Update:  Delegates to the The National Convention chose as the official Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson.  Although a recent convert to the Libertarian Party, Mr. Johnson has excellent libertarian credentials.

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This convention promises to be memorable.  This is a presidential election year, so the Libertarian presidential candiate will be chosen at this gathering.  The list of hopefuls is long, and includes notable Libertarians such as our own LPSF member, Sam Sloan.  The following are the six featured in the LP News edition of April 2012.

Jim Burns:  "...Because of our knowledge and choices, we do have it within our power to bring us all Peace, Prosperity, and Progress."

R.J. Harris:  "I will...stop all unconstitutional federal spending and close all unconstitutional federal agencies."

Gary Johnson:  "I am more convinced than ever that the real majority today consists of individuals who not only want a government which spends less, but also does less.  Less management of our lives..."

Carl Person:  "We need to show voters through specific issues of importance to them (i.e., jobs, homes, education, business opportunities) that Libertarianism provides the desired solutions..."

Bill Still:  "We borrow from banks and central banks and thereby we have a nation that has lost its sovereignty.."

R. Lee Wrights:  "We can only make a difference if we're not afraid to offer a radically different answer to our nation's problems, not variations or modifications of the false solutions promoted by Democrats and Republicans.  

On March 13, 2012, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed on a first reading by a 6-5 vote an ordinance (“Safe San Francisco Civil Rights Ordinance”) amending the San Francisco Administrative Code by adding Section 2A.84 to: “1) set City policy regarding participation in federal counterterrorism activities; and 2) set parameters for Police Department participation in the activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and other counterterrorism activities; 3) urging the Chief of Police to amend or terminate the current agreement between the Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the Joint Terrorism Task Force; and 4) urging the Police Commission to direct the Chief to amend or terminate that agreement.”    In summary, this ordinance ensures that all members of our City police remain accountable to the citizens of San Francisco, and subject to the civilian oversight provided by the Police Commission and the Office of Citizen Complaints.

Why are accountability and oversight crucially important?  Increasingly Joint Task Terrorism Force agreements between the FBI and our City law enforcement relinquish local control in exchange for FBI assistance in intelligence gathering.  Increasingly agreements are made in secrecy, extra judicially.  Increasingly we are witnessing the federalization of our City law enforcement.  The “Safe San Francisco Civil Rights Ordinance” places restraints on this troubling trend.

The next step for this ordinance is a second vote by the Board of Supervisors, and Mayor Ed Lee's desk.  Under pressure from those who have chosen a little temporary safety over essential liberty, the Board is considering rewording the ordinance or scrapping it at its next meeting.  Mayor Lee has indicated he will veto this legislation as it now reads.  He will follow the guidance of Police Chief Greg Suhr, who has concerns that the ordinance will prevent the City police from getting tips on terrorism from the FBI.   We would prefer that Mayor Lee, and the Board of Supervisors, be guided instead by the California Constitution, by the oversight objectives of the Police Commission, by the access to appeals represented by the Office of Citizen Complaints, and by the ultimate right of all San Franciscans to be confident that their civil liberties will never be abridged.

We urge you to contact the ordinance sponsors, Supervisors Kim, Avalos and Campos, and encourage them to continue their efforts to pass this ordinance.  We urge you to contact Mayor Ed Lee and tell him not to veto this legislation.  Also we would like you to support the "Coalition for a Safe San Francisco" www.safesf.org , and its work publicizing the need for this ordinance.

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin.

This wasn't headline news, but should have been: In 2008, Deborah Vincent-James, former executive director of the Committee on Information Technology that qualified prospective city vendors, said in a court deposition that Ed Lee, then the city purchaser, told her to qualify a company called Government Computer Sales as a city contractor, after then-mayor Willie Brown had directed Lee to do an alternate evaluation process, according to a Feb. 14 article in the Chronicle.

The reason she was testifying about this is that the firm for whom Brown and Lee skirted the normal procedure for approving contractors, Government Computer Sales -- which had hired a former legislative colleague of Willie Brown's, Terry Goggin, as a lobbyist -- was subsequently found to have done no work on improving the city's building permit tracking system despite being paid $500,000 in fees for the job. Now it seems the head of the company has disappeared, after transferring a bunch of money to an offshore bank account.

The good news is that Lee has been called to testify as a witness at the trial that's arisen out of all this. Dare we hope that the seemingly teflon-coated Brown will be forced to do so as well? The bad news is that Vincent-James is dead, according to the Chron -- the article left unstated whether she died under suspicious circumstances or not -- the $500,000 is gone, and the City and two other companies that may or may not have been innocently caught up in the mess are suing and counter-suing. So we may never get the full story, and taxpayers will likely be on the hook for more legal fees.

But while the possibility of a sitting mayor having to explain his corruption under oath remains enticing, we should perhaps be more concerned with watching the current big pots of honey sitting around that look ripe for raiding by the corrupt.

Current Honeypot #1 is undoubtedly the multi-billion dollar Central Subway project. But at least that boondoggle is highly visible, having been a major point of contention during the recent mayoral campaign. With any luck it may yet be cancelled. Honeypot #2 appears to be the one that Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison wants to get his fingers into, namely the rights to control and develop a bunch of valuable property owned by the Port of San Francisco as part of the America's Cup deal. Fortunately, that too is attracting a lot of attention and controversy.

Significantly less well known is what may possibly be Honeypot #3 -- the "emergency communications network" that the Board of Supervisors just approved last week at a cost of $100 million. Apparently $50 million of the cost will be paid for with "free", use-it-or-lose-it federal funding, so of course the Board thought nothing of spending the money and letting the American taxpayers foot the bill. The obvious question of course is why it should cost $100 million to enable key people within our 49-square-mile jurisdiction to talk to each other in the event of an emergency.

But it gets better (or worse)...

The Libertarian Party of San Francisco elected its new leadership in January 2012.  The new Executive Committee wants to work with local libertarians to develop meeting formats, social events, outreach opportunities.  You will want to welcome these dedicated volunteers and share your thoughts with them.  Here is how:

• Drop in at our business meetings.
• E-mail any member of the Executive Committee with your questions, comments, or suggestions:  Click “Contact Us.”
• Sign up to our Yahoo Discussion Group to start or weigh in on discussions on libertarian subjects:  Just click the button on the task bar above.
• Sign up to our Yahoo Announce List to receive short announcements of our meetings and events:  Just click the button on the task bar above.
• Join The San Francisco Libertarian Party Meetup Group at www.meetup.com/the-LPSF,  or click the plugin to the left of your screen.
• Become a Friend on our Facebook Page:  Click the plugin "Find us on Facebook."

2011 changed the hierarchical paradigm.  “The Protester” was Time’s Person of the Year, and OWS took on the pepper spray and won.  Ron Paul, no longer “who?,” has put “libertarian” on the political table.  Gary Johnson, as a nationally-recognized name, will do the same for “Libertarian.”   This is an amazing opportunity for grass roots libertarians/Libertarians to be heard; and we Libertarians have been working for years on flipping the hierarchical paradigm in favor of the individual over the state.  Thus, in the spirit of the Libertarian mantra of individual liberty and individual responsibility, I hereby repost “People Over 35 Should be Dead.”  This anonymous hymn to the individual contains gems such as, “We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes…We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.”  In other words, we make the choice as to who is paramount, the individual or the state?  Best wishes for a great libertarian/Libertarian 2012!

 http://www.freedomradio.us/vof/humor-and-inspiration/466-people-over-35-should-be-dead.html

December 21, 2011, was the day of the Winter Solstice, when you celebrated that you survived the worst of winter.  Some who did not survive were remembered in San Francisco by the Coalition on Homelessness and Network Ministries.  We who did survive are either expressing best wishes for the Holiday Season or thinking Bah Humbug.   The Libertarian Party of San Francisco continues to work towards a City that believes the best way to help the most folks to survive and prosper is to unfetter and encourage entrepreneurs and small business.   May you enjoy and prosper.

The Occupy Wall Street movement (or Occupy, or OWS, depending on points of view on what the movement is attempting to accomplish) appears to be here for the long haul, and to have a chance of bringing about significant economic, political and social changes.  The inclusiveness of the movement allows for participation of libertarians, joining the Occupiers where there is common ground.  We at the Libertarian Party of San Francisco believe there is an additional reason for libertarian involvement in the movement – to offer solutions other than that of bigger and more intrusive government.

Although Occupiers are not in complete agreement as to their demands (or whether to have any demands at all), their overall message calls for jobs, educational opportunities, debt relief, reduction in the influence of corporations, and a more equitable distribution of wealth.   It would be difficult to argue against the desirability of any of these objectives!   The tools of implementation, however, do leave room for argument.  For example, instead of demanding that the government wield hefty minimum wages, libertarians might suggest removal of the infinite number of regulations that keep small business from thriving, competing, and hiring at higher wages.

In summary, we offer the following list indicating what in the Occupy movement we support and what we oppose.

Support:

1.  Engaging in peaceful freedom of assembly in public spaces.  Open, inclusive dialogue, and non-hierarchical decision making.

2.  Demanding an end to corporate welfare, corporate bailouts,  and the cozy relationship between Wall Street and Washington DC.

3.  Calling for abolition of the Federal Reserve Bank .

4.  Shrinking the military-industrial complex’s spending on endless wars.

Oppose:

1.  Destruction of private property.  Deliberate interference with commuters or blocking traffic

2.  Calling for tax increases (government forcibly taking and redistributing the people’s money).  Forcing non-government institutions to forgive loans to private individuals.

3.  Encouraging class warfare against the wealthy (many legitimately earned their money through hard work).

4.  Focusing on solutions that will result in a bigger, more intrusive government.