LPM Online

July 10, 2007

1. Upcoming Events

   July 10, 2007 - 7:30 PM

   Capital Area Libertarian Party monthly meeting. Office organization and membership drive planning. All are welcome. Bring your own food and drink.

   Location: LPM Lansing office at 2722 E Michigan Avenue, Ste. 22, lower level. Park and enter in back.

   Contact: Will Tyler White Phone: 517 349-3806 Email: whitewi5@msu.edu

   
   

   July 21, 2007 - 11:30 AM

   Help out at the Libertarian Booth. The Annual Positively Fourth Street Fair. This Noon to 11:00PM all day festival features three stages of live music, food, and merchants promoting their wares. It also features several activist groups promoting their issues. A great place for Medical Marijuana petitions.

   Location: The one block long stretch of Fourth Street near Antoinette. Detroit, Michigan. (Right behind the intersection of Third Ave. and Antoinette). Just North of I-94 and the Wayne State University Campus.

   Contact: Scotty Boman Phone: 313-247-2052 Email: scottyeducation@hotmail.com

   
   

   July 25, 2007 - 7:30 PM

   LP of Oakland County. Nonmembers are welcome. Optional dinner at 6:30. Meeting starts at 7:30.

   Location: Sila's Restaurant, 4033 W. 12 Mile, 2 blocks east of Greenfield, in Berkley.

   Contact: Adam Goodman Phone: 248-765-3213 Email: goodman582@hotmail.com

   
   

   July 29, 2007 - 2:00 PM

   Libertarian Executive Committee meeting by conference call. If LPM members would like to listen in to the call, contact Bill Hall.

   Location: Teleconference

   Contact: Bill Hall, Chair Phone: 616-460-9516 Email: chair@michiganlp.org

   
   

   August 03, 2007 - 7:00 PM

   Region 3 Convention - Aug. 3-5. Friday night - socializing with Libertarians from LNC Region 3(Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan).

   Location: Holiday Inn Dayton - South 2455 Dryden Rd Moraine, Ohio 45439

   Contact: Emily Salvette, LNC Rep-Region 3 Phone: 734-668-2607 Email: registration@lpr3.org

   
   

   August 04, 2007 - 08:30 AM

   Region 3 Convention - Aug. 3-5. Saturday - Training seminars in Grass Roots Organizing and Fundraising by the Leadership Institute of Arlington, VA. State of the Party address by Libertarian Party National Chairman, Bill Redpath. Banquet speaker: Dr. James Lark.

   Location: Holiday Inn Dayton - South 2455 Dryden Rd Moraine, Ohio 45439

   Contact: Emily Salvette, LNC Rep-Region 3 Phone: 734-668-2607 Email: registration@lpr3.org

   
   

   August 05, 2007 - 09:00 AM

   Region 3 Convention, Aug. 3-5 Sunday - Seminar on legal issues facing party organizations by Bill Hall.

   Location: Holiday Inn Dayton - South 2455 Dryden Rd Moraine, Ohio 45439

   Contact: Emily Salvette, LNC Rep-Region 3 Phone: 734-668-2607 Email: registration@lpr3.org

   
   

   August 22, 2007 - 7:30 PM

   LP of Oakland County. Nonmembers are welcome. Optional dinner at 6:30. Meeting starts at 7:30.

   Location: Sila's Restaurant, 4033 W. 12 Mile, 2 blocks east of Greenfield, in Berkley.

   Contact: Adam Goodman Phone: 248-765-3213 Email: goodman582@hotmail.com

   
   

   More...

   For more events, see the online calendar at:

   http://www.michiganlp.org/lpmonline/events.php

   
   

2. End No Child Left Behind Plus Restore the Family — by Darrick Scott-Farnsworth
   
   While I do believe requiring government schools to be accountable for their performance, the federal government and even the state should not be collecting taxes and redistributing them for any pre-K through 12 schools. This is why many real conservatives have a problem with laws like No Child Left Behind in the first place. The states and more importantly the local communities and individual families should be making educational choices, not Big Brother Nanny State. The federal government has no place in engineering the destruction of families through welfare programs, which is the true reason we have NCLB.
   
   Students and corporations should be funding colleges and universities; not taxpayers, many of whom did not and will never attend college. If we are ever to fix the problems we are having with the cost and quality of government run pre-K through the college educational behemoth we must have true competition. Competition starts with funding then attendance and we also need to look at the underlying reasons why many in our society want to be dictated to and controlled by Uncle Sam and his bloated bureaucratic cohorts. If people and corporations were bearing the direct costs of these higher education schools then they would be more likely to care how well they are performing.
   
   The same people that overwhelmingly want to rely so heavily on government programs/schools are the same people that have weak family units with very few fathers in the homes. Many of the problems that we all rail against start with the destruction of the family caused, for the most part, by federal and state laws that encourage forced family separation. If families where able to keep more of their money and be more involved with their children they would be able to make more of their own educational choices and hold those choices accountable. Once you allow both fit parents to raise their own children, then you will begin to see fewer tendencies of these families to rely on taxpayer funded programs/schools.
   
   Pass the federal Parental Restoration and Preservation Act 2007 and get rid of welfare programs like Title IV-D and E that use incentive payments to require the states to create non-custodial parents and to take children away from fit parents and families to feed the foster care and adoption industry. Through the Equally Shared Parenting bill HB 4564 end the income redistribution scheme that is the Family Court and Friend of the Court system of assigning a child to one parent so that bloated support payments can be ordered. Finally, end No Child Left Behind and all other federal programs that deal with education. Lower the overall federal tax rate by cutting these programs to allow the states, communities and families to determine how to educate and raise their children.
   
   [Darrick Scott-Farnsworth is Executive Director of www.AChildsRight.net]
   
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3. Scholarships Available for Region 3 LP Convention — by Bill Hall
   
   Elsewhere in this issue of LPOnline is a description of the upcoming Libertarian Party Region 3 Convention in Dayton, Ohio, on August 3-5. This is a great opportunity to educate yourself in the grass roots political skills you need to help your local affiliate succeed, and to network with other Libertarian Party activists from across the country. If you're unable to attend due to financial considerations, an LPM donor has offered to help out. We have two scholarships available to cover the $100 registration fee for the convention, and might also be able to provide a shared room for the two nights of the convention. Several activists are attending from Michigan, so rides may also be available. If interested, please contact Erin Stahl, Vice Chair and Affiliates liason, at erinstahl@earthlink.net.Back to Contents
   
4. Region 3 Convention Deadline Coming Friday — by Emily Salvette, LNC Rep-Region 3
   
   * Your chance to learn how to compete and win against the D’s & R’s
   * Tools for LP Success in Dayton on August 3-5
   * Meet the National Libertarian Party Chairman
   
   Just a reminder that the special $69 room rate for the Region 3 Convention in Dayton ends this Friday (July 13). Call the Holiday Inn Dayton-South today at 937-294-1471 to reserve your room--tell them you're with the "Libertarian Region 3 Convention." And, if you haven't signed up for the August 3-5 convention, go to www.lpr3.org to register on line. You won't want to miss the valuable training by the Leadership Institute, Dr. James Lark's banquet speech, "Teachings of Chairman Jim: Some Helpful Hints for Leadership and Management," or the chance to meet, greet, and grill (nicely, of course :-) National LP Chairman Bill Redpath.
   
   Our time is NOW and NOW is the time to learn how to be successful. I look forward to seeing you in Dayton!
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