libertarianaction.com

I don’t know about any one else, but one of the big influences that transformed me into a libertarian was the reading about the average person who gets shafted big time by his or her greedy, uncaring, brutish government. Mike Snell (a.k.a. The Wine Commonsewer) writes about a particular heart-wrenching story that happened in late 1950’s Los Angeles when three entire neighborhoods — a thriving Hispanic community called Chavez Ravine — was displaced for, of all things, a friggin baseball stadium for the Dodgers.

Writes Mike:

Although the Ravine is well known today as the home of Dodger Blue, few remember the neighborhoods of La Loma, Bishop, and Palo Verde, which officially and forever vanished on May 8, 1959 when LA County Sheriff’s deputies kicked in the door of the Arechiga family home, and forcibly removed the last remaining family in Chavez Ravine from their residence of 36 years. An hour later, courtesy of a waiting bulldozer, all that remained was a pile of splintered kindling.

It seems that lately, eminent domain has become a theme here at LibertarianAction.com. For all the action items we’ve posted and the complaining about Kelo v New London, nothing quite brings the entire issue of eminent domain quite into focus as this story of a community wiped out…so grown men can play ball.

“Justice” David Souter broke the hearts of many freedom loving Americans when he decided that the notion of private property was a quaint artifact of our nation’s past. As previously reported here, the fine folk at Freestar Media are proposing the Lost Liberty Hotel to sit on land that “Justice” (and we use that word real loosely here) Souter currently owns.

Looks like he’s not the only person who wants to see that hotel built! WorldNetDaily is reporting that the town of Weare, New Hampshire is fielding calls from around the nation in support of building a hotel on Souter’s land…which would be taken by eminent domain, of course.

While we here at libertarianaction.com can’t condone the actual theft of anyone’s justly aquired property, we sure can support scaring the bejesus out of anyone who is so cruel and greedy as to forcibly take someone’s property way — or anyone who acts as their enablers. In order to give “Justice” Souter a good scare (and maybe teach politicians a lesson or two), we would like to encourage our readers and other libertarian activists to e-mail the city council of Weare, New Hampshire and support the Lost Liberty Hotel project. below are the names and e-mails of all city council members. He broke our hearts….now let’s break his. Heartbreak Hotel, anyone?

Laura Buono, Chair Person
lbuono@weare.nh.gov

Leon Methot, Vice-Chair
lmethot@weare.nh.gov

Heleen Kurk
hkurk@weare.nh.gov

Joseph Fiala
jfiala@weare.nh.gov

Donna Osborne
dosborne@weare.nh.gov

A special thanks to Chuck Muth’s News and Views for providing these names and addresses to activists across this great nation!

Sometimes, people come up with the coolest ideas….

First, it was the Lost Liberty Hotel and now this fun plan to protest the Kelo v New London ruling from Stephen Gordon, former Badarik for President Communications Director:

…we have the opportunity to act in a totally moral and lawful manner in order to express our discontent. Let’s throw some serious sand into the gears of the government machine. They have asked for real property, so let us send it to them.

What? Our homes? Tell us it ain’t so Stephen!

The people in the area in which I live are proud of their soil – as is the case in most other places. Perhaps this eminent domain issue may be remedied by providing the landgrabbers a lot of dirt – enough dirt so they won’t have to steal it from the poor and the elderly again.

Radio talk show host Neal Boortz recently stated, “All property isn’t dirt”. However, in this case, it is. Let’s give ’em some!

Oh, the joy! Overwhelming the scoundrels responsible for our loss of private property rights! For background on this plan and the addresses to send your “property”, go visit Stephen Gordon’s article, “If it’s property they want, it’s property they’ll get”.

It’s nice to see the Democrats are trying to do some good finally!

I received an e-mail notice about a worthy online petition whereby the Democrats are hoping to influence the Bush Regime, er, White House to end the occupation of Iraq NOW.

Worthy cause indeed.

Everyone of good conscience are welcome to sign this petition by signing here.

Cross-posted to Noninterventionist.Com

A couple of days ago, I sent out an e-mail notice that this site had undergone a drastic change in look and focus. This site was once home to the Libertarian Political Action Alliance. While it held some promise to activate and energize libertarians (regardless of partisan affiliation) to go out and do something, it was a lot of work for just one person –myself — to organize action items, design flyers, update the site and everything else that goes along with running an activist organization. As a result, I got burned out after a year and a half. I’m one of those people who like to do everything themselves, so burnout was an inevitability.

I still liked the idea of getting libertarians (especially those of the LP persuasion) off their butts and in the streets, so I had to think of another route…and it hit me: Turn libertarianaction.com into a blog format with multiple users who can all submit news and action items. Thus, the current version of libertarianaction.com was born!

Next question: Does the Libertarian Political Action Alliance still exist? Yes and no. This site is still home base for libertarians who wish to make a difference and hold back the state without getting permission from their partisan affilated “leaders”. Also, having the word “political” was a burden. It implied registering voters and the whole package that comes along with establishment politics. While it’s fine in some circumstances, I want this site to be non partisan and largely out of the reach of absolutely asinine election laws. So, we now have the “Libertarian Action Alliance”. It’s a shorter, punchier name and says “get out there and do something…anything”! We have a more street-level focus and we’re not afraid to ruffle some feathers if need be. We have no official leaders per-se, but we do consider ourselves “guides”. We hope that you will come by often. In the near future, we will have downloadable activist tools like brochures and flyers, citizen petitions and whatever else we can think of. Once we get more visitors and more content for this site, we may move from a blog-based format to a content managing site (PHP Nuke is promising). But that’s later down the road.

If you have ideas and suggestions, please leave a comment under this posting. You have to register, but it’s worth it to be a part of our team!

For Liberty and Freedom In Our Time,

–Gene Trosper

A few years ago, while perusing aimlessly through a used bookstore in Salt Lake City, Utah, I came across this intriguing title: “Rules for Radicals” by Saul Alinsky. Having a minor fetish for radical leftist books and literature (I adore my copy of “Do It!” by Jerry Rubin), I had to snatch it up immediately.

What a treasure this book is! Libertarians, whether they want to admit it or not, are radicals (limited government and shrinking the state are rather radical notions these days in the USA). I figured that the advice contained within Alinsky’s tome would provide useful to myself and fellow “radicals”. Having put his 13 Rules to practice on a number of occasions, I can vouch for their effectiveness.

I encourage every one who is concerned over our loss of liberty — and want to do something about it — to purchase a copy of Rules for Radicals. I’m sure it will give you plenty to think about and provide much in the way of creative ideas to effectively strike back at the evils of statism.

This book does have a decidedly leftist bent to it, so if you lean to the right, don’t be put off by the liberal rant here and there. The real reason to buy this book are the tactics Mr. Alinsky writes about. Those can be adapted toward the needs of any libertarian activist who wants to organize and be successful.

One of the strongest reasons to protect the Second Amendment and aquiring a means of personal self-defense was just validated today by the United States Supreme Court.

In a 7-2 opinion, the SCOTUS ruled that citizens do not have a consititutional right to police protection. This is really nothing new, since the court had ruled on this before.

Now, more than ever, individuals must take seriously the notion of self defense from violent attack. We simply cannot count on police protection, since they have absolutely no legal obligation to protect us.

The choice is clear: either depend on the police to help when faced with a life-thretening situation or become empowered to protect yourself and your loved ones from attack.

While the message of organizations like Gun Control Inc. or the “Million Moms” are understandable on an emotional basis –no one wants to see others killed and maimed — the reality is that if we can’t count on our “protectors”, then we must count on ourselves. That means learning self-defense techniques and learning to use guns in a safe, responsible manner. In addition, it is paramount to make certain our Second Amendment rights are not violated so we can continue to practice self-defense.

What can you do today?

Write, fax, e-mail or call your local, state and federal representatives. Tell them that due to today’s Supreme Court ruling (Castle Rock Colorado, v Gonzalez), we cannot reliably count on our local police to take action when it’s needed most. Tell them that due to this situation, it is vitally important that they do not vote to limit the Second Amendment. Our lives and those of our familes are too important to ignore.

There’s a lot of folks out there who seem to think that the very best thing they can do to help the future of this great country is to sign up to vote at the DMV, and then to become Party members and possibly show up at a few meetings. A few more think that griping about the current state of things, governmental or internal, is all they can do.

Unfortunately, that is akin to griping about the heat whilst a legion of leeches are slowly sucking you dry. Right now, that’s pretty much the situation. I am continually amazed that there are Liberty-lovers out there who seem to think that they don’t actually have to *do* anything.

Reality check. There’s few enough out there who have a real concept of Liberty. We need everyone who has a clue to get to work, before it’s simply too late. So, what difference do you make? Make a difference, today!

This past week has been particularly destructive to the quaint American notion of liberty. The scoundrels known as the United States Supreme Court recently dealt a deadly blow to private property rights — so the well placed within government and corporations can now seize and destroy homes with utter disregard to the owners. Makes me sick..and apparently others too. The wonderful people at Bureaucrash are organizing a nice little response to the recent SCOTUS ruling. I encourage everyone reading this to take a look and perhaps get involved. At the very least, write a letter to your local paper and sound off! We need an angry chorus of property owners who will proclaim “we will NOT stand for this!”