The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the U.S. The Libertarian party is dedicated to strictly limited government, a pure free market economy, private property rights, civil liberties, personal freedoms with personal responsibilities, and a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace, and free trade. Libertarians of South Central Kansas (LSOCK) are an affiliate of the Libertarian Party of Kansas (http://www.lpks.org/) We meet every Tuesday night (except holidays) from 5:30 to 7:00 pm at Cathy's Westway Cafe located at 1215 W. Pawnee (just west of Seneca Street) in Wichita, Kansas. All who support personal responsibility and individual liberty are invited to attend!
LPKS/LSOCK P.O. Box 2456 Wichita, Kansas 67201
1-800-335-1776

Friday, March 28, 2014

From Our Friend In Liberty, John Todd

AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY--KANSAS 

Wichita Area Chapter Meeting

Tuesday, April 8, 2014
6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Central Branch Wichita Public Library
223 S. Main (Meeting Room)
Wichita, Kansas 67202

Bob Weeks
Citizen Activist and writer
wichitaliberty.org
 “How to use Facebook for activism”   

Presentation will be integrated with group discussion.

Bring your laptop if you need hands-on instruction. In order to connect to the library Wi-Fi system you will need a library card. Please complete your connection prior to the meeting start time.  

For additional information please contact:

John Todd, Wichita AFP volunteer coordinator

Or

Susan Estes, AFP Field Director, Kansas

The Kansas Chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP-KS) is committed to advancing every Kansan's right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP-KS is an organization of grassroots citizen leaders who engage in spreading the message of fiscally responsible government, free market ideals and regulatory restraint to policymakers on the local and state levels.


Wednesday, March 26, 2014

National LP News

Table of Contents:

Libertarian Tonie Nathan, first woman in U.S. history to receive an electoral vote, dies at 91
Tonie Nathan 1923-2014Theodora "Tonie" Nathan, the 1972 Libertarian Party candidate for vice president, passed away on the morning of March 20, 2014, at the age of 91.
Nathan was a charter member of the national Libertarian Party, which was founded in 1971, inspired largely by the philosophical vision of Ayn Rand. At the first Libertarian Party presidential nominating convention in 1972, she was selected to run for vice president with Libertarian presidential candidate John Hospers.
Republican Virginia elector Roger L. MacBride, who later switched his affiliation to the Libertarian Party and became the party's 1976 Libertarian presidential nominee, chose to vote for Hospers and Nathan rather than Nixon and Agnew, making Nathan the first woman in U.S. history to receive an electoral vote in the Electoral College — ahead of Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. She was also the first Jewish person in America to receive an electoral vote and to gain a nomination to run as vice president.


Take the poll: What is the biggest benefit of a broad-based tax cut that forces substantial reductions in government spending?
A substantial, broad-based tax cut that results in substantial reductions in government spending can yield a number of benefits.
Which one is the most important with the widest impact?


MintPress reports Libertarians are redefining American politics
Big Government biggest threat to future of U.S.From a February 25, 2014 article in MintPress News:
“With an historically high 42 percent of Americans identifying themselves as independents as of January, the United States is becoming a nation increasingly not served by either the Republican or Democrat label. According to a December 2013 Gallup poll, 72 percent of all Americans believed that Big Government is a bigger threat to the United States than Big Business (21 percent) or Big Labor (5 percent).
“‘As the views of Americans, and especially young voters, converge with the Libertarian platform, we are attracting more votes than the party has ever seen,’ Carla Howell, political director of the National Libertarian Party, told MintPress News. ‘Over 15,000,000 votes were cast for Libertarians in 2012. The Robert Sarvis for governor campaign in Virginia last year garnered 6.5 percent of the vote, the highest vote total for a candidate who was neither a Democrat nor a Republican in a southern state in over 40 years. His vote among those aged 18-29 stood at 15 percent.’”


Hear more candidates on Libertarians Working for You radio show
Listen to the archived shows of 2014 Libertarian candidates discussing key topics and why their Libertarian solutions will make life better for everyday voters.
On education:
Sharon Hansen, running for U.S. Senator in Illinois
Steven Newton, running for the Delaware House of Representatives, District 22
On avoiding war and keeping America safe:
Rob Lapham for U.S. House in Texas and Bill Slantz for U.S. House in Missouri
On creating jobs, minimum wage and taking care of the poor:
Adrian Wyllie for Govenor of Florida
Robert Sarvis for U.S. Senator in Virginia
On making communities safe and the right to self-defense:
Gigi Bowman for NY State Senate
Leo Dymowski for Maryland Attorney General
On ending the War on Drugs:
Arvin Vohra for Congress in Maryland
Tresa McAlhaney for Governor in Kansas
On ending the state income tax:
Charlie Earl for Governor in Ohio
Keen Umbehr for Governor in Kansas


Battle for Libertarian ballot access in Ohio rages on
Libertarian Party of OhioThe Libertarian Party of Ohio (LPO) is appealing the ballot access case for Libertarian governor candidate Charlie Earl to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals after a judge ruled on March 19 to toss Ohio Libertarians off the primary ballot. On March 21, the Sixth Circuit agreed to expedite the case.


Please donate today to the Libertarian Party today. Shrink government — expand liberty.
Paid for by the Libertarian National Committee
2600 Virginia Ave, N.W. Suite 200, Washington D.C. 20037
Content not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Dear Friend of Liberty,

Great news! And many thanks!

Last week I sent a note to many of our donors asking them to help me cover a $26,000 fundraising shortfall from February.

I'm happy to report that 149 people have contributed $16,036 online since then. That goes a long way towards covering our shortfall.

I want to thank everyone who contributed. And also invite everyone else to help.

Pat Dixon, chair of the Texas LP, contributed $500 and asked me to challenge 51 others to match him. Of course we would only need 20 to match his $500 at this point to cover the shortfall.

Several others contributed $500 or more, and many others contributed $100, $25, and $10. Every donation helps.

Thanks to all who donated or shared comments with me.

For those who would still like to help, you can donate by clicking here.

Or go to our homepage LP.org and click on the donate button.

Yours in liberty,



Wes Benedict



Please donate to the Libertarian Party, working to shrink big government and advance liberty.

Paid for by the Libertarian National Committee
2600 Virginia Ave, N.W. Suite 200, Washington D.C. 20037
Content not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

News Release
March 12, 2014
 

Florida campaign shows continued growth of Libertarian votes

Lucas Overby for Congress in FloridaLibertarian Lucas Overby won 4.8 percent of the vote in a very tight three-way race for Florida's 13th congressional district held on March 11, demonstrating continued strong and rising vote totals for Libertarians.
This is an especially high vote total for a Libertarian in a special election, where voter turnout is lower. The boost is attributable in part to an outstanding get-out-the-vote effort on the part of Florida Libertarians.
Libertarians in federal races have typically garnered votes in the low single digits in three-way races against both a Democrat and Republican. Since 2012, however, a number of Libertarian candidates have scored far better, including:
  • Dan Cox for U.S. Senate in Montana won 6.6 percent
  • Robert Sarvis for Governor in Virginia won 6.5 percent
  • Powell Gammill for U.S. House in Arizona won 6.4 percent
  • Ron Williams for U.S. House in Mississippi won 6.4 percent
  • Thomas Jefferson for U.S. House in Kansas won 6.2 percent
  • Jonathan Dine for U.S. Senate in Missouri won 6.1 percent
  • Thomas Jefferson for U.S. House in Kansas won 5.9 percent
  • Andrew Horning for U.S. Senate in Indiana won 5.8 percent
  • Rex Bell for U.S. House in Indiana won 5.8 percent
  • Kevin Craig for U.S. House in Missouri won 5.2 percent
  • James Stanczak for U.S. House in Texas won 5.2 percent
  • Chris Kella for U.S. House in Ohio won 5.2 percent
  • David Kaiser for U.S. House in Montana won 5.2 percent
Gov. Gary Johnson broke the million-vote barrier for a Libertarian for president in 2012, winning a record 1,275,951 votes.
State Libertarian races also fared well in 2012, including:
  • Jeremy Walters for state House in South Carolina won 47 percent
  • Tim Menger for state House in Colorado won 41 percent
  • Mike Fellows for clerk of the Supreme Court won 43 percent
Republican David Jolly edged out Democrat Alex Sink for the congressional open seat in Florida, winning by under 2 percent and raising speculation as to whether Overby's presence in the race determined the winner.
Republicans had assumed that the Libertarian would take more votes from their candidate, prompting a Karl Rove PAC to fund robocalls to 20,000 voters urging a vote for Jolly.
However, polling of past Libertarian campaigns coupled with the fact that Overby ran his campaign on a mix of issues that are often associated with both the "left" and the "right" renders any conclusion about his impact uncertain. His campaign promises included tax cuts, spending cuts, a non-interventionist foreign policy, drug legalization, and marriage equality.
Sink, Jolly, and their supporters spent more than $12 million during the campaign, one of the most expensive races for House ever. They saturated the airwaves with attack ads on each other and barraged voters with direct mail and phone calls, which may have boosted the Libertarian vote.
William McConnell, a lifelong Republican, told the Miami Herald that he voted for Overby in response to television ad blitzes that were "packed with lies on both sides."
An independent voter, Frank Akers, told the Tribune that the onslaught of mail and phone calls — sometimes six or seven in one night — drove him to vote for Overby.
Whether or not Overby's campaign determined the winner, it is likely that he pulled substantial votes from people who don't normally vote.
"The Overby campaign is another sign that non-voters, who lean more Libertarian than the general voting population, are giving up their resignation and re-engaging in politics," said Carla Howell, political director for the Libertarian National Committee. "This bodes well for 2014 Libertarian candidates and the future of the Libertarian Party."


Please donate to the Libertarian Party, working to shrink big government and advance liberty.

Paid for by the Libertarian National Committee
2600 Virginia Ave, N.W. Suite 200, Washington D.C. 20037
Content not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

From Our Friend In Liberty, John Todd

AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY--KANSAS 

Wichita Area Chapter Meeting

Tuesday, March 18, 2014
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Spangles Restaurant (Meeting Room)
612 S. Broadway (Kellogg & Broadway Downtown)
Wichita, Kansas 67202

Jennifer Baysinger
“7 Things Really Persuasive People Do”
 --Kevin Daum  

John Todd
Sharing thoughts and techniques on becoming more
 effective citizen activists—tales from the trenches…

Presentations will be integrated with group discussion.

It’s time to delve into our approach and analyze the aspect of what works and what doesn’t. We are trying to persuade people, not just inform them. Presenting facts and data is one thing, but effectively leading people to change their minds is quite another!
For additional information please contact:
John Todd, Wichita AFP volunteer coordinator

Or

Susan Estes, AFP Field Director, Kansas

The Kansas Chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP-KS) is committed to advancing every Kansan's right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP-KS is an organization of grassroots citizen leaders who engage in spreading the message of fiscally responsible government, free market ideals and regulatory restraint to policymakers on the local and state levels.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Libertarians Working for You with host Carla Howell
Libertarian Candidates Adrian Wyllie and Robert Sarvis on Creating Jobs, Minimum Wage and Taking Care of the Poor
March 5, 2014 — archived show now available!
Do government programs, ostensibly designed to help the poor, empower people in need — or harm them? Do minimum wage laws make things better for them — or worse? What impact do other government programs have on the lowest-income Americans and their chances for progress and self-sufficiency? How should government policy change to give people in need their best chance to get by and thrive? Libertarians Adrian Wyllie, running for governor in Florida, and Robert Sarvis, running for U.S. Senate in Virginia, will lay out their plans to do right by the poor in America.
Learn More »
Missed the live shows? Past episodes are available on demand and podcast-ready.
Be sure to tune into
Libertarians Working for You
Airing every Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, on VoiceAmerica Variety Channel


Please donate to the Libertarian Party, working to shrink big government and advance liberty.

Paid for by the Libertarian National Committee
2600 Virginia Ave, N.W. Suite 200, Washington D.C. 20037
Content not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.
News Release
March 4, 2014
 

'Obama's military spending cuts equal military spending increases,' says Libertarian Party

Libertarian Party candidates say:
·         Cut military spending immediately by at least 60%.
·         Stay out of Syria and Ukraine.
While the Libertarian Party strongly agrees with the need to downsize the U.S. military, the Obama plan recently announced by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expands the military.
Both Democratic and Republican politicians routinely deceive taxpayers by portraying slight reductions in the growth of government as "cuts."
When military spending cuts are involved, Republicans protest loudly, giving credence to the claim that the cuts are real. Both Democrats and Republicans use these theatrics to disguise reckless government overspending — just as they did with the government "shutdown."
"Elementary school arithmetic instructs us that if you grow spending at a slower rate — it still gets higher. It's not a reduction; it's an increase," said Geoffrey J. Neale, chair of the Libertarian National Committee.
President Obama and Secretary Hagel propose creation of a new $26 billion "Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative" (read: slush fund) while keeping the 2015 Pentagon budget at the same level as 2014. That's an increase of $26 billion.
They also propose wiping out what's left of the so-called "sequester," thereby sheltering the military from automatic spending cuts.
Democrats and Republicans already gutted a good portion of the sequester in the December round of budget negotiations.
Now they want to both increase military spending and take away the minimal spending controls that are still in effect — while pretending they want to cut military spending.
The sequester cuts were agreed to in exchange for higher spending and higher government debt passed under the deceptively-named Budget Control Act of 2011. One more illustration that politicians' promises for spending cuts equal spending increases.
They propose reducing the total employment of the Army, National Guard, Reserves, and Marine Corps by a mere 3.9 percent — while touting it as "shrinking the Army to its smallest size in 74 years." This tiny reduction in personnel — if it ever happens — is not backed by cuts in spending. No cost savings. No real reduction.
They call for slowing down the growth in pay raises and the growth of tax-free housing allowances for military personnel. The only slight reduction they offer is an increase in contributions they pay for insurance deductibles and co-pays. Overall, they propose higher government spending for military personnel.
They propose a series of domestic base closures which, again, are not backed by spending cuts. Any savings will not go to taxpayers but to spending in other areas of the military.
In all likelihood, there will be little to no savings at all from base closures as proposed by President Obama. Few, if any, bases will actually close because congressmen and senators will lobby intensely to keep them open in their home states. No base closure initiatives in the last 25 years have resulted in savings greater than $1–3 billion per year, and some resulted in no closings at all.
Given that the U.S. government spends more than $1 trillion for military purposes every year, such savings are trivial and will be used as an argument not to close any bases, as they were during the last round of attempted military base closings in 2005.
It appears the administration is more interested in provoking lawmakers to ensure bases stay open than in closing them and cutting costs — while pretending to downsize the U.S. military.
The Libertarian Party and its candidates aim to substantially downsize the U.S. military.
Libertarians are lining up to run for federal office in 2014 on a platform to cut military spending immediately by at least 60 percent, close a substantial number of overseas military bases, and bring troops home.
Specific Libertarian proposals to downsize the U.S. military include:
  • Immediately withdraw all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and bring them home to their families.
  • Stay out of Syria, Ukraine, and every other foreign conflict.
  • Close unneeded U.S. military bases and outposts in more than 130 countries around the world, and bring our troops home. First on the list are the massive deployments in Germany, Italy, South Korea, and Japan — countries that can fund their own military defense.
  • Close at least half of the nation's 4,402 domestic Department of Defense sites.
  • Use 100 percent of operating cost savings to reduce the federal income tax, balance the federal budget, or both.
  • Sell off all foreign and domestic real estate holdings of closed military bases and DoD sites while requiring that all proceeds be used to pay down existing government debt. None of it should pay for more government spending.
"Reducing and eliminating military bases in foreign countries will remove a major source of hostility towards the United States, reduce the threat of a terrorist attack, and reduce federal government debt by $300 billion," Neale said.
"Cutting military spending by $600 billion every year will go a long way toward balancing the federal budget and ending the federal income tax," he said. "This will give back $5,000 every year to each taxpaying family in the United States; stimulate investment in small businesses; and create millions of sustainable, private-sector jobs. Plenty of jobs for veterans and millions of others now out of work."
Libertarian Party platform on National Defense:
"We support the maintenance of a sufficient military to defend the United States against aggression. The United States should both avoid entangling alliances and abandon its attempts to act as policeman for the world. We oppose any form of compulsory national service."
Sources:
"Hagel Says US Military Must Shrink to Face New Era," Associated Press, Feb. 24, 2014.
"Military mystery: How many bases does the US have, anyway?" Occasional Planet, Jan. 24, 2011
"Base Structure Report: Fiscal Year 2007 Baseline," Department of Defense
"Op-Ed: How many bases does U.S. have globally and what is their cost?" Digital Journal, Dec. 16, 2012


Please donate to the Libertarian Party, working to shrink big government and advance liberty.

Paid for by the Libertarian National Committee
2600 Virginia Ave, N.W. Suite 200, Washington D.C. 20037
Content not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

From Our Friend In Liberty, John Todd

AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY--KANSAS

Wichita Area Chapter Meeting


Monday, March 10, 2014
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Spangles Restaurant (Meeting Room)
612 S. Broadway (Kellogg & Broadway Downtown)
Wichita, Kansas 67202

Rodger Woods
Deputy State Director, AFP--Kansas
Renewable Portfolio Standards—How does it impact your budget?   

Deputy Director’s presentation to be followed by
Q & A and group discussion.

For additional information please contact:
John Todd, Wichita AFP volunteer coordinator
john@johntodd.net, (316) 312-7335 cell

Or

Susan Estes, AFP Field Director, Kansas
sestes@afphq.org, (316) 681-4415




The Kansas Chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP-KS) is committed to advancing every Kansan's right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP-KS is an organization of grassroots citizen leaders who engage in spreading the message of fiscally responsible government, free market ideals and regulatory restraint to policymakers on the local and state levels.