Effect: Windfall Tax and Gas Tax Holiday

McCain wants to suspend the gas tax for 6 months.
Effects: Gas sales will plummet prior to the start of the holiday, and lines will form at some pumps as soon as the holiday starts. If you don't think it worthwhile to wait in line to save 18.4 cents on a gallon of gas, you should consider filling up the tank prior to the start of the holiday. We'll probably see the same thing to a lesser extent at the end of the holiday, with people filling up prior to the cutoff date.

Obama wants to impose a windfall tax.
Effects: It may gratify some people to gnaw at the hand that feeds them. But limiting the profits that oil companies make off of gasoline sales will reduce their incentive to produce and thus reduce the supply of gasoline. This would lead to shortage, higher prices, or both.

Clinton wants to pay for the tax holiday with the windfall tax.
Effects: In a best case scenario, oil companies simply make up the lost revenue by increasing pump prices. Motorists end up paying the same amount for gas, oil company revenues stay intact, and government income stays the same while government spending continues to increase. This might be the best plan of all, in that it might not have any net negative effects and the potentially positive effect of being a waste of Congress' time.

Libertarian views on the gas tax: Some Libertarians feel that the government has a right to tax gasoline as long as the money is used to construct and maintain roads. I personally think that roads should be funded by vehicle registration fees, since there are people who use gasoline powered equipment but do not drive. We all agree that only people who use roads should pay for them.

This immigration plan can cost you your job

Yes, I'm talking about you. You, Joe Blow Six Pack Fifth-Generation American Citizen. Under a plan proposed by the Department of Homeland Security, if your Social Security doesn't match up with their database, your employer would be required to fire you. It has been estimated that this plan could cost 2% of legal workers their job per year. So you would have a 1 in 50 chance of being fired for no reason at all.

Shouldn't the burden of proof to deny a person's right to work be at least as high as the burden to sent him to jail for a few months? We accept that a lot of guilty people go free as a consequence of our judicial system that is based around protecting the innocent. A plan intended to protect American jobs is a failure if it ultimately results in Americans getting fired.

Regulation, Healthcare, and Subsidies

Many liberals argue that the government has a moral right and obligation to regulate business on the grounds that they receive public subsidies. If this is true, does this mean that the government would have a similiar right and obligation if a national healthcare program is established?

The following is a list of campaingers for the Libertarian Party Presidential Nomination

The National Convention will be held the 22nd-26th of May in Denver, Colorado.
Whom are your favorite contenders and why?

Mary Ruwart

Bob Barr

Mike Gravel

Wayne Root

Mike Jingozian

Barry Hess

Christine Smith

Daniel Imperato

Steve Kubby

George Phillies

Alden Link

John Finan

Jim Burns

David Hollist

Robert Milnes

IPFW murder suspect arrested

The woman who is alleged to have stabbed a student in the IPFW dormitory was a guest.
It seems likely that either the victim or another student experienced a catastrophic lapse in judgement in allowing this person into the dorm. Folks, common sense is the ounce of prevention and law enforcement is the pound of cure. If you invite the wrong person into your home, often all the police can do is investigate your killing and notify your family. No matter how safe you feel, lock your doors and be careful about who you give the key to. Fort Wayne is still safer than comparatively sized cities, but you can still find trouble in any town if you know where to look. So don't go looking for it.

Kody Tinnel is now the highest elected Libertarian official in Allen Co.

As some are aware Kody Tinnel, a member of the Libertarian Party of Allen County and a Political Sciences and Public Affairs Sophomore at IPFW, has run for and achieved with a landslide victory the Presidency of the Student Body of Indiana University and Purdue University of Fort Wayne. The Officers of LPAC wish to display our congratulations now in this forum as we have previously done publicly, on the air last Thursday, during the Annual Convention, and privately, to Kody.

*PORTIONS OF THIS POST HAVE BEEN REDACTED*

Awesome time had by all at Local Convention

(Fort Wayne, Ind.) - The Libertarian Party of Allen County held the beginning portion of their Annual Convention during the April Business Meeting at the residence of Jack and Hillary Evans Saturday afternoon. The Evans family was the gracious host for this event. Jack laid forth a full spread of delectables from lasagna and meatloaf, potato casserole, caramel drizzled cheese cake, and some awesome spiced sun iced tea amongst many other trays of snacks and sweets. Several members also brought other items of food to be shared. The Evans have agreed to host the second part of the LPAC Annual Convention during the May Business Meeting on Wednesday the 28th from 7-9 p.m.

An election of New Officers was held as well as changing policy to allow for persons to join the Local Party. At one pointe members were informed that according to records we now have several hundred members of the Libertarian Party within the geographical borders of Allen County. Additionally several more committees were formed, with Chairs and members appointed, to better address our outreach and influence throughout Allen County.

We look forward to seeing all of our membership at the next meeting and the Officers would like to thank everyone who showed up yesterday afternoon.

MRev. Kenneth White, Jnr.
Secretary, Libertarian Party of Allen County

Libertarians At Large Live Tonight

Libertarians At Large our monthly call in show hosted by Doug Horner is live from 7-8 tonight on Public Access channel Comcast 57 and Verizon 27.

My thoughts on the Democratic debates last night would be censored....

... so here is a story about a balloon full of hot air.....

One day a presidential candidate in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're 30 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees 49.09 minutes west longitude."

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Democrat."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat too."

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, then you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met but, somehow, now it's my fault."

MY TEACHERS USED TO SAY KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!

IF YOU WANT GOVERNMENT TO ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT IT IS TALKING ABOUT AND CAN MAKE IT WORK,
TELL THEM TO KEEP TO THE SCRIPT IF ITS NOT IN THERE DON'T SAY YOU'LL DO IT OR PASS IT INTO LAW!

PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS;
VOTE LIBERTARIAN FOR A TRUE CHANGE!

To take your mind off the 31,061.54 that is your share of the national debt

Here are some useless pieces of information that everyone really doesn't have to know.

Alcohol Consumption

1. It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

Which towards another random note of non interest Honey is the only food that doesn't spoil.

2. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down." It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"

3. Many years ago in England , pub patrons had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

Politics and United States History

1. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

2. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

[EDITOR'S UPDATE: There is no accepted code for equestrian statues. Some sculptors may have followed it, most did not. Statues at Gettysburg seem to follow that code, but not statues elsewhere. http://www.snopes.com/military/statue.asp]

3. The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

4. The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain aka Samuel Langhorne Clemens. By the way, for those who don't care to know Samuel's pen name came from his job as a Steamboat Captain. For calling the depths of the river back to the Captain which was done with a knotted rope hence "calling out the 'marks' on the 'twian', or twine. "

Tax Day Thread

Those of you who cannot attend our tax protest can take this opportunity to rant about the government programs that cheese them off the most. Corporate subsidies is my personal pet peeve. Because there are two different kinds of companies:

1. Profitable companies, which do not need subsidies
2. Unprofitable companies, which do not deserve subsidies

Watch Tom Henry give away FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS?

So according to MAYOR TOM HENRY Public Works money is not Tax Payer Money.

So does that mean the CITY has been charging to much for services all this time?

If it has half a million dollars to pave a bike trail that is already paid for through private donations & benefactors, why haven't they done it before?

Is it your money or the City's?.... It is your City.

Maybe that 500 THOUSAND DOLLARS could have been used to clean up the rivers before we have people riding around them any further.

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA Mayor Tom Henry has answered critics who question how the city can make a matching contribution of up to $500,000 to Oprah's Big Give and the Fort Wayne Trails project when the city of Fort Wayne itself is facing budget cuts.

In an interview with Indiana NewsCenter's Ryan Elijah, Henry says the money has already been earmarked for the trail system and that money had been collected started even before he came into office. That is why the city can match up to $500,000 in donations. The Mayor stresses that the money is not property tax money, but rather public works money.

[....]

The television show “Oprah’s Big Give” selected ABC affiliate Indiana’s NewsCenter and the local non-profit Aboite New Trails for a donation of $10,000. The mission from “Oprah’s Big Give” to Aboite New Trails and Indiana’s NewsCenter was to find a way to grow the money into something larger.

Aboite New Trails chose to split the Oprah’s Big Give funds with each partner trails organization to fund its own event April 12, thus expanding the reach of the Oprah’s Big Give funding throughout Fort Wayne and New Haven. The partner organizations will keep the money raised from the individual fund-raising walk or rides to fund the expansion and maintenance of the trail network in Allen County.

The City is also offering a dollar-for-dollar match, up to $500,000, for donations to the City or any partner trail organization through Saturday. Donations of any amount can be made now through Saturday. More information about the match and City donation forms are available on the City’s Web site.

[....]

Oprah's production crew will be here Saturday to film Fort Wayne's celebrations and fund-raiser for the Fort Wayne trails project.

She gave Indiana's NewsCenter $10,000 in seed money, and since that amount has now grown to close to $1 million... Fort Wayne could be featured in the finale of "Oprah's Big Give" next Sunday night... as one of the most successful community projects in the country.

[SOURCES: the first of two stories with Ryan Elijah reporting are both written by Paul Neumann, the third is written by Corrinne Rose all respectfully from Indiana News Center TV Channels 21 & 33. The second picture was ganked off the city website]

Annual LPAC Tax Day Protest @ Main Post Office

Just a reminder that the Annual Libertarian Party Tax Day Protest is coming up.

If you're tired of paying too many taxes, if you're tired of shouldering the next generation with trillions of dollars of debt, and if you're tired of the government wasting your money come out and show it on April 15th.

The Libertarian Party of Allen County will be out in front of the main branch of the post office in downtown Fort Wayne on Clinton Street between about 4 and 9 on Tuesday April 15th. We'll be handing information about the LPAC and the national debt to people as they drop their tax forms off at the post office.

We hope you'll come out and help, even 30 minutes will let people know what you think about government waste. Please email our Party Chair, Douglas Horner, Doug.Horner2@Verizon.net if you plan on attending or for more information.

Monday is last chance to register to vote for primaries on May 6th

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: You must be registered to vote by the end of civil business hours on Monday in order to cast a vote in either the Democrat or Republican Primaries on the sixth of May, 2008.

Why doesn't the Libertarian Party participate in the primary process?

The Libertarian Party does not participate in the Primary System as all decisions are handled at either the County, State, and National Conventions and then the voters are invited to decide at the general election as to whether or not our candidates are worth the privileges of serving in office as their elected representative.

For example: the Presidential candidate is chosen at National; Congressional, Gubernatorial, all State wide offices (Attorney General, Secretary of State, Public Instruction, etc.), State Assemblies or Legislatures are chosen at State; and all local offices are either chosen at the County Convention or in regard to certain Legislative candidates and such are recommended by the County Convention to the State Convention or Committee for approval.

When is the Libertarian Party of Allen County Convention?

The LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF ALLEN COUNTY will be holding its Annual Convention across the months of April and May at the residence of Jack and Hillary Evans @ 4205 North Washington Road (West of Ardmore near Noll Park) in Fort Wayne on SATURDAY, April 19th 2:30-5:00 p.m. and WEDNESDAY, May 28th 7:00-9:00p.m. Only State and National Party Members may vote during a LPAC Convention.

When is the State Convention?

Friday, April 25th: Complimentary Party @ Wingate Inn by Marion County Libertarian Party
Saturday, April 26th: Business Meeting: + select delegates for the LP national convention + choose candidates for state and national offices. Forums: + campaigns, + candidates, + elections
Dinner Banquet: with speeches from LP Presidential nomination seekers.

Where: Wingate Inn Airport inside I-465 (west side) near the Rockville Road Exit #?
Use 1.800.228.1000 or www.wingateinns.com to reserve your personal rooms/suites.
Mention LPIN for special rates.

What it costs: The program fee is $120 AFTER March 26th Checks or credit card info, plus attendee names, should go to: Mail to: LPIN HQ 156 East Market Street, Suite #405 Indianapolis IN 46204

How do I become able to participate?

You may join either the State or the National Party from their respective websites. There is a minimum membership fee of twenty-five dollars annually. According to the rules you may be both a Libertarian and a member of another political party.

Recent murders in Fort Wayne

There has been a recent streak of murders in Fort Wayne. Some thoughts:
1. This should not deter people from residing, shopping, or working in Fort Wayne, or in any particular section of the city. Your chances of being murdered are more dependent on who you know rather than where you live.
2. Earlier this year, Mayor Tom Henry decided not to hire more police officers. Perhaps it is time to re-evaluate this decision.
3. If we cannot afford the police that we need, how can we afford a ballpark? The city is like a homeowner who cannot afford to fix his roof this year because of the pool that he bought last year. Sure, HS is a dead issue. But it is important that we learn from our mistakes. Just because you can afford to blow money on bread and circuses doesn't make it a good idea. The city needs to keep a cushion in its budget for emergencies.

Opportunity to make the City beautiful begins again on 4/20

Please Note: Before I begin this post I need to reveal to all of our readers that I also serve on the Board of Heartland Communities which is the fiscal agent for and is partnered with Save Maumee.

We have a strong effort to clean and rehab the rivers.

THIRD ANNUAL EARTH DAY CLEAN UP SERVICE PROJECT
SUNDAY APRIL 20, 2008 NOON - 6PM

Please Join Save Maumee Grassroots Organization on Earth Day to celebrate the cleansing of the riverbanks. Our goal is to pick up ALL trash between mile marker one and two, reseed and pole plant the riparian area on the riverbanks and rally the community's awareness about our three rivers' condition in Ft. Wayne. Visit www.savemaumee.org to check out our website to see past projects and information.

Educational Info, Old Crown Coffee and Health Food Shoppe snacks will be provided all we need is you! We will be located on the N. Anthony Blvd. bridge over the Maumee River area. (Hosy Dam) Directly on Niagara Drive. You won't be able to miss it! Participation will be fun and easy for everyone! Our rivers need OUR help!

Donations are appreciated but not expected. All donations will go directly to community service projects like this one. We are establishing projects to clean up the Maumee River. These self-supported community projects will raise awareness about the unsanitary conditions and begin the slow process of reversing years of pollution. River Restoration is a necessity, NOT a luxury. U.S. citizens depend on the services that healthy streams and rivers provide! Please invest in Natural Capital!

To help, bring what you can:
+ All children, family, friends
(adult accompaniment for persons younger then 18 years old)
+ Garbage bags
+ Muddin' shoes/boots
+ Rumble Clothing
+ Gloves
+ Your able body (if you don' have anything on the list, Save Maumee will provide these things until supplies are gone!)

Abigail Frost
Founder
Save Maumee Grassroots Organization
www.savemaumee.org



Click here for the map and past riparian accomplishments

Note from Fr. Fozy part duex
This is a great opportunity for High School and College Students and members of Scouting Organizations to get some of your Community Service or Environmental Stewardship Credits/Merits taken care of also. Make sure to check with your Troop/Pack Leaders, Resident Assistants, and Fraternity/Sorority Outreach Chairs or Presidents, and Guidance Counselors, to verify and provide accountability!!

For more info about Heartland Communities, Inc.:

Heartland Communities is a Nonprofit based in Fort Wayne, Indiana that works in sustainability in the environment and community. Within our Federal designation we create, develop, and umbrella other Nonprofits or Cooperatives that work with in those guidelines. Many of our programs and projects can be made within sustainability in the environment and community. We want to create and live in a new paradigm. We collectively envision a new way of operating in our work life and community life that expresses our deepest values. The Organizational Cornerstones and By-Laws are about cooperation and sustainable living. The founders intended to work toward an intentional community / eco village, and to practice right livelihood. Just about any project that promotes sustainability in any way could be done under the auspices of the organization. It is set up to spin off other for-profit and non-profit ventures that are worker-owned.

Governor Daniels offers economic relief for surrounding states

"We understand that the people of Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky are losing jobs at a faster rate than us. So I have decided to raise the sales tax to 7% so that Hoosiers will shop more in these states and stimulate their economies," announced Governor Daniels this morning.