Meeting of 13 July, 2013

Libertarian Party of San Francisco

Minutes of the monthly meeting held July 13, 2013 at the San Francisco Main Library

Members Present: Phil Berg, Marcy Berry (Vice-Chair), Michael Edelstein, Aubrey Freedman (Chair), Jawj Greenwald, Leslie Mangus (Treasurer).

Guest: Antti Petajisjo

 

Activism Reports

We went round the table reporting on blows we'd struck for freedom in the past month. Marcy Berry and Aubrey Freedman spearheaded efforts on the Pride booth. Marcy also wrote a lot for the website, and Aubrey had a successful day setting up an outreach table at UN Plaza on July 4th for a "Restore the 4th" rally on 4th amendment snooping and privacy issues. As usual: Michael Edelstein proselytized, and lent the security guard at his building a libertarian book that the guard liked so much he bought his own copy; Les Magnus wrote letters to the editor (getting a response to one about CCSF's loss of accreditation); Phil Berg educated himself on libertarian issues; and Jawj Greenwald, on holiday in England, did little, but managed to pin a "Make Trade Not War" button on the US judge who sits on the WTO's appellate panel.

 

Announcements

(for more detailed and timely notice of events, see “Bay Area Events” section of the website, www.lpsf.org)

A Freedom and Entrepreneurship reception and panel discussion promoting libertarian enterprise (featuring Reese Jones, Matt Kibbe and Barbarta Kolm) will be held 6-9:30 pm Monday July 15 at Infinity Towers, 333 Main Street.

The Golden Gate Liberty Revolution's monthly meetup will be held 7-9 pm Monday July 15 at the Moksha Life Center, 405 Sansome St.

The Final Plan Bay Area Meeting, a joint meeting of the Metropolitan Transport Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments will be held from 6:30 pm Thursday July 18 at the Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway in Oakland. While public comment is unlikely to make any difference at this point, opponents of the plan are urged to turn out in force to make their presence felt at this final meeting.

Michael Edelstein will talk on "Personal Freedom in One Lesson" in Vancouver on July 27th as part of a Capitalism and Morality conference.

The Bay Guardian weekly has changed hands, and Aubrey Freedman and Les Mangus encouraged us to respond to the new editor's request for reader input urging him to pursue in-depth reporting on topics of interest to libertarians.

 

Treasurer’s Report

Les Mangus reported that we have $3502.72 in the bank, including $155 in the recently established outreach fund.

 

Website Report

Marcy Berry has been working diligently on the website. She reported that the Paypal button has never been used for donations, and it was agreed that a Bitcoin donation option would not be added unless and until she becomes proficient at technical and security upgrades. It was agreed that, while the front page would be limited to local issues in accordance with our “think globally, act locally” policy, we might elsewhere include reports on national and global issues. As usual, she solicited contributions of articles.

 

Nullify NDAA Update

AB 351, the California bill to nullify California enforcement of the indefinite detention clause of the NDAA that grew out of a local resolution that we got the SF Board of Supervisors to sponsor, passed the Assembly (albeit stripped of its penalty clauses). It will have a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on August 12^th.

 

Pride Booth

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision upholding gay marriage, this year’s Pride weekend drew a huge and celebratory crowd. Our booth was well-staffed and well-attended, with 9 helpers (including some former Ron Paul activists re-formed into the Golden Gate Liberty Revolution). It was moved to a new site, in the middle of the Plaza next to PETA animal right activists (who upstaged us with scantily-clad brochure distributors, if I heard right –ed.). We administered our world’s smallest political quiz to the crowds and provided a photo op with a lifelike (fully-clothed) Wiki-Leaks hero Bradley Manning cut-out (arranged by Phil Berg). And we raised $14.16!

 

Cow Palace Gun Show

We decided to expand our outreach efforts to the Gun Show to be held at the Cow Palace September 14^th and15^th. We haven’t targeted this constituency before, even though it scores at the top of the libertarian scale on our political quiz.   It was unanimously agreed that we would staff a table both days (with help from fellow-travelers at Golden Gate Liberty Revolution as needed during our Saturday afternoon meeting). If we cannot get this or another group to share the expected $200 cost of a booth, Aubrey agreed to pay for any shortfall after applying the $155 in our outreach fund and any donations received during the event.

 

Ballot Measures for November Local Elections

Aubrey reported that the deadline for submission of November ballot measures had passed with only two local measures being advanced, one over competing development plans for a Washington Street waterfront site, and one authorizing the City to negotiate AIDS drug prices.   We agreed that neither are good issues for us to get involved in.

 

Plan Bay Area Civil Grand Jury Complaint

Marcy and Aubrey circulated materials and drafts of a complaint that Heather Gass is submitting to all Bay Area counties involved in Plan Bay Area in a last-ditch attempt to promote opposition by getting civil grand juries to investigate the matter. All members are urged to submit individual complaints to the San Francisco grand jury. Complaints must be non-partisan and should be submitted on a form to be found on the SF civil grant jury website as soon as possible, since this year’s juries are newly-empanelled and are now be picking their topics for investigation.   Those who feel they don’t have enough background to recommend issues for the grand jury to raise are invited to go to the www.freedom.advocates.org website and use any of its extensive materials.