Distorted news is bad news, but better than no news!

I know that major media are financially squeezed and short-staffed.  I know that most of those remaining are the left-of-Lenin J-school acolytes.  But there is no excuse for twisted, biased and just-flat-wrong reporting.

I wrote this in response to one newspaper’s faulty reporting.  Please write and send off your own.  We need to get the media on our side.  Currently, they’re on the other side, you know…

 

There was no “property tax protest” on July 4.

It’s true enough that some people (not enough) are still mad about unconstitutional property taxes.  This may have motivated about five of the fifty who showed up on the Governor’s Mansion lawn in the pouring rain.  But tax policy was never billed as any part of the purpose of this year’s Independence Day protest.  In fact, in all five press releases, two radio spots and dozens of emails and internet postings related to this event, I specifically insisted that we were protesting our politicians’ defiance of state and federal constitutions, and not just a specific tax policy.  Politicians’ illegal abuse of power is what created our curent problems with debt, spending, education, prices, jobs and, OK, property taxes.  Politicians are breaking crucial, protective laws, in other words, and we were protesting lawless lawmakers, or what I call anarchy.

The disease is ungoverned government.  That’s what we were protesting.  It’s wrong to report just one symptom like property tax when that wasn’t the core issue last year either.  Last summer’s popular “Tea Party” protests that followed were solely about property tax.  And yes, I first advocated constitutionally eliminating property tax back in 1998 and haven’t changed my tune on that subject.  But I never had anything to do with a “property tax protest.” 

We have much more serious threats to our life, liberty and property.

While the rest of us are tightening our belts and surrendering our rights to keep them fed and happy, our politicians are engorging themselves on money and power with no end but total collapse in sight.  It is of course your choice what you want to say about what really happened on July 4.  It’s your paper.  But I hope you offer me the opportunity to set things right.

Constitutions are the laws that protect us from politicians.  Politicians, by their nature, break those laws when we let them.  It’s time we say “whoa” and end the anarchy.

Our protest was really just one, simple, basic plea: It’s time for politicians to honor their oaths of office and obey written laws, as written.  If you’d like to read those laws, they’re all posted at my campaign website, www.horningforgovernor.com 

 

Well, it certainly did rain…

The weather was about as bad as it could be on Independence Day.  Unseasonably cool, with the low, misty clouds and kind of rain that you suspect will last forever…I’m surprised we had as many hardy souls turn up as did on Friday morning. 

To all those who showed up (maybe as many as 50 by some media reports), I can’t thank you enough.  I know that I didn’t thank you enough on Friday.

Thank you.  Thank you from the soggy depths of my heart.

Please know that we accomplished a good part of the mission.  We got some media coverage!

Some of it was accurate; some of it was lies from the tongue of Satan.  But it really is like they say; any media is good media. 

At least people can see that there are options, and that there are people speaking on their behalf.  Even people watching the most biased reports can see that there are those among us who are not satisfied with the status quo.  And that’s a good thing.

…And we’re just getting started.

Well, anyway, thank you.  I thank those that showed up, and I thank those who read these words.

Liberty or Bust!

Quick Note about July 4 Freedom Rally

It may rain.  This is Indiana, after all.  But don’t doubt that I’ll be driving all the way from Freedom, Indiana to be at the Governor’s Mansion on North Meridian just north of 46^th Street at 10am.  I’m bringing my family and a box of Horning For Governor T-shirts. 

No, this rally isn’t about my candidacy.  It’s about you and your choices.

Let’s be clear on this:  You cannot delegate your life to politicians.  You have choices to make.  You tried letting politicians handle the “Property Tax Reform” issue, and look at what happened.  Political spending is up, taxes are up, prices are up, and you are still, in the minds of politicians, serfs.

If you want change right here, right now, you have to vote for it.  There is no shortcut, and no other way.  You must change what you’ve been doing if you want a different result.

What other choice is there?

Well, I suppose you can send me money J

Anyway, I’ll be there tomorrow.  I know lots of others will be there too.  I’m not going to say very much, since over the last fifteen years, I’ve already said what I have to say.  And, I am happy to report, reinforcements are here at last, fighting the same fight.

So others will speak, and you can speak out too. 

I think we’re finally coming to a consensus. 

The priced of oil by itself is not the issue.  Tax policy isn’t the issue.  Public funding to the Colts or mall builders or foreign companies isn’t the issue.  Illegal immigration isn’t the issue.  Rising crime and poverty and imprisonment and loss of homes aren’t the core issues either.  They’re all just symptoms.

The problem, the disease, the issue at hand and the heart of the matter is ungoverned government.  Power without limits.  Anarchy in an $800 suit.

And it’s time we put a leash on that monster.

Join us.  What better way could there be to honor the sacrifices of our forefathers?

Just come out and say it, for goodness sake

For years now I’ve been called a “perennial,” “frequent” and even “habitual” candidate by people who won’t just come out and say what they mean.  

The fact, however, is that I have not run for office nearly as many times as most of our congressmen, senators, judges, dog catchers, etc.  

And yet do we call Richard Lugar a “perennial candidate?”  

Certainly not.  We call him “honorable.”

What the perennial, frequent and habitual cynics, blatherers, bloggers and “journalists” mean by their “perennial” sophistry is that I am a loser.  I wish they’d come out and say it.

George Bush may be destroying America, but he’s a winner.  I may be trying to set things right, but I’m a loser.  

Say it.  

Those who spring onto the scene with fame, money, power and success are winners.  The poor underdogs fighting for liberty and justice for all …are quite obviously losers.

This is fact.  Why can’t these shadow-dodging anklebiters just stand up straight and say what they mean?  Why can’t they boldly and honestly stand for their own principles (whatever they are) as if they really believe in something?

If they want me to quit, then why can’t they say so?  If they want to poke fun at me, then is it so hard to do it with some intelligence?  It’s not like there’s nothing to work with:

For twelve years I’ve stuck my neck on the block with political speaking, writing and campaigning.  I switched parties …twice.  In 2000 I had two million people vote against me in a single day.  I’ve gained so much weight I now have my own gravitational field that holds my cellphone in orbit just out of my reach.  I even grew a beard. 

And yet I hear little substantive criticism of me, my thoughts, my looks…I was instead called a “perennial candidate” on just my third attempt at public office!

What is that? 

If at first you don’t succeed…you’re a “perennial?”

Can’t these people find a better attack? 

Here’s something to play with:

Once again I’m going to go protest ungoverned government on July 4 at 10am at the Governor’s Mansion in Indy.  The last time we protested, we lost.  The politicians won.  That happens a lot.  Our government is ungoverned and this resulting anarchy is collapsing precisely because the myopic power-mad keep winning, and those who’d put them on a leash keep losing.

But in my serial, perennial, frequent and habitual fashion, I’m going to keep opposing those jerks.  I won’t be alone.

I have protested alone before.  I’ve protested with just a few.  In 2005 my July 4 protest gathered only about 25.  Last year, we had a lot more.

OK, we’ll probably lose again.  The “winners” will probably stick it to us even harder as this state and nation swirls down the drainpipes of history.  Our society will collapse with winners at the helm.  That’s how history works, you know.

But maybe we’ll not collapse just yet.  Maybe there is something to the notion of “persistence.”  And maybe there’s a corollary to “evil reigns when good people do nothing.”  Maybe when more people figure out what’s really happening, we’ll have enough people on our side that the losers will become the winners, which would make us all winners in justice.

But go ahead.  Call me a loser.  Call all of us embattled underdog protesters losers.  I won’t mind.  

I’ll be in the best company.

That is fact.

… Where’s the Relief?

Who: Friends of Liberty and Justice for All 

What: July 4 Celebration, as properly done

When: Friday, 4 July, 2008 from 10-11am

Where: In front of the Indiana Governor’s Mansion at 4750 N. Meridian, Indianapolis

Contact: Andy Horning; andrewhorning@hotmail.com

 

 July 4 Done Proper

 

Eleven score and twelve years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that politicians must be kept on a constitutional leash.

Yet now we’re engaged in that ancient battle of politicians against their own citizens.  It’s been exactly a year since our property tax protest made national news.  Now sales taxes are up, property taxes are up, spending is up, debts are out of control…what have we accomplished with the protests last year?  What did our founders accomplish with their blood, sweat and tears?  Certainly, King George never taxed Americans a fraction of today’s load.

It is time to turn up the wick and make this July 4 something even more memorable than the last.

We are not interested in just tax policy any more – even eliminating property tax isn’t enough.  We are not going to merely remove a few entrenched politicians. 

No, we intend nothing less than to govern our government by proven, written standards.  It is time to demand that all of our politicians obey the laws that protect us from them.  It is time for the full restoration of the contracts and freedoms that made this nation great.

We will demand that our politicians obey constitutions as written.  No “interpretations,” no ifs, ands or buts.

In other words, we resolve that our heroic, patriotic dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

###

4 July Done Proper

Do you want to celebrate 4 July in a way that’d do our founders proud? 

It’s been a year since our national-news-making tax protest on the Governor’s lawn, and we’re worse off than ever.  Our politicians have strayed even further from the laws that protect us from them (the constitutions). 

So this time, we’re not going to be distracted by the tax policy sub-issue.  We’ll no longer nibble at the branches of the problem of lawbreaking lawmakers.  We’re not going to fuss over symptoms – we aim to cure the disease of ungoverned government.

We will demand Rule of Law under Constitutions.  We will demand that our politicians obey the constitutions, as written.  No “interpretations,” no ifs, ands or buts.

Same place as last year …the Governor’s Mansion on North Meridian in Indianapolis from around 10 to 11am.

Contact me at andrewhorning@hotmail.com if you’re interested in making history.  Again. 

Give me reason to hope…please!

I first started proposing property tax repeal and serious government reform about twelve years ago, and never stopped.  For several months before last summer’s July 4 property tax protest I held press conferences (like this one for an Indiana Fair Tax) proposing a workable replacement for property tax.  So I suppose I should be happy that so many folks started demanding changes…and got some.  But I’m not happy about what we got.  I’m not happy at all.

I don’t expect more from career politicians, mind you.  They do what comes natural to them.  In fact I suspect that Governor Daniels really meant well.  But he’s a career politician trained in law; he’s unable to do what’s right.  After all, lawyers are to law what fireman are to fire. 

Several other politicians involved in this proposal also meant well, I am certain.  But they will never, ever accept the just limitations of power imposed by our constitution.  If citizens don’t hold them to constitutions, if we do not snap that leash onto them, they’ll not do what’s right, legal, and proven to work.

It’s frustrating that we keep voting for these political creatures and their certain result.  It’s disheartening that we keep tolerating what they do to us.  Over and over and over again.  I’m getting really, really depressed.

The “tax reform” just passed is taking us further and faster into the wrong direction.  By proposing we amend the constitution that politicians flout, they insult and harm us greatly…and few of us even know it.  And if the Kernan-Shepard Commission gets its way (I actually heard a news pundit say it’s the only way to make the tax reform work), we’ll funnel still more power into fewer hands on the theory that such “streamlining” will save money in government the way “consolidation” saved money in schools.

You know how this will turn out, right?  You know the history of massive power in few human hands, right?

My appeals for restoration of the Indiana Constitution have been printed and broadcast in several ways and places; in newspapers across the state, in the Indiana Policy Review Journal, and on this blog.  Lots of people have heard/read these, and no one has presented any serious argument against them.

Why is it so hard for us to ask for what we really need?  Why do we keep nibbling at the fast-growing branches of our problem when we’re running out of time to strike the root? 

Do we really think that failure is not an option?  Do we really think we can keep heading in this direction forever? 

If somebody sees a silver lining, a ray of hope, a life raft or even a distant speck of light in any of this, please let me know at once.  I’d really like to hope that we’re not swirling toward the drainpipes…