Title:
Attorney says Oak Park woman prepared to face trial for ‘crime of planting vegetables’ in yard
Author:
Webmaster_LPM
Date:
7/12/2011
Year:
2011
Article:
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/07/attorney_says_oak_park_woman_p.html

An Oak Park woman facing a misdemeanor charge for planting a vegetable garden in her front yard is prepared to fight for her rights in court, according to her attorney.
If the city does not drop the case before a scheduled June 26 hearing, “then we’ll have to settle for a trial and see if there’s actually a jury out there that’s going to call this woman a criminal for growing vegetables,” Solomon Radner said this morning on WJR-AM 760.
As Fox 2 reported last week, Julie Bass installed a series of planters in her front yard that officials claim violate a portion of the city code limiting a homeowner to “grass ground cover, shrubbery, or other suitable live plant material” in any unpaved portion of their yard.
“If you look at the definition of what suitable is in Webster’s dictionary, it will say common,” City Planner Kevin Rulkowski told the television station, apparently failing to look up the definition before citing it. “So, if you look around and you look in any other community, what’s common to a front yard is a nice, grass yard with beautiful trees and bushes and flowers.”
Listen: Solomon Radner

But Radner, who Bass hired after the dispute ended up in court, argued the code itself is unfair. “It doesn’t even come down to question of fact,” he said. “It comes down to whether this law is too abmigiuous to be legal.”
Radner said the city originally offered to drop the case if Bass got rid of her garden next year, but she refused to offer in protest of an ordinance the city can “selectively enforce pretty much against anyone it wants.”
While municipalities around the nation are free to enforce their own zoning regulations, Radner said this case is unique because officials are prosecuting Bass rather than citing her for a civil infraction.
“In oak park this is actually considered a crime,” he said.

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Title:
Michigan bar owners ban legislators from their bars for smoking ban
Author:
Webmaster_LPM
Date:
9/5/2011
Year:
2011
Article:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/4875.html
From BrasscheckTV,

Why is it that lawmakers feel the need to micro-manage OUR lives? Is it really all good intentions? Because we know where those lead.
Or are they really just control freak nannies forcing their beliefs, values, and hypocrisies on us? Well, a group of business owners in Michigan decided to give them a taste of their own medicine, or at least deprive them of a taste.
Have fun with this one.

And by all means, spread this one far and wide. Maybe it will catch on.
Video:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/4875.html
– Brasscheck

P.S. Please share Brasscheck TV e-mails and videos with friends and colleagues.
That’s how we grow. Thanks.

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Title:
Ron Paul supporter seeks Republican 94th district rep seat
Author:
Webmaster_LPM
Date:
11/5/2011
Year:
2011
Article:
Hi my name is Ryan McReynolds

I am one of the 3 Republicans running for District 94 State Representative, but like Ron Paul (who I am endorsing for President), I hold to Libertarian viewpoints, and I believe the state of Michigan and the United States of America needs to get back to constitutional principles set forth by our founding Fathers.

Although I am running under the Republican banner, I do know that the Libertarian party has endorsed Republicans who stand for Libertarian principles (such as Ron Paul).

So I am hoping for an endorsement from the Libertarian Party of Michigan, and I would be willing to speak before the Libertarian Party as well.

I am even willing to take a survey on the stances of the Libertarian party, so that we can make sure and clear we are on the same page

In addition to being a Republican candidate for State Representative in the 94th district, I am also regional coordinator for the Saginaw County branch of the Ron Paul for President campaign.

Anyways I hope I can count on your support, thanks and God bless

Sincerely
Ryan McReynolds
Website:http://sites.google.com/site/patriotsforryanmcreynolds/

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Title:
LPM To Fight Bad Third-Party Bills
Author:
Will Tyler White
Date:
12/8/2011
Year:
2011
Article:
Important legislation that the LPM should fight — need to issue a press release and testify at hearings if possible.
Will Tyler White, LPM legislative committee
Please note that the following legislative actions have been taken:

Senate Bill 750: Authorize criminal penalties for extreme campaign finance scofflaws. Reported in the Senate on December 6, 2011, with the recommendation that the substitute (S-1) be adopted and that the bill then pass.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=141558
Senate Bill 752: Ban “stealth conventions” by minor political parties. Reported in the Senate on December 6, 2011, with the recommendation that the substitute (S-1) be adopted and that the bill then pass.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=141560
Senate Bill 754: Regulate “third-party voter registration organizations” Reported in the Senate on December 6, 2011, with the recommendation that the substitute (S-2) be adopted and that the bill then pass.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=141562
Senate Bill 803: Require voters to affirm citizenship
Reported in the Senate on December 6, 2011, with the recommendation that the substitute (S-1) be adopted and that the bill then pass.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=141778

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Title:
Scotty Boman will be 2012 Libertarian Candidate for US Senate
Author:
Webmaster_LPM
Date:
6/4/2012
Year:
2012
Article:
http://www.uncoveredpolitics.com/2012/06/04/michigans-scotty-boman-captures-libertarian-nod-for-u-s-senate/

Longtime party activist Scotty Boman of Detroit defeated Erwin Haas to capture the Libertarian Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate in Michigan.

A physics and astronomy instructor who is certainly no stranger to third-party politics, Boman defeated Haas by a margin of 28 to 17 on the convention’s first and only ballot at the party’s state convention in Livonia on Saturday.  A number of delegates supported None of the Above (NOTA).

A semi-retired physician and economist and frequent contributor to Liberty Magazine and other libertarian publications, Haas is the communications director of the Libertarian Party of West Michigan.  He lives in Kentwood.

The 50-year-old Boman had only recently announced his candidacy for the Libertarian nomination, declaring on May 15 that he would seek his former party’s nomination after failing to gather a minimum of 15,000 signatures to appear on the Republican primary ballot for the U.S. Senate.

Drawn to the GOP by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s bids for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and again this year, Boman had been an active candidate for the GOP’s U.S. Senate nomination since last September.

Boman, an activist in the Texas congressman’s Campaign for Liberty, made no apologies for belatedly seeking the Libertarian nomination.

“I have remained loyal to my principles throughout my political career,” he said in a statement announcing his party switch.

“Since the late 1980’s I have affirmed the right of individuals to live for their own sake, and have supported expanding individual liberty in a Constitutional context,” he continued.  “I am loyal to libertarian principles; political parties are a means to an end.  I feel no shame in placing principle before party.”

Detroit’s long-distance runner for liberty — one of the party’s all-time leading vote-getters in Michigan — has been a Libertarian candidate in every statewide partisan election over the past eighteen years.

This time, he’s arguably waging the party’s highest-profile campaign for the U.S. Senate in Michigan since 1994 when Jon Coon raised more than $200,000 while polling an impressive 128,000 votes, or 4.5 percent, against Republican Spencer Abraham and Democrat Bob Carr.  Coon had hoped to become the country’s first Libertarian U.S. senator that year — a thought that undoubtedly also crosses Boman’s mind every now and then.

Campaigning on a platform critical of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, the Libertarian candidate garnered 76,347 votes in a previous bid for the U.S. Senate in 2008.  A former state chairman of the Libertarian Party, he also polled 58,044 votes for Secretary of State on the party’s ticket two years ago.

Boman has already debated every potential Republican opponent that he could possibly face in November and welcomes an opportunity to mix it up with incumbent Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow — one of only nine Democrats in the U.S. Senate who voted against the Wall Street bailout.

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Title:
Ruth Johnson Denies Presidential Candidate Ballot Access
Author:
Michael Moon
Date:
6/9/2012
Year:
2012
Article:
http://www.prlog.org/11896028-ruth-johnson-denies-presidential-candidate-ballot-access.html

Ruth Johnson Denies Presidential Candidate Ballot Access
Libertarian Party of Michigan to file lawsuit over Gary Johnson’s denial of ballot access in November election
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

gary-johnson-libertarian-party
gary-johnson-libertarian-party
PRLog (Press Release) – Jun 09, 2012 –
-Troy, MI
The Libertarian Party of Michigan has retained legal counsel since they have been informed they will be denied ballot access in this year’s presidential election.  The Libertarians have made several attempts to contact the office of Ruth Johnson (Secretary of State) and Christopher M. Thomas (Director of Elections) only to be denied ballot access for former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson.
Gary Johnson ran in the Republican primary and withdrew his pursuit of the Republican nomination in December of 2011.  Gary Johnson was excluded from most Republican presidential debates and decided to seek the Libertarian nomination because all of the Republican Party presidential candidates — except for Ron Paul — have a track record of voting for higher levels of government spending.
Gary Johnson, the national Libertarian Party presidential nominee, was on the ballot in the February 2012 Republican presidential primary ballot in Michigan. The Secretary of State is interpreting Michigan law to mean that, therefore, the Libertarian Party is forbidden to nominate Johnson.
The Libertarian Party of Michigan hand-delivered the nomination to the Secretary of State office on Monday, June 4th.  The party’s documents certify that the presidential elector candidates are pledged to Gary Johnson who lives in New Mexico and is our candidate pending a legal challenge. But the party’s documents also say that if the Secretary of State sticks to her position of refusing to allow that, and if no court intervenes, then in that case the party’s presidential elector candidates are pledged to Gary E. Johnson of Austin, Texas.
Denee Rockman-Moon (Libertarian State Chair) stated  “The Libertarian party of Michigan legally elected Gary Johnson as our candidate. Governor Gary Johnson is our candidate pending a legal challenge. The Libertarians are the party of principle and we are starting to wonder what happened to Ruth Johnson’s principles.”

– Contact Information
– media@ michiganlp.org
Michael Moon / Media Director
– 810-241-5801
Sources – Ballot Access News (Richard Winger)
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/11896028/1

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Title:
Libertarian Party of Michigan to sue for Johnson ballot access
Author:
Webmaster_LPM
Date:
6/12/2012
Year:
2012
Article:
http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/06/libertarian_party_plans_to_sue.html#incart_river_default

LANSING, MI – The Libertarian Party of Michigan said Monday it will sue the secretary of state to put its candidate on the presidential ballot, continuing a fight that could have bigger implications if the race between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is razor-tight.
The Libertarians were warned by the state to not nominate former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson for president because his name was on Michigan’s GOP presidential primary ballot in February. Under the state’s so-called “sore loser law,” a candidate who loses a primary cannot be nominated by another party to run in the general election.
The state Libertarian Party decided to nominate Johnson anyway at its June 2 convention.
Party spokesman Michael Moon said Johnson dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination in December and tried to remove his name from Michigan’s primary ballot only to have the state Bureau of Elections tell him he filed his withdrawal affidavit three minutes too late.
“We’re not playing their games basically,” he said Monday while complaining about not getting calls returned from elections officials. A lawsuit is being prepared, he said.
Fred Woodhams, a spokesman for Republican Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, said the law is clear.
“He did try to remove himself from the (primary) ballot but did not send in the affidavit stating he was not a candidate in time. So he was left on the ballot,” he said. “We’re following the law here.”
In 2008, Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr received under 24,000 of about 5 million votes cast in Michigan, or less than one-half of 1 percent. It is a tiny amount that had no bearing on Barack Obama’s comfortable win over John McCain – but might if Michigan has a razor-thin race in 2012 like Florida had in 2000, which was decided by 543 votes.
Voters who agree with the Libertarian Party’s positions could vote Republican if their choice is only between a Republican and a Democrat. The spoiler effect of the Libertarian Party on GOP candidates and the Green Party on Democratic candidates is disputed by third parties, who say voters simply deserve more choices.
As a backup plan, the Libertarian Party said it voted to put a Gary E. Johnson of Austin, Texas, on the Michigan presidential ballot if former Gov. Gary Johnson is barred, pending the results of legal action. It was not immediately clear if that maneuver is allowable.
Moon said that in 1980, Democratic Secretary of State Richard Austin did not apply the sore-loser law to John Anderson, who ran in the GOP presidential primary and was allowed to run in November as a candidate of the Anderson Coalition Party.
“The Libertarian Party is known as the Party of Principle,” said Denee Rockman-Moon, chairwoman of the Libertarian Party of Michigan. “We are starting to wonder what happened to Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s principles.”
Woodhams, however, said that in 1980 there was no mechanism for an independent candidate to get on the ballot. Johnson, he said, could submit at least 30,000 valid signatures by July 19 to run as an independent in Michigan.
Email David Eggert at deggert1@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter @DavidEggert00

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Title:
Jewish Organizations won’t let Jewish candidate speak at candidate forum
Author:
Date:
6/25/2012
Year:
2012
Article:
For immediate release
June 25, 2012
Contact: Leonard Schwartz, 248-546-3569 Leonard@LeonardSchwartz.us

Jewish organizations sponsoring a candidate forum for Michigan’s 14th congressional district won’t let the only Jewish candidate, Leonard Schwartz, speak at the forum.

“They invited the Republican candidate to speak even though he is running unopposed in the August primary. Their refusal to let me speak is unfair,” said Mr. Schwartz, who is the Libertarian Party candidate and the only Jewish candidate.
The forum will be on Sunday, July 1, at 3:30 at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield. The sponsors are the Jewish Community Relations Council, local chapters of Hadassah and the National Council of Jewish Women, and several synagogues.

His website is www.LeonardSchwartz.us

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Title:
LPM and Johnson campaign file suit against SOS for ballot status
Author:
Bill Hall
Date:
6/26/2012
Year:
2012
Article:
–News Release from LPM legal consultant Bill Hall–
[Addressed to LP of Michigan]

Instead [of encouraging the media to focus on the Johnson campaign’s failure to meet a bureaucratic deadline], we need to hit hard the facts that:

1.  The Michigan sore loser law doesn’t apply and never has applied to presidential candidates.
2.  The fair, honorable and respected long-time Democratic Secretary of State Richard Austin did not apply it to John Anderson in identical circumstances in 1980.
3.  The SOS admits Gary Johnson could petition on as independent, at great cost in time and money.  So what “sore loser” compelling State interest is served by having Gary Johnson on the ballot as an independent instead of a Libertarian?  [hint:  NONE]
4.  This is all about the fact that Mitt Romney, his Michigan Campaign Chair Bill Schuette and the Republican Party are running scared, because there is no way Mitt Romney can win a close race in Michigan if Gary Johnson is permitted to stay on the ballot.

This is a free speech and equal protection case.  Should the Libertarian Party have the right to pick its presidential candidate, or let the Republican Party decide who may be our nominee?    Should Gary Johnson be treated fairly, like John Anderson, or not?

Please don’t cater to some media fixation on the 3-minute issue.  Act like a candidate.  Don’t mention the 3-minute issue.  If asked, answer the 3-minute question, and then switch gears and talk about what you want to talk about.  We must define the case.  Don’t let the media do it for us.

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Title:
Carl Levin recall petition ready, signature collection to start on July 4th
Author:
Scotty Boman
Date:
7/3/2012
Year:
2012
Article:
-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-
Contacts:
Scotty Boman
(313) 247-2052
scottyboman@hotmail.com

and

Warren Raftshol
(231) 271-5650
raftshol@gmail.com
http://committeetorecallcarllevin.com/2012/06/25/three-easy-steps-to-recall-carl-levin/

Carl Levin recall language passes clarity review.  Signature collection to start on July 4th

June, 3rd, 2012

Detroit, MI – Activist are free to begin circulating petitions to recall Senator Carl Milton Levin starting this Independence Day; their petition language has been deemed clear in the manner described by Section 168.952 of Michigan Election law which states:

“(3) The board of county election commissioners, not less than 10 days or more than 20 days after submission to it of a petition for the recall of an officer, shall meet and shall determine whether each reason for the recall stated in the petition is of sufficient clarity to enable the officer whose recall is sought and the electors to identify the course of conduct that is the basis for the recall. Failure of the board of county election commissioners to comply with this subsection shall constitute a determination that each reason for the recall stated in the petition is of sufficient clarity to enable the officer whose recall is being sought and the electors to identify the course of conduct that is the basis for the recall.”

Notarized certified letters containing the most recent language were signed for on June 11th, and Wayne County Election Chairman Milton L. Mack acknowledged receiving the language on June 14th in a letter written to the petitions sponsor, Scott Avery Boman.  In the letter Mack wrote that, “…the Wayne County Election Commission will not accept petition language directed to a United State Senator.”  According to Boman, Director of Elections Delphine Oden told him (by phone on June 22nd) this meant they would not be holding a clarity review hearing.  Section 168.121 (United States senator; recall) reads: “Persons holding the office of United States senator are subject to recall by the qualified and registered electors of the state as provided in chapter 36 of this act.”

On May 1st the commission held a hearing to review the clarity of previous language and found the prior language to be unclear.  The new approved (by default) petition language reads,

“He co-authored and introduced an amendment regarding detention provisions (Subtitle D Section 1031) to S.1867 (the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012). He voted in favor of the final version (H.R. 1540) which contained the detention provisions in section 1021.”

Sponsors cite Levin’s pivotal roll in provisions they describe as “de facto martial law,” as their reason to initiate the recall effort.  The recall will require 468,709 signatures.  Boman said, “Warren and I can’t do this on our own.  We can get this started with a build-it-and-they-will-come approach.  In 2008 1,810,234 people voted against Carl Levin.  We need to have about a quarter of these people sign the petition, and a much smaller portion to step up and be activists.”

Petitions can be downloaded from  http://committeetorecallcarllevin.com/2012/06/25/three-easy-steps-to-recall-carl-levin/
County officials also have standard recall petition forms that may be filled out by hand.  Co-sponsor Warren Raftshol said, “We are building an internet campaign via Facebook, and these petitions are legal and official.  I invite people to forward the link to Carl Levin’s Facebook page and tell him they object to NDAA detention.”

Boman said, “Independence Day is the perfect day to launch this effort.  The tyranny Levin has brought us with this law rivals the oppression imposed on the colonists by the British in 1776.”
-END-

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