- Upcoming Events
-
October 10, 2001 - 6:30 PM
- Libertarians of Macomb County monthly meeting. Drinks and dinner at 6:30 PM, business begins at 7:00 PM.
- Location: Miles World Resturant, 17689 Masonic, Fraser, MI 48026, 810-415-4500.
- Contact: Diane Barnes Phone: (810) 774-1625 E-mail: dbarnes98@aol.com
-
October 11, 2001 - 6:30 PM
- The Libertarian Party of West Michigan is holding its monthly executive committee and membership meetings. The EC meeting begins at 6:30pm and the regular membership meeting begins at 7:30pm. As always, all members are welcome to attend both meetings. PLEASE ALSO NOTE THE MEETING LOCATION HAS CHANGED - meetings are now being held at Arnie's on Leonard just west of US 131 in Grand Rapids (722 Leonard NW).
- Location: Arnie's on Leonard, just west of US 131.
- Contact: Jeff Steinport Phone: (616) 447-0721 E-mail: jeffs@pathwaynet.com
-
October 11, 2001 - 7:00 PM
- The Ballot Access Restoration Committee meets the second and fourth Thursday every month -- until we submit petition signatures to the Bureau of Elections to be certified to once again be able to run Libertarian candidates in partisan races. All LPM members are welcome to attend and help with both the planning and execution of our petition drive.
- Location: LPMHQ, 619 E. 9 Mile, Hazel Park (just east of I-75)
- Contact: Nancy O'Brien Phone: (313) 562-5778 E-mail: nobrien321@home.com
-
October 15, 2001 - 8:30 PM
- Meeting of the Andy LeCureaux for Hazel Park City Council Campaign.
- Location: LPM HQ, 619 East Nine Mile Rd., Hazel Park
- Contact: Dave Collver Phone: (248) 542-9274 E-mail: DCCollver@aol.com
-
October 17, 2001
- Monthly meeting of the St. Clair County affiliate.
- Location: Figaro's is located at 1503 11th Street, Port Huron, MI 48060. TX: (810) 987-3588. Join us for dinner at 6:00 PM. Business begins at 7:00 PM.
- Contact: Richard Friend Phone: (810) 982-7178 E-mail: rfriend@advnet.net
-
October 18, 2001 - 7:00 PM
- The Van Buren County group will be meeting to determine if a meeting in conjunction with ajoining county groups would be useful and interesting(dinner will start at 6:30 - see you there)
- Location: CJ's restaurant (South Haven on the corner of M-140 and Blue Star Hwy)
- Contact: Bill Bradley Phone: (616) 637-4525 E-mail: bbradley@cybersol.com
-
October 20, 2001 - 7:00 PM
- FREEDOM BANQUET 2001, large buffet, cash bar, speakers and much more! $15.00 per person. This is the second year for this event. Last year saw a huge turn out greater than both the major parties annual dinners in Clare County drew.
- Location: Town & Country Lounge, Clare, Michigan
- Contact: Ghazey Aleck Phone: (989) 386-2699 E-mail: aleckfamily@voyager.net
-
October 25, 2001 - 7:00 PM
- The Ballot Access Restoration Committee meets the second and fourth Thursday every month -- until we submit petition signatures to the Bureau of Elections to be certified to once again be able to run Libertarian candidates in partisan races. All LPM members are welcome to attend and help with both the planning and execution of our petition drive.
- Location: LPMHQ, 619 E. 9 Mile, Hazel Park (just east of I-75)
- Contact: Nancy O'Brien Phone: (313) 562-5778 E-mail: nobrien321@home.com
-
November 5, 2001 - 8:30 PM
- Meeting of the Andy LeCureaux for Hazel Park City Council Campaign.
- Location: LPM HQ, 619 East Nine Mile Rd., Hazel Park
- Contact: Dave Collver Phone: (248) 542-9274 E-mail: DCCollver@aol.com
-
November 6, 2001 - 8:00 PM
- Andy LeCureaux for Hazel Park City Council Victory Party. All are invited to attend.
- Location: LPM HQ, 619 East Nine Mile Rd., Hazel Park
- Contact: Dave Collver Phone: (248) 542-9274 E-mail: DCCollver@aol.com
- More
- For more events, see the online calendar at:
- http://www.michiganlp.org/lpmonline/events.php
- GET YOUR FREEDOM BANQUET TICKETS SOON!
by Ghazey Aleck
Clare-Gladwin LP Freedom Banquet tickets are still
available. Get you ticket soon because it will take place
on October 20th, 2001 at 7 p.m. at the Town & Country in
Clare.
You can reserve a spot by calling 989-386-2699 then pay
for your tickets at the door. We would like to have an RSVP
by October 12th if at all possible but will make room for
you last minute too. So far we have 50 confirmations and
expect 100 or more, however, we have to give an fairly
accurate estimation to the restaurant by Oct. 12th.
This year's featured speaker is from the Mackinac
Center for Public Policy and will be speaking on
Entrepeneurs vs the State. We will be having a silent
auction, there will be exhibits, door prizes and a 50-50
drawing. Don't miss out on the fun!
Clare-Gladwin LP will be using the money to help out
local candidates in 2002 so the money we raise just adds to
the cause. Thank you!
For information or confirmation: 989-386-2699 or
ghazey@alecklawfirm.com.
Back to Contents
- No Kmart
by Mike Dickson
Kmart decided to phase out gun ammo after talking to
gun grabbers. It sounds like we need to do what we did
before they fired Rosie O'Donnel - who surrounds herself
with armed bodyguards - launched her hypocritical all-out
assault on America's law-abiding gun owners. The Kmart
cave-in may actually inpair the public's safety. It fails
to acknowledge that law-abiding Americans use firearms -
mostly handguns - to thwart crimes and protect their
families more often than criminals misuse guns.
There are 16 million sportsmen who target-shoot or hunt
with handguns. I'm sure other retailers are happy to hear
there will be one less business to compete against.
Let's let them know they won't get our business. To
comment on its decision, call them toll free 866-KMART 4U
(866-562-7848) or send an e-mail to kmartccn@kmart.com.
Back to Contents
- Gothic Foreign Policy
by Tim O'Brien
The following article is the latest in a series of Op-ed
articles written by LPM Executive Director Tim O'Brien and
submitted to news outlets across the state for publication.
The search for who was behind the horrifying terrorist
attack on our country a few weeks ago is actually more
problematic than the current thirst for retribution will
long tolerate.
Osama bin Laden, Saudi expatriate, late of Afghanistan, is
the most popular candidate. But this is primarily because he
is our most recent villain. Supported and supplied by the
CIA back in the days when his Mujahadeen was taking on the
Soviets, bin Laden is less enamored of our more recent
foreign policy. And he is known to favor "sending a message"
with bombs (a means of expression, incidentally, not
infrequently employed by our own government).
But since the end of the Second World War we have actually
racked up a substantial list of enemies with both the
willingness and the wherewithal to have perpetrated this
outrage.
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, another former client thug --
back when Iran and America more actively regarded one
another as "the Great Satan" -- has been pounded
relentlessly by our military. This has been going on ever
since President George Bush I decided that keeping gasoline
cheap for American consumers was a "vital national interest"
worth killing a few thousand people here and there (until
now, mostly there).
Speaking of the Iranians, they have resented US beneficence
ever since our CIA overthrew the first democratic government
they ever had in 1953. When new Prime Minister Mossadeq was
not sufficiently accommodating of US interests the nascent
democracy was toppled and the more cooperative Shah put back
on his throne.
Then there is Libya's Muammar Qaddafi. President Reagan,
acting upon information that the Colonel was behind the 1986
bombing of a German nightclub popular with American
servicemen, ordered our military to "send a message" via air
mail special delivery -- destroying the dictator's home and
killing his daughter. Qaddafi is reputed to have retaliated
to our retaliation two years later by blowing up a
commercial airliner over Scotland. But who knows if he then
considered the matter closed? People tend to take killing
their children pretty personally.
And those are just the more obvious candidates. Syria is not
exactly a big fan. Neither are Pakistan or the PLO (their
current posturing notwithstanding). And it's just possible
that Sudan never found sufficient solace in our shrugging
non-apology after President Clinton -- sending yet another
message -- ordered the obliteration of what turned out to be
a civilian aspirin factory there by Tomahawk cruise
missiles.
Nor can we overlook other possible culprits simply because
the hijackers were all of a particular ethnic group. It was
only a few years ago that the president between the Bushes
also had the Chinese embassy in Belgrade bombed to rubble
(another accident). The "usual suspects" could be mere
surrogates.
This whole exercise is academic in any event. Whoever
engineered the carefully planned, impeccably timed September
11 attack is surely not sitting around casually waiting for
US retaliation to rain down from the heavens. We can only
hope that the cycle will not be perpetuated by the slaughter
of more civilian bystanders instead.
With all the punditry over exactly who did this and how to
retaliate one would think at least some thought might be
given to the question: Why?
It seems not to occur to anyone to ask what could have
provoked such blinding hatred that anyone would go to
suicidal lengths to do us this unspeakable harm?
The assertion by President George Bush II in his address to
the nation the night of this heinous attack that it was
"...because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and
opportunity in the world" is, not to put too fine a point on
it, implausible.
In any case, whoever the perpetrators, whatever the
incitement, we are now being harangued into balancing
freedom with security.
This is misdirection. For most of our history we had both.
Until our political leaders decided that these weren't
enough and that it was our manifest destiny to bring Pax
Americana to the world.
The real problem is not that we can't have both freedom and
security. It's that we can't have both while maintaining an
empire. One of the three -- freedom, security, or empire --
will have to be sacrificed to the other two.
Sadly, it's pretty clear which of them our politicians
consider the most important. Our government is already
making overtures to yet another ragtag band in the area
called the Northern Alliance -- based on nothing more than
the fact that they oppose the ruling Taliban.
Experience does not make one sanguine about the long-term
prospects for our relationship with the Northern Alliance.
Maybe we should make Mary Shelley's Frankenstein required
reading on Capitol Hill.
Back to Contents
- BARC Update
by Nancy O'Brien
We’re getting there, loyal Libertarians. As of
Friday, October 5 we have collected 35,770 signatures! But
we’re not out of the woods yet. With only 11 days to go
till the October 20 final deadline, we still need 9,230
signatures to meet our revised goal of 45,000.
We are not especially popular with Republicans, Democrats
or bureaucrats, all of whom make up the body that controls
this process. I’m sure they would love to see us excluded
from the 2002 ballot. We must therefore make sure we have
enough signatures so that even if they flyspeck our
petitions, they still won’t find enough bad signatures to
deny us our rightful place in the election process. Every
signature we collect increases our chance of success.
Our top twenty signature collectors as of today:
Name Sigs.
Leonard C. Schwartz 2292
Albert J Titran 1557
Ben Steele 1277
Jerry E Bloom 1010
Richard E Jozwiak 594
Violet Steele 477
Benjamin Steele 417
Greg Dirasian 355
Trafton Jean 343
Charles Goodman 306
Constance Catalfio 300
Stephen Townsend 296
Fred Collins 287
Gregory Creswell 274
Lloyd Sherman II 267
Tom Quinn 266
Jean Paul Denoyer 259
Mickey Hall 258
Michael Dickson 256
Have you noticed that every week there is always one family
that never fails to Steele the show? Special thanks to the
Ben, Ben and Violet for your unflagging dedication to
regaining our place on the ballot!
Following is the current status of each affiliate in terms
of meeting its “fair share” goals. Each affiliate’s fair
share was determined by multiplying the number of members in
the affiliate by 27. That is the number each would need to
collect for the LPM’s (original) 50,000 signature target to
meet the state’s requirement. The first list is the
percentage of signatures collected. The second list
includes both signatures and monetary contributions.
Affiliate Sigs. Goal % Of Goal
=============== ===== ==== =========
Allegan 95 560 34.8
Berrien 211 560 74.8
Branch-Hillsdale 241 351 81.2
Clare-Gladwin 269 320 84.1
Ionia 24 240 9.6
Kalamazoo 363 1013 40.1
Lapeer-Genesee 633 1413 95.0
Livingston 98 1732 28.9
Macomb 2179 5784 72.3
Mid-Michigan 576 2852 35.7
Midwest Michigan 308 560 66.8
Oakland 6237 10688 106.1
Ottawa 138 800 17.6
S. Central Michigan 44 1652 4.8
Shiawassee 2686 293 887.0
Saint Clair 13 693 6.2
Traverse Bay 22 773 11.0
Tri-Cities 1116 1173 140.2
Upper Peninsula 48 1119 34.0
Van Buren 324 426 99.1
Washtenaw 1406 2799 84.8
Wayne 1653 8422 42.7
West Michigan 778 2799 35.8
Affiliate $$+Sigs. Goal % 0f Goal
=============== ======= ==== =========
Allegan 195 560 34.8
Berrien 419 560 74.8
Branch-Hillsdale 467 351 133.0
Clare-Gladwin 269 320 84.1
Ionia 24 240 10.0
Kalamazoo 408 1013 40.3
Lapeer-Genesee 1348 1413 95.4
Livingston 1000 1732 57.7
Macomb 4210 5784 72.8
Mid-Michigan 1046 2852 36.7
Midwest Michigan 374 560 66.8
Oakland 13354 10688 125.0
Ottawa 141 800 17.6
S. Central Michigan 79 1652 4.8
Shiawassee 2726 293 930.4
Saint Clair 43 693 6.2
Traverse Bay 85 773 11.0
Tri-Cities 1644 1173 140.2
Upper Peninsula 408 1119 36.5
Van Buren 422 426 99.1
Washtenaw 2376 2799 84.9
Wayne 3665 8422 43.5
West Michigan 1270 2799 45.4
Branch-Hillsdale, welcome to the winners’ circle!
Back to Contents
- Detroit Medical Marijuana Ballot Iniative
by Tim O'Brien
Did you know that it takes only 5,000 signatures to put
an initiative proposal on the ballot in Detroit?
Wayne county member Tim Beck wants to take advantage of this
remarkably easy ballot access opportunity to take a
remarkably popular step in the direction of ending
prohibition.
He has a petition prepared to make marijauna legally
available for medicinal use in the city of Detroit.
He wants to collect all the signatures needed in a single
day -- election day, November 6th. And he wants to gather
them all at the polls.
The hotly contested mayoral race will guarantee a big turn
out. Working the polls will guarantee a virtual 100%
validity rate.
Tim is so dedicated to this effort that he is willing to put
up $5,000 of his own money to pay petitioners $1 per
signature.
Medical marijuana initiatives have a perfect track record
for success -- once they make it to the ballot.
If you are interested in helping out, contact Tim at
313-881-8995
Back to Contents
Return to LP of Michigan Home Page
Return to News Archive