The Cellar - gitmo on the hudson

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26th, 2004
P.O.C. Steve Gordon
(256)227-8360
communications@badnarik.org

PERMIT? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' PERMIT!

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 and Michael Peroutka of the Constitution Party 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.