Just published: Mr. President: How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive by Ray Raphael.

A Washington Post review notes the book "provides a rich harvest of insights for reflection during the next five months of political bloodletting."

In an article titled: Gary Johnson: Boldly going were no Libertarian has gone before?  published in today’s Tuscon Citizen, reporter David Pinar writes:

Libertarian Party 2012 candidate for President Gary Johnson  is finally getting some attention and, surprisingly, more and more supporters. I say ?surprisingly? because while Libertarian candidates often do get some attention, it rarely translates to votes. 2008 Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr received only .4% of the nationwide vote; that?s even less than the .56% Ralph Nader received. Barr?s vote total topped 1% in just one single state, Indiana, were he received 1.06%. In Arizona, Barr got only .547%, in Colorado only .454%.  But recent polling has Gary Johnson getting 7% of the vote in Colorado. In Arizona, Johnson is pulling as much as 9% of the vote, and in his home state of New Mexico he gets 12% of the vote.  So who exactly is Gary Johnson?

The author provides an excellent summary of Gary Johnson’s record as a Governor and outlines his “fiscal conservatism.”

While the author then expresses concern over Johnson’s proposed “balanced budget for 2013″ and the impact of an immediate $1 trillion dollar reduction in federal spending (something, BTW, Governor Johnson has not, in this reporter’s experience, advocated — he wants Congress to start with the balanced budget and then fully debate and justify any spending beyond that), the other conclusions in this overall favorable article are:

 . . . There is not a single word there I disagree with. Kudos to Mr. Johnson for being a true Libertarian when it comes to social issues.

and

. . . Hmmm . . . can?t find much to disagree with him there either.

and finally the concluding admonishment to his readers to:

If you can?t vote for Obama, instead of just voting for the lessor of two evils, take a look at Gary Johnson ? at least you know where he stands.  Can you say the same about Mitt Romney?

The complete article is available online at:

http://tucsoncitizen.com/baja-democrats/2012/06/24/gary-johnson-boldly-going-were-no-libertarian-has-gone-before

The New York Post report America's rich are renouncing their citizenship at record levels.

"Startling new data from Uncle Sam show that defections by Americans are expected to double this year, largely to avoid any stiff tax bills resulting from the proposed 55 percent hike on the rich -- as well as the likely expiration on Dec. 31 of the Bush era tax cuts. As many as 8,000 US citizens are projected by immigration officials to renounce in 2012, or about 154 a week, versus 3,805 in 2011, or about 73 per week."

The Boston Globe probes Mitt Romney's business dealings with "junk bond king" Michael Milken.

"What transpired would become not just one of the most profitable leveraged buyouts of the era, but also one of the most revealing stories of Romney's Bain Capital career. It showed how he pivoted from being a relatively cautious investor to risking his reputation for a big payoff. It is one that Romney has rarely, if ever, mentioned in his two bids for the presidency, perhaps because the Houston-based department store chain that Bain assembled later went into bankruptcy."

"But what distinguishes this deal from the nearly 100 others that Romney did over a 15-year period was his close work with Milken's firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. At the time of the deal, it was widely known that Milken and his company were under federal investigation, yet Romney decided to go ahead with the deal because Drexel had a unique ability to sell high-risk, high-yield debt instruments, known as 'junk bonds.'"

A top adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney suggested an executive order by President Barack Obama that would allow some young people who are illegally in the U.S. to stay and obtain working papers could be repealed if Mr. Romney were elected.

For those people who enjoy the minutiae of election returns, especially for minor parties, the county elections web pages sometimes have interesting details that are not included in the Secretary of State’s web page.

Some, but not all, of the county election web pages include the number of write-ins cast in particular races, whether there were any declared write-in candidates in that race or not. For example, there were no declared write-in presidential candidates in the Libertarian Party’s presidential primary, but some counties show a large number of write-ins were cast in the Libertarian Party presidential primary. Many, if not most, of these write-ins may have been for Ron Paul. The percentage of write-ins cast in the Libertarian presidential primary in Calaveras County was 32.3%; in Lassen County 29.6%; in Contra Costa County 19.7%; in Alameda County 13.8%. These counties were chosen at random and most county web pages haven’t been checked.

In the American Independent primary, in many counties over half the votes cast for president were write-in votes. This is also true in some cases for the Peace & Freedom presidential primary.

The Orange County elections web page reveals that Orange County has 222 voters registered in Americans Elect, but only 18 of them turned out to cast a ballot in the June 5, 2012 primary for any office. Those voters were given a ballot intended for Independent voters, because Americans Elect didn’t want its own primary ballot printed up.

Many counties still haven’t finished their official tally.

On June 23, the Independent Party, which is a ballot-qualified party in New Mexico, held a state convention and nominated Rocky Anderson for President. Anderson is also the nominee of the Justice Party, but the Justice Party is not on the ballot in New Mexico.

The Independent Party is ballot-qualified because in 2008, it polled over one-half of 1% of the vote for its presidential nominee, Ralph Nader. Nader polled .64% in 2008 in New Mexico. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.

Marco Rubio also faults the Arizona immigration law now before the Supreme Court.

On June 21, both sides in Libertarian Party of Virginia v Judd filed simultaneous briefs for Summary Judgement. This means both sides agree that there is no need for a trial, and the next action will probably be a fairly quick decision from the judge. The issue is Virginia’s ban on out-of-state circulators.

The state’s brief says that the Libertarian Party successfully petitioned for President in all elections starting with 1988 in Virginia, so the party doesn’t really need any relief. The state also says that co-plaintiff Darryl Bonner, a professional petitioner who doesn’t live in Virginia and who wants to circulate in Virginia, has no real complaint either, because he is free to be accompanied by a Virginia resident. Also the state says that Bonner may not even have standing, because in a deposition he said he hurt his knee and doesn’t plan to do any work in the near future.

The state’s brief is somewhat deceptive, because it says the Libertarian Party has not had trouble in the past, yet in 1984 the Libertarian Party’s petition drive for President failed in Virginia. The state’s brief makes no claim that there is any strong state interest in banning out-of-state circulators.

The Libertarian Party’s brief emphasizes that the party may have special need for outside circulators this year, because the state legislature and the Governor, by making late changes to the U.S. House districts, deprived all petitioning parties of their normal full petitioning time. The law says the petitions may start to circulate on January 1 of the election year, but in reality that was impossible this year because the petitions must list a candidate for presidential elector from each district, and until the district lines were final, the list of elector candidates couldn’t be finalized. Of course, the Libertarian Party brief also emphasizes that the overwhelming majority of precedents on the issue hold that bans on out-of-state circulators are unconstitutional.

"I don't want to be vice president."

-- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), quoted by Roll Call.