Florida Libertarians Call for Arrest of TSA Agents

A press release sent to TPID via email:

PALM HARBOR, FLORIDA - In a strongly-worded email sent today to all of Florida's 67 county sheriffs, the Libertarian Party of Florida demanded the arrest of TSA agents for violations of the U.S. and Florida Constitutions, and accused TSA agents of committing sexual battery. The letter reads as follows: 

Dear Sheriff,

On this day in 1776, our forebears founded this Nation by declaring their independence from an oppressive government. This beautiful and timeless document expressed the self-evident truth that all people have certain inalienable rights, upon which no government can infringe. They asserted that governments are formed among men to secure these rights, not to impede or restrict them.

The Libertarian Party of Florida is reaching out to you, and to all of Florida's 67 Constitutional Sheriffs. We, The People of the State of Florida must turn to you as our last line of defense against a federal government that is usurping authority and ignoring the rule of law.

I am referring specifically to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and their egregious violations of the United States Constitution, as well as the Florida Constitution and state law.

Every single day, TSA employees conduct electronic and bodily searches upon tens of thousands of Florida citizens and visitors at airports, and more recently at bus terminals, rail stations, and highways. They are searching the persons and seizing the effects of travelers without warrant or probable cause. Specifically, they are in blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads as follows:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

These TSA agents are also in clear violation of Article One, Section 12 of the Florida Constitution, which reads as follows:

"Searches and seizures.— The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, and against the unreasonable interception of private communications by any means, shall not be violated. No warrant shall be issued except upon probable cause, supported by affidavit, particularly describing the place or places to be searched, the person or persons, thing or things to be seized, the communication to be intercepted, and the nature of evidence to be obtained."

In addition, one of the methods by which the TSA agents conduct these searches, referred to as the "Enhanced Pat Down," is clearly within the definition of felony sexual battery, as codified in Florida Statute 794.011.

I would like to point out that this statute clearly defines that it is a first degree felony when sexual battery is committed by a law enforcement agent in paragraph 4(g), which reads:

"When the offender is a law enforcement officer, correctional officer, or correctional probation officer as defined by s. 943.10(1), (2), (3), (6), (7), (8), or (9), who is certified under the provisions of s. 943.1395 or is an elected official exempt from such certification by virtue of s. 943.253, or any other person in a position of control or authority in a probation, community control, controlled release, detention, custodial, or similar setting, and such officer, official, or person is acting in such a manner as to lead the victim to reasonably believe that the offender is in a position of control or authority as an agent or employee of government."

As Sheriff, you have the absolute duty to enforce the law uniformly and without prejudice. You are, at best, engaged in selective enforcement by choosing to further ignore these flagrant violations of federal and state law. At worst, you are complicit.

If you have TSA agents within your county that are violating the law, then you must act. Warn the TSA agents that they are subject to arrest if they continue to violate the law. Should they continue, then you must begin making arrests.

We urge you to remember the oath you took to support, protect and defend the Constitution of both the State of Florida and the United States of America. On behalf of all Floridians, the Libertarian Party of Florida calls on you to do exactly that.

We turn to you, our Constitutional Sheriffs, to enforce the law in accordance with your sworn duty.

Sincerely,
Adrian Wyllie, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Florida

Australian Green Party Leader Calls for Global Parliament

From UNPA:

In a speech at the National Press Club on Wednesday, the leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Bob Brown, voiced support for the creation of a global parliament. As the Greens control the balance of power in the Australian Senate, the Green’s position will potentially impact on government policy.

“The Howard government backed George W Bush's invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in the cause of democracy”, Senator Brown said, “so why shouldn’t we now join vigorous moves in Europe and at the United Nations for a global people’s assembly based on one person, one vote, one value?” Such a global parliament, that according to Senator Brown “could be right here in Australia”, “would tackle international questions like nuclear proliferation, currency speculation, marine ecosystem destruction and those billion people who could be fed and literate if only a tenth of global military spending was sent to their assistance.” . . .

OH: Green Party May File Suit Against Discriminatory Ballot Access Law

From La Prensa:

Ohio’s Green Party intends to file a lawsuit challenging an election reform bill recently passed by the state legislature that the group claims could mean the end of minority political parties in the Buckeye state.

The bill is prompting Green Party of Ohio co-chair Anita Rios to run for Toledo City Council this year, before the party may lose its political clout. Sean Nestor also is a Green Party candidate seeking a city council seat.

“Whether the State chooses to outlaw us or not, we will continue to fight for what’s right,” said Ms. Rios. “Our fights to end nuclear power, protect workers' rights, and help minorities and women are too important to let the Republicans and Democrats stop us, just because they are afraid of a little competition." . . . 

Organized Opposition to Microsoft PowerPoint in Switzerland

From CIO:

Many people dislike PowerPoint, Microsoft's ubiquitous application for creating business presentations, but few would take a political stand over it. However, that's exactly what Switzerland's Anti-PowerPoint Party (APPP) seeks to do -- along with making a bit of money.

According to the APPP, the use of presentation software costs the Swiss economy 2.1 billion Swiss francs (US$2.5 billion) annually, while across the whole of Europe, presentation software causes an economic loss of €110 billion (US$160 billion). APPP bases its calculations on unverified assumptions about the number of employees attending presentations each week, and supposes that 85 percent of those employees see no purpose in the presentations . . .

The APPP is seeking support for a national referendum to ban the use of PowerPoint and other presentation software in presentations throughout Switzerland. It also plans to present candidates for national elections in October . . .

Independence Day

Declare Your Independence:

Communist Party Endorses Obama and the Democrats for 2012

From Communist Party Chair Sam Web at People's World:

Does it make any difference, from the standpoint of the class and democratic struggles, which party gains political ascendency?  Some - though not the labor movement nor other mass organizations of the American people - say no, it doesn't.  Some even go a step further and say a Democratic victory creates popular illusions, which in turn weaken the people's struggles. And the only way out of this vise is to form a third party now.  Communists don't agree with either one of these views.

In our view, the differences between the two parties of capitalism are of consequence to class and democratic struggles.   Neither party is anti-capitalist, but they aren't identical either. Differences exist at the levels of policy and social composition. And despite the many frustrations of the past two years, the election of Barack Obama was historic and gave space to struggle for a people's agenda . . .

Now that doesn't mean that we give up our advocacy of an independent people's party, but we also understand that its formation is dictated by concrete political realities and strategic necessities. . . . We don't have any illusions about the Democratic Party, but we don't have any illusions about the Republican Party either. Furthermore, we are also aware of the undeniable fact that no other party besides the Democratic Party stands a chance of beating the GOP next year.

For Democrats and Republicans, Failure is Success

From Ezra Klein, on debt ceiling negotiations:

What the two parties are really doing is trying to position themselves politically to survive the consequences of their failure. We don’t yet know if we’ll get to the point where the market will panic, but it could. We’re very likely to get to the point where we have to stop funding certain government services, which could mean as little as delaying payments to military contractors and hospitals or as much as halting Social Security checks. Either way, the public is likely to ignore the political breakdown until the consequences begin. At that point, both parties are hoping they will have framed the debate such that the electorate’s fury falls squarely on the other’s shoulders . . . .

NY: Greens See Influence in Passage of Gay Marriage Bill

A letter from the New York Green Party Co-Chair to the Green Party of Monroe County:

The New York State Senate gave final approval Friday night to legalize same-sex marriage. A big thank you and congratulations to everyone who help make this change including countless Greens.

In the past few months The Green Party of Monroe County has been active advocating for the passage of this bill through lobbying state Senators and state Assemblyman, phone banking, hand delivery literature, and of course attending rallies.

For the Green Party this journey started a very long time ago, legalizing same-sex marriages has been in the Green Party's platform since it's inception. Over the years we have been steadfast in our call for marriage equality, and full LBGTQ rights.

On February 27, 2004 our advocacy turned into real action when Jason West, the first Green to be elected mayor in New York State, began performing marriages of same-sex couples outside the village hall in New Paltz. Mayor West was on the Rachel Maddow Show, the day before this historic legislation was past, to talk about marriage equality in New York, and what role his actions had in moving the issue to the forefront on political debate.

Alison Duncan, the 2006 Green Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New York and the first openly gay candidate for a gubernatorial office in New York, toured the state speaking on a wide range of LBGTQ issues, and pushing marriage equality in the political discourse here in New york.

Today I thank Mayor West, Alison Duncan, the founders of the Green Party, and the countless Greens and the countless New Yorkers, and advocacy groups that helped change happen in New York. Today we celebrate, tomorrow we continue to fight for equal rights for all.

-Jason Nabewaniec
Co-Chair of the Green Party of the United States

CA: Obama's Endless War Policy Drives Lifelong Dems to Greens

A letter to the editor of the Napa Valley Register:

I have been a registered Democrat all of my life (the first time I voted in 1960 was for JFK) but today I went down to the county offices and re-registered for the Green Party.

The latest decision of the White House to reduce the almost 100,000 troops in Afghanistan by a mere 10,000 is the final blow that has been weakening my faith in the present regime.

Exactly one year before he died, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke out against the Vietnam War at the Riverside Church in New York City and alienated some of his supporters who thought he should concentrate mainly on the Civil Rights movement.

He said, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursue this self defeating path of hate.” . . .

NY: White Runs for City Council as Green

From 13 WHAM:

Saying "we need more", Alex White announced he is running for City Council in the South District against political veteran Adam McFadden.

"I have nothing against Adam McFadden," he says.  "We need more, more pressure, a better voice, and more vision of how we can get there."

White who will run on the Green Party line is no stranger to elections.  He has mounted several city wide campaigns most recently running for Rochester Mayor in the special election last March.  He was defeated by Thomas Richards, a democrat, but received nine percent of the vote.

CT: Supremes Refuse Greens

From the Washington Post:

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from the Green Party of Connecticut challenging state requirements for third party candidates to qualify for public campaign funds. The justices did not comment Tuesday in refusing to disturb a federal appeals court ruling in favor of the state.

Liberal Blog Calls for Open Debate and Discussion with Libertarians

From the Angry Bear blog:

Here at Angry Bear, we've had a number of posts on LIbertarians over the years. Inevitably, someone writes to tell us we're misrepresenting Libertarians... even when we're quoting well known libertarians.

So... if you are libertarian consider this an invitation. Send me one to three paragraphs on what it means to be a libertarian or what libertarianism is. Or put it in comments. (I beg the indulgence of non-libertarians to please not put up comments of their own.) If you feel what you are writing about applies particularly to one or another strain of libertarianism, please make that clear. . . . .

Dan Reale, the Chairman of the Connecticut Libertarian Party, has already responded:

Libertarians oppose the initiation of force to promote social or political goals. We acknowledge that a "right" is a power, faculty or ability inherent to ownership and incident upon another. This applies to both to your property and yourself, as you own both.

This also applies to what people myopically characterize as "economic", "civil" or "social" rights, as if the principle is somehow different or distinct. Rights function on the same premise no matter who owns the property in question. If the action of the property owner (as in the person with the corresponding rights inherent to that ownership) would take action that would risk damage to property, infringe the rights of others or limit the rights of others, that person taking such action needs to obtain (or contract for) permission.

Libertarians are minarchists. We believe that government's only function is to protect individual rights . . .

AZ: Tucson Greens Reach Out to Local Liberals

From the Tucson Citizen:

Now that the dust (dust storm?) has settled, we know who is qualified to run for Mayor of Tucson — only Democratic attorney Jonathan Rothschild, and two Green Party candidates — Dave Croteau and Mary DeCamp.

Both Green Party candidates will be at The Shanty on Sunday June 26, 6 p.m. to talk to the so-called “liberals” of Drinking Liberally about why they are running for Mayor, and the Green Party primary on August 30. Independents can vote in the Green Party primary, but need to inform the Tucson City Clerk’s office (520-791-4213) if they want a Green ballot by July 16, 2011.

Politics by Numbers

From Robert Peck at Constitution Party News:

Real leaders don't lead by consensus. Real leaders lead with the courage to do what is right and what is necessary whether it's popular or not. Who wants to follow a general who stops in the middle of the battle to ask the troops what they think and take a poll to make sure he's doing 'the popular thing.' America needs leaders who are ready and willing to say “Damn the popularity polls, I'm going to do what I have to in order to save my country.”

Ultimately the responsibility comes home to roost with us, the voting public. Do we have the courage to act on our stated convictions? Will we raise up, support and vote for statesmen who are committed above all, to defending our God-given rights, constraining government to its Constitutionally prescribed limits and adhering to sound fiscal policies that will deliver future generations from the bondage of crushing national debt? Or will we continue to give the precious, empowering virtue of our vote to politicians who seek popularity and reelection and who will decide the future our great nation on the basis of opinion polls.

German Green Party Calls for Study of Hazardous Sex Toys

From the Herald Sun:

GERMANY'S Green party have asked for a government investigation into high levels of potentially dangerous chemicals in sex toys.

"Consumers must be protected when it comes to sexual health. Feigned embarrassment or false taboos should not prevent information getting out and checks being done," MP Volker Beck said yesterday.

The party wants Chancellor Angela Merkel's government to investigate legal limits to the levels of certain chemicals in dildos, vibrators and other sex aids and announce plans to reduce risk . . .

UK: Pirate Party Petitions against Digital Economy Act for Internet Freedom

From the UK Inquirer:

THE UK PIRATE PARTY is pushing voters to support an early day motion in parliament that could repeal some of the worst parts of the Digital Economy Act.  Tabled yesterday, the motion is backed by nine MPs and addresses plans to disconnect internet users suspected of illegally downloading copyrighted material.

The UK Pirate Party has consistently fought against the Act, and has seized on this latest opportunity to take it out.  "From the outset we have been vocal critics of the Digital Economy Act. The Act was forced through in the dying days of a discredited parliament and survived a judicial review. It has seen popular opposition and objection from business, it has been rejected by those who it will have an impact on as well as those who must enforce it," wrote Loz Kaye, the leader of the Pirate Party in a call to arms to voters.

"The Law now is still as bad as now as when it was first proposed. There is still hope though. This law is being challenged again."

Friedman: We Need a Third Party

From Tom Friedman at the NYT:

We need to do four things at once: spend, cut, tax and invest. And unless we do all four at once we’re not going to break out of our slow decline. But to do all four at once will require a new hybrid politics, which does not conform to the political agenda of either major party . . . 

Maybe it is just my friends, but I find more and more people completely disgusted by this situation and looking for a serious Third Party candidate who could run in 2012 and deliver the shock therapy to the corrupt, encrusted, two-party duopoly now running the show in America.

Such a Third Party would have a simple agenda: 1) Inject a short-term stimulus. 2) Enact Simpson-Bowles. 3) Shrink our presence in Afghanistan. 4) Raise automobile mileage standards. 5) Impose a gasoline tax to pay for a massive increase in government-supported scientific research and a carbon tax to pay for new infrastructure and stimulate clean-power innovation.

Do I think such a Third Party can win in 2012? Not likely. But it doesn’t have to win to be effective. If such a party attracted substantial voters on such a platform, it would shape the agendas of the Republicans and Democrats. They would both have to move to attract these voters by changing their own platforms and, in so doing, might even create a mandate for the next president

PA: Libertarians Get the Runaround from Clueless Democrat-Republican Bureaucrats

From the Times Leader:

The head of the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party has issued a release blasting Luzerne County Election Bureau Director Leonard Piazza and the state election office for failing to provide written verification on the type of paperwork needed for the party’s candidates to get on the November ballot.

The confusion stems from the party’s new designation as a minor political party in the county, based on the vote tallies of Libertarian candidates in the 2010 election. Every year, the state requires counties to certify political parties – the major parties and any minor political parties, Piazza said. That certification was submitted around February without listing the Libertarian Party as a minor party, he said.

Libertarians met with Piazza in March and pointed out that the party should be designated a minor political party in the certification based on the election results, and Piazza said he concurred. Piazza said he amended the certification adding the Libertarian Party and submitted it to the state last month . . .

But Pennsylvania Libertarian Party Chairman Lou Jasikoff said a state election legal adviser contacted him and informed him that a different document known as a political body nomination paper might be required for signatures gathered by Libertarian candidates before the amended certification was submitted to the state. Political body nomination papers are used for candidates from parties that are not designated minor political parties by a county, Jasikoff said . . .

It's Time to End the Failed War on Drugs

From the Libertarian Party:

June 17, 2011 is the 40th anniversary of America's War on Drugs. Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle issued the following statement today:

"On June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a 'War on Drugs,' which has become a relentless violation of the lives and property of Americans, including many who have never taken illegal drugs. These violations continue under President Barack Obama, an admitted former cocaine user who has shown no hesitation in throwing people into prison -- a punishment he might have suffered had he been caught. Moreover, although promising to respect medical marijuana use in states where voters have approved it, the Obama administration has already conducted close to 100 raids on patients, growers, and compassion centers in those states.

"America's first experiment in prohibition involved alcohol, and is widely recognized as a failure. Approved in 1919, Prohibition I led to a steady rise in both alcohol usage and violent crime. The murder rate rose 50% between 1919 and 1933, peaking at 9.7 murders per 100,000 population in 1933, when the country finally decided enough was enough. Immediately after the repeal of Prohibition I, gangsterism went into a swift decline, with all of the major gangs disappearing within 18 months, and the murder rate dropping every single year for more than a decade.

"Prohibition II -- the War on Drugs -- has been another tragedy. We applaud the efforts of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an organization of current and former police, prosecutors, judges, DEA agents, and others, which issued a 20-page report this month detailing the tragic results of this misguided crusade, entitled 'Ending the Drug War: a Dream Deferred.'

"In their report, LEAP documented some of the measurable costs: over a million people arrested each year, a trillion dollars spent, and drug gangsterism at a level that dwarfs its alcohol equivalent and which has led to a bloodbath in Mexico that is spilling over into the United States. Not because of drugs, but because of drug laws. And over 120 million Americans have used illicit drugs: only the most deluded observer believes the laws have curbed drug abuse, and only the cruelest believes that 40% of the American population belongs in prison. No wonder 67% of police chiefs say the War on Drugs is a failure.

"Ultimately, of course, this tragedy is the result of our government's refusal to allow people to engage in peaceful choices as to what they consume . . .

Wikinews Interviews Libertarian Presidential Candidate R. Lee Wrights

From Wikinews:

R. Lee Wrights, a candidate for the U.S. Libertarian Party's presidential nomination, took some time to speak with Accredited Wikinews Reporter William Saturn about his presidential campaign and positions on political issues.

Wrights, a native of North Carolina, is an activist and lifetime member of the Libertarian Party who currently serves as the editor of several Libertarian publications. He previously worked as a medical technician inthe United States Air Force and earned degrees in History and Journalism at Willmar College.

He is currently being challenged for the nomination by National Guard officer R.J. Harris, radio host Jim Duensing, former Nevada Libertarian Party chair Jim Burns, marketing executive Roger Gary and attorney Carl Person. 2008 Vice presidential nominee Wayne Allyn Root is also expected to make a run . . .