Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Why am I Running as a Libertarian?
By: Karen Kerin

For sixty-six years I have been a staunch republican, but over the last few years I have been astonished at how many office holders elected as republicans embraced a different philosophy. The ideal of less government, lower taxes and less regulation of our lives, appeared to fall by the wayside, when it seemed advantageous for a republican to sacrifice principles to stay in office. I did not come to this easily. It was the product of examining the votes of legislators in view of the enormous growth of the body of laws. The evidence is beyond dispute.

Click link below for full article:
http://www.karenkerin.com/174/why-am-i-running-as-a-libertarian/

We just received our official acceptance of the Certificate of Organization. We are now officially recongnized as a minor party in Vermont until the next reorganization cycle.

A big thanks to everyone who helped organize their towns and getting paperwork filed.

The new organization membership is located at the following page:
http://www.vtlp.org/organization

Five knowledgeable Vermonters will headline
Rx for Healthcare Reform
a program at the
Williston Central School Auditorium on
Tuesday, November 17th from 6:30-8:30pm.
The general public is invited.

At a time when national and state health care reform efforts have become the top item on the domestic policy agenda, the speakers will zero in on what these plans mean for our liberty, the quality of our health care, and the enormous costs.

The keynote speaker will be John McClaughry of the Ethan Allen Institute. He was a state senator at the time of Gov. Deans reforms in the 1990s, and before that a senior policy advisor in the Reagan White House. McClaughry will explain how the proposed national ?reforms? will steadily convert the health care sector of the economy into a wholly owned subsidiary of the federal government.

Other speakers will include EAI Director, William Sayre, a past board member of Porter Medical Center and a member of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors, Rutland attorney,  Steven James Howard, interim coordinator for the Vermont Campaign for Liberty, Dr. Robert S. Emmons, Burlington psychiatrist and adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont, and Jane Combs RN, of the Burlington Health and Rehabilitation Center. The moderator is Paul Beaudry of True North Radio.

This forum will include overviews of the various Federal and State healthcare reform bills, their economic impact, their constitutionality and legal implications, insurance reforms, ethical considerations, the impact of government regulations on health care providers, and preserving the quality of medical care and the doctor-patient relationship.

Speakers will provide valuable information followed by an hour long question/answer period. Citizens who attend this forum will leave with a better understanding of how proposed healthcare reforms will affect their lives.

The forum is cosponsored by the Ethan Allen Institute and Vermonters for Choice in Health Care. VCHC is a coalition of Vermont organizations created to educate the public on the key issues involved in health care policy. (vermonters4choiceinhealthcare@gmail.com)

Upcoming appearance in Vermont…

EVENT SPEAKER: John Tommasi

(http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php?name=Speakers&bio=240

EVENT TITLE: Presentation to Champlain College SSDP

SPONSORING CLUB: Champlain College SSDP

EVENT TYPE: presentation

EVENT DESCRIPTION/DETAILS: SSDP is new at this school. John will present on his experiences and focus on the economic angles as to why the drug war has failed and needs to be replaced with legalization. 40-45 minutes presentation followed by 15-20 minutes Q&A

EVENT LOCATION/DETAILS: Alumni Auditorium, Champlain College, South Willard Street, Burlington, VT – Parking is free on the weekends; closest parking lot is behind Bader Hall. Alumni Auditorium is #27 on this maphttp://www.champlain.edu/Documents/about_champlain/Campus-Map.pdf

EVENT DATE/TIME: Saturday, November 14, 2009, 2:00-3:00pm

EVENT COST to ATTENDEES: none

EVENT CONTACT NAME(S), POSITION, PH#, EMAIL: Eric Geller, eric.geller@mymail.champlain.edu, 603-759-8575 DAY OF EVENT EMERGENCY NUMBER: 603-759-8575

APPROXIMATE ATTENDANCE: unknown EQUIPMENT NEEDED: projector and screen EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE: projector and screen.

MORE ON LEAP:

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) is an organization comprised of cops, judges, prosecutors, prison wardens and others within the criminal justice community who have fought on the front lines of the War on Drugs but have come to believe that the War on Drugs is a colossal public policy failure. LEAP believes that America will never be ‘drug-free’ and that in order to keep our children safe and make our communities safer, we must consider alternatives. LEAP calls for a dramatic and completely different direction: America must end prohibition and replace it with real control over the manufacture and distribution of all drugs. LEAP believes prohibition must be replaced with regulation and some form of legalization.

LEAP is absolutely not pro-drug. LEAP wants drugs to be less available to children and more restrictive to adults, and LEAP wants to reduce crime and violence in our communities. Our cops know that it’s not the drugs themselves that cause these problems, but the illegal drug marketplace.

Lions, Kiwanis, and Rotary Clubs, prestigious universities, political groups from both the left and the right have all hosted LEAP speakers and provided almost entirely positive feedback. In 2009, LEAP has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist and on CNN and MSNBC. In fact just today, three of our speakers were featured on the NYT web site here: http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/a-new-course-on-medical-marijuana/

The Ethan Allen Institute presents…

Putting Vermont Back on Track
How the Power of Ideas Can Make Change Happen

Featuring: Lawrence Reed

Sheraton Burlington Conference Center
Thursday, October 15, 2009  – 5:30pm

Lawrence Reed is the founder and for twenty years President of Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy, long considered the most influential free-market state think tank in the nation. His address, part of the ongoing Sheraton Economic Series, will focus on how the ideas of individual liberty, private property, limited government and competitive free enterprise can be packaged to promote increased economic opportunity and prosperity for Vermonters. Reed is now President of the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington-on-Hudson NY. In the past twenty years, he has authored over 1,000 newspaper columns and articles, 200 radio commentaries, dozens of articles in magazines and journals in the U. S. and abroad, as well as five books. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today,  among many others. Reed?s most recent book is Striking the Root: Essays on Liberty. Reed holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Grove City College (1975) and an M.A. degree in History from Slippery Rock State University (1978). He taught economics at Midland (Michigan) Northwood University from 1977 to 1984 and chaired the Department of Economics from 1982 to 1984. He designed the university?s unique dual major in Economics and Business Management and founded its annual, highly-acclaimed ?Freedom Seminar.?  ”Larry Reed ’s commitment to principle, his passion for liberty, and his vast practical experience have made him a much sought after speaker on four continents. This is a program EAI members and all friends of liberty and prosperity will not want to miss.” – John  McClaughry, EAI VP

The Sheraton Economic Series is hosted by the Sheraton Burlington Conference Center and cosponsored by the Vermont Economy Newsletter, Vermont Business Magazine, Vermont Tiger, and the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce.

(Reservations not necessary; no admission charge.)