First of all, let me offer my heartfelt thanks to Ken Larsen, Moderator of the Personal Choice Party, and to all of the wild and wonderful people who have come out for this celebration. You have really given me a warm welcome.

When I was growing up, I wasn't one of those youngsters who dreamed about running for President. In fact, as I progressed through life, I wanted to stay as far away from politics as I possibly could.

But one thing I have learned is that if you truly care about your family, your industry, your community, your country, there is no way of avoiding politics. In fact, politics will figure out a way to find YOU. And once you pick up that ball, it's very hard to put down.

To some degree, that's why many of you are here tonight, and that's what brings me here, asking for your nomination as Personal Choice Party candidate for President of the United States.

It is quite obvious that I am a great believer in Personal Choice, or I would not be standing before you tonight.

And I think it's worthwhile to explore a question - what does the concept of "Personal Choice" mean to me?

Well, there are invariably going to be people put off by some of the things I may talk about in this campaign - whether it be Second Amendment rights, more parental control over education, legalized gaming, ending the War on Drugs, or ending the War on Free Speech. It is their choice to be offended. Indeed, I support their personal choice not to consume certain products or engage in certain activities, and to speak out against them.

But if you are a True American, you should not engage in limiting or prohibiting my personal choice when it comes to those things, so long as exercising those choices does not hurt you or infringe upon your rights.

If you are a True American you will not attempt to suppress my freedom of expression, even if the opinions or beliefs resulting from that expression are the opposite of yours..

If you are a True American you will not block my freedom of association.

If you are a True American you will not prohibit me from disposing of my personal property in whichever manner I choose, provided it does not jeopardize the rights of others.

It is your personal choice to have strong religious beliefs. But if you're a True American, you will NOT pro-actively attempt to impose those religious beliefs on me against my will.

The point is - If you do not get in the way of my personal choices, I will not get in the way of yours.

It is perhaps the easiest thing in the world to vigorously defend that which you already approve of or embrace, but the true test of the American spirit is whether - with respect for, and in the name of, the Constitution - you will defend with as much ferocity that which you may detest.

That's a challenge. But if you can meet that challenge, I think you're going to find something very interesting about this campaign.

You know, as important as identifying what Personal Choice is, it's just as important to define what Personal Choice is NOT.

Doing business in the dark - keeping public information secret from the public - is NOT a justifiable Personal Choice for anyone in our government, on ANY level.

It is NOT a valid Personal Choice of politicians, whether it's on the local, state, OR national level, to use coercion to tax United States citizens into oblivion for the purpose of subsidizing more and more programs which have the effect of wasting money that does not belong to them.

It is clear what a dangerous path these so-called experienced civic leaders have taken us down.

The budget deficit is over a half a trillion dollars and may climb to $700 billion in the next couple of years, according to projections furnished by the Office of Management and Budget.

The total of the national debt is now over SEVEN TRILLION DOLLARS. That's $24,000 for every man, woman, and child in America, and that's absurd.

All indications are that at the rate of spending, government can only continue to get bigger and more expensive. And neither Congress nor the President have offered anything encouraging us that government will get smaller in the foreseeable future.

Legislators in Washington are professional politicians, in every sense of the word. As such, they enjoy all the trappings of their position, including free travel, access to the media, and taxpayer dollars to fund their efforts in getting re-elected over and over again.

Their business IS government, and naturally, making that business smaller is not in their best interest. Face it - if you were in the car business, would you be interested in the industry, and its share in the marketplace, shrinking? Would you favor a drop in demand for the product you have to offer? Of course you wouldn't.

The more government increases in size, and the more people become dependent on it, politicians feel a greater and greater justification for taking control of the lives of citizens they are supposed to be serving, to the point where such servitude is reversed, and becomes involuntary.

At the same time we are being choked by big government, we're also facing a crisis in civil liberties.

Some elements of the Patriot Act put all too much intrusive authority into the hands of people who are not accountable to the public. Americans can have their privacy invaded, their communications monitored, and their constitutional rights violated, for "national security" reasons that are nebulous at best.

And the right of Americans to make personal choices regarding how to conduct their own lives is consistently under attack.

Obviously, the legislation of morality is not a valid Personal Choice on the part of the politicians of America. The concept of "American family values" is a creation of right-wing opportunists whose aspiration is to impose a social agenda on others; in other words, to LIMIT our choices. America doesn't necessarily HAVE values. What makes America unique is that everyone's values are their own. Each family establishes its own set of values to live by. Everyone makes his or her own moral choices, not the government. These are PERSONAL Choices. And that's the way it SHOULD be.

It's increasingly evident that these problems can be addressed only by solutions from a party like this.

People need to know that. They need to know what kind of policies Personal Choicers would implement in government.

And so it takes aggressive and articulate spokespeople to communicate a message - that personal liberty and fiscal responsibility are not just catch-phrases, but solid, sensible principles that can get the greatest nation in the world back to where it should be - a place where individuals can live peacefully with as little interference as possible from government.

Most importantly, people need to know that it's not an unreasonable goal to attain - it's possible to have more personal liberty, to cut waste out of government, to make politicians more accountable for their actions.

All they have to do is VOTE for it.

Unfortunately, we are consistently told by our political "leaders" that the answers lie in more dependence on government programs, and more interdependence with government agencies, and so people are conditioned to fall into a "default" mindset that accepts this as a matter of course.

It's one of the major factors facilitating a two-party system in this country that is, at the same time self-perpetuating, and all-too self-serving.

That may be a problem, but at the same time, it also presents an opportunity, and creates a mission.

I aim to undertake that mission.

A lot of politicians only espouse an issue after they find out which way the wind is blowing. The way I see it is, I could go out onto the street and grab anybody who can come into a room and tell people what he or she already knows they want to hear. There's no great trick to that. And you can see it from John Kerry, George W. Bush, or anyone else who runs for President on the major party tickets.

The most valuable people are the ones who say what needs to be said - knowing there may be a price to pay for it - because SOMEBODY has to.

I am, by nature, one of those people.

I am not a traditional politician. But I am a concerned citizen and an activist. Every day I do something to work toward limiting the size and scope of government, to expose the corruption, inefficiency, and indifference on the part of public officials, and to counteract those people who have carved a livelihood out of saying one thing to voters and doing another for their own self-aggrandizement.

I am also a communicator. And I am relishing the opportunity to spread the world about the principles of liberty, whether it is in a face-to-face setting, or through the print or electronic media. And I look forward to finding new and different ways to reach people. Toward that end, it is my goal to run the most dynamic internet campaign of any third-party candidate ever. In this information age, much of politics is about marketing and publicity, and I intend to contribute all I can in that regard.

And speaking of the internet, a few words about that are in order.

This country needs leaders who comprehend exactly how technology creates a new economy.

Leaders who aren't fearful or suspicious of the internet; who view it as something more substantial than just another vehicle by which to extract tax revenue from free people.

Leaders who understand that the internet is changing the way we live, work, play and shop - more and more with each passing day, creating a new kind of entrepreneur, a new kind of consumer.

Indeed, it's ABOUT consumerism, not isolationism. The internet has created a business and commerce environment without walls, and the trend is not likely to recede - ever.

The internet is creating a new breed of citizen as well. A citizen who isn't limited to traditional outlets for news, but can get information from an unlimited number of sources. A citizen who has an avenue to access more and more people who share his or her views, no matter where they are. A citizen who will no longer have to settle for the lesser of two evils.

The internet will foster more and more direct democracy, and make it infinitely more possible for alternative views to be heard. It will force more of our elected leaders to be responsive to their constituents, and make it more difficult for them to manipulate the system. It will eliminate the barriers to effective issue advocacy, and close the gap that has been brought about by the preponderance of money in politics.

The internet is the great equalizer, sparking an irrevocable revolution that will change politics, and the dynamics of citizenship, forever. We have an opportunity to be on the cutting edge of that revolution. And we WILL be.

Obviously, I will not consider it a crushing defeat if I don't get elected. We are running a campaign to affect change. I don't need to be elected to public office to do that. And neither do you. If my campaign, my ideas, or my passion could inspire just one individual to take action as a citizen to bring about change - whether it's filing a lawsuit to further the cause of personal freedom and liberty, or standing up as the lone voice of reason at a city council meeting, or simply stepping into a voting booth and convincing others to do the same, I will consider that to have been a victory. If we get enough people together who think like that, we can win an election in any number of ways. And then you've got yourself a movement.

It is time for us to usher in a new kind of politics in this country.

The kind of politics where we don't stay away from issues for the sake of political expediency, but attack issues head-on.

It's NOT the politics of hopeless complaint. It is the politics of activism, and even more accurately, PRO-activism.

It's NOT the politics of whining, or seeing who can shout the loudest, but rather, a brand of politics based on shaping the argument better than the next person, standing on firm moral and factual ground, and having the absolute conviction to follow through with an aggressiveness that equals or exceeds that of the opposition.

It's NOT the politics of asking for privileges; it's the politics of declaring independence and demanding rights.

It's NOT the politics of extolling government solutions, but being creative enough to develop private solutions, because those are the ones that will ultimately work best.

It's NOT the politics of passive submission. but the politics of healthy anger and discontent, with a keen awareness that, historically speaking, nothing's ever changed for the better without someone getting mad about something first. Not only are we as mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore, but we're also going to position ourselves to do something about it.

It is NOT the politics of scaring the voter, but of scaring those in office who betray the public trust.

Yes, it may be the politics of pressure, but it's a kind of politics mindful that sometimes people in government need to be shamed into doing the right thing.

It's NOT the politics of force, but rather, of FORCING the issue, dealing from a position of strength, not weakness.

A kind of politics that will carry more and more real meaning in this society with each passing day, not less and less.

It's the politcs of being straight-forward, because when you've got the truth on your side, you don't have to be any other way.

In a sense, it's the act of taking the politics OUT of politics.

You might even call it ANTI-politics.

It WILL work.

And we WILL celebrate again.

By Election Day, they'll know we were in this race.

I'm expecting it to be an unforgettable experience, an invaluable education, an incredible challenge, and an exciting adventure.

And inasmuch as the intellectual curiosity of man is fed by those very things, I can think of nothing more appropriate, more honorable, or more important I could possibly do.

Let me do that for YOU in this election year. You won't be disappointed.

Thank you.