For those of you who may be wondering...

I am still alive. I have been caught up in work since the summer. My career is in the fast lane. I now direct programs at four schools, and spend more time in my car than my apartment. I am one of the few people in this country who can gratefully say that he is over-employed rather than unemployed or under-employed.

Below is a list of links to stories and information regarding the situation in the Gulf of Mexico. The first two are the most important, in my opinion. This must be the greatest environmental disaster in the history of mankind. It threatens the gulf region and perhaps even the entire world with total devastation. The articles below demonstrate BP's negligence and the government's role in worsening the situation.

The Austrian economists base their study of economics on praxeology, which is human action. The Austrian school is based on fundamental truths that explain how humans act and interact. To create a society based on anything else requires manipulation or coercion.

The Boston Tea Party was founded on a platform of "reducing the size, scope and power of government at all levels and on all issues, and opposes increasing the size, scope and power of government at any level, for any purpose." Strict adherence to this platform is the most important thing we must consider when voting on party business of any kind. The next thing we must consider when voting is what will be best for the growth of the party and success of its candidates.

As I announced at the closing of our convention, I am working to establish a policy institute based on the BTP platform. Since our initial name of the "Gallatin Institute" has been taken by some Ford Foundation project (probably advocating socialism instead), I have decided to name it the Lysander Spooner Institute. Lysander Spooner was an American 19th Century entrepreneur, scholar, radical abolitionist, natural law advocate, and individualist anarchist.

Boston Tea Party Members,

Canadian journalist Sylvie Dugas featured myself and former chair Jim Davidson in an article about the American "Tea Party" Movement in the French language Canadian newspaper, Un Monde Libre.

If you happen to know French, you can read it here. If, like me, you haven't gotten around to learning French yet, you can read a rough translation courtesy of Google Translate here.

Running for statewide office is one of the best ways to build a state affiliate from a handful of activists to an effective statewide party organization. A statewide campaign in 2010 is also the best way to set our presidential ticket up for success in 2012. However, in most states it involves petitioning of statewide ballot access.

Someone contacted me this weekend asking this question about the Boston Tea Party: "I read your platform. The inevitable result of the obtainment of your goals would be a situation where corporate power goes unchecked. Is this something that your group is comfortable with?"

I thought many of you might be interested in hearing my reply about this important issue. Here is part of it:

Jeremy Boggess, an independent candidate for State Senate in the state of Idaho sent me a web site he established to help independent and third party candidates collaborate, specifically to discuss cost/space sharing at events.