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George Phillies
Born	July 23, 1947 (age 59) Buffalo, New York
Political party	Libertarian
Occupation	Physics Professor
Website	http://www.phillies2008.com/

George Phillies (born 23 July 1947) is a Libertarian Party activist and professor of physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He resides in Worcester, Massachusetts. On April 15, 2006, Phillies announced his candidacy for the Libertarian nomination for President of the United States in the 2008 presidential race.

Phillies edits Let Freedom Ring! and the Libertarian Strategy Gazette, two newsletters distributed to Libertarians across the United States. He is the chair of the Worcester County Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts[1], and is very active in the Worcester County Libertarian Association and Pioneer Valley Libertarian Association, two regional Massachusetts organizations. He has served on the board of the Libertarian Party of Massachusetts (LPMA), but also played a role in the founding of Liberty for Massachusetts, an activism group providing an alternative to the LPMA. He is the author of Stand Up For Liberty!, an electronically published book on Libertarian political strategy.

Contents 1 Campaign Issues 1.1 Iraq 1.2 Education 1.3 Military Commissions Act 1.4 End: Internet Poker Ban 1.5 End: Kelo; A Home Is Not (Just) a House 1.6 Energy & The Environment 1.7 The National Debt 2 External links

"There were no WMDs in Iraq. The Iraqi government hated Al Qaida. President Hussein had nothing to do with September 11. Now President Hussein has had his appointment with the hangman. The original mission may have been pointless, but that's no fault of our servicemen or their relatives and families. It's time to bring the War on Iraq to an end. It's time to bring our men and women home from Iraq. No matter when we leave, the Iraqis will still face their national problems. It's no criticism of our military's dedication or courage to say that further fighting is futile. Iraq's problems are problems the Iraqis must solve for themselves. Our intervention only wastes American lives.^[1]"

"The No Child Left Behind Act damages your child's education. It forces schools to focus on a few basic skills. It ignores others that are just as important. Yes, reading, math, and science are important. Writing, history, foreign languages, and computer use are just as important. [...] [The] No Child Left Behind Act [...] reduces writing, history, and foreign languages to second class academic citizenship. The No Child Left Behind Act damages national security. America's strength through the centuries has been our ability to improvise and create: When a problem shows up, if one person doesn't have an answer, someone else does. No Child Left Behind forces our children into an educational cookie-cutter mould, every child being pushed into the same mould. Under No Child Left Behind, what one child doesn't know, others won't, either.

"How do we actually find better education for each child? We encourage new ideas. We encourage variety. We encourage quality. We encourage students to work hard. We pay attention to what works. I need go no farther than my own state, where public schools are now adding an engineering requirement at multiple grade levels. That's a novel idea, the sort of innovation that No Child Left Behind endangers."

"The Tenth Amendment tried to discourage the Congress from unwise meddling in tasks better left to the people or to state and local government. The No Child Left Behind Act is just the opposite of the Tenth Amendment. It's the ultimate act of Congressional financial irresponsibility, an unfunded mandate. The Act mandates that school districts do things, but does not pay their expenses.^[2]"

"American law and tradition make clear: The accused are entitled to speedy trials before a jury. [...] The Military Commission Act turns all American law and tradition on its head. The Military Commission Act is un-American to its core. It should be repealed immediately.

Americans should recognize: The Republicans and Democrats who gave us this law have turned their backs on America. They have turned their backs on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. [...] Congress should create a Corps of Special Prosecutors. The Corps will bring to justice all government officials who said they were fighting a war on terror, while committing real crimes against our freedoms. The Corps of Special Prosecutors will give those government officials the right they denied their prisoners: The right to a speedy trial before an impartial jury.

• The Military Commission Act denies the right of trial.

• The Military Commission Act abolishes the right of a defendant to question the witnesses against him.

• The Military Commission Act permits people to be locked up indefinitely.

• Victims of the Military Commission Act are tried by Star Chamber tribunals, not by the juries that have been the basis of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence for most of the last millennium.

• Victims of the Military Commission Act may be convicted on the basis of evidence beaten out of witnesses.

• Victims of the Military Commission Act may be denied a chance to cross-examine their accusers.

• The Military Commission Act legalizes torture. It does this by redefining the Geneva Conventions. Under the Act, the serious physical pain or suffering' banned by Geneva Conventions refers only to "extreme physical pain". Interrogators can inflict pain so long as it is not "extreme". And what is "extreme", as opposed to, say, "serious"? The Act specifically identifies loss or impairment of a mental faculty as a test. Extreme pain is then pain adequate to cost the victim his sanity. Under the law, so long as the victim is sane afterwards, the pain was legal.

• The Military Commission Act legalizes the hideous rubber hose treatment of prisoners. Interrogators only break the Geneva Conventions if they inflict "burns or physical disfigurement of a serious nature". However, "cuts, abrasions, or bruises" are authorized. Beating a victim until he is black and blue almost everywhere, except where "a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty" is "impaired or lost", is allowed. The people with the rubber hoses, careful not to break a bone or put out an eye or tooth, are let loose on their victims.

• The Act is retroactive. Acts of torture performed before the Act was passed are redefined as not being torture.^[3]"

"Under the guise of protecting our country from terrorists trying to attack our harbors, it passed a ban on internet poker players. [...] Real Americans know: Internet poker players are not terrorists. [...] Real Americans know: Poker is as American as apple pie. [...] Americans recognize: The Poker ban had nothing to do with stopping terrorism. The Poker ban was passed because too many Congressmen are ready to go down on their knees before their political allies. Unfortunately, those political allies are well meaning Americans who think they should use the Federal government to impose their moral ideas on you."

"My position on the Internet Poker Ban is simple: Even for Congress, the internet poker ban was an unusually dumb idea. Congress should stick with things it understands, like renaming French Fries. They've done that twice now. The internet poker ban should be repealed immediately. Don't quibble about the details. Repeal the whole law the ban was attached to. Start over with a clean piece of paper.^[4]"

"Our American Constitution reads "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation being given". In the decision, the Supreme Court ruled that cities may take your home and give it to a private developer for commercial development.

"The Kelo decision was fundamentally wrong. 'Takings' are for public use, not for private profit. Casino parking lots and baseball stadiums are not legitimate public uses of anyone's land.

"The fundamental question is simple: Does your home belong to you? Or does it belong to whichever leisure-suited lounge lizard most recently bribed the right public officials?

"If elected President, I will seek legislation to reverse the Kelo decision. I will seek legislation to protect your home, and everyone else's home, too. [...]

"A house is a collection of bricks and nails and pipes and wooden sticks. A home is memories and emotional ties, the yesterdays that live in sunbright windows and shadowed lawns. When the government takes your home, it takes not only the wood and brick and stone and mortar, it takes part of your life. Just compensation pays you not only for the nails and gutters, but for the laughter and tears your home remembers.

"If you own a home, and have no plan to sell, just compensation should include not only compensation for the material property but also compensation for the pain and suffering of your loss. [...]

"The value of some things cannot be reckoned in dollars, so there is no just price for them. Congress should say so: If land were taken from one person, and given to another private person or commercial use, no possible cash payment can compensate the original owner for the emotional pain of seeing their property in the hands of someone else. Just compensation is impossible, so public takings for private use should be forbidden.^[5]"

"Recent changes in energy prices reflect changes in the order of the world. World oil production barely matches oil consumption. Oil demand from China and other places climbs rapidly. We face rapidly increasing foreign competition for buying foreign oil. Prudent Americans must expect that in the future energy is unlikely to be cheap.

"America cannot end its need for foreign oil by drilling more oil wells. We're long since peaked out. The north Alaska fields are not that large, and are many years from coming on-line if we choose to use them. Nor can we readily replace oil with agricultural products. Ethanol from corn is primarily a government boondoggle: The energy needed to distill the ethanol is roughly the same as the energy recovered. Molecular biology may eventually transform the situation, but the future date is unpredictable. [...]

"What should the Federal government do about the energy issue?

"First, Uncle Sam should focus on sensible actions he can actually take. We should move toward eliminating the government's own demand for foreign oil, thereby freeing oil for everyone else. That's a national security issue. It protects our military strength. It's also a financial issue; in the long run, ending foreign oil dependence reduces the cost of government. It won't happen overnight. In part, we reduce oil demand by shrinking the size of government and ending foreign military adventures. In substantial part, we reduce oil demand by replacing other energy sources used by the Federal Government with renewable energy sources. The replacement will not be complete in a year, or even in a decade. We need to make a start.

"I am not proposing that the Federal government should build its own windmills. I am proposing it should become a customer for new, private sources of renewable energy, purchased at predictable prices in predictable increments through long-term contracts. Those purchases are to carry out the normal processes of government, not to provide graft for political donors of corrupt Congressmen. These purchases will be predictable income that motivates competent private research and investment.

"Second, we should realize that as energy prices continue to climb the motive for private investment in alternative energies and energy conservation will also climb. There are many market solutions, at least if Uncle Sam does not tamper too much with them. I am not going to predict which solutions will turn out to be the most effective. That's not the President's job.

"Third, if oil production is peaking, as appears to be the case, then CO2 production from the burning of oil will also peak. The public's willingness to buy energy from alternative sources, as they become cheaper than the alternatives, not only holds down petroleum prices, it tends to reduce global warming.

"Fourth, a modest bit of realism on automobile efficiency standards. The reasonable number is gallons per mile, not miles per gallon. To drive 1000 miles, a 10MPG car needs 100 gallons of gas. A 25MPG car needs only 40 gallons. That's a 60 gallon savings. Automobiles may well become more efficient than they are today, but the larger part of the energy savings from better cars has already been obtained. Energy savings from better highways, improved cargo transport, and fewer traffic jams may still make a difference.

"Finally, Americans have always been creative and ingenious. We should be ready for totally outside-the-box solutions as radical as the Segway and the Moller Skycar. I don't know which solutions we will choose in the end, but I am confident that my fellow Americans will find them.^[6]"

"The National Debt is the ultimate form of taxation without representation. The people being taxed not only aren't represented, they haven't all been born yet. Of all the taxes that the Federal government levies, the grandchild tax is the least fair.

"America's fiscal problems, including the grandchild tax, can be solved by putting government in the hands of grownups, people who know what responsibility is. Putting government in the hands of grownups is the opposite of leaving government in the hands of fiscally-irresponsible conservatives, men like George Bush.

"How do grownups manage their fiscal problems? They set a budget, and they stick to it. They recognize that paying off debts comes first. Everything else comes later. We must spend less, unless Congress insists on taxing more. There will be whiners chanting 'you can't cut..." whatever. They are wrong. Look up the beautiful history of our wonderful country. We survived before without all sorts of Federal Programs, and we will again.

"Let's start with paying off our debts. The National Debt is over 8 trillion dollars. [...]

"Fortunately, there is another approach to discharging the national debt. It's the same one that families use to pay off their debts.

• First, you stop spending beyond your means. Shredding the credit cards is usually a good start.

• Second, at the start of every month you pay the interest, and then some more. The rest of the month, you live on what is left. As time goes on, the debts get smaller. More and more of your payment is principal. Less and less is interest.

The same approach will let us solve the national debt challenge.

• First, we stop running budget deficits. Rigorous application of the Presidential Veto pen can move us in the right direction.

• Second, the United States already pays its 'credit card companies', the people who hold Treasury Bills, hundreds of billions a year. To end those payments, we must first increase them by a quarter or a third, and run the government on what is left. Even in four or six years, we will start to see the rewards of ending the grandchild tax--the national debt. Ending the Grandchild Tax is the most important gift we can possibly leave to our children and grandchildren.

How will ending the National Debt benefit America?

• First, ending the National debt will free 8 trillion dollars in capital. Those 8 trillion dollars will be invested elsewhere, in better jobs, more effective education for our children, better living through medical research, and a more prosperous America.

• Second, reducing the national debt will lower interest rates. Lower interest rates means it will be cheaper for everyone else to borrow money and invest it wisely.

• Third, reducing the national debt will reduce competition for scarce investment capital. When the Federal government sells bonds, it is selling some of the safest investments in the world. Those extremely safe investments compete with non-Federal investments, squeezing American homeowners and industrial firms out of the capital market.

• Fourth, moving to end the National Debt will show that grownups are now in charge in Washington. Reassuring foreigners and Americans that Washington is once again being run by grownups will bolster confidence in America.

• Finally, on rare occasions catastrophes happen. The start of World War II comes to mind. A sound libertarian foreign policy will do much to avoid foreign wars, but sometimes war will happen regardless. When the national debt is lower, freedom to cope with unexpected emergencies becomes larger.

• Home page at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• Page at the WPIwiki
• Phillies 2008
• Phillies for President Message Board
• Liberty For America
• Central Massachusetts Liberty Coalition - homepage for distribution of Let Freedom Ring! and the Libertarian Strategy Gazette
• Phillies Interview - Conservative President 2008

v • d • e  United States presidential election, 2008
Democratic primaries • Democratic primary polls • Democratic Convention	Republican primaries • Republican primary polls • Republican Convention Republican Candidates' Beliefs
Candidates: Biden • Clinton (campaign, views) • Dodd • Edwards (views) • Gravel (campaign, views) • Kucinich • Obama (campaign, views) Candidates with exploratory committees: Richardson Potential candidates: Clark • Gore • Sharpton	Candidates: Brownback • Giuliani (campaign, views) • Hunter • McCain (campaign, views) • Paul (campaign, views) • Romney (campaign, views) Candidates with exploratory committees: Gilmore • Huckabee • Tancredo • T. Thompson Potential candidates: Gingrich • Hagel • F. Thompson
Announced Third party candidates: Amondson (Prb.) • E. Brown (Grn.) • Burns (Lib.) • Hollist (Lib.) • Imperato (Ref.) • Kubby (Lib.) • Milnes (Lib.) • Parker (IGVA) • Phillies (Lib.) • C Smith (Lib.) • Stanhope (Lib.) • Swift (Grn.) • D. Thompson (Cst.)
Notable independent candidates: Moriarty • Schriner • Weltman • Bloomberg (unofficial)
General articles: Opinion polling (D • R) • Election timeline
Other 2008 elections: House • Senate • Gubernatorial