December 2015 - Lnc-business - Moellman Enterprises Email

Follow Up Reading For Your Flights Home
by Brett Bittner 28 Dec '15

28 Dec '15

To follow up on my comments regarding the membership model today, please take a look at this case study regarding a "radical" idea to change how we view membership in the Party: http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/scrapping-synagogue-dues-a-case-study/ **This message sent from my phone. Please excuse any typos.

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approved minutes from 12/7/15 and 12/11/15 EC meetings
by Alicia Mattson 27 Dec '15

27 Dec '15

Attached are the now-approved minutes from both the 12/7/15 and 12/11/15 Executive Committee meetings. Staff, please post to the website when you get a chance to do so. Alicia Mattson LNC Secretary

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Happy Holidays to everyone.....
by Vicki Kirkland 26 Dec '15

26 Dec '15

.....and a very Happy New Year!!!!!!! Vicki Kirkland

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Presidential Competition
by Scott L. 21 Dec '15

21 Dec '15

This looks interesting: http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2015/12/christina-tobin-to-lead-20 16-ballot-access-for-independent-presidential-candidate-rumored-to-be-jim-we bb/ Scott Lieberman

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23 year old becomes a State Representative
by Scott L. 19 Dec '15

19 Dec '15

23 year old beats 4 other candidates in a Republican Primary, and then goes on to win the General Election. She became the youngest woman to ever get elected to the Florida State House. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Sullivan_%28politician%29 http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/News/?NR=10765 If a woman can win a 5 candidate Republican Primary at age 23, I think it should be obvious that right now, Libertarians can win non-partisan City Council elections. And maybe even win a small number of contested partisan elections. Scott Lieberman

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report on Oklahoma visit
by Wes Benedict 15 Dec '15

15 Dec '15

I went to Oklahoma for two reasons: first, to help with the petition drive, but second, to get a closer look so I could decide if I thought we should just shut it down. We are spending about $2,500 a week there, and we're about to double that rate, so if we are going to cut our losses and end it, the sooner the better. My bottom line report to the LNC executive committee is that I'm confident we can ramp up our signature collection rate enough to finish the drive before the March 1 deadline, but we are going to have to exceed the $65,000 budget for Oklahoma by $15,000 to $25,000 to finish the drive. I'm recommending we try to finish the drive, but it wouldn't be so unreasonable to end it now if that's what you decide to do. Things have gone worse than we had originally planned. We initially hoped that we could do this drive for $2 per signature and that we could finish it by early fall. Recent petition drives in places like Arkansas have gone well, and with stories of petitioners fighting over turf and demanding the opportunity to work for us in some places, it seemed like we might actually be exceeding the market rate for signatures in some cases. But things have been harder than expected in Oklahoma.On October 27, we raised the rate in Oklahoma from $2 to $2.50 per signature, and even at that higher rate, finding enough people to work has been a challenge. Before we started the Oklahoma drive, stalwart libertarian petitioner Andy Jacobs warned us that petition drives for initiatives in other states in the fall would be competing with us for workers and would drive up our costs, so we needed to get it done over the summer. Unfortunately, we didn't start until the end of the summer.And while Andy did good work for us in Oklahoma for several weeks, he, as well as other petitioners, have indeed left Oklahoma for the higher paying non-Libertarian Party Petition work in other states that he warned us about. Although Andy is out of Oklahoma now, he does continue to stay interested in our progress and has been generous with suggestions for improvement. I'm sure he'd be happy to share his thoughts on our Oklahoma effort with any of you directly if you reach out to him. One suggestion from Andy is that we should pay more to entice petitioners back and possibly even pay $5 per signature for door to door petitioning. Our petitioners have had hard times finding good locations with lots of the kind of foot traffic that makes for productive petitioning. Door-to-door petitioning can give very high validity signatures, so the $5/signature rate for 100% validity is not so far off from $2.50 per signature for around 65% validity. In hind sight, I wish we had started this drive earlier. But I don't think right now we need to offer a higher pay rate (not that we could afford it, anyway). Instead, we need to focus on recruiting more petitioners, and we are already seeing success from that. Projections I've sent to Bill Redpath and Nick Sarwark show that with the new workers we've already recruited, we will likely finish the drive on time. But we also have several more petitioners saying they will probably be here soon to help, and if just a couple of those pan out, we could finish in January. I've heard lots of complaints from petitioners that it's been very hard to find good locations in Oklahoma to collect signatures. Petitioners have told us the grocery stores won't let them petition, public places like universities and festival grounds have been hostile, and the Oklahoma Driver's licensing places are too numerous to have significant people at any single location. My uncle lives in Oklahoma City. I visited him Saturday night briefly and was surprised when he told me he had seen petitioners lately at the grocery and post office and he assumed they were ours. I asked him exactly which locations because I wondered about the conflicting reports. He specified by name the Crest grocery, Buy For Less grocery, and post office near his home. I had hoped to find time to visit those stores myself to ask why they might be letting petitioners for other efforts work there but not libertarians (assuming that was the case). I didn't find time for that, but LPOK vice chair Tina Kelly has since told me that even she had been personally told by those chains she couldn't petition there, only to find out later that one of the petitioners she recruited somehow did get permission at a location of both chains. I think some of our stalwart petitioners like Andy are used to finding locations where they occasionally hit the jackpot and collect over 500 signatures on a single day. That makes up for the more common slow days. Petitioners who come from out of town usually have transportation and motel expenses they pay out of pocket. Locals don't have the travel overhead and we are getting a few locals working. They may be slower than someone like Andy, but they can go slower and still make the economics work. Locals can spend more time asking for permission at more places and can afford to get chased away from more locations. I personally saw the entire batch of petition forms. That was reassuring. In fact I pulled an all-nighter Monday and scanned all 2,000 sheets in case we need help remotely with validation, and because while often hearing anecdotes of certain petitioners routinely getting better validity than others, I wanted the opportunity to see for myself. LP vice chair Tina Kelly has been indispensable to this drive. Petitioners turn in signatures to her, she gives us the counts, we wire funds, she writes checks, and pays the petitioners. She also visits with the elections authorities to find out important rules and procedures for our petition drive. She has worked to get cooperation from a couple single-issue groups doing ballot initiatives. Although results from those cooperation efforts have been lower than hoped, we’ve gotten a couple thousand signatures from the cooperation. Tina's son recently put the Oklahoma registered voter database online in a searchable format to assist with validity checking. That will be hugely helpful. While Tina has done lots of work, it's hard for one person to do all that she does plus respond to all the complaints from current petitioners and inquiries from prospective petitioners, not to mention answering frequent questions about progress from Bill Redpath and me. We recently decided to have Paul Frankel help with some of the local management assistance. I had gone to Oklahoma with the expectation that I might recommend removing Paul to save money, but right now I think we should keep him at least for a month to make sure new petitioners have someone they can reach quickly any time of day. Later we can reevaluate the cost of having him there. Tina invited me and the LPOK officers and activists to a nice restaurant Tuesday night. I asked who would be a candidate if we got ballot access. Out of about ten people, at least 3 indicated interest, including one who was against attempting this daunting petition drive originally (because it’s so much work), but would run if we made it. I told the prospect who might be interested in US Senate I'd give $200 towards the $1,000 filing fee if he runs in 2016, and someone else quickly offered another $200. I think we’ll get several people to run for office in addition to having our candidate for President on the ballot if we get ballot access. (My plane, where I'm writing most of this note, just landed in DC. Final thoughts below from the office.) I’m not counting on legal help to make a difference in time for us. However, if our counsel or the Oklahoma ACLU is successful in time, of course that might make things easier. I’m also mindful of keeping alive the dream for 50 state ballot access, and the negative impact giving up in Oklahoma now might have. A Libertarian from Austin, Texas, Michael Chastain, donated $4,000 last week to help the Oklahoma petition drive. That’s in addition to the five thousand or so we raised online recently: http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/serious-help-needed-for-oklahoma-petition-dri… I rushed out to Oklahoma Saturday partly so I could be back in the office Wednesday to meet Mr. Chastain in person (he was visiting the D.C. area and was interested in visiting the headquarters today--Wednesday). I’ll have more good news about support from Mr. Chastain soon. The LNC-EC is schedule to meet Monday 12/7/2015, to decide whether or not to continue the LPOK drive. I’m sending this info to all of you know in case you’d like more information before that meeting. cc'ing Richard Winger. -- Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. *New address: 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314* (202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict(a)lp.org facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership

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approved minutes from 11/14/15 LNC Session
by Alicia Mattson 15 Dec '15

15 Dec '15

Attached are the now-approved minutes from the LNC session in Orlando on November 14-15. Staff, please post these to the website when you get a chance to do so. Alicia Mattson LNC Secretary

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Fwd: Re: Open Letter to Muslim Republicans
by Wes Benedict 15 Dec '15

15 Dec '15

Dr. Block has not agreed with our recent description of libertarianism. Some of you might be better equipped to weigh in on the topic than me. Feel free to contact Dr. Block directly. I'm forwarding as promised. https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/questions-answers-matters/ -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Re: Open Letter to Muslim Republicans Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2015 16:53:35 -0500 From: Wes Benedict <wes.benedict(a)lp.org> To: Walter Block <walterblock(a)business.loyno.edu>, info(a)lp.org, Nicholas Sarwark <chair(a)lp.org>, lauren.daugherty(a)lp.org <lauren.daugherty(a)lp.org> CC: Robert Wenzel <rw(a)economicpolicyjournal.com>, mark(a)garlic.com, Carla.howell(a)lp.org Dr. Block: Coming up with the perfect definition of libertarianism is above my intellectual capacity, and the times I've searched for the definition, I've found a variety of definitions. That's one reason I wrote a whole chapter on the issue, and gave various definitions from various sources. https://secure.piryx.com/donate/uO2ehmy0/libertarian/renewbookintro I'm going to forward your comments to our board. Some of them are on our publications committee as well as our platform committee and convention committee. They might have more thoughts on this issue. I think it would be entertaining and informative to have you and maybe 3 others on a panel at a lunch at our national convention where each of you have to submit a maximum one page definition of libertarianism in advance, each of you on the panel should get each others' definitions in advance, and then each of you debate the weakness or wrongness of the others' definitions. Of course if the whole panel agrees on the exact definition of libertarianism, count on me to quote it going forward. Thanks for all you do for liberty, and especially for your recent work helping to build interest in the Libertarian Party of Louisiana (even if they did go into civil war mode and squander quite a bit of your support). Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. *New address: 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314* (202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict(a)lp.org facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership On 12/15/2015 11:03 AM, Walter Block wrote: > > Dear LP: > > You’re still using the inexact “hurt people” rendition of > libertarianism. Why not change this, and become more accurate in your > description of this philosophy of ours? > > The point is, under libertarianism, we are indeed allowed to “hurt” > others. For example, by competing with them for customers, spouses, in > athletic contests, etc. Why not say, instead, “threaten or initiate > violence against” or “violate the rights of”? > > We don’t want to give a wrong impression of what libertarianism is all > about do we? Especially not publicly, and by leaders of the LP.Simply > pis the idea that every person ha > > Best regards, > > Walter > > Walter E. Block, Ph.D. > > Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics > > Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business > > Loyola University New Orleans > > 6363 St. Charles Avenue, Box 15, Miller Hall 318 > > New Orleans, LA 70118 > > tel: (504) 864-7934 > > fac: (504)864-7970 > > <mailto:wblock@loyno.edu>wblock(a)loyno.edu > > <http://www.walterblock.com/>http://www.walterblock.com/ > > <http://141.164.133.3/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.walterblock.com/p…>http://www.walterblock.com/publications/ > > <http://samesideentertainment.com/talent/dr-walter-block/>http://samesideentertainment.com/talent/dr-walter-block/ > > <https://iris.cba.loyno.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://www.facebook.c…>https://www.facebook.com/wblock2 > WalterBlock.com: https://twitter.com/WalterEBlock > Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/WalterEBlock > > Skype: Walter.Block4 > > If it moves, privatize it; if it doesn't move, privatize it. Since > everything either moves or doesn't move, privatize everything. > > *From:*Libertarian Party [mailto:info@lp.org] > *Sent:* Tuesday, December 15, 2015 9:03 AM > *To:* wblock(a)loyno.edu > *Subject:* Open Letter to Muslim Republicans > > December 15, 2015 > > Dear Muslim Republicans, > > I share your outrage and hurt at Donald Trump’s recent comments and > policy suggestions about Muslims. I share your outrage and hurt that > he still is polling well among Republicans. I share your outrage and > hurt that we should even have to discuss such matters. But obviously > we do. > > Freedom of religion is one of our most sacred American values, > protected by our Constitution. Never should someone be disparaged, > profiled, or have their rights infringed upon because of their > religious faith. Republicans like to talk a good game about our > Constitution but, clearly, many are making an exception when it comes > to religious liberty. This is quite sad and it is this kind of double > standard that has caused so many liberty-loving people to leave the > Republican Party and find a better home in the Libertarian Party. > > If you have not previously considered the Libertarian Party, I > encourage you to do so now. We are an extremely diverse group of > people who are passionate about liberty…about all rights, of all > people, all the time. We do not denigrate or disparage any group. We > respect the humanity of all people and their rights to make their own > decisions about their lives. Simply put: Libertarianism is the idea > that every person has the right to pursue happiness in any way they > wish as long as it doesn't hurt people or take their stuff. > > I know many of your families have fled repressive regimes abroad in > search of peace, prosperity, and liberty in the United States. I hope > you have found good things here. No country is perfect and recent > weeks have reminded us of that. But I maintain that, despite our > imperfections, the United States is one of the best places on the > planet for liberty-loving people. Our Constitution does protect your > rights, and it will continue to. And Libertarians nationwide always > will stand with you also, advocating your rights and the rights of all > people to live freely. > > Friend, if you find that the Republican Party continues to disparage > you, please consider a home in the Libertarian Party where we respect > all rights, of all people, all the time. > > Nicholas Sarwark > > Chair, Libertarian National Committee > > <http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=59142379&msgid=535057&act=F7FJ&c=…> > <http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=59142379&msgid=535057&act=F7FJ&c=…> > <http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=59142379&msgid=535057&act=F7FJ&c=…> > > <http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=59142379&msgid=535057&act=F7FJ&c=…> > > Paid for by the Libertarian National Committee > > 1444 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 > > Content not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. > > This message was sent to wblock(a)loyno.edu <mailto:wblock@loyno.edu> from: > > Libertarian Party | info(a)lp.org <mailto:info@lp.org> | The Libertarian > Party | 1444 Duke St. | Alexandria, VA 22314 > > > > Email Marketing by iContact - Try It Free! > <http://www.icontact.com/a.pl/144186> > > *Unsubscribe * > <http://app.icontact.com/icp/mmail-mprofile.pl?r=59142379&l=6765&s=F7FJ&m=53…> >

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Re: [Lnc-business] Open Letter to Muslim Republicans
by Scott L. 15 Dec '15

15 Dec '15

I look forward to the Chair's letter to Christian Democrats sharing their outrage and hurt at Barack Hussein Obama's recent actions and policies towards Christians. After all, we know that many of their families have fled repressive regimes abroad in search of peace, prosperity, and liberty in the United States, but that our Democrat President has refused to let them enter the United States or any other country that dares to grant them refuge. Scott Lieberman _____ <http://staticapp.icpsc.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/1115108/5a984495c8d3b67 a908412a8544687cb/image/png> December 15, 2015 Dear Muslim Republicans, I share your outrage and hurt at Donald Trump's recent comments and policy suggestions about Muslims. I share your outrage and hurt that he still is polling well among Republicans. I share your outrage and hurt that we should even have to discuss such matters. But obviously we do. Freedom of religion is one of our most sacred American values, protected by our Constitution. Never should someone be disparaged, profiled, or have their rights infringed upon because of their religious faith. Republicans like to talk a good game about our Constitution but, clearly, many are making an exception when it comes to religious liberty. This is quite sad and it is this kind of double standard that has caused so many liberty-loving people to leave the Republican Party and find a better home in the Libertarian Party. If you have not previously considered the Libertarian Party, I encourage you to do so now. We are an extremely diverse group of people who are passionate about liberty.about all rights, of all people, all the time. We do not denigrate or disparage any group. We respect the humanity of all people and their rights to make their own decisions about their lives. Simply put: Libertarianism is the idea that every person has the right to pursue happiness in any way they wish as long as it doesn't hurt people or take their stuff. I know many of your families have fled repressive regimes abroad in search of peace, prosperity, and liberty in the United States. I hope you have found good things here. No country is perfect and recent weeks have reminded us of that. But I maintain that, despite our imperfections, the United States is one of the best places on the planet for liberty-loving people. Our Constitution does protect your rights, and it will continue to. And Libertarians nationwide always will stand with you also, advocating your rights and the rights of all people to live freely. Friend, if you find that the Republican Party continues to disparage you, please consider a home in the Libertarian Party where we respect all rights, of all people, all the time. Nicholas Sarwark Chair, Libertarian National Committee <http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=59129194&msgid=535057&act=MB26&c= 1115108&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Flibertarians> <http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=59129194&msgid=535057&act=MB26&c= 1115108&destination=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FLPNational> <http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=59129194&msgid=535057&act=MB26&c= 1115108&destination=http%3A%2F%2Flp.org> <http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=59129194&msgid=535057&act=MB26&c= 1115108&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lp.org%2Fdonate%3Futm_source%3DiContact %26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3DLibertarian%20Party%26utm_content%3D2 0151214%2BGENPR%2BLetter%2Bto%2BMuslim%2BRepublicans%2B-%2Bv2> Paid for by the Libertarian National Committee 1444 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 Content not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. <http://staticapp.icpsc.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/1115108/a514d5c33e64e59 72cf60d185323493a/image/png>

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draft minutes of 11/14/15 LNC session
by Alicia Mattson 14 Dec '15

14 Dec '15

Attached are the first draft minutes from the November 14-15 LNC session in Orlando. Please note that comments from the LNC on the minutes are due by December 5. A brownie point opportunity is knocking... Alicia Mattson LNC Secretary

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