Donations needed
You can help us keep this site running with a small donation.
Even $1 will help. Of course, $100 will help more, and with
$1million, we can really get things done!!
|
Views
from the Badnarik campaign...
Author |
Topic |
|
from the Badnarik campaign...
posted on
2004-08-29 11:33 AM
NEW YORK -- While some political groups continue to 'negotiate' with
the City of New York for permits to protest next week's Republican
National Convention, Libertarians -- including a presidential candidate
-- are preparing to open up a whole new can of worms in the Big Apple.
"If you ask for permission to protest, you deserve to be told no," says
Manhattan Libertarian Party chair Jim Lesczynski. "The First Amendment
guarantees our right to peaceably assemble -- and we're going to do so"
on Central Park's Great Lawn on August 29th. The city has denied
permits to groups which have applied for permission to gather in the
park, attempting to move them to more distant, and less visible,
locations.
"There's an old saying -- it's easier to get forgiveness than it is to
get permission," said Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Party's
presidential candidate, during a campaign strategy teleconference.
"I've got permission. By definition, where I am standing is a free
speech zone. We don't need permission to protest, but George W. Bush
needs forgiveness for his mistakes. We're gathering to offer him that
forgiveness ... if he's willing to ask us for it."
Among those mistakes, says Badnarik, 50, of Austin, Texas, are the war
in Iraq, the PATRIOT ACT -- and the whole concept of "free speech
zones" for protesters. "America itself -- the whole country -- is a
'free speech zone,'" he says. "That's what the First Amendment means,
or it means nothing. We're going to find out which in Central Park.
We're going to find out whether President Bush and Mayor Bloomberg
believe in America or not."
While Badnarik is considered a long shot for the presidency, polling
shows him determining the election's outcome in a number of
"battleground" states, including closely watched New Mexico, where his
support stands at 5%.
The Manhattan LP has a longstanding reputation in New York and in the
Libertarian Party as an "in your face" activist group. Previous
Manhattan LP initiatives have included "Guns for Tots," in which
Libertarians handed out toy guns to the city's schoolchildren to
protest a proposed ban, and the "Great Cigarette Giveaway," which
provided New Yorkers with free smokes to counter the city's massive
2002 cigarette tax increase.
Badnarik is also expected to debate Green Party presidential nominee
David Cobb during his visit to the city. The Libertarian Party is
America's third largest political party, with more than 600
Libertarians serving in elected and appointed office at the local,
state and federal levels.
###
-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
If you are not receiving your automatic electronic press releases from
the Badnarik campaign, please visit http://badnarik.org/PressRoom/ to
subscribe (for free) today!
-------------------------------------------------
Paid for by Badnarik/Campagna 2004
|
|
|
Posts:
31 |
[PM]
[E-Mail]
[WWW]
|
|
|