STATEN ISLAND, NY, August 5, 2011 – The Staten Island Libertarian Party (SILP) held its second annual convention last Thursday evening, August 4th, at Canlon’s Restaurant on North Railroad Avenue.

Outgoing chairman Edward Stehlin presided over the event and election of officers. Mr. Stehlin is stepping aside to focus on select constitutional projects. He will remain active within the party and serve in an advisory capacity to the executive committee.

The SILP membership cast voice votes for the 2011-2012 Board of Directors, electing Dave Narby, Chairman (Silver Lake); Danny Panzella, First Vice Chairman (Manor Heights); Richard Bier, Second Vice Chairman (Travis); Anthony Librera, Secretary (Bay Terrace); and Thomas C. Hancock, Treasurer (Eltingville). Director of Media Relations, Robert DeSio (Westerleigh), was unanimously re-elected to retain his post on the executive committee.

“I’m humbled and honored to be the new chair of the Staten Island Libertarian Party,” said Mr. Narby.  “We have made great strides in the very short time since our inception, the most notable being three 2010 ballot candidates and tripling party membership. Yet there is much, much more to do, both as a party, and as a people.”

Asked about the current political climate and continuing economic woes, Mr. Narby remains optimistic. “I sincerely feel that great change is in the works for our nation, our state, our county and borough,” he said. “I am confident that we will play a significant role in advancing the cause of Liberty, and returning to honest, Constitutional government, with sound money and finances.”

In attendance were 40 residents, including members from other metro area civic and political groups. Among the guests was Ron Moore, Chairman of the Manhattan Libertarian Party, and Mark Axinn, Chairman of the Libertarian Party of New York, who addressed the convention on the rapid growth of libertarianism in the Empire State.

Also on hand was local liberty activist Tina Downer, who delivered a presentation on the 2012 presidential campaign of Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), a longtime favorite in libertarian circles. Ms. Downer is the organizer for Staten Island 4 Ron Paul 2012.

In addition, the party’s newly-minted secretary, Mr. Librera, spoke about his new campus initiative with the Young Americans for Liberty at the College of Staten Island. Many Staten Islanders and South Brooklynites will remember him from the spirited campaign he ran in the 2010 midterm election for state assembly (AD-63).

# # #

Karl’s Klipper
40 Bay Street in St. George near the Ferry
Staten Island, New York 10301
(718) 720-4442

[get directions here]

MEETING AGENDA

A Reading: The Sixth Amendment

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused enjoys certain rights. Yes, even tyrants and traitors.

A Discussion: 2011-2012 SILP Officer Candidates & By-Law Amendments

• Confirm officer candidates/positions so we can reconcile scope of executive committee and related by-laws for 2011-2012
• Propose/approve any amendments to our by-laws prior to convention

A Strategy: Outreach & Recruitment

Dave Narby will outline a strategic initiative for developing working relationships with other civic and political organizations in Richmond County.

A Legal Defense Plan: The Constitution Lobby

• A discussion of the new Constitution Lobby (We The People Foundation) and how the libertarians could (and arguably should) play a significant role
• Update on We The People of New York, Inc.

The People Speak: Your Topics, Your Thoughts

We yield the floor to any and all NY-13 neighbors and residents, regardless of political affiliation or subject matter. Speak your mind; observe your First Amendment rights. We respect all points of view.

Pocket Constitution: Pick One Up

The SILP will once again be offering to all in attendance free pocket copies of the Constitution of the United States and Declaration of Independence.

We look forward to seeing you.

You know what to do.

A Reading: The Sixth Amendment

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused enjoys certain rights. Yes, even tyrants and traitors.

A Discussion: 2011-2012 SILP Officer Candidates & By-Law Amendments

• Confirm officer candidates/positions so we can reconcile scope of executive committee and related by-laws for 2011-2012
• Propose/approve any amendments to our by-laws prior to convention

A Strategy: Outreach & Recruitment

Dave Narby will outline a strategic initiative for developing working relationships with other civic and political organizations in Richmond County.

A Legal Defense Plan: The Constitution Lobby

• A discussion of the new Constitution Lobby (We The People Foundation) and how the libertarians could (and arguably should) play a significant role
• Update on We The People of New York, Inc.

The People Speak: Your Topics, Your Thoughts

We yield the floor to any and all NY-13 neighbors and residents, regardless of political affiliation or subject matter. Speak your mind; observe your First Amendment rights. We respect all points of view.

Free Pocketsize Constitution!

The SILP will once again be offering to all in attendance free pocket copies of the Constitution of the United States and Declaration of Independence.

Though I had to work a little last weekend, I was thankfully able to spend the bulk of Father’s Day with my wife and seven-year-old daughter. At morning church service, I shed a few tears for my own father, whom I miss very much. My perceptive little girl knew exactly why I was troubled, and offered a small hand against my back to console me.

Following service, we lit a few candles, and she asked about Dad. She never got to meet him; my father was gone far too early in his life, and, sadly, before hers had even begun.

From time to time she will ask about him, the curious man in the photo, placed in a position of honor on the shelf in my office. But old photos never quite do the story justice.

Being the day that it was, I showed my daughter some things around the house, now innocently taken for granted, that once belonged to my father, as well my grandfathers:

My pop’s old wooden desk and fountain pen; his father’s gold pocket watch, received from his father (my great-grandfather) for his 21st birthday; a comfy old 1930s reading chair; a poker-playing card table; a bright yellow step stool; and that 1964 Dodge Dart parked and covered in the driveway (that my father-in-law helped to refurbish).

I shared with her the colorful collection of delicate, old trout flies, tied by grandpa’s own hands, and my dad’s catfishing rods, too. My daughter will learn this summer, and chose the same rod with which I caught my first fish.

Then there are the tools, those well-cared-for Tools. Now the pride of my workshop, still shiny and sharp and strong and sturdy. All good as new, and all American, too. Of course, you couldn’t buy anything else back then.

And in the corner stands my grandfather’s impressive woodworking chest, finely appointed with chisels and planes and levels and picks and rasps and his initials stamped into each handle. He carried the box on his shoulders to the bus stop for 30-odd years, as he went off to build patterns for planes and trains.

All of this will one day be yours, I promised her. She smiled and seemed impressed, I suppose, as much as any little seven-year-old girl could be. Our little stroll down memory lane had done much for my spirit, and it had become a memorable day in its own right.

That evening, with my daughter safely tucked into bed, my thoughts returned to my forefathers and my own childhood. I thought about the life they had made for us, through their sweat, sacrifice, and resolve.

I thought about these Tools that had forged my family, put a roof over our heads, and fish in our bellies, these tools that had built our life, as we once knew it.

Things being what they are today, my wife and I now wonder if we can possibly deliver for our child the same life and opportunities that our parents had secured for us. It was our promise to give our children better, remember, as our fathers had done for us.

This was the real American Dream, a simple tradition of values, like self-reliance and hard work  and perseverance. And I shudder to think what our forefathers would say of the mess we have made of it. Things being what they are today.

Next week we will celebrate our other fathers, our Founding Fathers, and the 235th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I shudder again, to think what they might say of the America we prepare to pass on today.

Indeed they had bequeathed the most precious gift in the course of human history, when they left to us our constitutional guarantees of liberty and natural rights. The same guarantees for which generations of fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers had worked, fought, and died.

And they warned us that the people we sent to represent us in government would one day conspire to take it all away. This is why the Founders left to us something else equally treasured, outlined within our federal and state constitutions: the Tools to defend and preserve those very freedoms.

The electoral process;

The right to dissent through speech, the press, and assembly;

The right to petition for redress of grievances;

And if all else fails, God forbid, the second amendment.

Now it has fallen to us to implement these tools. We must dust them off and begin anew, to reclaim our rightful place as the leaders of our governments, whether local, state of federal. Yes, you and me.

It is our duty to act, just as surely as it is our sacred responsibility to provide and care for our sons and daughters. For if we cannot provide Liberty, we will be hard pressed to provide anything else of genuine value or consequence.

We have the Tools. All that is left is to summon the Will to wield them. And so We Shall.

This solemn promise I make to my Daughter, steeled by the indelible memory of our Fathers.

#

I am writing to inquire what your plans are to reign in inflation and protect the US currency. As you may be aware, the Federal Reserve is engaged in round two of Quantitative Easing. Commodity prices have sky-rocketed as a result of this unabashed money printing.

The bottom line is this: The people of the United States are having their wealth and wages robbed from them. When the Federal Reserve prints money, under the moniker of Quantitative Easing, the dollar is openly devalued in terms of goods and services, as well as in terms of other currencies.  When commodity prices are up 35%+, people are finding their cost of living up 35%+, with no wage increases. We are being robbed, plain and simple.

Article 1, Section 8, of the US Constitution clearly states among the sworn duties of Congress:

- To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

- To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

Mr. Grimm, I am urging you, as a duly elected member of Congress, to stand by your sworn duty and take action against the Federal Reserve’s Easing policies. The American People need their representatives to protect them from the crushing consequences of a significant inflation of the money supply. Even more so, we need Congress to protect us against a wholesale collapse of the US Dollar.  This possibility, far from a fantasy, has never been closer to reality in the history of America.

I await eagerly your response and action plan.

In Liberty,

Tom Vendittelli
SI Libertarian Party

P.S. Ben Bernanke’s own words from longer speech here, http://www.federalreserve.gov/BOARDDOCS/SPEECHES/2002/20021121/default.htm –

“The conclusion that deflation is always reversible under a fiat money system follows from basic economic reasoning. A little parable may prove useful: Today an ounce of gold sells for $300, more or less. Now suppose that a modern alchemist solves his subject’s oldest problem by finding a way to produce unlimited amounts of new gold at essentially no cost. Moreover, his invention is widely publicized and scientifically verified, and he announces his intention to begin massive production of gold within days. What would happen to the price of gold? Presumably, the potentially unlimited supply of cheap gold would cause the market price of gold to plummet. Indeed, if the market for gold is to any degree efficient, the price of gold would collapse immediately after the announcement of the invention, before the alchemist had produced and marketed a single ounce of yellow metal.”

“What has this got to do with monetary policy? Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation.”

STATEN ISLAND, NY, June 3, 2011 – The Staten Island Libertarian Party (SILP) announced that two of its members have been elected to take on additional responsibilities at the state level with the Libertarian Party of New York (LPNY). Founded in 1970, the LPNY has played a crucial role in the creation and growth of today’s largest independent party in the United States.

Dave Narby, SILP Secretary, was elected as one of five Members at Large during the recent LPNY State Convention. He will be involved with a number of special assignments for the state party chairman, Mark Axinn, including community liaison activities, and assisting with the development of emerging chapters in the greater New York City metropolitan area.

Mr. Narby ran a highly respectable grassroots campaign for Assembly District 61 in last year’s midterm elections. He regards his political stance as centrist in nature, and has been a registered independent Libertarian for over a decade.

An investor and entrepreneur, Mr. Narby is well studied in the science of sound-money principles and economic policy. He resides in the Silver Lake community with his wife, Jennifer DeSanctis-Narby.

Another 2010 SILP assembly candidate, Danny Panzella (AD 63), was chosen in a special election to assume the post of State Committee Representative. Mr. Panzella will represent and vote the interests of the Staten Island chapter at the monthly LPNY state committee meetings. Richard Bier previously held the position, and will continue in his role as SILP vice chairman.

A founding member of the Staten Island Tea Party Patriots, Mr. Panzella has since expanded his tea party activism throughout New York City. Along the way he has forged a reputation as a determined and outspoken advocate for government transparency. He works as an independent investigative journalist and publishes his online magazine, Truth Squad TV.

Mr. Panzella lives in Manor Heights with his wife Jo Ann and their newborn son, Xander. They enjoy raising chickens and gardening as a hobby.

# # #

A Reading: The Fifth Amendment

Protects the People against abuse of government authority in court proceedings; also contains a favorite Libertarian hot button: no private property shall be taken for public use, without just compensation.

A Discussion: SILP Leadership and 2011 By-Law Amendments

Before we go to convention, we will need to discuss the makeup of our executive committee for 2011-2012, and propose/approve any amendments to our by-laws.

The People Speak: Your Topics, Your Thoughts

We yield the floor to any and all NY-13 neighbors and residents, regardless of political affiliation or subject matter. Speak your mind; observe your First Amendment rights. We respect all points of view.

Free Pocketsize Constitution!

The Staten Island Libertarian Party will once again be offering to all in attendance free pocket copies of the Constitution of the United States and Declaration of Independence.

Liberty Kitchen & Pantry!

We ask anyone planning to attend to consider bringing a food gift to the Town Hall for donation. Area food pantries are running short.

• Baby food always needed
• Non-perishable foodstuffs and canned goods
• New or like-new pots, pans, microwaveable cookware, cooking utensils welcome
• We’ll even find a good home for your extra or unneeded cookbooks

If you cannot attend but want to help, you may also arrange for pickup or find the nearest drop-off location by calling our Liberty Line @ 646-543-7457, or contact info@statenislandlp.org.

Here it is by the numbers:

• 52% of Americans call for an alternative to the GOP and the Democratic Party, down only slightly from last August and the run-up to the midterm elections
• Only 40% of Americans say the two major political parties are doing an adequate job
• 52% percent of Republicans favor a third party
• 33% of Democrats favor a third party
• 68% of independents, nearly 7 in 10, favor a third party
• 60% of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters also favor a third party

QUESTION: Are the Libertarians That Party?

Here’s your chance to find out. The Staten Island Libertarian Party leadership is available to speak at your club or organization’s event. Just tell us when and where, and we’ll be there.

Concerned about unconstitutional legislation? Have a list of grievances for the government? The Staten Island Libertarian Party will also be happy to host a Liberty Tree Town Hall meeting in your neighborhood.

To make arrangements, simply call the Liberty Line at 646-543-7457 or write to Robert DeSio, Director of Media Relations at rdesio@statenislandlp.org.

The Staten Island Libertarian Party

Constitutional Principles. Commonsense Solutions.

The USA TODAY/Gallup Poll surveyed 1,013 adults April 20-23. Margin of error +/- 4 percentage points.

Gold today is no longer related to the normal economic cycle of supply and demand, jewelry, Indian wedding seasons, rain in the Middle East.  All those things are passé, forget about them.  Gold is driven today by one overriding and I am afraid, at least in my opinion, an irresistible and irreversible trend.  A fundamental, global and growing insecurity… A fundamental, global and growing lack of confidence of the world in everything they were brought up to believe.  Institutions, insurance companies, banks, issuers of mortgages, ratings agencies, equities, sovereign debt, Federal Reserve Banks.  Portugal and Iceland.  Greece and Spain.  Currencies.  What is left?  What is left?

- Peter Munk, Chairman of Barrick Gold

Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.
- Laurence J. Peter

.
The Big Lie

I feel completely blessed to be alive right now.  To be a witness and participant in a moment in human history that will be written about and passed down in tales for as long as humanity remains on this planet.  We are currently observing the evaporation of what Nazis referred to as “The Big Lie.”  In very basic terms the concept of The Big Lie is that if you are going to lie you may as well lie big.  So big in fact that the majority of well meaning citizenry could never imagine anyone lying on such a grand scale (particularly not their government “officials”) so that they don’t even question the basis of their own reality.  In the case of the United States the Big Lie is that we have a free market capitalist economy.  Instead we have a corporatist/fascist economy that enriches three main groups.  Wall street financiers, the military industrial complex and large multi-national corporations that don’t pay taxes.  So that begs the question, how can the American people be so brainwashed into thinking they live in this false reality?  It’s very easy.  It’s all about the money.

Up until recently (and by that I mean the last three years) how many people asked what is a dollar?  How is it created and who controls the creation?  Essentially no one did.  The financial crisis changed everything because as the false reality finally cratered under its own weight the super elite that robs and rapes the rest of us saw their world crumbling and they panicked.  In order to save themselves, their reputations and most importantly their wealth they responded in such an absurd and selfish manner it shook millions of Americans from their slumber.  People started asking basic questions they never even thought to ask before.  One of those people was me.  When I discovered how completely fooled I had been my whole life and figured out how the scam works I started writing about it.  I relied on those great men that have been writing about it for decades in relative obscurity to educate me on monetary and financial history.  I then shared what I learned with anyone that would listen.  I am pleased to report that it has been a tremendous success and enough people are now awake for the system to be overthrown.  That is what is in the process of happening now.  Yet as I have said many times before, the super elite has all the tools of control still and will not go down easy.  Think about what despotic leaders have done to people in times past.  The torture, the exterminations, anything to have power.  I believe many at the helm within the financial system and military-industrial complex in the U.S. are just as evil as those from the past.  That said, in the age of the internet their methods of control have changed and the war going on between truth and lies playing out right now has two main battlefields.  There is the information war being waged by the alternative media vs. the dinosaur propaganda media.  The second battlefield is the financial markets where honest money (gold and silver) is battling fraud fiat money controlled by the banksters who give The Bernank his marching orders.  These orders are not designed to help the economy (which is why the economy remains horrible) they are designed to preserve the status quo and protect their ill gotten gains.  The establishment is getting wiped out on both battlefields.  It is an amazing sight to see.

The Bernank Has No Clothes

The Bernank’s inaugural press conference last week was nothing short of a disaster.  The Wizard of Disneyland came out from behind his curtain and despite softball questions from “journalists” couldn’t make any sense whatsoever.  I just listened to it again a few minutes ago.  His answers were full of contradictions and backwards logic.  The first time the word “inflation” came out of his mouth in response to a question he started stuttering.  When asked about the dollar he said “the treasury is the spokesperson for the dollar.”  Come again Bernank?  They are FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES and you create them out of thin air.  And lots of em.  The Big Lie.

When talking about gasoline prices rising and the inflation in commodity costs in general he claims the Fed isn’t responsible, yet then he claims that if they keep going up and feed into core (which they are big time already and wait until you see Wal-Marts price hikes in June) the Fed would have to respond.  Huh?  If you aren’t responsible for the increase then how can you act to stop them and why would you act if you didn’t cause it in the first place?

Nothing though exposed this fraud of a man more than when he talked about Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff’s book “This Time is Different.”  The Bernank offers his view that the reason why prior financial periods of crisis took so long to recover from was because officials didn’t act properly.  There you go!  This exposed the man and his absurd statist mind for all to see.  He thinks he is the superman that the world has been waiting for.  He seems to think that in his brilliance and money printing he can just make the prior bubbles go away and we can get going again.  Let’s think about human nature for a second.  We have had government’s in charge of civilizations since the beginning of time.  Do you really think the majority of those governments really just stood by and watched after a financial crisis?  Hardly.  Furthermore, looking at the 1930’s it is very clear the government did anything BUT stand by idly (another lie).  They interfered like crazy.  That is why the U.S. economy NEVER recovered naturally from the 1930’s.  Never.

I have said for years that there is no stopping the mega cycle and that is what we are in.  I also said that things also never play out the same way.  You have to look at the players involved.  The Bernank is haunted by his mythical view of the Great Depression and deflation.  He also thinks he can outsmart natural cycles.  So when Von Mises says there is no end to a credit bubble other than deflationary bust or a collapse in the currency you have to ask yourself which one it will be?  I have said for years it will be a destruction of the currency system and that what has been happening but what we have seen so far is merely an appetizer.

The Markets, Gold and Silver

It is very timely that I get to write today for the first time in a month.  Last week, the entire Big Lie was collapsing left and right.  When the Bernank spoke, gold soared.  Obama came out with his latest reality tv show episode called “The Birth Certificate.” Still his approval ratings plunged.   Gasoline was spiking.  Confidence in Disneyland was circling the toilet bowl.  Nothing was working for the establishment.  So what did you think would happen this week?

Well, exactly what is happening.  A monster PR campaign to get confidence back.  Let’s go back to Sunday night.  We got Bin Laden!  (watch this interview PLEASE  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXPg4yblXM0)  Silver plunges 13% in Asia!  Brain dead sheep outside the White House waving flags yelling USA, USA!  It was eerily reminiscent of people in the Arab world celebrating after 9/11.

As many of you know, I believe the markets are heavily manipulated to paint a picture.  However, I also believe that markets always win in the end.  This is a war in which the super elite will not give up or reform the system on their own accord.  This is not just a battle for money it is a part of a much larger battle for souls.  Therefore, they will employ as aggressive and deadly tactics in markets as they do overseas when they launch wars every other week.  That is what I think has happened this week.  So is it over?  I have no idea but I like buying physical silver again at these levels and I also love the mining shares here.  I have NEVER been more bullish on physical gold and silver right now.  Everyone has an opinion now and that is fine.  But I told people to short oil in 2008 and buy it back in the $40s on the record and I also recommended buying silver at $10/oz.  This is no bubble.  We are in the midst of a major counterattack.  The sheep will sell or even short.  The wolves always eat the sheep.  That is all this is.

Remember, this is a war between truth and lies but the truth is winning and will win.  You can see the extent of their fear by what is happening this week.  Stay calm, cool and add to your physical.

A Splintering in the Establishment

One of the things I have been waiting to see was when people in the “establishment” start to speak out more and refuse to cooperate with the more psychopathic elements with the government, Wall Street and the military/industrial complex.  I am now starting to see increased signs of this.  This is still under the radar but it is happening and accelerating.  Sides are being taken.  This is going to be very interesting to watch.  Just remember, the system is coming down and there is nothing they can do to stop it.  They can only separate you from your real money (gold and silver) before it becomes clear to all.  The action this week is a last ditch attempt.  The game is already over.

Finally, please take the time to watch this.  It is long but one of the most important documentaries I have even seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zt9BZD7mlc

All the best,
Mike

(Via Zerohedge http://www.zerohedge.com/article/mike-krieger-exposes-big-lie)

-=-

All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.

John Adams (1735-1826), American President