LPM OnlineFebruary 16, 1999 |
|
|
|
Contents
|
Here's something that might be of interest to those willing to travel: The Chicago Rally for Citizen Safety March 27th -- 11:00am -- Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago The Libertarian Party of Chicago will be sponsoring this event with strong support from Conceal Carry, Inc. and the Heartland Institute. We are in contact with Charlton Heston and Ted Nugent as well as several citizens in Chicago who illegally defended themselves with handguns. Contact Matt Beauchamp at TMbeauchamp@worldnet.att.net. You can also go to www.concealcarry.org for more
This fall, former US Senator John Glenn (D-OH) returned to the space program that he helped to jump start in the early '60s. The 77-year old's journey into space aboard Discovery has created a range of emotions among American citizens, not the least of which has been cynicism. Was the timing of the launch intended to coincide with the '98 elections? Was this a lame attempt to recall the glories of prior Democratic administrations? Was the shuttle ride Glenn's payoff for making a three- ring circus out of Sen. Thompson's Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on campaign finance reform? Did the project really have any scientific merit? All of these questions quickly surfaced. But cast aside the cynicism for a moment, and consider this more fundamental indictment of the entire Glenn mission: the same man who flew the program's inaugural mission 37 years ago now continues to generate publicity for the same agency. After nearly four decades, the federal government insists on maintaining a monopoly over the exploration of space. NASA, as a government bureaucracy, must constantly attempt to garner public support, just as its fellow agencies like HUD and HHS must. As Sheldon Richman has observed, unmanned missions are much more efficient and cost- effective than manned space flights, but NASA promotes participants in its program as celebrities; so they generate PR by selecting Sally Ride as the first woman in space, Jake Garn as the first US Senator, the late Sharon McAuliffe as the first educator, and so on. Glenn is only the most recent in a long line of celebrity space participants. Few Americans familiar with the scientific world doubt that space exploration has the potential to provide tremendous benefits. Most technologies that are developed by the government for defense purposes ultimately get handed over to the private sector; consider, for example, the Internet and radar. But NASA bureaucrats have monopolized space exploration and development. Private companies cannot engage in space research or build their own innovative vehicles for space exploration. As a result, America has been deprived of potentially profitable development opportunities, and must fund white elephant projects such as the joint venture with the Russian space program and its ailing Mir spacecraft. In all, it seems that John Glenn has become an apt symbol for the American space program: a once celebrated man whose popularity and respectability have eroded after 40 years in Washington. NASA, once emblematic of the "can- do" postwar spirit and youthful energy of the Kennedy administration, now relies on a septuagenarian for public relations and constant pandering for public funds that have a variety of productive alternative uses on our own planet. John Glenn and NASA have both grown old, but neither has aged gracefully. ***** Chris Pellerito is the Libertarian Party candidate in the upcoming 13th District Michigan Senate special election. You can contact him at pelleritoc@aol.com.
Richard Friend, Libertarian, for U.S. Congress, jailed in defense of Liberty! R. Friend 2000 P.O. Box 611323 Port Huron, MI 48061 (810) 982-7178 rfriend2000@advnet.net Port Huron, February 9, 1999: On February 6, 1999, St. Clair County Prosecutor, Elwood Brown, issued a warrant for the arrest of Richard Friend, Libertarian, for U.S. Congress on the charge that he violated Michigan campaign laws by running in the 1998 congressional race as a Libertarian, and promising to give the people freedoms and liberties, instead of apples and trees. In the annual March of Dimes, Jail and Bail event, Richard Friend participated in the fundraiser for what he considers a good cause. With this mock charge, R. Friend was poking fun at his opponents in the 1998 race, Democrat, David Bonior and Republican, Brian Palmer, who gave out trees (Bonior) and apples (Palmer) as promotional gimmicks. “People have to understand that the best way to help and support the needy is through private charities and not government welfare programs,” says R. Friend. “The Libertarian Party is the only party that calls for the end of government programs in favor of privately and more efficiently run non-profit organizations. Government programs only create dependency, not independence. Private charities do a better job monitoring a client’s progress, have historically helped more people and do not require tax dollars to operate, unlike ineffective, useless government programs.” R. Friend spent Saturday afternoon of February 6th calling friends and family to raise a good sum of money for the annual March of Dimes, Jail and Bail, fund-raiser. R. Friend informed that he has raised a few hundred dollars to help in the effort to fight against birth defects.
The following article is the latest in a series of Op-ed articles written by LPM Chair Tim O'Brien and submitted to news outlets across the state for publication. Making the rounds in my political circle is our own version of the familiar "lightbulb" riddle that goes: "How many libertarians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?" The answer, of course, is: "None, the market will do it." Once you get us beyond our natural tendency to harangue -- some might even say, pontificate -- endlessly about the inherent immorality of basing social institutions on coercion (we are actually naive enough to take Jefferson's words about "the consent of the governed" seriously), our answer to the challenge of providing public services always seems to be the same: unfettered free enterprise. Indeed, I've heard a pretty convincing case made for the power of the market to meet every public need with the sole exception of national defense. And years of observing politics has provided innumerable examples of government failure. A somewhat mundane instance of the latter rained down upon the city of Detroit on the second day of the new year. Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say the city was "snowed under" by it. Despite having both a city income tax and a property tax rate so high that nearly all major corporations have been driven out (one would think local officials might have gotten a clue when the largest single employer in the city of Detroit became... the city of Detroit), the services these are supposed to fund that aren't entirely absent are nothing short of abysmal. Nearly a foot of snow the day after New Years, for example, left the entire city utterly paralyzed for the next two weeks. Major thoroughfares went unplowed and so remained perpetually ensnarled with traffic. Residential streets were completely impassable stranding citizens and leaving them cut-off even from emergency services. Schools were closed. It turns out that 59 plows is insufficient to clear nearly 3000 miles of streets in any reasonable time-frame (say, before the spring thaw). Who could have guessed? With thinly-veiled resentment at the implication that all of this was somehow the city government's fault, Mayor Archer blamed God for the situation and promised to seek assistance (money, actually, which it now appears he will in fact get by the bucketsful) from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Finally, the call went out for volunteer help. Two weeks to the day after the big blizzard -- which had been exacerbated by additional snowfalls in the interim more than doubling the total accumulation -- citizens were asked to bring out their snow shovels and snow blowers and join in a massive effort to clear the streets. This endeavor was especially important since there would be no plowing by unionized drivers either the next day which was, of course, Sunday or the day after that which, as luck would have it, was Martin Luther King Day. (Some "Emergency," eh?) Noticeable progress was, as a result, made in clearing some streets and sidewalks around the schools. But the real break came when the Almighty -- who, as we had been advised by the mayor, after all bore ultimate responsibility for this debacle in the first place -- deigned to bring us sunshine and above freezing temperatures. Of course, there are more significant examples of private resourcefulness in compensating for more intractable public inadequacies. The legal monopoly postal system that just raised rates for the fourth time in the last decade (and, though perhaps still undaunted by rain or heat or gloom of night, for the sake of truth-in-advertising really ought to drop snow from the list as in Motown last month it did, indeed, stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds) is losing ever increasing portions of information delivery services to fax machines and e-mail. Private businesses are now routinely including provisions in contracts that require "Binding Arbitration" in the event of a dispute in order to bypass the terminally clogged court system. In fact there are now more individuals providing even "police" type security services on private than public payrolls. The list of circumstances in which Americans pay government -- exorbitantly, I might add -- to provide services and then find some other way to actually get those services is just about equal to the number of services provided by government. How many bureaucrats would it actually take to operate the public infrastructure? None, the market could do it.
The media is having a difficult time ignoring Chris Pellerito, Libertarian candidate for Michigan's 13th Senate District. Recent sightings include the Wed. Feb 10th issue of the Royal Oak Daily Tribune, and a wonderful piece in the Wed., Feb 10th edition of the Troy Mirror. The Jam Rag has also confirmed that they will make mention of Mr. Pellerito in their next issue. If you would like to hear about more press coverage for your candidate, write to the Detroit Free Pree, Detroit News, Royal Oak Daily Tribune, and other local papers. Call in to the Mark Scott and Geoffery Feiger radio shows! In related news, Chris spoke to a senior citizens group in Birmingham on Wednesday, and was well received. Campaign literature is in the works, and we'll need volunteers to pass it out. Contact campaign manager Dave Collver at (248) 542-9274 for more info. |
| To unsubscribe, send email to markfheil@worldnet.att.net |
Return to LP of Michigan Home Page
Return to News Archive