New news at the top 31 December 2008 The Missouri state affiliate was unanimously approved today. Congratulations to our members in Missouri, and happy new year!
30 December 2008 Happy New Year to everyone. May 2009 be prosperous and full of greater freedom. On this day in 1903, the Iroquois Theater fire claimed 602 lives in twenty minutes, the deadliest single building blaze in American history. In 1972 Nixon stopped carpet bombing North Vietnam. In 2003, Ashcroft recused himself in the investigation into the Plame affair. In 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging. Today, about 152,000 coalition troops remain in Iraq.
Being the end of year message (now that I've gone weekly) I thought it well to report on some of our progress in this calendar year. We started 2008 with this site brand new, only five people having joined. The old site and membership going back to 2006 was lost in 2007. Today I am happy to report that a total of 835 people have joined the party on this site. We had 899 members of our largest Facebook group last I checked. Please invite your friends to be a part of our party.
We also had one state affiliate at the beginning of this year. We now have 12 state affiliates which have been officially recognised by the national committee. Fourteen more are being formed, and you are welcome to start one in your state. Check our social networking page to see if a group is being started, or contact Tom Knapp, myself, or any member of the national committee for help getting started (see the contact page for details). A thirteenth state affiliate, Missouri, has, today, applied for official recognition by the national committee.
During this election year we nominated one candidate for president, put him on the ballot in three states, registered him for write-in votes in ten states, and we're still getting in reports on the vote total. We endorsed another candidate for president in two states which illustrates our willingness to endorse an LP candidate for president. We also endorsed about three dozen candidates in various states, including some 22 LP candidates. Two of our candidates now hold office. This year was our first presidential election. We look forward to fielding many more candidates in 2010 and in 2012.
We are hosting a face to face gathering in Kansas City, Missouri, in late May 2009, roughly the anniversary of our first such meeting in May of this year in Denver.
