Greeting
From the Chair

Liberty in Action
Liberty Fest 2014
Hudler Fundraiser
General News
Campaign Tips from Leonard
Web Presence Available to LPM Candidates
Good Neighbor Libertarian

Image of the Month
Quote of the Month
Past Blast

Contacts
Calendar

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Welcome to the October 2014 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

"[T]axes are not raised to carry on wars; [it is, rather,] that wars are raised to carry on taxes." — Thomas Paine

So it seems that the Snyder/Schauer show will go live in a televised town hall on Oct 12. Big deal. According to Paul Anger of the Detroit Free Press, “We congratulate both men for taking this step, which is so important to voters and to the democratic process.” Wait…what? What’s important to the voters and the democratic process is to hear from all 5 gubernatorial candidates. “We congratulate both men…,” give me a break. How about the one brave woman running?

However, on Friday, Oct 3rd those in the Detroit area will be able to hear Libertarian, Green and Democrat candidates on various issues at the Tri-County Political Information Awareness Forum. The event is from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at 22575 W 8 Mile Road in Detroit. If you’re in the area come on out and support us.

Be sure to mark your calendars for these events:

• October 4 – Hudler for Regent Party and Fund Raiser in Ann Arbor
• October 25 – Liberty in Action in Lansing
• November 8 – Liberty Fest in Livonia

Details and links for these events can be found on the LPM website: www.michiganlp.org Some members have worked very hard to put these events together, so please support them. I plan on attending each of them.

I would like to thank each and every one of our candidates for stepping up and running for office. You are doing a great service by letting us vote for people we can believe in and support. Let the membership know what you’re doing. Send information to Brian (Webmaster@michiganlp.org) to post on the website or Ron Taylor (taylordphotos@icloud.com) to post on our Facebook page.

In Liberty,

Mary Buzuma

It's that time of year again in Michigan and this year's LPM LibertyFest is being hosted by the Libertarian Party of Wayne County (LPWC)  Saturday, November 8th, 2014,  and we're looking to grant the three Libby Awards at the event to three very deserving Libertarians.

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

If you'd like to nominate someone for one of these awards please let us know before Oct 18th at waynecolibertarian@lycos.com

• Date:        Saturday November 8th, 2014
• Time:        6:00 pm
• Place :      Burton Manor,  27777 Schoolcraft Road, in Livonia
• Speaker:   Innovative libertarian and Author, Rodney Lockwood
• Tickets :    $37.50 until October 18th after that : $47.50 - Speakers Table $100.00 (cash bar)

To reserve your seat, simply click on the link below to make your $37.50 donation, unless you plan is to sit at the speakers table. If purchasing more than one seat, please leave us a notation or drop us an email at waynecolibertarian@lycos.com

Donate Now:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=NN2WS3YTK7L68

Looking to see you there

Yours in Liberty,

Greg Creswell ,LibertyFest Chairman
Raymond Warner, LPWC Chairman

waynecolibertarian@lycos.com

Liberty in Action to be held in Lansing, October 25, 2014

Everywhere you look someone is promoting Liberty.  Much of it is through education or protests. These are a great base, but when it comes down to it, we need to change policy.  At this fundraiser we will introduce groups that have had impacts on policy, whether preventing it, changing it, or enacting it.  We don’t only want to help your group with ideas, we want to help it have the presence it needs to have an impact.  We also want to share with you our ideas, as Libertarians, on our plans of actions by introducing a number of our 2014 candidates. Please join us for this event featuring Daniel Johnson of P.A.N.D.A. (People against the NDAA) as our keynote speaker. Also speaking:

• Jeff Phillips, Liberty Minded School Board Member in the Thumb Region
• David Dudenhoeffer, Campaign for Liberty
• Brian Wright, author and publisher, on his Good Neighbor Libertarian project
• Any LPM candidates wishing to speak, please contact Kimberly at address below

We are soliciting a $20 registration fee. Liberty in Action will be held at the Capitol Area Headquarters, 2722 E. Michigan Ave., Ste. 22, Lansing (East of US-127). Starts at 9:00 a.m., expected to run thru 3:00 p.m.To register, please proceed to payments page here. Agenda posted here. Contact Kimberly Moore for details: kmoore_libertarian@ymail.com

Saturday, October, 4 2014 5:00 – 9:00 PM CASA DOMINICK’S 812 Monroe Street, Ann Arbor, MI

Guest Musicians: Will White’s Liberty Ensemble, Inez Thorne – and an open microphone

Hosted by Hudler for Regent Committee, Larry Johnson Treasurer P.O. Box 447, Chelsea MI 48118:

Will White reports:

1-866-OUR-VOTE - the nonpartisan election protection hotline - is LIVE and will be through Election Day.  It is currently staffed during business hours.  If voters call after hours, they can leave a message and will get a call back.

This is the best voter hotline number to list on any literature for voters who have questions, need help or want to report a problem.  

This hotline (a) allows us to record the questions and problems in a single database; (b) it is a consistent, easy to remember phone number that is used year in and year out; (c) it is designed to withstand the flood of calls that will occur on Election Day.  

Sharon Dolente, JD, MPP
Director, Michigan Election Coalition
sharon@mielectioncoalition.org
734-330-6578

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to michiganvoice+unsubscribe@statevoices.org.

******************** MERA-News is a list service of the Michigan Election Reform Alliance for sharing news and discussion on election reform issues. MERA does not necessarily endorse the content of emails sent over the list. It is the responsibility of subscribers to keep the content of their messages appropriate to the topic of the list and to observe normal list etiquette. Subscribers may send messages to MERA-News@MichiganElectionReformAlliance.Org from their subscribed address. Replies go to the list, unless you specifically address the reply to selected individuals. You may unsubscribe at any time by emailing admin@michiganelectionreformalliance.org .

Jason Brandenburg and Lorence Wenke of the SW Michigan affiliate report:

Dear Fellow Libertarians,

I hope the campaign season is going well for your all.  Here in Kalamazoo we continue to work towards obtaining affiliate status and will be voting on our by laws at our next meeting Tuesday, October 7th.  
We recently sent letters to over 480 Libertarians in Kalamazoo County highlighting the candidates we have running, as well as the events and effort we have put forth this spring and summer to promote the party.  We look to continue the momentum to November and beyond.  Below is the letter we sent.

September 29, 2014

Dear ,

The Liberty movement is in full swing in our country and across our state. Southwest Michigan Libertarians have been meeting regularly since April and will soon obtain full affiliate status with the state of Michigan Libertarian Party. 

We are currently supporting two candidates in Kalamazoo County.  Lorence Wenke is running for the 20th Senate District and Michael Stampfler, who is running for the 61st House District.  Lorence has previously served as a Kalamazoo County Commissioner and State Representative. Michael served as the city manager of Portage for 20 years. We are fortunate to have such strong, qualified candidates such as these to represent us in the November election. Going forward, our vision is to grow our affiliate in the greater Kalamazoo area and expand into the surrounding counties. We will support Libertarian candidates for local, state, and federal offices.

We have been very active this summer participating in six area parades, WMU Bronco Bash and the Allegan County Fair.  Our candidates have participated in multiple forums and town halls with more to come later this fall.  Lorence Wenke has been present out and around the county with his “Stop and Talk” locations speaking with voters and receiving positive support.

You are invited to attend our monthly affiliate meetings and special events. We meet on the first Tuesday of each month at Gallaghers, 4210 Stadium Dr, Kalamazoo. Meetings generally go from 6pm to 8pm. Our next meeting is Tuesday, October 7th.

Mailings are expensive; please send us your email address at swmi4liberty@be-innovative.net if you would like to continue receiving information for our affiliate.  Membership is only $25 for a year or $40 for 2 years.  Links to membership forms can be found on our website www.kazoolp.org under the membership tab. 

I look forward to seeing you in the coming weeks and working with you to support Libertarian ideals.

Sincerely,

Jason Brandenburg
Chairman, Southwest Michigan Libertarian Party

By Leonard Schwartz

Most LPM candidates plan to do little or no campaigning. But please at least respond timely to the League of Women Voters questionnaire, which you will get in August.

If you have time, please also respond to questionnaires from the mainstream news media. Candidates who want to do a little more campaigning should have a website.

You can get a free website from many places including www.wordpress.com, www.democracy.com, and www.myspace.com. After you set up your website, you should inform the LPM webmaster, who will put a link from our candidate list page to your website. After the August primary, candidates for a state office should inform the Secretary of State office, asking that it put a link from its candidate list page to your website. You may need to repeat the request several times. For candidates for a local office, many county clerks likewise will put a link from its candidate list page to your website.

Candidates who want to do more campaigning can find excellent advice on the Resources folder of our state party website.

3-Minute Stump Speech

My opponents think they can spend your money and manage your life better than you can. I'm not a busybody. I don't want to spend your money or manage your life. Some people are too lazy or cheap to spend their time and money meddling in your life. They want government bureaucrats meddling in your life. Government busybodies are much worse than private ones. Government can compel disclosure of your private information. Private busybodies cannot. Government can impose taxes, fines, and imprisonment. Private busybodies cannot.

If you think the Democrats can spend your money and manage your life better than you can, please raise a hand. If you think the Republicans can spend your money and manage your life better than you can, please raise a hand.

Perhaps you didn't know that [almost] all of you are libertarians. If you vote for Democrats or Republicans because you consider them the lesser of two evils, you vote for evil. Why would any decent person vote for evil? Elections are rarely decided by only a few votes. Therefore, your vote rarely determines who is elected.

But your vote always sends a message. If you vote for Democrats or Republicans, you send a message that you agree that they can spend your money and manage your life better than you can. What a waste of your vote. If you don't vote, you waste your right to send a message and you imply that you don't care. Vote for what you know is right, rather than for what falsely seems expedient.

Send a message that you want government busybodies off your back. Vote Libertarian.

I'm [name], Libertarian for [office]. Thank you.

By Brian Wright
Webmaster@michiganlp.org

Dear Libertarian Candidate:

If you go to the Candidates tab on the LPM Website and the Webpage information for each candidate, you'll see that Scotty has prepared a Website template on democracy.com for each of our candidates. These are full-featured Websites that enable you to identify yourself and your issues, even collect endorsements and funds. We recommend you take full advantage of the wonderful work Scotty has done here to set you up in cyberworld. Just go to your indicated url and sign up to get started. If you have questions contact Scotty Boman at scottyboman@hotmail.com or (313) 247-2052.

Also on the Candidates page, note the entry for John Tatar, running for 11th District US Congress. John gave me his information and from that I made a simple page for him at the indicated location. There is no issue with having two Websites for your candidacy, and if you wish to have a simpler one-or-two-page presentation of why you're running for office that doesn't have all the frills of the democracy.com Website, just contact me at Webmaster@michiganlp.org, and I'll be happy to set up your page. Thanks.

By Brian Wright

Recently I wrote a book on LP grand strategy called Leaving the Sandbox. In that book I develop the seeds for a tactical operation or 'business plan' that I designate as the practical system: Good Neighbor Libertarian... which will also be the title of a small recruitment and training manual. This GNL document (and eventually an accompanying video) will show those who are interested in joining or helping the LPM how to do so effectively. You may see the fundamentals of my GNL plan on my column here: http://brianrwright.com/CoffeeCoasterBlog/?p=4548 (it's chapter 3 in LTS).

The approach is based on the 'many hands make light work' philosophy as well as giving individuals doable tasks that can be tracked and encouraged via invigorated, excited LPM affiliates addressing and rolling back deep government assaults as well as day-to-day corruption... at a real public-official body near you. We're going to get off our purity and abstractions and away from our computers and electronic devices and go down to 'city hall' (at any level that appeals to to the given GNL) to empower citizens and hold officials accountable. Right now, my prototype rollout of the GNL system I plan as a project in coordination with the affiliates. Will discuss fully at Oct. 25 Liberty in Action gathering. I believe GNL books will be done by then.

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“There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it will never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job.

 

If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”

— John Swinton, Former Chief of Staff of the New York Times, called by his peers “The Dean of his profession,” was asked in 1953 to give a toast before the New York Press Club

 

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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 one of the first recent newsletters since Brian Wright became Webmaster. Click on this link for the full online 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 (most if not all of the newsletters have been transferred over to the new site if you have a particular issue you're interested in and it doesn't show up on the page, please contact Webmaster@michiganlp.org).

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More... For all events, see the full online calendar on the Website:
http://michiganlp.org/?page_id=61. Note for those who do not have online access, please contact your local affiliate representative or call the office at 1-888-FREENOW (373-3669) to get a description of events in your area. 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):
201410_ML.html

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