He pleased three guilties:
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| GUILTY! | GUILTY! | GUILTY! |
Posted on 11/13/2009 3:16:03 AM PST by Paleo Catholic
When members of the San Bernardino County Libertarian Party elected Matthew Barnes as the group's vice chairman for 2010, they knew he was a registered sex offender.
"The members of the party that voted for him, they voted for him knowing he had completed his time and his punishment and didn't want to hold that against him," said Paul Darr, the county party chairman, who says he's planning a run for the State Assembly. "He completed his punishment by the state and has been reformed."
Barnes, 41, pleased guilty in 1993 to three counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old, according to court records. The crimes were committed in the summer of 1987, when Barnes was 19.
Barnes did not return messages left with the party chairman.
Court records detailing the specifics of Barnes' offenses were not immediately available. Darr said he did not know details of the crimes. But it likely wouldn't matter, at this point.
"There's nothing that gives us the authority to remove him from his position," Darr said.
He added that Barnes is "not in the position to do any harm to individuals."
Darr appears to be more accepting of Barnes' past than some party leaders.
Michael Mendez, the county party's outgoing secretary, said Barnes is "a nice guy" who has done a lot for the party. But Mendez plans to cut ties to the party when his term as secretary ends in December.
"I'm a deacon of my church," he said. "I work with children. ... I deal with lots of people who would say, 'That's not a good idea, Mike."'
Darr said he hopes having a registered sex offender in a leadership role doesn't give people the wrong impression about the Libertarian Party, which bills itself as "socially tolerant" and "fiscally responsible."
"I hope it would show that members of the party, while being aware of people's past, are willing to take in people that have reformed," Darr said. "Hopefully it's not taken as us harboring criminals."
Jack Pitney, a professor of political science at Clarmont McKenna College, said Libertarian Party members generally don't care enough about winning elections to keep such public relations snafus from happening.
"A lot of people in both (major) parties, and independents as well, have libertarian beliefs, but this is the kind of problem that keeps them from even thinking about the Libertarian Party," he said, noting that Barnes' case is not the first of its kind.
"Not long ago, the Libertarian Party's candidate for lieutenant governor was Norma Jean Almodovar," Pitney said. "She was a prostitute."
Sensible people know that sex offenders do not “reform”. They are ticking time bombs.
Exactly!
That's nothing - the democRAT candidates have ALL been whores!
He pleased three guilties:
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| GUILTY! | GUILTY! | GUILTY! |
Not 100% accurate. Most do not, certainly. But there appear to be quite a few cases where they do change. The younger the person at the time of the incident(s), the more likely successful change is.
You are correct statistically, but not for any given individual.
Most politicians are.
The one in the middle might get a not guilty verdict if she sobers up, fixes her hair, and spends some time in a dentist’s chair. I suspect her priorities lie elsewhere though.
Libertarians are not sensible people. They are liberals.
You’ll never go far. You’ve never met more than a handful, if that of libertarians, so in truth you are making a statement based upon knowing ignorance. I’m very libertarian and conservative. Why? because I don’t think government run conservative social boondoggles work any better than liberal run social boondoggles. This is something conservatives have a hard time wrapping their heads around. That if they ran the government boondoggles, the boondoggles/programs/wastes...would work.
Most libertarians I know are conservative. Mostly because they have seen the Republican party be nothing but Democrat Lite for 99 percent of the time.
What only party fought the Kelso land taking decision? Libertarian and only them. What party overturned the DC gun ban? Libertarian, and only them.
Haven’t you wondered why the Republican party NEVER takes any big government program to court? Not once. Ever.
“Jack Pitney, a professor of political science at Clarmont McKenna College, said Libertarian Party members generally don’t care enough about winning elections to keep such public relations snafus from happening.
“A lot of people in both (major) parties, and independents as well, have libertarian beliefs, but this is the kind of problem that keeps them from even thinking about the Libertarian Party,” he said, noting that Barnes’ case is not the first of its kind.
“Not long ago, the Libertarian Party’s candidate for lieutenant governor was Norma Jean Almodovar,” Pitney said. “She was a prostitute.”
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Libertarians nuts? Let’s check out their 2004 party platform on immigration.
IMMIGRATION
The Issue: We welcome all refugees to our country and condemn the efforts of U.S. officials to create a new “Berlin Wall” which would keep them captive. We condemn the U.S. government’s policy of barring those refugees from our country and preventing Americans from assisting their passage to help them escape tyranny or improve their economic prospects.
The Principle: We hold that human rights should not be denied or abridged on the basis of nationality. Undocumented non-citizens should not be denied the fundamental freedom to labor and to move about unmolested. Furthermore, immigration must not be restricted for reasons of race, religion, political creed, age or sexual preference. We oppose government welfare and resettlement payments to non-citizens just as we oppose government welfare payments to all other persons.
Solutions: We condemn massive roundups of Hispanic Americans and others by the federal government in its hunt for individuals not possessing required government documents. We strongly oppose all measures that punish employers who hire undocumented workers. Such measures repress free enterprise, harass workers, and systematically discourage employers from hiring Hispanics.
Transitional Action: We call for the elimination of all restrictions on immigration, the abolition of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol, and a declaration of full amnesty for all people who have entered the country illegally.
Small government, low taxes, individual freedom, states rights, (etc) all sound like bad things to you?
What seems sensible to you?
Taking a dump with Larry Craig?
“What seems sensible to you?
Taking a dump with Larry Craig?”
There ya go. The libertarian in you comes out shining bright. That is why your party is so big.
I know there are conservative libertarians.
But your party is filled with folks who don’t share your values. They just appointed a child sex offender as their leader? That there is real conservative. Are you defending this glaring lack of judgement for the sake of the party? Why, given all the corruption in government, would liberal libertarians place a pedophile in a leadership position and conservative libertarians make excuses for them?
I toyed around with joining the Libertarian party back in 1988. I met many of the local Libertarians (at their get-togethers in a Denny’s restraunt) and listened to what they had to say. They were only interested in ending drug laws and ending sexual consent laws. I decided they did not share my values. They were not conservative.
I remember the person they nominated for vice-president that year came out in his acceptance speech strongly endorsing child-adult sex.
Foley from Florida, hitting on boys.
Wide stance Senator Larry Craig.
You want me to go on with Republican pervs, wife dumpers, drunkards, thieves...none of which values I share. Those Republicans, high tax paid in blood by fall asleep truckers, drowned fishermen that have to go to sea to harvest the fish for taxes, lumbermen, workers, small businessmen dropping dead at their desks from stress of dealing with ‘reasonable regulation’ from Dole/Ford/Hastert/Bush/McCain( you know, the real Republicans, not like the North East Rockerfeller Republicans. )
All those laws are on State and Federal books and it makes no never mind. ( Which I don’t know why those people that do those things care, since they do them anyways, and I don’t know why those people who are against that stuff and know that the laws exist and are useless, care. It’s like something out of the little read book, Gulliver’s Travels )
You call libertarians liberals.... how's all those RINOs working for ya?
And shouldn't the republican religious right believe a person deserves a (second) chance in life to redeem themselves?
Typical repubilcrat\hypocrite.....
Leisler: “Most libertarians I know are conservative.”
Sara Johnson: “But your party is filled with folks who don’t share your values.”
I agree with both. The Libertarian Party has a history of running (favoring?) outre characters as candidates. Candidates few people identify with.
I notice the Libertarian Party fields more true(ish) ideologues. The RepubliCrats, field hacks who hardly lip service any ideology, except state power and cutting up tax money to their friends.
If we had government within its Constitutional restrictions, the whole Libertarian/Conservative divide would be mute. Parlor talk.
Two parties love a blow apart Constitution. The Republicans, and the Democrats. However, like their taxing and spending, the Democrats are a little more honest in their abandonment of the Constitution in that they have their ‘living Constitution notion’. Where as the Republicans just go along and say they are, as always, shocked, shocked by socialism.
Frankly, I don’t think kid diddling, pot smoking, guy guy swapping Libertarians could do as much damage to liberty and freedom as the Republican and Democrat parties have done.
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