DC pot seed queue meets the tragedy of the commons, kind of

Basic microeconomics strikes again – it’s illegal to sell pot seeds in DC, you can only give them away.  So a line 4 blocks long formed to get free seeds, at a venue  — appropriately called Libertine — only open for two and a half hours.  So only 60% of those in line got seeds.  There is a second free seed distribution this Saturday.  Rumor is the local Libertarian Party will pass out free – and regular – brownies.  Where the same thing may happen again.  Still, it’s better than government cheese…

reasonTV was covering this event – but, we beat them to the press!  So until they post you will just have to enjoy our videos – vegans against pot (roast), hydroponics salespeeps, etc.  Located in the trendy Adams Morgan neighborhood, just a bongs through from the homes of various Cato, Institute for Justice, and Atlas Network dynamos (– and only 8 blocks from reason magazine’s DC offices, so I don’t know why they can’t load their damn video quicker!)  Besides reasonTV‘s Todd Krainen, the only other libertarians I noticed about were a local conservatarian who works in the private sector for CoStar, and a
Ron Paulista public interest lawyer who works for the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

Fact checking ReasonTV on "Why You Can’t Ship Your Favorite Wine Across State Lines"

Maybe I misunderstand this piece, but it seems to me to say that sales of wine across state lines to be shipped to consumers is controlled.

I’m sure this is substantially true, but in Washington, D.C., which is not a state, there is a least one internet based service, First Vine, that will ship wine to most states (some don’t allow them to do so, but fewer than this guy mentions).  Of course, I guess First Vine is itself a distributor or a middle man.

First Vine is having a tasting next week, but sadly it is on the same night several libertarian events transpire, including reason editor Damon Root speaking on his book Over-Ruled at the Mayflower Hotel (B.Y.O.E):

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, November 18 Malmaison 3401 K St. NW 7 pm Malmaison is inagurating its monthly Tasting Tuesdays with a First Vine tasting.  We’ll be serving blends from Southern France, and discussing grape blending and why French wines are named for where they’re made.  The tasting is $20 and you canregister here.  We’ll also have bottles for sale at the tasting. Wednesday, November 26 6:00 – 8:00 pm Each Peach Market 3068 Mt. Pleasant St. NW We know you’ll be running around the day before Thanksgiving trying to get last-minute things done, but stop by Each Peach and try a little wine.  You know you’ll need some for the holiday, and it never hurts to have a little and relax!  We’ll be pouring wines that will go beautifully with almost anything you serve on the big day. Saturday, January 24 10:00 am – 6:00 pm g.life Festival Marriott Wardman Park Hotel The g.life expo is a showcase for gay and lesbian-owned businesses in the greater DC area.  Everything financial services to fitness and health to home decor and custom clothing to food and wine.  We’ll be pouring First Vinewines and will have a permit to sell bottles, too –so you can buy what you try.  See the Capital Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce website for details.  The expo is free to attend, but you need to register ahead of time.

National Moment of Silence for Mike Brown

Beauteous Meridian Hill Park (also popularly and locally known as Malcolm X Park, but not on maps and such) was the location for tonight’s DC protest of policy brutality, weaponized police forces, the killing of Mike Brown, and the attitude that black lives don’t matter.

Both reason magazine and various local TV news crews were there, and we are hoping to scoop them with our bad IPad-to-YouTube coverage (Hey Charles Koch Institute, since we do this every day, fund us!)

The protest organizers, who I believe were a group of fairly non-ideological Howard University grad students (Howard is only 7 blocks or so from Meridian Hill Park) had a bad sound system and a disorganized program of chant and response and a reading of names of victims of police killings.  (As to names, one odd fact for this protest in DC is that we actually have two elected politicians named Michael Brown – one white, a perpetual candidate for “shadow” offices (pretend Senator), and one black, the son of the deceased Clinton Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, now in prison for corruption.  I’ve actually been to the imprisoned Brown’s house for a fundraiser when he first ran for office.)

There were a sprinkling of libertarians at the event – me in a Vote Libertarian hat, Steve Silverman (founder of Flex Your Rights) with a “Film the Police” Sign, Todd Krainin of reasonTV (who lives within walking distance).  A young guy handing out flyers for the Socialist Party skipped me twice because of my Libertarian hat, so I stopped him when I realized the flyer was about Green Party candidate Eugene Puryear and made him give me one, as Puryear and I actually get along when we meet.

Some ruffians off camera were screaming at the group.  We couldn’t see them or make out what they were saying.  At first I was worried they were white supremacists and there might be trouble.

Our guilty pleasure – we’re covering CPAC

CPAC Panel on Minority Voter Outreach Poorly Attended – CPAC Roundup

Reason magazine is covering it this year.  We ran into Kennedy and crew filming interviews for reasonTV (reason coverage link above).

Apparently prices, especially for sponsors, were doubled this year, so there seem to be many fewer attendees, including most gay, libertarian, and even some tea party groups.  The Libertarian Party had a booth for years in the exhibitors hall, but hasn’t for several years.  American for Prosperity has no booth.  And Campaign for Liberty is shrunken from its Ron Paul campaign years of having one or two aisles of booths of related groups like Young Americans for Liberty to having only one booth.

CPAC is again held inconveniently at Washington National Harbor, the resort complex rubes think is in DC that is actually far away in Prince George’s County in Maryland, on the Potomac, near Andrews Air Force Base.  CPAC organizers say they outgrew DC hotel space but many think the real reason for the move last year was that the Occupy protesters confronted Andrew Breitbart, when CPAC was in DC, in 2012, where the late, great Achilleus of the center-right harangued the occupy under fay.   CPAC wagers that Occupy, which in DC has to hire the unemployed and homeless people so it has enough bodies at a protest, aren’t competent to find National Harbor or charter a bus to get there.  CPAC offers bus service from Union Station on Capitol Hill (last year it also offered it from George Washington University).

I’ve been covering CPAC for my blogs since 2007.  The three perpetual fault lines are: Ron Paul and other libertarians vs neoconservatives and pro-military groups; gay conservatives vs people who want no gay groups as sponsors; free market Muslim Americans and their supporters vs people who want no tincture of Islam allowed.  The anti-gay, anti-Muslim, and anti-libertarian forces have won most battles, and excluded most groups from sponsorships and exhibits who fall under those three categories, with only Ron and Rand Paul left.  This year they also refused to rent space (and presumably sell wedding cake) to one of those single issue atheist groups as well.  I think the Ayn Rand Institute may still be in but I will have to check to see if they have a booth as they did last year. However CPAC may lose the war, since they want the young peoples, and when they show up they usually end up being over half libertarian leaning, even if you barred their sponsoring groups.

The other usual CPAC experience is leftover or “liberal” journalists looking for snark.  In the past this has taken the form of checking gay ads on craigslist etc. and then reporting the shocking finding that 20-something gay conservative boys away from home in a big city staying in hotels actually look to hook up with each other – the depravity knows no ends!  Last year Betsy Rothstein, a reporter for FishBowl (now with The Daily Caller), filed a report on how one exhibitor dared to have a poster with an unflattering photo of Hillary Clinton, at the CPAC conference – in Baltimore.  She thought, I believe, she was at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor instead of Prince George’s County’s National Harbor, based on the time spent on her expense account Uber ride.

I got there late last afternoon and only stayed until 9 pm, for about 6 hours of CPAC experience.  Here were my impressions:

Kennedy, Matt Welch, Meredith Bragg and other reporters said journalists were really scratching for something to cover.

Newlywed Yahoo News journalist Chris Moody, a former Cato intern, seemed almost giddy as he ran about snapping photos.  He’s such a nice young man.

British author and environmentalist critic James Delingpole was trying to meet journalists, carrying his new book on Eco-fascism, but he had no publicist or helper and none of the Americans knew who he was by looking at him.  (I tried to help a little.)

Glen Reynolds of Instapundit won a journalism award from Accuracy in Media, and Dana Loesch, formerly of Breitbart and now of Glen Beck Inc. accepted it for him (video later).  During the Q&A everyone asked her where Glen Beck was and why he didn’t come to CPAC.

I overheard a young journalist say “I was thinking about covering Rick Santorum, though he’s really irrelevant now.”  To which his young intern friend said “He came in second behind Romney last time.”

At the small (20 people) happy hour for the Republican Liberty Caucus (where 45 were expected) at a nice bar called Harrington’s. Token Libertarian Girl, FreedomWork’s Julie Borowski, and Republican Liberty Caucus candidates from South Carolina and New Mexico addressed the prospects for the Liberty movement and the threat of Libertarian Party spoilers to Republican candidates.  One Congressman from the south opined that Libertarian Party candidates are now stealing votes and ruining elections for half a dozen GOP candidates every election – and noted that in some cases, for less libertarian GOP candidates, he didn’t mind seeing this happen.  I kept waiting for one to advocate the usual Republican strategy of keeping Libertarians off the ballot but no one did.  Julie Borowski then decamped for the annual Blogger Bash across the street at a piano bar called Bobby McKay’s, where she was nominated for a blogging award.

I spent the night drinking with a right leaning libertarian friend who is married to a Republican Liberty Caucus organizer, who works in, as they say in DC, IC.  Meaning the intelligence community.  She says Judge Napolitano is wrong that the Ukranian uprisings wee funded by the Obama regime.  A Campaign for Liberty organizer then argued in our private beer fuled symposium that they many not have been government funded, but they were funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and other government supported groups.

Tonight I will be “covering” the Leadership Institute reception and a private, invite only Breitbart.com party (assuming they allow one to repeat what was said etc.) and hope to get to the actual event earlier, before lunch, as well.