The Tax Man Cometh!

Tax Day Protests . . .

Please read this first!

Seattle Sons and Daughters of Liberty has listings for Everett, Mt. Vernon, Olympia, Seattle Spokane

More listings - includes Anacortes, Bellingham, Everett, Redmond, Tri-Cities, Yakima

Tax Party Links You'll Enjoy! Includes Google map.

Sign up to report - Pajamas TV, or HuffPo or just twitter, twitpic, etc. If you do reports, send details (copies, or twitter name) to LPWA.com1@gmail.com. I'll post them here.

Don't forget . . .
LPWA Tshirts
Cameras
Signs
Literature with Contact info - eMail LPWA.com1@gmail.com or call Rachel 206.769.2492 if you need some!

LPWA Convention Details! Lark, Novoselic, StandupEconomist

 

On March 28, 2009    
 

Convention begins 9:00 a.m.
 

Business Mtg.  10:00 a.m.
 

Plan on spending all day and evening with us!  Dinner, speaker and entertainment included.



Hilton Garden Inn

1800 NW Gilman Blvd, Issaquah, WA

  

Highlights . . .

 
Business Meeting

-Time to elect a new Executive Committee!

 
South of the Border Buffet Lunch

Fajita style Chicken Breast with peppers & onions

Taco seasoned Ground Beef

Spanish Rice, Refried Beans

Pico de gallo, shredded cheese, lettuce, guacamole,

jalapenos, black olive &sour cream

With warm tortillas, crisp taco shells, tortilla chips & Black bean salad

With fresh Brewed Coffee, Herbal Teas, Assorted Bottles of Sodas and Fresh Baked Cookies


Great workshops!

            - Grassroots organizing

            - Social Media

            - Communicating Libertarian solutions to controversy

 

Enlightening speakers!


      
 

James W. Lark, III, PhD is a former chairman of the Libertarian National Committee and presently serves as a regional representative on the LNC for region 5-South. He is a founding director of the Libertarian National Congressional Committee.
 

Dr. Lark is the Local Affiliate Parties' Committee chairman and is heavily involved with campus outreach, both for Virginia and the national party. He has conducted organizing tours and workshops on this. He currently teaches a campus organizing course for the Libertarian Leadership School.
 

Professionally, he is an adjunct professor of systems engineering at the University of Virginia.

Dr. Lark will present an afternoon workshop on basic principles of community/campus organizing; and will be the luncheon speaker with his presentation entitled "Knee-Jerk Libertarianism:  A Cure for a Common Disease."

 

                     

             
Krist Novoselic, former bassist of Nirvana, Sweet 75, Eyes Adrift and Flipper; political activist and Seattle Weekly columnist, Chair of FairVote.org and author of "Of Grunge & Government: Let's Fix This Broken Democracy!"  In the book, Novoselic discusses how Nirvana emerged as the world's biggest band of the early 1990s, how he got involved in politics and why we need electoral reform -- in particular full representation and instant runoff voting.

Krist will be our dinner speaker.

 
A wonderful dinner, with your choice of . . .

     -  Roast Chicken glazed with Chipotle Barbecue Sauce     or

     -  Spinach and Portabella Mushroom Vegetarian Lasagne

Both entrees include . . .

Garden Inn Signature Salad with House Dressing, Rolls and Butter,

Chef’s selection of starch, fresh vegetable & plated dessert

Freshly Brewed Coffee & Assorted Herbal Teas

 
ENTERTAINMENT!

    

 

Yoram Bauman, Ph.D.
The world's first and only
stand-up economist*
As seen on Comedy Central the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
 

* Among those who may take issue with this claim are "socialist magician" Ian Saville; Robert Mundell, Columbia, who won the Nobel Prize and appears regularly on Dave Letterman; Victor Fuchs, Stanford (pic); William Breit, Trinity; Peter Orazem, Iowa State; Ben Stein ("cited by Akerlof"); Tim Harford, "Dear Economist" author for the FT; Steven Tomlinson, UT Austin; Ariel Rubinstein, Tel Aviv University; David Powell, Boston Comedy Festival finalist and MIT grad student; Paul Solman, PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; Shaun Eli, a comic who graduated from the Wharton School; Steve Zanetti of Freeman H.S. (Richmond VA); and James Kurre of Penn State Erie. Apologies to all, and email me if you belong on this list. PS. As long as I'm apologizing, my video "Principles of Economics, Translated" contains two unattributed quotes ("9 out of 5" is adapted from a line attributed to Paul Samuelson---although apparently he said it about Wall Street indices, not macroeconomists---and "wrong about things" is paraphrased from P.J. O'Rourke's Eat the Rich) and, of course, the Einstein "simple" quote is an intentional misquote.


Other highlights of the day . . .

A Free Market – vendors and information tables

The SoapBox – where you can have a moment with the microphone and a captive audience

Social Gathering – have an adult beverage or lots of hydrogen hydroxide with Libertarian friends

The opportunity to join the LPWA Coffee Club, meet National LP leaders, elected Libertarians and famous comics!

All at the Hilton Gardens Inn in blossoming Issaquah – a jewel on the Eastside of Lake Washington, just a short drive from Seattle.

Get tools to take away and use!

Act now - EARLY registration . . . until February 20, 2009

                    only $109!

The full day, including three meals, an evening of entertainment, workshops, tools, social opportunities and LOTS of FUN is only $119 after Feb. 20th

Special student rate $85

Work/study program for students who will work for 4 hrs  $50 – limited number of students at this rate

Or special dinner deal – Dinner, speaker Krist Novoselic, and comic Yoram Bauman  only $55!

To register -

Go here and make a donation for the correct amount - $109 until Feb 20, $119 after Feb 20, Student $85, Work/Study  $50

Then send eMail to LPWAConvention@gmail.com with . . .

1.  your name,

2.  contact information (address, phone, eMail), and

3.  dinner choice - chicken or veggie.

 
If you want to do a work/study deal ($50 student rate) - I'll need to talk to you about when you wish to work during the convention.

 
It's going to be a great time!  See you then.


We are looking for . . .

1.  Vendors - do you have a book, DVD, or other product?  Want to promote your business?

2.  Advertisers - promote your business or sell your stuff.

3.  Sponsors - In-kind donations or scholarship for students.

4.  Volunteers also cheerfully accepted.     :o)   eMail LPWAConvention@gmail.com


                  

 

 

Top Two Forward!

Top Two Forward!

The Washington State Libertarian Party is at the forefront of a critical legal battle to preserve the fundamental right of free association.

We’ve been in court against the State of Washington and the Grange sponsored I-872 - Top-Two primary.

With this new election system, any candidate can say they prefer the Libertarian Party on the public ballot.

This is a problem because privacy - for the individual and whomever they choose to associate - should be protected in the United States. With the Top-Two election, the State of Washington has, in effect, put our party’s name in the public domain.

As a private association, Libertarian Party members have gone through the process of drafting and ratifying our platform - which is a statement to voters about our values and policy goals.

Good and freedom loving people volunteer time and resources to our organization.

If Washington’s new Top-Two election is allowed to continue, there will likely not be a Libertarian Party anymore. Why have a private political association when any candidate - regardless of what they really believe - can claim our party’s name as a preference on the ballot? We have no say at all preventing any interloper or opportunist from usurping our good name for the public ballot.

We have been waging a battle for some time to protect our associational right to privacy. We’ve already gone all the way to the US Supreme Court. Now the case has been remanded to lower courts and that’s why we’re contacting you.

We are standing in the courtroom next to two unusual partners - the Washington State Democratic Party and the Washington State Republican Party. We have issues in the case exclusive to our party regarding the legal trademark of the name Libertarian. We must fund our own legal team. We need to stay in this fight or our side of this case may never be heard!

And for this we need every ounce of support you can give.

We must act immediately to present our case in the strongest possible way.

Please help us get the resources we need to protect private association. If we don’t fight this intrusion from The State, there very well may not be a Libertarian Party - or any other grassroots political organization - anymore.

Please give now to paypal at lpwa.org (add the @ to get an actual account)

Scott~



For more details please visit: http://www.rankedchoice.blogspot.com/

Ranked Choice and Top Two Articles

Tune in to Kelly Haughton's Blog (now with RSS feed) for update about RCV in Pierce County and also about the Top Two Primary in Washington State. His recent post is an update on the 2008 Pierce County Elections.

Here's the link: http://www.rankedchoice.blogspot.com/

Please help fight the 'Top Two Forward' primary by donating to the LPWA at:

http://lpwa.org/contribute/

Then goto the action item page at:

http://tinyurl.com/LPWA08ActionItem

The Bane of the LPWA, The "Wasted Vote Myth"

Person on the street A, "Yeah, I like your candidate, but I really hate Mccain, so I am voting for Obama this year. We can't have another four years of the bush doctrine!"

Person on the street B, "Obama is a socialist and if he gets in there will be welfare for the illegal immigrants and handouts for everyone. I like your candidate, but I have to vote for Mccain."

To the people on the street, and for anyone pondering about how you can ever justify voting for a Libertarian in the presidential race when so much is at stake, let me offer a few simple observations.

We use the electoral college in America for this particular race. On top of that washington has been, typically, one of the most blue states in the union.

True, we have many who are fond of the Bush agenda and defend it to absurd lengths, but again, we use the electoral college to elect our president.

Even if this were not the case I would still argue for voting for the person you believe is best suited for the job, not the lessor of evils.

But let's get more specific than that.

The 2008 Washington State Electoral Race- The Obama/Mccain race 08`

Washington state (and likely the country) will go to O'bama. I would really be amazed if Mccain could even come close to him in this state.

Since we use the electoral college, you are free to vote for who you truly believe in AND it is beneficial if want to send a message to the top two parties that you will not take their waste and abuse.

I have felt good about every vote I have ever cast.

Also, I often tell people who are thinking of voting for the republican or democrat for whatever reason, that this is their choice, but come down and volunteer for the libertarians. Give them money. Do something to help grow the voice of dissent against the abuses of our system.

The Democrats and the Republicans have traded off being in charge, and they have neither reduced spending nor the constant growth of the number of laws used to violate the rights of we the people.

Best wishes and always know that we will ALWAYS be fighting for your rights, no matter who you vote for,

Scott Lindsley~
Chair, Libertarian Party of Washington State

www.LPWA.org

A Call to Action for Washington Libertarians!!!

Dear friend of the Libertarian Party of Washington,

America needs your help urgently! The gravest threat to our individual liberty since passage of The Patriot Act is upon us. Unless We The People make our dissent heard, the US Congress is about to impose an economic dictatorship that will nationalize the American banking industry.

I choose my words carefully. Section 8 of Treasury Secretary Paulson’s proposal* states “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

Stop and re-read that sentence. It gives the Treasury Secretary unlimited power to do whatever he wants, without fear of a court looking over his shoulder. Because it violates the Rule Of Law by prohibiting judicial review, it gives the Treasury Secretary permission to ignore the US Constitution. The limitation implied by “pursuant to the authority of this Act” is a sham, because no court will be permitted to dispute the Secretary’s idea of what that phrase means. At the least, the US Government will be able to seize private property without just compensation. At the worst it permits suspension of all civil rights, including the ability to speak out against the act once it is enacted. There is no limit to the authority given the Treasury Secretary in this proposal.

Another part of Secretary Paulson’s proposal nationalizes the American financial sector. This is not hyperbole. Section 2(b)(3) authorizes the Treasury Secretary to be “designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them.” The word “reasonable” is designed to calm people’s fears, but it will not limit government action in the least. The word will mean anything the Secretary says it does, because courts will not be permitted to question his definition. This section gives the Treasury Secretary dictatorial power over all financial institutions.

Section 9 is a sunset provision. I expect it will be as effective as those in the Patriot Act were.

When Secretary Paulson tried to justify these proposals on This Week With George Stephanopoulos, the host said “Conservatives are saying this smacks of Socialism.” Paulson responded by saying how he was opposed to intervention, but finished with “I would just tell you it’s necessary right now.”

The Libertarian candidate for President, Bob Barr, disagrees. “Capitalism involves losses as well as profits. When government tries to insulate businesses and investors from paying for their mistakes, we all lose. In a Barr administration, there would be no more corporate bailouts or takeovers. The days of loss-free capitalism would be over."

I will give you more details in a moment, but I think you are getting the idea of what a pernicious idea this bailout proposal is. These three sections alone make this proposal every bit as dangerous as The Patriot Act. It must be stopped before our entire financial system is nationalized into another government agency as efficient as FEMA.

Here are three things you can do to protect our financial freedom and civil liberties:

FIRST: call both your US Senators. Say “I want my Senator to vote AGAINST the bailout proposal when it comes up for a vote this week.”

SECOND: call your US Congressman. If you aren’t sure who that is, go to http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/ and plug your address into the form on the left. The website will tell you who your Congressman is, and will give their DC phone number. USE THAT NUMBER to tell your Representative that you want them to vote NO when the bailout comes up for a vote this week.

THIRD: Write letters to the editors of your newspapers. Email them if possible so they have the chance of getting printed quickly. Keep them to less than 250 words. If you concentrate on only one part of the bailout proposal in your letter, it is more likely to be printed. Make sure you include your name and your cell phone number, because most papers call letter writers to confirm that they are the ones who wrote it.

I told you I would give you more details about other dangers posed by the bailout proposal. It ain’t pretty.

The act authorizes the Secretary to buy up mortgage related assets from any American financial institution. When the Chinese and the Saudis sell their bad mortgage paper to Goldman Sachs, this act requires the government to buy it -- essentially forcing America to bail out foreign investors.

The proposal lets the Secretary enter into contracts without regard to current legal restrictions. So much for competitive bids. It will be a return to $400 toilet seats.

Libertarians aren’t angry about the cost of this proposal. No, we’re angry that even one penny of taxpayer money is being used. The figure you are hearing in the news, $700-Billion-with-a-B, demonstrates the carelessness of the media. Under the proposal, the Secretary’s authority “shall be limited to $700-Billion at any one time.” No limit on how many transactions in a day, just at one time. The potential price tag on this proposal is every single dollar in America.

This proposal will undermine the stability of the American financial system. Why?

Ø Because it guts our capitalist system. Why should anyone start a business when the government has given itself the power to take over entire industries?

Ø Because it destroys the Constitutional guarantee of the sanctity of private contracts. Why sign any contract when the government has given itself the power to override them?

Ø Because it puts every financial transaction in America under the dictatorial and arbitrary control of an unelected bureaucrat, the Secretary of the Treasury. So much for personal responsibility. So much for freedom.

Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr says “President Bush should fire Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. We need a Treasury Secretary who can be trusted with the keys t o the taxpayer vault. It is imperative for Congress to explicitly limit the authority of the Federal Reserve. The Fed was not created to take over parts of the U.S. economy. Its authority must be limited and its officials must be held accountable for their actions,” says Barr.

The Libertarian Party of Washington thanks you for acting on this alert. Our economic freedom, our personal liberty, and our libertarian way of life are at stake!

Other things you can do:

VOTE LIBERTARIAN on November 4th, and contribute to our candidates’ campaigns.

Thanks for everything you do for Liberty!

* Copy of the proposal in the WSJ:
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/09/20/treasurys-financial-bailout-proposal-to-congress/

Washington State needs . . .

. . . Ruth Bennett! Ruth is a Libertarian candidate for Legislative Dist No. 37 - Position 2. Her campaign is in need of a web designer, and anyone who can help with campaign activities. If you have any experience as campaign staff, or web designer, and would like to help an awesome Libertarian candidate to get elected, please eMail BennettRuth@comcast.net.

. . . LP News & Views! We are in the process of putting out a state LP newsletter. If you would like to help, or if you have some piece of news that we can use, eMail LPWA.com1@gmail.com, with Newsletter in the subject line.

. . . you! If you want more Liberty, less Government, then you need the Libertarian Party. Join us.