Greeting
From the Chair(s)
Liberty Fest
Time to Beef Up Membership
Mike Rogers' role in NSA Bulk Surveillance
LPM News

Image of the Month
Quote of the Month
Past Blast
Letters
Book and Movie Reviews
Contacts
Calendar

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Welcome to the November 2013 issue of the online newsletter of the Libertarian Party of Michigan, the Michigan Libertarian. The newsletter is our main vehicle for sharing what's happening for Libertarians in Michigan. You may manage your subscription by going here or visiting our Website www.michiganlp.org).

From Mary
chair@michiganlp.org

“The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.”
-- Khalil Ghibran

Just a reminder that Liberty Fest 2013 will take place on November 16, 2013 at the East Lansing Marriot. It will be hosted by the Capital Area Libertarians who have worked really hard to organize what will be a great event. If you haven’t registered yet, please go to the LPM website and scroll down to Liberty Fest 2013. You can also register at the Capital Area Libertarian website.

The Defender of Liberty Awards (“Libbies”) an important part of the Liberty Fest Banquet to honor a maximum of four select individuals, Libertarian or otherwise, who have made notable personal efforts in the defense of liberty. Nominations will be open until November 1, 2013. Winners must live and/or work in the state of Michigan. [Note: we're going to let the deadline for nominations slide for a few days, so please send your nominations with a short paragraph of reasons by election day, Tuesday, November 5 (send to webmaster@calparty.org).

Steve Mace is moving on, vice chair vacancy exists

At last Sunday’s LEC conference call, I announced that I accepted the resignation of Vice Chair Steve Mace. He has two phenomenal business opportunities before him, and no one could ask him to give that up. We acknowledge our thanks for his service on the board, and I wish to thank him personally and in public for his help over the last year with LPM. That being said, we now have a vacant Vice Chair position. The individual who seeks this role should be prepared to assume the Chair role in my absence, but more important as the “affiliates director” helping affiliates organize, forming new affiliates, helping student groups organize and forming new student groups.

The Vice Chair position does require some travel, so an interested individual must have the time and resources to do this. As we head into a busy 2014 campaign season the importance of an active and engaged Vice Chair cannot be understated. The initial commitment is short-term however, the "incumbency effect" is strong for those who wish to seek this position beyond the 2014 state convention.

It is entirely possible that the next Vice Chair could come from one of our At-Large members. If you (or someone you can recommend) is interested in either the Vice Chair or an At-Large position, please e-mail me (chair@michiganlp.org) with an intent to seek the position by Wednesday, November 14, 2013. The LEC will be voting on candidates at our monthly meeting on Saturday, November 16, 2013 prior to Liberty Fest.

Yours in liberty, Mary

This year's Liberty Fest will be held at the East Lansing Marriott (University Place 300 M. A. C. Ave. East Lansing, MI 48823; Phone: (517) 337-440 Hotel Website. Banquet Begins at 7 p.m. Speaker will be noted Austrian economist and scholar Richard Ebeling, whose topic will be: Liberty, Security, and the War on Terrorism Now. The capital area group is handling the 2013 Liberty Fest: Register here: http://calparty.org/eventsdonations.html

Defender of Liberty Awards Defender of Liberty Awards ("Libbies") will be presented at the Banquet to a maximum of four select individuals, Libertarian or otherwise, who have made notable personal efforts in the defense of liberty. Winners must live and/or work in the state of Michigan. Three categories have been established:

• Spokesperson for Liberty - a member of the community whose patriotism and conviction have inspired contributions to the cause of Liberty
• Promoter of Liberty - A Libertarian whose efforts have done the most to promote the LP and Libertarian principles
• Producer of Liberty - a dedicated, behind-the-scenes Libertarian whose quiet labors over the years exemplifies the backbone of the LP.

Please send your nominations for this year's Libby to webmaster@calparty.org. Nominations will be open until November 5, 2013.

By Jim Fulner

The 2014 national Libertarian Party convention will be in Columbus, Ohio in June. Michigan usually sends a relatively large delegation to the national convention. With next year's convention being within driving distance for most Michiganders the number of your fellow LPM members who are interested in attendance will likely be significantly more than normal.

However, their participation may be in jeopardy. The National Convention of the Libertarian Party, like the convention of most political parties, uses a complicated formula to determine the number each region (in this case state party affiliate) is allocated, and not merely a straight allocation based on population.

In the case of the LP our delegates are based on a formula that includes the number of supporting members to the national party that happen to live in your state, and the number of votes your state gave to our most recent presidential nominee in the general election. While former Governor Gary Johnson shattered all records for a write-in candidates in this state, he also broke records for the most votes by any Libertarian presidential candidate nation wide. Even with our record number of write-in votes, with Republican Secretary of State Ruth Johnson keeping the governors name off the ballot, resulted in us still having far fewer Michiganders vote for Governor Johnson as would otherwise be expected, and an even more significantly smaller percentage of the total votes for our candidate coming from Michigan.. As such our delegate allocation to the national party based on Gary's vote total is significantly delineated. According to State Chair Mary Buzuma the Michigan delegation is only being allocated 2 delegates based on this vote total.

The rest of our delegates will come from the percentage of the total number of sustaining members of the national Libertarian Party who live in Michigan as of November 2013. As such, if you want to ensure that more Michiganders are given an opportunity to represent the Libertarian Party of Michigan at the national convention in Columbus, given us a chance to set the direction of the Party through the bylaws and platform, and selection our national leaders, now is the time to officially become a supporting member, or renew your membership in the national Libertarian Party, whether or not you personally plan on attending convention 2014.

A sustaining member is currently defined as any one who has signed "The Pledge" and given at least $25 to the National Party in the last calendar year. While being a member of an affiliate Party has its advantageous, including being eligible to be seated as a delegate to the national convention, if you are not a dues paying member to the national LP your membership is not counted towards this allocation. As Libertarians are committed to a separation of power, not only in state/federal government, but even within our own Party/Affiliate status, membership in one does not automatically carry over into membership in the other.

As such, TODAY is the best day for your to officially become a sustaining member of the National Party, or to renew your dues if you are a current member. You can do so on the national party web-page here https://www.lp.org/membership In addition to helping Michigan obtain the greatest number of delegates possible you also get many added benefits, including:

• A print subscription to LP News, our regular newspaper
• The eligibility to be seated as a delegate at an upcoming convention
• A new Libertarian bumper-sticker
• An official plastic membership card, giving you the opportunity to say "Yes, I AM a card caring member of the Libertarian Party."

From Infowars August 14, 2013. It’s come out that Rep. Mike Rogers (R(ino)-Michigan), the head of the House Intelligence Committee has actively blocked requests from members of Congress to review details of the NSA’s surveillance program — showing that the claim that everyone in Congress was informed about these programs isn’t just a lie but a duplicitous one. And then it got worse. Rep. Justin Amash pointed out that Rogers’ committee actually withheld key information from all incoming Representatives in the class of 2010, who had to vote on the Patriot Act’s reauthorization, which renewed the program to collect data on all Americans in bulk.

Amash highlighted a document showing that the White House had sent a letter to Rogers, telling him that he should make the document available to all members of Congress, and then noted that he had not actually done so in 2011 (though he had in 2009). Marcy Wheeler has pointed out that if you actually closely read the DOJ’s paper that was released on Friday defending this program, you’d see that the White House was well aware that Rogers never made the document available to Congress... Full column here.

Wright Retiring, LPM Seeks New Webmaster/Newsletter Editor

Citing a desire to spend more quality time with his cat and to more fully leverage the truth movement into the New Paradigm of peace, freedom, and abundance—and to start writing that long-awaited novel—, LPM Webmaster and Newsletter Editor Brian Wright announces his retirement from these roles, effective January 1, 2014. We are soliciting candidates for either or both of the positions; contact either Chair Mary Buzuma (chair@michiganlp.org) or Webmaster Brian (webmaster@michiganlp.org) if you are interested. The Webmaster position has carried a nominal $100 per month stipend, which would be expected to continue.

Detroit Liberty PAC being founded

Detroit Liberty PAC is a new group in Detroit being established for the purpose of funding and promoting libertarian initiatives and candidates specifically in the Detroit area. Its very first meeting is currently scheduled for Saturday morning November 23rd 2013 @ Noni’s Sherwood Grille in Detroit . The group will tackle a number of issues that pertain specifically to Detroit and its citizens. It will also plan a number of seasonal events to fund the promotions for the different initiatives its group will take on. Anyone interested in more specific information about the first meeting or about Detroit Liberty PAC in in general should contact Karl Jackson at BroKarl@msn.com.

Some New Elections Bills in Lansing

Per Will White. The House introduced two new election bills which are in committee. The first one would add more types of picture ID cards that would be accepted when going to the polls to vote. It still allows for signing an affidavit however, if you do not have a photo ID. Last election there were over 12,000 voters who did not have photo ID's and signed the affidavit instead. The second bill has to do with filling candidate vacancies if a candidate dies or is otherwise disqualified to run AFTER HAVING BEEN NOMINATED TO THE OFFICE OF STATE SENATOR OR STATE REPRESENTATIVE AND BEFORE THE GENERAL NOVEMBER ELECTION. As usual though, there are different rules for Major and Minor parties. Click here for full story: http://old.michiganlp.org/?p=1572.

The only reason the real ObamaCare site hasn't been hacked is because it doesn't stay up long enough. — courtesy Lousander Feen's Facebook art collection.

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"Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a thousandfold by factor that is insignificant in, say, physics, mathematics or medicine — the special pleadings of selfish interests. While every group has certain economic interests identical with those of all groups, every group also has interests antagonistic to those of all other groups.

 

While certain public policies would in the long run benefit everybody, other policies would benefit one group only at the expense of all other groups. The group that would benefit by such policies, having such a direct interest in them, will argue for them plausibly and persistently. It will hire the best buyable minds to devote their whole time to presenting its case. And it will finally either convince the general public that its case is sound, or so befuddle it that clear thinking in the subject becomes next to impossible." — Henry Hazlitt

 

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Take a stroll down memory lane with this excerpt from one of the longest-running state Libertarian newsletters. Today, check out the August-September issue of 1984. Click on this link for the full PDF version of this newsletter.

Former editor and LPM archivist Greg Stempfle has compiled the entire body of available Michigan Libertarian newsletters up on this page of the LPM Website (we still haven't copied all the files to our Webpages, so if you have a particular issue you're interested in and it doesn't show up on the page, please contact Webmaster@michiganlp.org).

 

Reminder to sign petition against the Detroit police state...

 

Dear Friends,

 

Please take a moment of your time and look at this story. I know Mr. Boman, and can't imagine what he did to deserve this treatment. I pray you will sign the petition. Thanks and best regards. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/828/669/441/dont-prosecute-victim-of-rogue-cops/

 

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,

 

Nicholas Sundquist

 

[Submissions of reviews are solicited for this Michigan Libertarian Movie and Book Review feature.
Please contact us via webmaster@michiganlp.org -- ed.]

Movie Review
Good Will Hunting (1997)
“Just playing”… with a little help from his friends 10/10
Review by Brian Wright

The following response to Matt’s interview with the National Security Agency I will someday have framed and placed on the wall:

Will: Why shouldn’t I work for the NSA? That’s a tough one, but I’ll take a shot. Say I’m working at NSA. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I’m real happy with myself, ’cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never met, never had no problem with, get killed. Now the politicians are sayin’, “Oh, send in the Marines to secure the area,” ’cause they don’t give a shit. It won’t be their kid over there, gettin’ shot. Just like it wasn’t them when their number got called, ’cause they were pullin’ a tour in the National Guard. It’ll be some kid from Southie takin’ shrapnel in the ass. And he comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, ’cause he’ll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And, of course, the oil companies use the skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain’t helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And they’re takin’ their sweet time bringin’ the oil back, of course, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and fuckin’ play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain’t too long ’til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy’s out of work and he can’t afford to drive, so he’s got to walk to the fuckin’ job interviews, which sucks ’cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin’ him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he’s starvin’, ’cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat, the only blue plate special they’re servin’ is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what did I think? I’m holdin’ out for somethin’ better. I figure fuck it, while I’m at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.

[Full Review]

Book Review
Libertarian Lessons of South Park (2013)
Analysis of libertarianism of South Park
by Brandon Simpson (reviewed by Brian Wright)

This little book is a charmer, full of stories from South Park accompanied by simple analyses that point out the libertarian world view and principles that apply without any muss or fuss. For someone like myself, who has only seen a few complete episodes of South Park, the recounting of these representative stories is a complete joy. For example, take the episode entitled “Douche and Turd” where a school mascot has died. Kyle wants everyone to write in Giant Douche, while Cartman wants the write-in candidate to be Turd Sandwich. Giant Douche and Turd Sandwich proceed to debate each other in a presidential style debate format, each telling the audience why he stinks far less than the other. [Full Review]

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Note: Clicking on the above calendar image will bring up a full page schedule of events for LPM and other liberty-oriented groups..

 

More... For all events, see the full online calendar on the Website:
http://old.michiganlp.org/?page_id=61 The Michigan Libertarian ONLINE is distributed on the first of each month. Send calendar events and news articles by the 25th of the prior month to: e-newsletter@michiganlp.org

 

Note: The final print edition of the Michigan Libertarian is available online at http://old.michiganlp.org/Past%20Newsletters/
Michigan%20Libertarian%2038.2%20summer%202009.pdf

 

The Michigan Libertarian is published/posted on the first of each month. Send calendar events and news/articles to e-newsletter@michiganlp.org by the 25th of the prior month. The Michigan Libertarian is one of the longest-running Libertarian newsletters in the country, debuting in 1973 shortly after the founding of the Libertarian Party of Michigan. The "new" Michigan Libertarian (a predominantly online version) debuted on August 1, 2009 and replaced the weekly LPMOnline and the printed-and-mailed ML.  We will post the newsletter on the Website and deliver via email on the first of every month. A printed version of the new Michigan Libertarian will be sent free to anyone who signs up, which you may do at the LPM web site www.michiganlp.org (or www.mi.lp.org).

LPM members who need a hard copy may request one be mailed to them by contacting
e-newsletter@michiganlp.org or calling the LPM toll-free number 888-Free-Now (888-373-3669). Subscribe/Unsubscribe to Newsletter [Note: Just send us a message via our Contact page, and we will add you to the list.] We respect all unsubscribe requests.

Newsletter URL (Webpage address for this issue of the ML):
201311_ML.html

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