Greetings fellow Libertarians,

My name is Cole Ely.  I'm from way out southwest in the state, in Liberal.  I just joined the party last week and am browsing around the kansas site.  When I joined, Rob sent me a very nice, personalized email.  I replied back and told him a bit about myself and my beliefs. Rather than rewriting it all, I'm going to just do a copy and past here:

"Hi Rob, I appreciate the personal approach of your email.  I don't know as much about your (now my) party as I should, but I know that the main two parties are both sold out, and to get to a high level in either party you have to be sold out as well.  I'll read the kansas site for sure.  I didn't even know their was one. 
 
Basically I believe that the federal government is out of control to the point where it almost cant be fixed slowly.  I believe it should be dismantled back to the original constitutional intent.  I believe that the states should have the bulk of authority.  I also believe that the civil war was the beginning of the end of states rights, and that it was fought for money, not slavery, but I don't advertise that part so much given that I'm a teacher and I have to stay somewhat PC.  When I was a kid I remember the 55mph speed limit coming in and hearing that the federal government didn't mandate it but they did promise to withhold federal hwy funding to states that didn't comply.  Seemed like states should then be able to in turn withhold their tax money.  To me that was kind of a moment of enlightenment way back when I was like 7.  Anyway, at the point that the federal government had to force states to remain in the union with the army, that was the end of states' rights.  I would personally support a succession of a state or states although as the national site said I wouldn't support violence.  At least not as things currently stand.
 
So, how can I help?  I have a website that gets about 4k unique visitors every month and has around 22k page loads a month.  I would link to the national or ks site.  Of course, www.colestt.com is a commercial site where I sell table tennis equipment so not directly related.  Still, TT is a very mental sport and the people that enjoy it tend to be thinkers. The tt forums always have lots of lively political debate.  Of course, the sport has a huge international contingent and they tend to be very liberal, but still many are very very conservative.  I'm decent with html and frontpage.  I like to think I can write and speak fairly well.  Unfortunately I work 40 hours a week and then spend another 40 running my site job so I don't have like a lot of spare time.  Certainly more in the summers and Christmas.
 
Right now I'm a registered repub as far as voting goes.  But I give up on that party.  In the early 90's it seemed like we were headed in the right direction, but in the end the repubs turned out to be just as bad or worse. 
 
One thing I don't like in listening to Ron Paul is the isolationist approach to foreign policy.  I dont' know if that is just him or the whole party that is that way but I don't like it.  I don't guess I'll every agree with everything in any party though.  I don't like RP at all though...attitude or anything.  I do like Bob Bahr a lot though.  However, that video of him on the national site is TERRIBLE.  Makes him sound stupid in that video.  Take it down.
 
Out west here I think it should be prime picking grounds for Libertarians though.  We're about as conservative as any part of the country I would think.  So I believe if people knew more about the Libertarians they would be interested.  Also, the timing is right.  McCain isn't real popular, and the congressional repubs are even worse.  I don't really mind most of the Kansas reps though.
 
So yeah, make a suggestion on what I should do.  Put me on the mailing list for meetings.  Meanwhile I'll try to study the party and what it believes.
 
Thanks again for the individual email.  The contact info is correct.
 
Cole"