Immigration

Some thoughts:
- My biggest problem with securing a border is that it is a complete waste of money. France tried to secure their border during the 1930's. They were fully justified in doing so, but it still didn't do them any good. The goal should not be to protect an arbitrary line in the dirt, but rather to protect people and property.
No modern nation can be sealed off from the outside, because no modern nation is resource independent. Products have to be imported and exported. As long as trucks are allowed to cross over, planes are allowed to land, and ships are allowed to dock, people will be able to get in. Any walls along the border will be symbolic at best.
- The US birthrate is currently below replacement levels. Current US population growth is due to immigration.
- If we can consider Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Dick Cheney as allies in the War on Terror, then immigrants could be consider allies as well. If the legal immigration process is streamlined, more attention could be paid to those who try to sneak in anyway. As things stand now, there are 12 million illegal immigrants. Finding any terrorist needles in the alien haystack will require the help of non-terrorist aliens. A common police tactic is to use minor offenders to squeal on worse criminals. We need immigrants to feel safe in approaching the police for help.

Downloading porn on a government computer

We all heard the story about the SEC employees who downloaded porn at work. Here are my thoughts:
Many private companies allow their employees to use company PC's for personal use, as long as they get their work done. The extra amount of electricity consumed and the extra wear and tear to the PC are negligible. Ultimately it boils down to balancing productivity with morale, so it is a decision best left to the discretion of management. Any policy regarding the use of PC's and the Internet should be made clear.

No matter who you work for, never do anything on a computer unless you want your boss to know about it!

1500TH POST: Annual Convention proves that taxpayers should not have to pay for party politics! Plus a recap of Allen County and Indiana Conventions.

This is going to be a wonderful post for our fifteen hundredth! It has been my pleasure to serve you and on occasion have y'all to read my ranting on the state of politics and social concern around Fort Wayne and Allen County and abroad for the last two and a half years and the rest of the Officers pounding it across the electronic super highway for the last six years or longer.

This year The LP of Indiana [Website][Facebook][Twitter][YouTube][FreeHoosiers] and LP of Allen County proved that not only can we have a contentious convention, with not one but two contested federal nomination fights but that we can do so with mutual respect of all parties and without the taxpayer footing the bill for a political party to make a decision! The Libertarian Party in every effect had not just a Convention but an actual Primary election, and you the taxpayer were not charged one red cent or green backed bill, unless you chose to participate in the process. It is time to take a stand and make the Republicans and Democrats do the same across the Hoosier State! You can start by demanding an open primary or no primary at all! You the voter sets the agenda contrary to any cynicism that develops on which ever isle in the marketplace of ideas.

Let's start with the State Convention, going on in Indy as I am writing this, the results so far as I have been told in communiques between members are subject to revision (*name = final result) with official results but are as follows:

FEDERAL ELECTIONS

US Senate *Rebecca Sink Burris [Facebook][Website]
US House 3rd *Scott Wise [Facebook][Website]
US House 5th *Chard Reid [Facebook]
US House 6th *T.J. Thompson [Facebook][Campaign Facebook][Website]

STATE ELECTIONS

Secretary of State *Mike Wherry [Facebook][Website]
Auditor Eric Knipe [Website]
Treasurer TBA

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

House Districts In Allen County
District 81 Elizabeth [Facebook]
District 85 Paul Leslie [Facebook]

TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE, ASSESSOR, ADVISORY BOARD etc.
Lake Twp Adv. Board Tom Pearl (currently a Republican incumbent)

(MORE INFO 2 FOLLOW PLEASE SAVE POST TITLE IN ORDER TO REFER BACK TO IT THANKS!)

15th anniversary of Oklahoma City bombing

Before I was born, someone tried to blow up my dad. During the 1970's, Puerto Rican secessionists placed a series of bombs in New York and Chicago. One of them was in a federal building that my dad was in. Fortunately, that bomb was discovered and disposed of safely.

I was lucky because my dad was lucky. This child would have been 15 right now had he been lucky.

Whatever your cause, no matter how noble your intentions, history judges you by your actions.

Obligatory Tax Post

I will concede that taxes are necessary to pay for things like police, national defense, and courts. Even if you never call the police and never set foot in a courtroom, you still benefit from their existence. If you don't agree with that, perhaps you can ask the county to disconnect 911 from your house.

But there are programs that do not universally benefit every citizen. There is nothing wrong with sport stadiums, but they are a luxury enjoyed only by sports fans. Ethanol has both industrial and recreational uses, but it should be funded solely by the people who actually use it. And if you want to help struggling banks, I won't stop you from sending a personal check.

Annual tax protest.

We'll be having our annual April 15th tax protest to 4:30pm and until it gets dark in front of the Anthis Career Center parking lot, next to the downtown post office. This has been an annual ritual for LPAC since 2005.

This year might be interesting. Apparently there is a movement to "crash the tea parties". I look forward to meeting these people if any are in Fort Wayne. But I do wonder about the wisdom of announcing in advance that they will try to embarrass us. Now if anybody says anything outrageous or embarrassing at any Tea Party, then the "party crashers" have provided us with the perfect scapegoat.

LPIN NEWS: ALL CANDIDATES STATEWIDE

LPIN has to many potential candidates for your votes this November. Official Status of Nomination/Candidacy Form announced, please fill out and turn it in 48 hours before the opening of our State Convention (this also includes county level seats too) to be properly considered for nomination and state website promotional advertising as a candidate for the Party of Individual Liberties and Open and Small Government. To read more from Christopher Spangle, Executive Director, Libertarian Party of Indiana click this link.

Point I was trying to make with the polls

Online surveys are as about as meaningful as a Hollywood marriage. But the point is that if they can make you buy insurance, they can make you do about anything if it serves the public good. To me, this is a violation of privacy, since it's nobody's business if I have insurance or not. So if this survives a SCOTUS challenge, it can set the precedent for overturning Lawrence vs. Texas during the next GOP administration. We could very well be one STD scare from having federal sodomy and chastity laws. That would suck for me, because premarital sex is the only kind of sex that I get to have right now.

Remember Democrats. If you get to violate the Constitution, so do Republicans.

Annual Convention RSVP

We have less than 10 days before our Annual Convention. This is a general reminder and a request for RSVP so that we can meet our minimum requirements for the venue. We need to make sure we have at least 30 people with a suggested $10 minimum purchase to retain the deposit fee. The meeting will be between 1-4 on Saturday the 17th of April and we would like to encourage all members to RSVP on the facebook event page or email privately to lpallencountyinfomail@gmail.com

This year's venue is Mad Anthony Brewing Company [website],[facebook], which will be celebrating their anniversary the weekend we are holding our Convention. They will have couple specials: Peel and Eat Shrimp for $5.99 per half pound and $10.99 for a full pound as well as Crawfish at $6.99 per half pound and $34.99 for a family platter which feeds 7 and includes taters and corn and something else...They will also have drink specials....

Only Members of the State and National Party have a vote at our Annual Convention you must become a member in order to nominate or run for political office in the November elections. We do not hold a primary. We do not expect the taxpayer to pay for politics.

Obama warns that recession may last into his third term

Obama said today that his administration may have deal with this recession for at least another ten years. “This recession was caused by massive borrowing and spending, and the only way to fix it is more spending on an unprecedented scale. If the economy doesn’t recover after five years, we’ll just have keep trying. I may even be forced to run for a forth term. But it should be clear that long term recessions require long term planning, much of which be done at once without any time for debate or consideration by Congress.”