so far here: http://NoMoreDrugWar.com (beware, it's VERY
under construction)
-->GreenLiberty.org- This is my newest project, and will be
taking a fair amount of my time in the coming weeks and months.
The intent of the project is to find the meeting point between
Green values and Libertarian principles. These two groups are
the largest "fringe" groups in politics today, and they are
currently on a course to end up in angry opposition to each
other. I don't think this is wise or appropriate, as I believe
that Libertarian principles are the best way to accomplish Green
goals. GreenLiberty.org will be centered around this idea, and
the idea of creating a community of green Libertarians and
libertarian Greens...whom I hope will eventually rally behind
the Libertarian Party, and perhaps bring some much-needed
"heart" to what many see as a cold, insensitive party- without
forcing the LP to change its very firm and worthy principles.
GreenLiberty.org is not online yet, though that will probably
change in the next few days. I hope that within two weeks it
will be up and ready for the public, in preview mode at least.
Believe it or not, there's a lot more I'm working on that fills
my time. I'll continue this in the next update.
Articles and Links
------------------
Playboy Interview with NM Governor Gary Johnson
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1855.a01.html
Wow! I have liked Gary Johnson ever since I heard he came out
against the Drug War, but this interview still blew me away. It's
remarkable that such a plain-spoken man got elected to such a high
office. I don't know if this is the complete interview, but it's a
long excerpt for sure. You've got to read this interview with our country's highest-ranking elected official who has dared to take a
stand against the War on Drugs. Great stuff.
If You're Lucky
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/mcmaken4.html
An excellent article about the impact (and the potential much
greater impact) of regulatory agencies on small businesses.
Here's a quote: "If regulatory agencies were actually able to
enforce all of their laws, the economy would come to a virtual
standstill." By Ryan McMaken.
Nature Good, Humans Bad?
http://www.liberzine.com/jamesmarkels/001210globalwarming.htm
A good philosophical analysis of the Green position that humans
are wrecking the world. Good food for thought.
Florida: Now you know how government operates
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_browne/20001121_xchbr_florida_no.shtml (this URL may break into two pieces,
which you'll need to paste together into your browser's address window)
This article by Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate Harry Browne
is a fitting commentary.
O.K., that's enough out of me for this week. I've been holding
on to this too long, waiting to make it even longer than it
already is. Time to send it out. :)
Be Well, Be Free,
Lance Brown
Candidate for President - Year 2008
http://freedom2008.com
Posted by Lance Brown at December 12, 2000 08:43 PM
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