On February 24th & 25th 2012, the Libertarian Party of Georgia will hold its annual convention in Athens, Georgia at The Georgia Center on the beautiful Northeast Georgia campus of the University of Georgia. For the first time in the Party's history, a local affiliate has taken charge of the planning and execution of a convention. The ever-growing Athens affiliate, chaired by Doug Harman, will host the 2012 convention.
Speakers are still being secured, however confirmation from the following speakers have been received:
Stefan Molyneux - Freedomain Radio (via webcast)
Jeffrey Tucker - The Mises Institute
Duncan Berry - Applied Iconology
Brian Brawdy - Author, "Liberty's Line In The Sand"
Page Pate - Attorney, The Pate Law Firm
Rich Sullivan - Radio Personality, DAVE FM 92.9
Jake Lilley - Project Appleseed
Jeff Edgens - Political Science Professor @ East Georgia College
Online registration is available here. For those who prefer to register for the convention by mail, please click here to download the registration form (PDF).
The idea of “illegal” immigration is a silly notion. It’s akin to an “illegal” vacation. Immigration is simply the act of moving from Location A to Location B. Why should permission be required to exercise this right? Up until 1882 (with passage of the non-euphemistically named “Chinese Exclusion Act”) anyone was permitted entry. Immigration laws were tightened further until 1921 when the Temporary Quota Act set “national quotas” and permanently criminalized immigration. And thus a legal harmless act was made “illegal” by arbitrary government fiat.
The right to immigrate (or emigrate) is distinct from the priviledge of citizenship. The basic idea is “you’re welcome to come and work and live here and support yourself but don’t expect handouts from the government… if you want a handout then you must become a citizen.” If immigration were properly viewed in this manner it would solve the issue of an overburdened social safety system. If only citizens can utilize the social institutions then you remove all incentives for those with parasitic intentions from immigrating. We would, however, have to change the antiquated citizenship laws that confer citizenship to those born on U.S. soil. Citizenship should be a privilege reserved for those who meet the established criteria or the children of a U.S. citizen.
The most common justification for restricting immigration is that they ‘steal’ jobs from Americans.
With great fanfare, Atlanta officials unveiled a new video surveillance center at a news conference last week.
Atlanta police Chief George Turner expects the “cutting-edge technology” of the cameras to allow police to “stay one step ahead of lawbreakers.”
But it does not appear that city leaders who approved this “video integration center” in July did their homework on costs or supposed benefits of the cameras or the accompanying surveillance.
A grant of $2.6 million of taxpayer funds from the Department of Homeland Security paid for the center, which integrates approximately 100 city-owned cameras, as well as several private groups’ and companies’ security systems.
An additional $500,000 of Atlanta taxpayer dollars and $1.2 million from Georgia taxpayers brought the total cost to taxpayers to $4.3 million — not to mention a reported half-million more raised by the Atlanta Police Foundation.
At the time of City Council approval, costs to operate, staff and maintain the center were unknown and unreported. Also unclear is whether this figure includes the city-owned surveillance cameras or merely the surveillance center. Worse, it covers only one of 131 square miles within Atlanta’s city limits.
***UPDATE: This event has been postponed until early December. Please keep an eye out in the Georgia Libertarian Online for updates about the rescheduling.
Last month, our Executive Director shared with supporters how busy September is for the Libertarian Party of Georgia. Today, we want to make sure you know about an upcoming event... An event that will bring many defenders of the Second Amendment together.
We are pleased to share an event we are co-sponsoring with the premier group focused on the preservation of Second Amendment rights in our state, GeorgiaCarry.org. We have invited Samuel Adams Award (Sammie) finalist, Brian Aitken, to speak to our groups about the gross violations of his 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 8th Amendment Rights, the malicious prosecution by an Officer, Prosecutor, and Judge who knew him to be innocent, being sentenced to seven years in New Jersey State Prison, being released from prison by Governor Chris Christie, and his appeal and Deprivation of Civil Rights argument against all layers of State & Local government that deprived him of his most basic rights, including custody of his three year old son.
If you're unfamiliar with any of this, perhaps this video will jog your memory:
Yesterday, United Liberty published a post by Columbus Libertarian, Nick Nottleman, about one of the most difficult freedom issues we, as Libertarians, encounter. This question not only catches your everyday member or even "small L" libertarians on their heels, but it has also frozen premier candidates "in the headlights."
Below is an excerpt of what Nick wrote, and you can read the post in its entirety here:
In the 2008 Presidential election, I was amazed at the intelligence of Bob Barr. I was constantly impressed at the depth of each subject he was asked about. How much basic sense each answer made even though some answers contained a level of sophistication that may have been over the heads of some.
Well, all except for one question.
In an interview with Sean Hannity fairly close to Election Day, Mr. Barr was put on his heels and frankly never recovered. Hannity’s style of attack, which one might term as that of an angry pit bull, didn’t help. That question of course was about the legalization of drugs.
At Sunday's polo fundraiser, attendees were treated to the music of Sweet Harmony, an Atlanta area folk-rock band, featuring the East Metro LP affiliate's Marshall McCart. As part of their performance, Sweet Harmony arranged a special cover of Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It!" just for us.
Often, Libertarians encounter people who agree with our philosophy of individual freedom and personal responsibility, but they are not yet ready to make a change, and instead, defend the status quo. These people are almost ready to join our ranks, but they have a lingering allegiance to what they have always known.
A little over a week ago, I was reading one of my favorite blogs, written by Seth Godin, a marketing guy and professional author who has an interesting and unique take on many things. Often, his observations and findings contradict conventional wisdom, and they prompt me to think about things differently.
On August 29th, he wrote "The warning signs of defending the status quo," and it turned on a light bulb (an incandescent, as long as they're still legal) in my mind. Many of the things he discusses in it are the same things that you and I encounter when we encounter the people I reference in the first paragraph, and I thought it valuable to share some of those defenses, so that we can prepare our responses to the defenses of the status, often statist, quo.
Earlier this month, this was shared on Facebook by our good friend Lawrence Reed at the Foundation for Economic Education. After viewing, the best ways to share and inspire people to work toward liberty was not clear. We've included a couple on our Facebook page as status updates, but the full potential has yet to be reached.
Finally we decided to share this checklist in its entirety, and once permission is received, we will share it in another format to continue to inspire our members and supporters about all of the avenues we can utilize to spread our message and gain momentum in our movement. Please click through to read the checklist and keep an eye out for our release of it.
As many of you know, several members of our Executive Committee and our Executive Director have committed to something called "Liberty for Life," a challenge made by our Executive Director to promote a healthy lifestyle, while also promoting the ideals of liberty. The challenge has two components: the first is one to make healthier lifestyle choices, while also raising money for LP Georgia, the second component.
Liberty for Life is simple. We are raising money by losing weight. Basically, we're seeking people who pledge to donate money for each pound that their chosen participant loses from September 5th through November 21st.
Looking back at the "Change the Debate" post from Sunday, we'd like to add a pertinent, relevant example of how a careful explanation and thorough understanding of an issue can change the debate, as we change the way we talk about issues. Perry Willis adds the following to that conversation over at Downsize DC:
What politicians call a "social safety net," isn't. It's a dragnet.
A safety net would only catch people when they fall, but....
A dragnet entangles everyone, even when they don't need aid
Warren Buffet qualifies for Social Security and Medicare. Is Warren falling? Does he need help? Of course not. Why then have the politicians created dragnet programs that provide benefits to people like him, and to millions of others who don't need assistance?
One thing is clear -- dragnet programs give politicians vast power, foster dependence, and create huge constituencies that will fight to preserve such programs.
