Friends of Liberty,

It’s once again time for another edition of the HCLP Liberty Update (ok, actually I’m a few days late; I apologize … it’s been a very, very busy week).

As always, if you know of anything that might be of interest to members of the Hamilton County Libertarian Party (and since we are providing a home for some folks in North Georgia that don’t have local LP affiliates, that includes those areas as well), please let me know, or feel free to send an email to the group at libertarian-381@meetup.com.

1. Libertarian Party of Tennessee 2009 Convention – The TnLP Convention was held this past weekend in Knoxville. Approximately 40 people, including our own Mo Kiah, were in attendance. John Sebastian was been elected to serve as the TnLP Chairman. John replaces Tony Wall, who stepped down after serving for the last two years. Izaak Standridge was elected Vice Chairman; he replaces Charles Wilhoit who was appointed last July to fill the position after the resignation of Christian Wilson. Ray Ledford and J.R. Enfield will continue to serve as Secretary and Treasurer. Many thanks to Tony Wall and Charles Wilhoit for their service!

A brief article about the Convention, including a photo of our new officers, can be found here: http://tr.im/kjbw.

Video of some of the presentations is also available on the TnLP web site (http://www.lptn.org).

2. Chattanooga City Council – I was unable to attend this week’s city council meeting, and it looks as if I won’t be able to attend the one scheduled for next week either. The agenda for next week’s meeting has been posted here (http://tr.im/k5yV). The minutes of this week’s meeting are also available online (earlier than normal!) here (http://tr.im/k5z0, PDF).

3. Letters to the Editor/Local Talk Shows – From time to time, people ask me how they can work to advance the cause of liberty locally. One easy way that doesn’t take much time is writing letters to the editor or call locally-produced talk shows. When writing letters, short (200 words or less) letters that address one topic are more likely to be published. Be sure to use the word ‘libertarian’ in your letter somewhere. Good luck!

4. Audit the Fed – H.R. 1207: Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 (http://tr.im/kjdo) – There are now 112 co-sponsors of this bill! The bill is now in the House Committee on Financial Services; we need it to get out of this committee so that the House can vote on it. Please take some time out of your day to call or email Barney Frank, the Committee Chairman and other members of the committee and ask them to support this bill. You can find a list of members here (http://tr.im/kjUk; under “Step 2: Financial Services Committee”).

Tennessee Folks:
TN District 3 Rep. Wamp and TN District 2 Rep. Duncan are already co-sponsors. For those of you who are in District 4, Rep. Davis has not signed on as a co-sponsor, so take some time to call him or write him, and perhaps we can convince him to sign on as well! If you’re not sure which district you’re in, you can find a map of TN House Districts here (http://tr.im/kjSA) and a list of Representatives here (http://tr.im/kjSD) along with links to their web sites.

North Georgia Folks:
GA District 9 Rep Deal is already a co-sponsor of the bill.

If your representative is already a co-sponsor of the bill and you haven’t already done so, let them know you appreciate what they’ve done! Let’s make sure that our reps don’t just hear from us when we’re unhappy with them.

5. Tennessee 10th Amendment Sovereignty Bill/HJR0101 – This bill is currently in the House Subcommittee for Civil Practice & Procedure. It was to have been considered this past week, but due to time constraints has been scheduled for Tuesday, May 5. Please take a few minutes to let committee members know how you feel about this bill; you can find a list of members here (http://tr.im/kjYg).

That’s all! Hope everybody has a great weekend!

Best,
Jeremy