Carissa Pillow for Brentwood City Council receives endorsement of California Libertarian Party
Part of the convention process is endorsing candidates for office to local, state, and federal government. I am pleased to announce that Carissa Pillow received a ringing endorsement from the party.
If you don’t yet know about Cariss Pillow (or new secretary of the county party organization) and her run for city council in Brentwood, you can learn more here: http://www.carissapillow2012.com/
Please consider a contribution to her campaign, and/or let us know if you can help us toward the fall when it’s time to charge up the campaign. We’ll need people to canvass and put up signs, and so on.
Judge Jim Gray speaks to the War on Drugs
“Controlled substances is the biggest oxymoron of our lives. As soon as we prohibit something, we lose all control of it. We can’t control quantity, quality, licensing, sales, production, etc.”
Rich Vanier to server on Ex-Com for another year
Rich Vanier, vice-chair of the LPCCC, decided to run for membership on the Executive Committee for 2 years, citing his desire to continue his project to recruit Gary Johnson to the Libertarian Party ticket and get him nominated. Rich handily won election to the new term. Congratulations, Rich!
CA LP Convention 2012 – Day 2
As usual, the call to order will be about 45 minutes after the scheduled time. It’s a great time for networking. Says Chairman Takenaga at 9:45am “It’s libertarian standard time, 9 o’clock.”
Up first is election of delegates and Executive Committee members. Then we’ll go to by-laws. I’m nervous about by-laws because we never expected them to make it to the floor. I think that we (especially Gale Morgan and Shawn Fox) did a good job on the report, but we didn’t go all out because we didn’t expect it to make it past committee this year. Proposal #4 is to split the the northern region of the state into two regions. It’s a huge change and will cause a lot of debate. I think that we still have more work to do on it. The rest of the proposals are well crafted and are much more likely to pass if we get past proposal 4.
Property Rights Forum
Are you familiar with UN Agenda 21? It’s being pushed in your city right now. Your city council and other “leaders” aren’t fighting it. They welcome it as it gives them direction and makes them look important. It gives them a source of funds now that other funds have dried up.
As a libertarian or a libertarian-leaning person from the left or the right, you can be the iconoclast. Question what is going on in your city councils. What is being proposed? How is the city using code enforcement to take properties? What new developments are being built without adequate parking? What transportation measures are proposed?
Learn more about how to get involved at http://www.PostSustainabilityInstitute.org or at http://www.DemocratsAgainstUNAgenda21.com
LP of California – Convention 2012 – Part II – Resolution to Impeach Obama
The party passed, with little debate or discussion, the resolution submitted by the Monterey County LP to impeach President Obama. The gist is that Obama has waged war in Libya and that this is an egregious violation of the Constitution and his authority under it. It is also a violation of the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
The full text of the resolution can be found at http://www.montereycountylp.org/?p=151
LP of California Convention 2012 – Part I
I’m at the convention this weekend. It’s being held in Ventura. It’s now just after the lunch break. The party moved quickly through the platform committee, with most of the proposals passing and very little debate or amendment. This is very unlike last year when the platform committee report never reached the floor.
LP of Contra Costa and Alameda switch banks in response to bailouts and raised fees
May 12, 2010
LIBERTARIANS QUIT BANK OF AMERICA
CONCORD, CALIFORNIA — In response at government bailouts of banks, the Contra Costa County and Alameda County Libertarian Parties severed all financial ties with Bank of America.
Annoyed at the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the two Libertarian groups wanted to put their resources in a bank that did not accept taxpayers’ dollars. Bank of America has accepted TARP funds.
Moreover, the two groups — which are considered small organizations — were incensed that Bank of America, on the brink of collapse, raised its bank-service charges and provided only minimal service.
In February, New York State Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, brought a lawsuit against retired Bank of America Chief Executive Officer, Ken Lewis. In the lawsuit, Mr. Cuomo accused Lewis of defrauding the bank’s investors and customers. Mr. Cuomo’s actions made the Libertarians feel justified in putting their money in a more trustworthy institution.
The Libertarians found two acceptable banks: Bank of the West and Mechanics Bank. Contra Costa Libertarian Party Chairman, Mr. Cory Nott, said: “Both banks are excellent to work with.”
According to Mr. Nott, the two Libertarian groups settled on Mechanics Bank. Mr. Nott said that that Mechanics Bank “will provide more convenience for all party officers, did not need or apply for any TARP funds, and can give superior service to our organizations.”
Inflation: An Analogy
I was discussing today the nature of inflation, and thought of an analogy.
Imagine that you take your car to an airport parking garage every week. When you return from your trip, you take your ticket to the front, and they bring back your car. Now, imagine that the parking garage operators, in order to increase operating revenue without increasing prices, decides to return a lesser amount to customers when they come to exchange their ticket for their car. At the beginning of the week you bring in your 2010 Toyota Camry, and when you return, they give you back a 2009 model. A silly idea of course. The customers would rightly be up in arms and would flood the police agencies and courts with complaints. So why do we let the government get away with it when it comes to our money? Most people think that such a system is required for growth and that to return value for value would “limit the economy.” If it doesn’t make sense for parking garage operators (they’d certainly grow, but the rest of us would be the losers), then why does it make sense for the government and its banking system.
Ponder that!
Cory Nott
Chair, Libertarian Party of Contra Costa County
IBABuzz: CD10 Special Election Attracts a Bakers Dozen of Candidates
According to Lisa Vorderbrueggen, political editor for the Contra Costa Times, the special election for former Rep. Ellen Tauschers CD10 seat has attracted a whopping 14 candidates!
http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/2009/07/20/a-bakers-dozen-to-run-in-cd10/
Sadly, there are no Libertarian candidates in this race. Most of us are too busy, but even those who are interested find the cost prohibitive. It’s $1700 to file, and another $8000 to file signing statements in the three counties which this district covers. Gary Clift (http://cliftforcongress.com) visited our regular meeting this month and he was a very pleasant fellow.
Libertarian Party of Contra Costa County Blog 