LPM OnlineSeptember 8, 1998 |
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The official list of Nov. 1998 candidates for Michigan state offices has been posted at http://www.sos.state.mi.us/election/vote.html If you are a state candidate, then check to see if the information is correct for your office.
=============================================== "LETTERS TO THE EDITOR" PROJECT FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY =============================================== Watergate Office Building 2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100 Washington DC 20037 =============================================== For information about the party: (800) 682-1776 =============================================== September 2, 1998 =============================================== Here is the most recent installment of the Libertarian Party's Letters-to-the-Editor project. Periodically, we send out these letters to everyone on our e-mail list and encourage you to submit this to your local paper under your name. Readership surveys consistently show that letters to the editor are one of the most popular features of the newspaper. That means that your letter can have a tremendous impact on public opinion -- and even help bring new members into the Libertarian Party. This letter, which is attached, combines elements of two recent press releases issued in response to the "war on terrorism." Keep in mind that many editors reject form letters, or letters that look like they're part of an organized campaign. That's why it's so important to personalize your letter. Of course, if you're in a hurry, simply send it along as written, because it may very well get printed. But if you have the time, consider rewriting parts of it in your own words, or adding some of your own ideas. Or, you can remove a paragraph or two, and add a couple of the additional points that we've included after the letter. Regardless of how you edit the letter, try to limit it to 250 words. (Our version of the letter is 249 words.) Editors are far more likely to print short letters than long ones. Before sending your letter, please make sure that you have the editor's correct name and fax number (or mailing address), which is usually provided on the editorial/letters-to-the-editor page. -------------------- [start of letter] -------------------- Dear Editor: If the U.S. government really cares about protecting Americans from terrorist attacks, it should stop meddling in the affairs of so many foreign nations. Our country's interventionist foreign policy is making countless enemies abroad and actually giving terrorists reason to attack individual Americans. Since the American missile attacks against alleged terrorist bases in Afghanistan and Sudan on August 7, Islamic terrorists around the world have only stepped up their threats against the United States -- even putting "bounties" on the heads of innocent Americans. As a result, concrete anti-bomb barriers now circle the Washington Monument, black-clad SWAT teams with automatic weapons roam the grounds of the Pentagon, and politicians warn that America must fight a "new war" against terrorists. But what politicians won't admit is that their own policies have provoked this war. In 1997, for example, the U.S. Army bragged that it reached a "new milestone" by deploying American troops in 100 nations around the world. Add to that the dozens of nations that receive American foreign aid or military equipment, and you have a situation where fully three-quarters of the world has reason to be angry at us. Under a non-interventionist, Libertarian foreign policy, Americans wouldn't be fighting a "war on terrorism" in the first place, because terrorists would have no reason to hate us. U.S. leaders must face the facts: To continue sending U.S. troops, money, and guns to so many nations around the world is to sign the death warrants for more innocent Americans. -------------------- [end of letter] -------------------- Other points to include in your letter: * The Libertarian Party's criticism of American foreign policy shouldn't be interpreted as sympathy for either the actions or goals of the terrorists responsible for the African bombings. Libertarians share the revulsion of every other American at this bloody carnage, and we mourn for the victims and the families of this tragedy. Random violence and terrorism is not the solution for disputes among individuals or nations. But the only way to truly honor the loss of these innocent lives -- and to pay proper respect for their sacrifice -- is to make sure that they did not die in vain. And the way to do that is by crafting a national defense policy that saves lives -- not a defense policy that makes Americans the target of bloodthirsty terrorists. * Here's another way the U.S. government can protect Americans from terrorist attacks: Stop arming and training terrorists in the first place. For example, the same Islamic fundamentalists who once received U.S. weapons and training are now suspected of providing a safe haven for the terrorists who bombed the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. To fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, the U.S. supplied Islamic rebels in that country with over $2 billion in covert military assistance, and Afghan rebels were trained by the CIA. Moreover, two of the men convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center had received weapons and explosives training from CIA-backed rebels in Afghanistan prior to their attack in New York City. * The United States government should return to the historic libertarian tradition of avoiding "entangling alliances" and abstaining totally from foreign quarrels. Our foreign policy-makers should seek an America at peace with the world and realize that the purpose of the U.S. military is to defend the lives, liberty, and property of the American people on American soil. * The U.S. government also endangers ordinary Americans with its decades-long policy of serving as an international arms salesman. According to the Cato Institute, between the end of World War II and the early 1990s, the U.S. government gave away more than $950 billion (in constant 1989 dollars) in foreign or military aid to more than 100 nations. Given that 101 armed conflicts occurred around the world between 1989 and 1996, it's inevitable that our government was somehow involved -- whether by furnishing money, arms, or military personnel -- in dozens of those skirmishes and wars. And every time we got involved in another nation's war, it's inevitable that we made more enemies who became more determined to strike back at us.
The LPM has just received another 5,000 exciting Candidate Slate Brochures. Hand them out to friends, relatives, and strangers. These brochures encourage people to vote Libertarian, and especially to vote for our top-of-ticket candidates. The LPM will give you as many of these brochures as you can distribute -- free of charge! Let's get 'em out there! Contact Stacy Van Oast to get your stack of brochures now! (810)784-8783 or stacyvo@eesc.com
NEWS RELEASE Kings of the High Frontier By Victor Koman Limited Edition (Hardcover): $24.95, ISBN 0-9665662-0-3, LCCN 98-86467 Deluxe Edition (Slipcased): $75.00, ISBN 0-9665662-5-4, LCCN 98-86467 Publication Date: October, 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Have you ever dreamed of journeying into outer space, of colonizing the planets and moons of our solar system? Do you ever ask yourself what happened to the promises of government subsidized space programs? Victor Koman has asked these questions and more, questions that have culminated in an epic new novel of near-future science fiction: KINGS of the HIGH FRONTIER. Koman, three-time Prometheus Award winner of such controversial novels as The Jehovah Contract and Solomon’s Knife, has labored long and hard to tell the tale of tomorrow, a tale where humankind struggles desperately to realize the dream dangled like a carrot before its eyes by a NASA grown bloated and inept. Around the world a new Space Race is underway, a race in which private citizens struggle against time and the oppressive power of a United Nations that would keep them stranded on an earth that seems barely capable of supporting the ever-increasing population. In KINGS of the HIGH FRONTIER, we follow the exploits and dreams of a handful of new frontiersman and women: an ex-astronaut and shuttle commander, a secretive black marketer and smuggler, a strong-willed and carefree billionaire, a struggling rocket designer, and a graduate student who is a direct descendant of the legendary frontiersman Davy Crockett. Laugh and cry, cheer and fear as these visionaries fight overpowering odds to journey into the Final Frontier. Charles DeLint, in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, calls KINGS of the HIGH FRONTIER “an intriguing, exhilarating, thought-provoking…novel that brings back the sense of wonder that drew so many of us into science fiction in the first place.” Ray Bradbury, internationally acclaimed author of Fahrenheit 451, says “In case you, like others, have forgotten the future, Victor Koman remembers it…Would that there were a dozen more writers like him, in the field.” KINGS of the HIGH FRONTIER was originally published on the Internet by Pulpless.Com, and as such has the distinction of being the first non-print novel to win the annual Prometheus Award. Demand for a print version of the novel was high, and yet many publishers felt KINGS of the HIGH FRONTIER to be too controversial. Koman challenges the traditional views that NASA and the government that backs it are our only hope for the exploration of space. He leaves no stone unturned in his dedication to showing that the individual, when motivated by dreams and aspirations, can accomplish anything when the will to do so is strong enough. KINGS of the HIGH FRONTIER is the first major release of Final Frontier Books, a subsidiary of Bereshith Publishing. It is available in two hardcover editions, Limited and Deluxe, both containing a poignant Afterword by Gregory Benford, PhD. The Limited Edition is signed by Victor Koman, contains stunning dust jacket art by Rob Prior, and is limited to 1250 copies. The Deluxe Edition is slipcased, includes a signed/limited lithograph art print of Rob Prior’s artwork, is signed by all three contributors, and is limited to 250 copies. KINGS of the HIGH FRONTIER can be purchased in bookstores in October or ordered directly form Final Frontier Books by sending $24.95 + $3.00 shipping/handling (for the Limited Edition) or $75.00 + $8.00 shipping/handling (for the Deluxe Edition) to PO Box 2366, Centreville, VA 20120. Phone orders can also be placed at (703)222-9387, or visit our web site at www.bereshith.com.
To: Whom It May Concern,
From: Larry Becraft
Via the federal Dept. of Transportation's office known
as the National Highway Traffic Safety Admin, certain agency
regulations were proposed in the middle of June, and the
foundation for the "National ID" was put into place. This
DoT reg was promulgated on June 17 and the comment period to
object to this regulation was initially set for the first of
August. In response, I filed a letter which became the 4th
objection so received. Scott McDonald, webmaster of Fight
the Fingerprint, has posted my letter to his page at:
http://www.networkusa.org/fingerprint/
page1b/fp-dot-becraft-reg-obj.html
Of course, the whole story of this proposed reg is
explained on Scott's page at:
http://www.networkusa.org/fingerprint.shtml
The reason I write now is because the comment period
has, because of the large number of comments, been extended
to October 1. We need your help with this effort to stop the
National ID. All you have to do is either copy my letter or
adopt some of the sample letters Scott posted to his
webpage. It will only take you a few moments to
"personalize" any of these letters and send one in to the
agency. Thus far, almost 2000 objections have been received.
Each of these letters is also posted to a specific DoT
webpage, the URL of which may be provided by Scott.
If you want to stop the National ID, please take a few
minutes and send a letter of objection. It is just possible
that this effort may stop this program.
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