When Captain Heinous invited me to his bachelor party in Cabo San Lucas I knew there would be nothing to stop me from attending, however I soon I became victim to the changing passport regulations on both sides of the border.

Some background on the new passport regulations:
This year I let my passport expire and being the libertarian that I am I wasn't too excited to get a new one since they have RFID chips in them. It used to be that you could travel around Mexico with a driver's license but the U.S. now requires that you have a valid passport. Mexico also requires you to get a Tourist Card ($30) and you can't get one of those without a passport now. Before September 30 of this year you could show that your passport paperwork was in progress and they'd let you get on a plane but the Cabo trip was going to be thirteen days past that deadline. I could have also paid someone $300+ to expedite my passport but I am far too cheap for that.

So here's what I did, I had heard that the requirements to walk across the border had not changed yet, meaning that to get into Tijuana I probably wouldn't have to show any I.D. and to get back into the U.S. I had to show my driver's licence and expired passport (this proved to be true). I also learned that I could get a Tourist Visa with a driver's liscence, an expired passport and possibly a voter registration card. I was in luck, I had my voter registration card (but that proved to be worthless). I also found an airline, Volaris, which would pick me up at the San Diego Train Depot and drive me to the Tijuana Airport for $15. This was a deal. So I flew dow to San Diego early, hopped on the shuttle bus and I was at the TJ airport in about 30 minutes. At the border a Mexican customs agent hopped aboard the bus and went through my bag but didn't ask me for any ID. I didn't have any problems at the Tijuana Airport either. The ticket desk didn't ask for any ID and I didn't go through customs so I decided to see if I could do the whole trip without getting a tourist card. My flight down to Cabo was great. The airplanes were brand new, the plane was almost empty and they gave free tequila shots.

Cabo: Calamity ensued.

Flight Back: On the way back, there was no customs desk at the Cabo airport. I nearly missed my flight because I was talking with Laurent and wasn't paying attention to the time. Got back to TJ without a hitch but when I was exiting the airport I went through a door and there for the first time in Mexico someone asked to see my ID. This struck me as strange but I gave him my driver's licence. He asked for my passport. I gave him my expired one. He looked through it and asked where my tourist visa was. I said I was never issued one. He said when you travel to the airport you need a tourist visa and then pointed me to the exit. That was it! Took the shuttle back. No problems at the US border. When we got to the train depot the shuttle driver said he'd drive me to San Diego Airport for $10, so did that too.

Dr. William Brock wrote an article recently which calls for Ron Paul to reject matching funds because they come from coerced means (the $3 check box on your tax forms) and it would send the wrong signal to those new to the libertarian movement. I wrote Dr. Brock and explained to him that the check box was voluntary, even though it is displayed on tax form which is not voluntary. He wrote back, thanked me for my thoughts and stuck to his guns that the matching funds were inherently gained by coercion. So be it.

As I looked into the nature and limitations of the matching funds program I came across the spending limits that are imposed on each candidate. Candidates who receive matching funds are restricted to how much they can spend on each state based on the state's population. So for New Hampshire the spending limit is around $750,000 and for California it is in the $15 million range. Iowa and New Hampshire being the first contests and of small population are the states that are of importance in this matter because of these spending limitations. Some candidates like John McCain plan to get around this factor by buying media in nearby Massachusetts and have their ads be seen and heard in the metropolitan areas of New Hampshire. The market in Massachusetts is more expensive that New Hampshire but a candidate could double their possible expenditures over New Hampshire. This might be a good strategy for Ron Paul but the campaign would have to price out the cost differential between the two markets to see if is worth it.

Another strategy would be to decline the matching funds and go all out in New Hampshire. Ron Paul has a good chance of taking that state and the boost he would get for a win there would be free advertising in the Super Tuesday states and if he doesn't get the overall nomination he would get some media cred, a possible convention speech and maybe shape the other candidate's positions on the war. The other thing that winning New Hampshire would accomplish is to effectively neuter whomever wins Iowa (Mitt?). So rather than this being a steamroller for that candidate (Iowa, New Hampshire then all the Super Tuesday states) these first two contests effectively nullify each other (hello Ruby!).

For Ron Paul to get the nomination he needs to get both Iowa and New Hampshire. I remain optimistic and I don't think the scientific polls accurately reflect Ron Paul's numbers but I also don't think Iowa is Paul Country. If you've ever driven across Iowa and seen the hundreds of thousands of "support our troops" stickers on the cars, you know what I mean. It'll be a major miracle if an anti-war candidate can take that state. If Paul can pull off both Iowa and New Hampshire he's got a good chance of being the nominee and the GOP feathers are going to start really flying.