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.

We hope you can make it.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Upcoming Meetings:

North Haven: 7:00 PM, Monday March 12 at GOP Headquarters
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 Center

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’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.

Check out the store here

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
PO Pox 4361
Hamden, CT 06514

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.

1. We need experienced Wikipedia writers to help by creating pages on Steve Packard and the campaign.  All the information you will need to do so is available on this site in the “info” section or can be found on Steve’s personal site, Depleted Cranium to create a good article.  There is also plenty of information on the third district of Connecticut readily available.  Because of the nature of Wikipedia, we would prefer that some individuals not associated directly with the campaign take the initiative to create the entries on their own.
2. You can help promote us on the web by writing about this page or linking to it on your blog, if you have one.  If not, links to us on Facebook, on web forums and elsewhere are helpful too.  Anything that gets the message out and generates some publicity or donations. Also be sue to “like” our Facebook page.
3. To help get the word out even better, you can submit this page in full or various posts on the page to sites that link to news stories, such as Fark, Slashdot and so on.   For example: a congressional candidate who completely opposes SOPA?  That mght be something that Slashdot would run with if a few people submitted it.
4. For those living in the third district only - We will soon be getting our first batch of campaign items like buttons and bumper stickers.  We expect to also be receiving yard signs in the near future.  However, we’re going to need to setup some locations where supporters can come in to get these items.   If you live in the third district and own a business like a store, restaurant or an office that is open to the public, we would greatly appreciate it if you would consider being a distribution point for our items.   We will list your business as a place where supporters can stop to pick up a sticker or other item and you may also get some extra customers in the process.  Please contact info@packard2012.org if you are interested.
5. Also for those living in the third district - We’re looking at doing some fundraisers in the form of parties or mini-rallies to start things off with.  If you are interested in hosting such an event at your home and think you can get some people to attend, please contact us at info@packard2012.org.   If you have access to any kind of larger venue, such as a restaurant, a banquet hall, a club or organization’s meeting hall or some other appropriate location and would like to donate it or could arrange for a discounted rate to use it, we would be especially interested.

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.

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.

As for my opponent, Congresswoman Rosa Delauro, she has not gone on the record with a direct, unambiguous statement as to whether or not she will vote for the bill, but she has made several statements which have indicate her general support for it.

In a response to one constituent, Delauro’s office states:

While I certainly believe in exercising free speech online, I also believe the American consumer should be protected from online infringement, especially actions that could possibly harm their lives. Although the Senate bill is aimed at only targeting the most egregious websites and individuals, and if done correctly would be an important first step to putting a stop to online piracy and sale of counterfeit goods

(you may read her response in its entirety at the above link)

Unfortunately, it seems that Rep Delauro has some very powerful motives to support SOPA, about 135,700 of them, since at the time of this writing, that’s the amount of cash she has received from pro-SOPA special interests.  There has been a great deal of lobbying by groups that would benefit from tight control of internet consent and many millions of dollars have been donated by these groups to politicians.

I sincerely hope that Representative Delauro will come realize that this bill is both futile in its goal and has the potential to have a huge negative impact on online freedoms. Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and major internet pioneers like the founders of Google have been very vocal in warning legislators of the dangers this bill presents, and they would do very well to listen.

On a related subject:
If you look up the domain and IP of this website, you may notice that it is hosted by Godaddy. I choose Godaddy because in the past I’ve had very good experiences with their customer support and found their products to be of good quality and well priced. I was just recently disappointed to learn that Godaddy had come out in support of this legislation. Because of this, many have called for a boycott of the company, even despite their withdrawal of support for SOPA.

It is certainly appropriate for consumers in a free market to use their purchasing power as a means of expressing their discontent with such offensive policies and to exert an influence on companies that punishes those who engage in unethical behavior or support causes which one finds so disagreeable.   However, this issue is complicated by the fact that Godaddy did respond by withdrawing their support for SOPA, so as unacceptable as their initial stand may have been, the discontent it inspired seems to have gotten the message across.

Had I been aware of Godaddy’s stand on SOPA, I certainly would not have chosen them as a website host, but at this point, moving the site somewhere else would do little, as the hosting and other services provided by Godaddy have already been paid up for the next six months.   Moving the domain along with all the e-mail accounts, SQL tables and files would be a hassle.

None the less, it is still something we’re considering.

If anyone has any comments on this or would like to suggest an alternate website host with ethics that are more suited to this campaign and capable of offering similar services, please feel free to contact me at steve@packard2012.org.