On Friday, May 18, delegates from across Connecticut will come together in Hartford to cast their votes for candidates for the US Congress and Senate. This is just the first step in the process of choosing who the party will ultimately send to the general election and will likely be followed by a primary. You can watch the convention live on CT-N, the Connecticut Network. It’s available on most cable systems in the state and also can be viewed on the web. All are welcome to join us this coming Saturday for a “Meet and Greet” in Branford Connecticut. The event starts at 6:00 at the SBC brewery and restaurant on Route 1 in Branford. A short drive for anyone living in Branford, East Haven, Guilford, North Branford or the New Haven area. We hope you can make it. Today is the first of May. It is a day known as “May Day” and in some circles “International Workers Day.” On the extreme political left, today is a day to celebrate socialism, mandated systems of labor, centrally controlled economies and the other ideas that trade freedom for the promise of “workers paradise.” Because of the association this day has come to have with such philosophies, it is the perfect day for us to pause and reflect on the millions of lives lost to the empty promises of socialism. Whether or not it was founded on noble intentions, one of the greatest tragedies in human history is that millions of our fellow human beings have been forced to live under the oppression and dehumanizing conditions of communism. Millions died trying to escape communism and millions more died under the regimes that demanded obedience in the name of a proclaimed greater good. In Europe, the twentieth century was dominated by a metaphoric Iron Curtain and a concrete and barbed wire wall that was all too real. Despite the promises that communist leaders made, their people were all too aware that a better life could be found through freedom, thus necessitating such draconian measures to simply keep the population from escaping. Today many are too young to remember the terror of socialism, as it was. The Soviet Union is gone and China is now communist in name only and has gained great prosperity by embracing free enterprise. It would be easy to forget the dangers of a central state of immense power. For these reasons, it is appropriate that we would take today to remember the great human tragedy of communism and resolve not to allow the false promises it makes fool a new generation into a lifetime of oppression. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Steve Packard 2012, the official campaign of Steve Packard for US Congress is pleased to announce a campaign rally event to be held at the Sunoco/Deli Unlimited, gas station and deli shop on Boston Post Road in Guilford Connecticut. The rally will be at 4:30 PM on Sunday April 29 and is scheduled to run until 6:30. The rally will provide an opportunity for residents of the Third Congressional district and to meet Steve Packard, ask questions and show support of the Packard Campaign for US Congress. Donations are welcomed and greatly appreciated but are not required. Soft drinks and light refreshments will be provided. A major focus of the rally will be US energy policy. As fuel prices reach record highs, meeting at a gas station provides a powerful reminder of the burden faced by families due to high fuel prices and the failure of the US government to address the problem. Steve will be discussing issues including fuel taxation, domestic oil production and other aspects of US energy policy. Although energy policy will be the major issue of the rally, Steve is also looking forward to giving some additional details on the plans for the campaign in the general election and his policies for economic growth and jobs. The rally is open to all members of the public. Other candidates for office and their representatives are also welcome to attend. Please contact info@packard2012.org for additional details. What issues are important to you? Which of Steve’s positions do you agree with? Which do you disagree with? Do you have any questions? We’d love to hear from you. This campaign is all about openness and having a direct dialog. You may notice that the posts on this site do not have comments enabled. That’s because we want to avoid getting off topic and wish to keep things simple and straight forward. However, if you’d like to start a dialog with other members of the public and with Steve Packard and the campaign, Facebook offers a great opertunity to do so. Our Facebook page allows for comments and posts to our wall. We wouldn’t have it any other way. While we will delete posts that are spam, inflammatory or completely off topic, legitimate discussion, even if you don’t agree on everything. Ask anything. Tell us what you think. Be part of the discussion. Remember, government and representatives work for you, so don’t be afraid to say what you think! Would you like to meet Steve Packard? Get involved in local politics? A great place to start is by attending your town’s local Republican Committee meeting. Steve will be trying to attend all the town committee meetings for the Third District. You can find out where and when they are at the Connecticut Republican State Central Website. Please note that a few of the listings may be out of date, so to be sure, e-mail or call the committee chair to be sure you don’t miss it. North Haven: 7:00 PM, Monday March 12 at GOP Headquarters Note: Middlefield, North Branford and Durham seem to have changed from the time and location on the State Central website. They will be added to the list as soon as their location and time can be determined. This list is subject to change. Steve will try to be at as many of these upcoming meetings as possible, but may have difficulty getting to all of them as some are scheduled on the same night and are some distance apart. This list is subject to be We’ve been getting a lot of requests from supporters who wanted to know how they could get a bumper sticker, campaign sign or other campaign item to show their support for Steve Packard for US Congress. We’re very pleased to announce that we now have an online ordering system that allows you to purchase these items. A portion of each sale will benefit the campaign, so each purchase is also a donation. Your purchase also helps enormously in getting the word out and building the grassroots support we need. The store is a CafePress custom product store. This turned out to be the easiest way to put these products out there and offer them to supporters without having to deal with the overhead of filling orders. As of this posting, the store might look a little rough, as we’re still working on the template and interface. However, we’ve gotten so many requests for campaign gear, we didn’t want to wait to start offering it. Just a quick administrative note: The campaigns mailing address has changed. If you are sending corospondence by mail or making a contribution in the mail, please use the following address: Packard 2012 Letters or items sent to the old mailing address should still get to us, so do not worry if you’ve already sent anything, but this is the preferred address. We have been receiving a lot of requests from supporters who want to know what they can do to help out. At this point, we’re still very much in need of monetary contributions, so if you are able to do so, donations are greatly appreciated and will help a lot. However, we now also have some other opportunities for those interested to help out. That is it for now. We expect to have more opportunities for more organized volunteer work soon. Remember, anything you can do to help get the word out or get some donations can really help us a lot. At this early stage it’s all about filling our warchest for the campaign ahead. This is a true grassroots campaign and we can’t do it without you. I’ve recently received some e-mails asking me what my position is on SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R.3261). The act is aimed at reducing online media and merchandise piracy. It would give the United States government broad and sweeping powers to shut down websites and block IP address ranges within the United States in a manner similar to the internet filters currently being used in the People’s Republic of China. The justification for this is that such policies would be necessary to protect the rights of intellectual property owners (such as record companies, publishers and movie studios) and to stop the sale of elicit and counterfeit items, such as fake prescription drugs. While these concerns are certainly valid, the kind of power that SOPA would give the Federal government is very unsettling. The government would be given nearly limitless power to control internet content, blocking IP ranges from being accessed by end users and even employing deep packet inspection, which allows the reading and blocking of anything anyone views or transmits by the internet. In other words, when you go to a website or send an e-mail, the government would be able to read it, or institute a program to read it, and then block it at will. Of course, SOPA comes with the promise of the government that these powers will only be used for the most honorable of reasons, such as to stop dangerous counterfeit drugs from being sold to consumers, and will never be used to violate the privacy of anyone. Yet it offers few requirements to assure that this is actually the case. That’s absolutely not good enough. The United States was founded on the principle of individual rights and restrictions of the power of the government to invade the lives of citizens. Furthermore, the internet has becomes the greatest communications medium in existence because of the freedom it offers all users to exchange information in a manner that avoids any single entity becoming the gatekeeper. Many objections have been raised about this legislation and rightfully so. To be perfectly honest, the fact that such a bill would even have a viable chance of passing the Congress and being signed into law scares me. It is unacceptable. Even more disturbing is the fact that even if the law is a violation of the US Constitution, it is entirely possible that it would not be struck down by the Supreme Court simply because the justices currently on the bench lack the technical savy to realize how harmful this affront to liberty and the free exchange of ideas really is. Therefore, I should make it crystal clear that if elected, not only will I not vote for SOPA, but I will use every legislative tool at my disposal to oppose any bill that provides anything even remotely close to the kind of powers SOPA would give the government. Given my background in the IT sector, I have a very good appreciation of the implications of this bill and I won’t stand for it.Less than a day until the Connecticut GOP Convention
Please Join Us for Our Shoreline Meet and Greet
On May 1, Let Us Remember
Rally Planned For Guilford CT, Sunday April 29 at 4:30
Join the Discussion
Upcoming Committee Meetings
Upcoming Meetings:
Wallingford: 7:30 PM, Wednesday March 14 at Brothers Restaurant
Guilford: 7:00 PM, Thursday March 15 at the Nathanial Greene Community Center
Branford: 7:00 PM, Monday March 19 at the Branford Community House
East Haven: 7:00 PM, Monday March 19 at the Senior Center
Beacon Falls: 7:00 PM, Wednesday March 21 at the Town Hall Conference Room
Orange: 7:30 PM, Wednesday March 21 at the High Plains Community Center
Bethany: 8:00 PM, Wednesday March 21 at Bethany Town Hall
Milford: 7:15 PM, Thursday March 22 at the Crown Corporate Conference Center
Seymour: 7:30 PM, Thursday March 22 at the Town Community CenterYou can now buy campaign gear online
Check out the store here
Change In Mailing Address
PO Pox 4361
Hamden, CT 06514How You Can Help Out
For The Record: I Am Absolutely 100% Opposed to SOPA