"A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government."

-- Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

Are you tired of Democrats and Republicans
fighting over how to spend YOUR money?

I am Dale F. Ogden. I live in San Pedro and am running for California State Assembly because I want to dramatically reduce the size and scope of state government (and federal government, too). I want California to return to a part-time citizen legislature, abolish the state income tax, and cut spending so that no new taxes are needed. I want to abolish abolish most regulatory and licensing agencies, and restore our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property by getting the government out of education, out of medicine, and out of other personal matters. My top priorities are to:

• abolish the state income tax (state income taxes generate only 40%-50% of total state revenues);

• cut spending at least 50% (NOT difficult to do) so that no new taxes are needed;

• make the State Legislature part-time, perhaps meeting only two or three weeks every two years (as Ben Franklin said, "No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.");

• abolish most licensing and regulatory agencies: most licensing agencies were formed to prevent blacks, asians, or other races from entering and competing with whites. When such racism became politically incorrect, they reinvented themselves, changed their purpose to "protect" us.  Government bureaucrats can't keep an incompetent doctor or a crooked lawyer (both of which are all too common) from preying on the public. How can they keep us from getting a bad haircut? Let people work. Let people start new businesses. Get the government out of their way.

• end the war on drugs: prohibition never works; crime rates would drop dramatically if drugs were decriminalized. And worse still is the fact that violent criminals, convicted for armed robbery, assault, even murder, are set free to make room for non-violent drug offenders. Most drug-related arrests are for possession of marijuana. Does anyone really fear a pot-head?

• abolish asset forfeiture laws: under the guise of the war on drugs, police steal people's property, 85% of whom are never even charged with a crime, a crystal clear violation of the United States Constitution. The police have become the criminals we most fear. Organized crime was never as dangerous as the police.

• abolish laws against victimless crimes, such as gambling and prostitution. Did I say that prohibition never works? Yes, I did. These vices have always existed and always will. Their prohibition just gives the police more victims to extort and makes them more dangerous.

• repeal all gun control laws: the 2nd Amendment is very clear: "...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

• affirm the rights of individuals to keep and bear arms and pass laws to guarantee that no political subdivision of California may prevent any citizen who has not been convicted of a violent felony from owning and carrying a concealed weapon for self-protection; they should not need permission from the local authorities; and

• formally recognize jury nullification and require all judges in California to instruct juries that they have the right to judge not only the facts of a case but the law and that jurors may vote for acquittal if they find the law to be unjust.

• reform the tort system to eliminate frivolous lawsuits, penalize those individuals and (especially) those attorneys who file frivolous lawsuits, legislatively reverse many of the decisions of liberal judges over the past thirty years, and restore our tort system to one where there is liability only when there is fraud or negligence and legitimate damages.

• make participation in the state workers compensation system voluntary for employers, allowing them (as does Texas) to make alternative provisions for their employees (such as disability income insurance); and

• restore the ability of individuals to contract freely for whatever goods and services they may wish to exchange without the threat that the courts may decide their contract is not consistent with public policy.

We need more restrictions on government
and more restrictions on government agents;
NOT more restrictions on our citizens.

People should be able to live their lives as they see fit. They should not need permission from the government. When the government licenses or regulates any activity, we lose choices; it means that some politician or bureaucrat makes the decision for us. Who do you trust to make personal decisions for you? Do you trust coke-heads like Bill Clinton or George W, or a pot-head like Al Gore, or Newt Gingrich? Do you trust the politicians and bureaucrats in Sacramento and Washington? Or would you rather decide for yourself where to send your children to school or to educate them at home, what hospital or doctor to use, what treatments to pursue, what medicines to take, whether to buy insurance or how much insurance to buy, whether and whom to marry, and so on and on?

Libertarians are pro-choice on all aspects of life.

Government does not create wealth; it takes money from its citizens and uses it to interfere in their lives. I believe in:

• separation of government and education;

• separation of government and commerce;

• separation of government and medicine;

• separation of government and charity; and

• separation of government and religion.

Update!!!

The California Budget Surplus was bigger than expected: $14 billion.

Yet have you heard anyone in Sacramento offer a real tax cut? Have the Democrats and Republicans in power, running for re-election, offered tax cuts as a part of their campaigns. A few challengers have, but I haven't heard of single incumbent  offering significant tax cuts.

Certainly NOT my opponent, Rudy Svornich, the self-described "mainstream" Republican, who, along with his drug-addicted fellow members of the Los Angeles City Council, has done such a great job that almost everyone wants to split Los Angeles into about half a dozen smaller cities. I also understand he is under investigation for financial irregularities (who knows?).

Let's fix the income tax system once and for all time! Abolish income and inheritance taxes! State Income Taxes and Federal Income Taxes! Period! Outlaw Income Taxes and we won't need to worry about who pays what!

A person with a gun is a citizen...
a person without a gun is a subject.

Criminals love gun control;
it makes being a criminal much safer.

We are not subjects of the government like the British; we, the people, are the masters; government is our servant, and exists ONLY to protect us. Our right to keep and bear arms is affirmed by the Constitution, but is not granted by the Constitution. It is one of our inalienable rights that exists that precedes the Constitution, our right of self-defense. Government no longer even pretends to protect us (the courts have ruled that the police have no affirmative obligation to protect citizens; they just try to solve the crime after the fact, if they feel like it).

Polls show that the vast majority of the American people oppose the "war on drugs," yet it continues, year after year, despite its dismal failure. The government can't even keep drugs out of prison, so how do they expect to keep drugs out of the hands of others. California voters overwhelmingly approved the medical marijuana initiative, yet California's attorney general and many other law enforcement agencies continue to arrest and prosecute people for possession of small amounts of marijuana for medical use, even in situations where it is clear that, without marijuana, the defendant likely will suffer unnecessarily or perhaps even die. In cases where marijuana is grown and consumed in California, never crossing any state lines, there is absolutely no legal or moral justification for the federal government to become involved. Without the involvement of interstate commerce, the federal government loses its only constitutional justification for involving itself in a local issue. Judges who enforce such laws should be impeached and removed from the bench. 

The War on Drugs has Corrupted the Police.

Who is it that really supports the war on drugs and why? Law enforcement, because, like all good bureaucrats, they use their powers to build empires. Thousands and thousands of times every year, law enforcement confiscates property from citizens in the name of the war on drugs, and seldom charge them with a crime. Oftentimes, law enforcment agencies keep the assets that they confiscate and use them to persecute other citizens. The drug war has corrupted the police. Based on anonymous tips, SWAT teams break into homes in the middle of the night, sometimes killing innocent people, yet frequently they find no drugs. It seems that for most law-abiding citizens, the police are a greater threat than the criminals. Why do all these SWAT teams even exist? In Littleton, Colorado, the SWAT team cowered outside for hours, frisking the students who were leaving the building. Unfortunately, politicians fear law enforcement; they fear unions. Some people still remember the friendly cop on the beat; it’s still a theme in many of the children’s books that government schools uses to brainwash our children into believing government is their friend.

Why am I a Libertarian?

Libertarians believe that you have the right to live your life as you see fit as long as you take responsibility for your actions and do not violate the rights of other people. Democrats and Republicans, liberals, conservatives, and moderates, all have plans to run some aspect of your life. They believe, "there ought to be a law." Libertarians believe, "there ought to be a choice." Leave people alone and they will grow and prosper.

Time after time, we see that government doesn't work, but that doesn't stop its officials from passing law after law, tax after tax, and regulation after regulation. Politicians and bureaucrats want power over our lives; they want to hold onto the perks of their offices. They don't really care whether their plans work or not.

There are too many laws, too many regulations, and too many government bureaucrats. I am not running for Assembly to be a law maker. I am running to repeal laws and to abolish regulatory agencies. There are basic laws, such as laws against murder, rape and robbery, that we all know we should follow. But there are volumes after volumes of laws that turn non-violent personal behavior, behavior that harms no one, into crimes, or creating countless bureaucratic offenses that most of us violate every day without even knowing it! Thousands of armed federal and state agents are prepared to enforce all of these laws and regulations. It's no wonder that half of all Americans fear their government.

No Libertarian has ever raised anyone's taxes. In fact, in 1982, Libertarian legislators in Alaska succeeded in repealing the state income tax. I want California to be the next state to repeal its income tax. That should send a message to Washington.

Libertarians coined the term "privatization," which means that essential services can be more efficiently and economically provided by free market competition than by government. Libertarians have consistently led the fight against bond measures that would put our children and grandchildren in debt. Libertarians have fought laws that violate your personal privacy and liberty.

The Libertarian Party is the party of the 21st Century. Big government has failed. Libertarians defend the rights of the individual against the power of the state. If you are a freedom-loving individual, if you're sick and tired of the loss of your liberty on a daily basis, join me and my fellow Libertarians in this vitally important quest.

Check out the National Libertarian Party!

Check out the Libertarian Party of California!