Ed Haas
Presidential Candidate to address Rally at G8 Summit
Tue Jun 8, 2004 03:55
64.140.158.2

Presidential Candidate to address Rally at G8 Summit

Press Release – June 5, 2004

Contact: Ed Haas, South Carolina Libertarian Party Media Coordinator

843-817-4700
http://www.sc.lp.org/G8PR.html

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Presidential Candidate to address Rally at G8 Summit

While supporters, delegates, protesters, and curious bystanders converge on Savannah, Georgia for the upcoming G8 Summit, volunteers from the Libertarian Party will be among the crowds that will be across the Savannah River from the hub of media activity and international advisement, Hutchison Island – not to take part, but to promote the Libertarian platform on Free Trade and to recruit membership. Libertarians will gather in Morrell Park, right on River Street, at the dock for the ferry that will ply between Savannah and Hutchison, carrying delegates and the media to and fro. The Libertarian Party's presidential nominee Michael Badnarik, a constitutional scholar from Texas will address attendees at Morrell Park on Tuesday, June 8 at 1:00 PM.

“The Libertarian Party views this event as an outstanding opportunity to introduce a variety of people to the concept of a Constitutional government,” says Chris Panos, SCLP Chairman. “Most American voters do not know what a constitutional government should look like simply because they haven’t witnessed one in action for decades,” said Panos.

“We’ll be there with literature and membership forms”, says Cheryl Bates, SCLP Vice-Chairperson, “as well as elected Libertarians and candidates for political office. We’ll be there to reassure tourists and Summit attendees alike that there is a political party that still cherishes the Constitution of the United States - the Libertarian Party,” said Bates.

In spite of rumors of the development and enforcement of "Free Speech Zones" that caused the ACLU to file a lawsuit against the City of Savannah, Chris Forehand of the City's Parks and Recreation Department was quick to help Libertarian organizers to not only access the desirable property along the riverfront, but also to advise and assist with the permitting process. "We were wary of the reports and rumors of Constitutional violations, but they simply were not true in Savannah," said Bates.

The 30th G8 Summit will really be held at secluded and heavily protected Sea Island, Georgia, just off the coast of Brunswick, on June 8-10, 2004. However, many summer tourists are still flocking to Savannah in hopes of a glimpse of delegates and the protesters that always attend the G-8 to make their opinions known. The United States assumed the Presidency of the G8 from France at the beginning of 2004. The G8 Summit brings together the Leaders of the world's major industrial democracies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The European Union also attends the G8 Summit, represented by the President of the European Commission and the Leader of the country holding the Presidency of the European Council. At previous Summits, Leaders have discussed a wide range of international economic, political, and security issues.
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US plays down Egyptian, Saudi absence at G8 summit

Scaling the G8 Summit
Georgia greets the world with martial law
Jeff Taylor



You know you've left reality behind when a local G8 booster avers that a hand-made table represents the American South. Everyone knows NASCAR represents the South, with racin' closely followed by humidity, sweet tea, and the most beautiful women in the world as regional hallmarks. But good luck getting NASCAR fans to shut up and quit drinking when the president of France is in town. And if Frenchie eyeballs the ladies, it's on, buddy.

Instead, attendees arriving for the Sea Island summit that starts today will get a hermetically-sealed, Disneyfied look at the South. Considering the security precautions in place, some 20,000 security personnel with a $25 million budget, it is fair to wonder if the Constitution still applies along the Georgia coast.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed legal challenges against local edicts, clearly handed down after prodding from state and federal officials, which require any gathering larger than six people to get an almost impossible-to-get permit. A federal appeals court recently struck down similar restrictions on public protest enacted by the city of Augusta in an attempt to keep the Masters golf soiree free of icky, caddy-class demonstrators. Even so, a last minute judicial bitch-slap of the summit is unlikely.

Meanwhile the Coast Guard has effectively closed down recreational boating and much of the commercial shipping traffic in the area around Sea Island, part of the anti-terror precautions that are now standard operational procedure for any event that is likely to garner widespread news coverage. And Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, following in the tradition of a pre-emptive war, has declared a pre-emptive state of emergency for six counties that will last until June 20.

Georgia officials have tried to compare the legal declarations and security prep in Glynn County and surrounding areas to the ones undertaken for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, with simple public order at issue. But there is one glaring difference that is perhaps too obvious to belabor. The Olympics or a golf tourneys are not primarily political events. G8 summits, in contrast, function primarily as political events, and every leader in attendance will come with a detailed political agenda.

Moreover, the summits are looked upon as a way for leaders to enhance their standing both at home and internationally, so they function as extended public relations operations as well. For the host leader, propaganda is not too strong a word.

So measures at the Olympics that one could argue had the intent and effect of limiting possibly disruptive public protest at that non-political gathering are wholly inappropriate for a G8 summit. Some form of mass protest, as distinct from the clearly illegal cretinous nihilism that some displayed at the WTO confab in Seattle in 1999, is to be expected when several world leaders get together under one roof. That is not disruption, it is democracy.

Besides, there is absolutely no reason for world leaders to commandeer popular, public spaces like a coastal vacation spot for a few days except to make pleasing photo ops for themselves. If security is such an all-consuming worry, then face-to-face meetings could be held on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean; a media pool of a half-dozen could report back on the happenings. Meeting on a ship would make driving around in electric cars exceedingly tough, true, but we've got to prioritize. Cutesy PR stunts go to the back of the hydrogen-powered bus in wartime.

The top priority of this and every G8 Summit is to make world leaders look like they are on top of world problems. For George W. Bush the event will also provide some evidence that his Iraq policy hasn't made him a complete international outcast—that his opposite numbers will still drop by for a grip-and-grin as long as a few nights in a resort far away from the sweaty, restless rabble are part of the deal.

That is the actual state of emergency unfolding in Georgia, where massive state and institutional power will be used to secure political, personal, and very petty gain.

Jeff Taylor lives in Charlotte, NC, but not once has he turned left for 600 miles.
http://www.reason.com/links/links060804.shtml
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During the Six Day War between Israel and the Arab States, the American intelligence ship USS Liberty was attacked for 75 minutes in international waters by Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats. Thirty-four men died and 172 were wounded.
http://www.ussliberty.org/index.html#top

• Lockdown on Sea Island — E Jane Dickson, Tue Jun 8 05:13
• US Prisoners Subjected To "Abuse" — Hazel Trice Edney, Tue Jun 8 12:53