The Libertarian Party of Queens County's December Toy Drive meeting was given a nice little write up (with photo) in the Times Newsweekly of Ridgewood. They ended up voting to give the items to the firefighters (as in 2001 and 2). The LPQC plans to hold the drive again in November of 2004.

National News: While the country was looking down Saddam's throat, the President signed away some of our freedom. Patriot Act II

Liberty: Get the T-Shirt...or the mug! LPNYer Jeff Bennett has created a Liberty Store just in time for your holiday shopping. Also see Rachel Mill's eBay shop--get your 2004 Ladies of Liberty calendar here.

December 15 is Bill of Rights Day Get more info about what you can do at JPFO, where they also have the Bill of Rights translated into 11 languages.

Help sponsor the dog sled taking the Bill of Rights to Nome..

Join us on the LPNY activism list to talk about next year's Bill of Rights Day events.

Bill to allow bars and restaurants to allow smoking Assemblyman Howard Mills has proposed to allow smoking in bars and restaurants who have a liquor license and pay an extra $100. See article in the Mid-Hudson News. Also, in NYC, there is talk of replacing the no-dancing-allowed-without-a-license Cabaret Laws with a noise-oriented ordinance and Nightlife Licenses. See the article at NY1.

MATRIX:REVOLUTIONS opens on Wednesday after Election Day. It's a perfect opportunity for libertarian outreach. Find others who have taken the Red Pill!

2003 NY Ballot Questions--Vote November 4th! First on the statewide ballot is Exclusion for Indebtedness for Sewage Facilities. Next is Elimination of Small City School Districts from Constitutional Debt Limitations. Richard Cooper, former LPNY Chair, urges NY Libertarians to vote no on both. About the first, he offered "I would say that it encourages more spendthrift behavior by small city school districts."

For NYC, there are three other questions. Gary Popkin writes, "Non-partisan elections at least give Libertarians (and Republicans) some chance to make it into the top two. If any particular candidate cannot make it into the top two in the open primary in September, then there would have been no point that candidate being in the general election anyway. With the proposed arrangement, we can all vote our conscience in September, show the size of libertarian sentiment, and then vote for the lesser of two evils in November. Under the current setup, we can vote only our conscience, once, and that in November. ... Question 4 on the city's procurement process has too many provisions, some of which could evidently be handled through the legislative process. Vote No, let the Council handle which provisions it can, and let the Mayor put to referendum only those provisions that require voter approval. Question 5 contains a number of provisions. The one that increses the power of the board on Conflicts of Interest is enough to get my No vote. All of our candidates for City Council have already felt the intrusive hot breath of that board. Don't give them any more power. Vote No on question 5."

However, Jim Lesczynski writes: "At Craig Milem's fundraiser Friday night, Mark Axxin brought up a good point in opposition to NYC's nonpartisan election proposal that I hadn't considered before. Under the proposal, there were will be an open "primary" election in September with all the candidates for local office. Only the top 2 finishers for each office would make it to the ballot for the general election in November. This would pretty much ensure that none of our candidates will ever make it to the general election in November. In fact, given the disproportion of D's to R's in NYC, we'll likely often see a choice between two D's in the general election."

Steve Isler writes, "Vote Yes!" and posts a flier to that effect (shift-click to download; you must be a member of that list to access the file)

1. Is a Libertarian who wants to get on the ballot for City Council better off needing 2,700 signatures (currently) or 900?

2. Once a Libertarian gets on the ballot is he/she better off on Column F, G or H (currently) or with a chance at Column A or B?

3. Nationally, are Libertarians more likely to be elected in partisan or non-partisan elections?

Also see Bob Armstrong's comments on the first question, published on the NYFFCB site

   more info at the League of Women Voters site

Activists Get Noticed: Protest Postcards, in the online edition of The Nation, mentions the Manhattan LP presence at the anti-PATRIOT Act protest in NYC October 25.

Enrollment Decision: As of September 18, the date of a decision from Judge Gleeson, we can enroll voters as Libertarians! more info

Print out a voter registration form (PDF format) compliant with the Honorable Judge Gleeson's September 18th decision, and start enrolling people as Libertarians today!

Downstate Candidates: Odd years in NY are years for local elections. We have three City Council candidates in NYC, and Gary Treistman is running for Woodstock Town Justice. Please help them out!

LP Candidates on the ballot in New York in 2003

Northeast Blackout: "[I]t's far more accurate to say that utilities were re-regulated under the sham reforms of the last decade," with no net decline in total government involvement. "It's as if the politicians are suffering from a mental power failure, to match the electrical one New Yorkers experienced," [LPNY Chair John Clifton] charged.

Other Libertarians, such as Buffalo area attorney James Ostrowski, also noted the oddness of blaming "deregulation" for the grid failure, considering that the transmission grid is the one aspect of the power system still firmly under government control. full LPNY Press release (also archived at Liberty for All)

John Clifton, LPNY chair, was also featured on NPR on the subject of the blackout on August 28.

Petitions: August 19 is the last day to sign petitions for our 2003 candidates. Sign a petition Against the Smoking Ban in NY State, or to Privatize Air Traffic Control. Coming soon: sign up as a Libertarian voter in NY, and then go forth and recruit! (The decision in Greens NYS v. NYS Board of Elections is expected soon...docket info for the case.)

Dottie-Lou Brokaw, a long-time activist for liberty, passed away suddenly on Sunday, July 13th. Condolences may be sent to her companion of 19 years, Peter Carl Zeissner, at T33 Mink Hollow Road, Lake Hill, NY 12448. A memorial get-together was held at her home on August 9th, and many Libertarians showed up. Dottie-Lou was widely known in our party for her infectiously positive attitude and her willingness to help fellow Libertarians get on the ballot. Please share your memories of her to help us celebrate her life and her passion for freedom.

The Libertarian Party of New York is intervening in Green Party of NYS vs. NYS Board of Elections (in support of the Greens, and for our own remedy for the same problems). Our third-party complaint can be found online here in PDF or WPD formats. Witnesses for the party will next appear in court on July 28th with our legal counsel, Chris Garvey.

The Libertarian Party of New York had its annual convention the weekend of April 26 at the Mohonk Mountain House, atop the Shawangunk Ridge, six miles from the town of New Paltz. During the business session, new officers were elected. At dinner, we were treated to a lecture by Dr. Thomas Szasz. A convention committee is being formed to plan the 2004 convention. Please give us your suggestions and let us know if you'd like to be on the committee.

Gulf War II The Libertarian Party of TN has two great web pages: one discussing the war and the other for Libertarians with family in the armed services. Other libertarians have created these websites: AntiWar.com, Libertarians4Peace, Non-interventionist.com, TruthAboutWar.org. LPNY member and former Gubernatorial candidate Chris Garvey has contributed a poem, War.

The Manhattan Libertarian Party held a controversial toy gun giveaway February 6 to protest a law that would outlaw ALL toy guns in the city (not just black or silver 'realistic'-looking toy guns, which are already illegal in NYC and Westchester County). The tragedy of the new bill proposed by City Council is that it gives police officers a ridiculous role and wastes their time confiscating toy guns from kids--when an LP member who grew up in 'el Barrio' and attended P.S. 72 in the '50s said that the cops used to give out toys to the neighborhood kids at Christmas--including toy guns--right from from the local precinct house. Like many laws against things that don't actually hurt people, this toy gun ban will probably be unfairly enforced in minority communities. We certainly don't want to see minority (or any other) kids getting shot--but neither do we want to see them being put through the system at even younger ages. This law will be just another tool to unfairly criminalize minority youth.

Feb 15: Anti-War demos around the World Libertarians gathered in Manhattan, along with at least 100,000 others, to protest the war against Iraq.

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