[POL] Can You See Them Now? - Congressman Ron Paul Can!

[skyko]

http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/04/08/12/lang.htm

Can You See Them Now? - Congressman Ron Paul Can!
August 12, 2004
By Ted Lang

How many articles have jumped out of your computer display screen and grabbed your attention screaming: “America is a police state?!” Did you believe those accounts, or did you rely rather on the lay back style of Rush Limbaugh who “doesn’t believe in conspiracy theories?” Have you been comforted by FOXNews and accepted the way laws have radically changed, as have the attitudes towards US displayed by our government bureaus and police?

Have you accepted the “just routine” explanations from police at road stops and checkpoints where you are assumed guilty of either drunk driving or some other crime such as failing to have a current validated government form in your wallet or affixed to your windshield? The general public is now generally guilty of any and all crimes until proven innocent. And all of US have no one else to blame but ourselves for allowing whining, wailing, hand-wrenching Mommies Against This, That and Whatever that started US down this police state path.

Because of the failure of a segment of American government in keeping a reckless drunk from behind the wheel by simply keeping him incarcerated for repeat DWI offenses, the drunk killed a woman’s daughter, and she became justifiably outraged at our entire society. This outrage leads to activism, personified by such as Carolyn McCarthy, Sarah Brady, and the Million Mommies Against This, That and Whatever. A new industry for America’s most important product, namely “make work,” has been created for the Trial Lawyers Association; hence, DWI checkpoints and road stops. They are constitutionally illegal, yet sanctioned by the huge make work fees earned by lawyers via these unconscionable and unconstitutional statutory laws.

Such bending of the nation’s rule of law that had formerly ensured the supremacy of individual rights started with all the organizations mobilized against firearms ownership, and the NRA correctly predicted where all this was going. Once government got their foot in the door, government would do what it always does best, no matter where in the world it is established: grow itself into a freedom-crushing monster.

In New York City, one hit and run driver had received 99 traffic violations - 99! Why wasn’t this filth bag in the slammer where he couldn’t hurt anyone? The young mother he hit died, so now we, the law-abiding, who sip a glass of wine or have a beer with dinner at a restaurant, are subject to gunpoint arrest, handcuffing, incarceration, and the confiscation of our automobile. And this is happening on an increasing basis!

But how many lives were saved? But how many more would have been saved if people who are guilty of injuring others in society served the appropriate amount of time behind bars, instead of driving around with all those violations. Think of Congressman Janklow - he finally got to kill someone, but many hundreds of illegal drug users who have harmed no one are in jail under mandatory drug sentencing. Janklow is out, and Martha Stewart, who committed the crime of “lying” to a government bureaucrat while not even under oath in a court of law, and having harmed no one, now faces incarceration. This is justice?

In New Jersey, a motor vehicle clerk was arrested and handcuffed for using the “n” word during an argument with a motorist. What about “sticks and stones?” Our laws are now so over the top; and if simple laws like these threaten our freedom, just imagine what Slick Willie’s Patriot Act, placed into law by Bush, Ashcroft and the Republican Party, and not even read by our Congress of Criminals, will do! How much fun will government machine-gun-toting jackbooted and steel pot-wearing goons have with that?

In the entire Congress of Criminals, populated by such killers as Janklow and Teddy Kennedy, and others of highly questionable morals, one lone voice in the wilderness stands out: America’s one and only true representative of the people: Libertarian republican Congressman Ron Paul. Can you hear him now? No? Then read him here.

Fed up with the Bush police state? Fed up with the feds? Fed up with BOTH the Democratic AND the Republican parties? Good…. good! “I can feel your anger!”

But Lang, what the hell are we supposed to do? That’s another column, but here’s a start. Vote for either the Libertarian Candidate, or the Constitution Party candidate. Either Kerry or Bush will continue the police state, and you as an American will continue to lose. Next, write to your LOWEST level of government, and work up after you get a response. People are doing this all across the country, and the movement is growing.

It is suggested that both articles be downloaded and used as attachments. If you need help setting up a letter to write to your mayor and council members, see my website.

Look around! Can you see them now? Jackbooted machine-gun-toting Darth Vader storm troopers, free speech zones, chain-link fences and razor wire, police road blocks and checkpoints, Washington DC strangling on them all. Are you finally convinced where this will all lead, and where it has already taken US? Have we arrived? And the war on terror will be forever? Hmmmm. BTW: Where are your papers citizen?

Good…. good! “I can feel your anger!”

 

[l0kster]

Ron Paul's "read him here link"

http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2004/tst080904.htm

Police State USA

Last week’s announcement that the terrorist threat warning level has been raised in parts of New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. has led to dramatic and unprecedented restrictions on the movements of citizens. Americans wishing to visit the U.S. Capitol must, for example, pass through several checkpoints and submit to police inspection of their cars and persons.

Many Americans support the new security measures because they claim to feel safer when the government issues terror alerts and fills the streets with militarized police forces. As one tourist interviewed this week said, “It makes me feel comfortable to know that everything is being checked.” It is ironic that tourists coming to Washington to celebrate the freedoms embodied in the Declaration of Independence are so eager to give up those freedoms with no questions asked.

Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. This doesn’t stop governments, including our own, from seeking more control over and intrusion into our lives. As one Member of Congress stated to the press last week, “people who don’t want to be searched don’t need to come on Capitol grounds.” What an insult! The Capitol belongs to the American people who pay for it, not to Congress or the police.

It is worth noting that the government rushes first to protect itself, devoting enormous resources to make places like the Capitol grounds safe, while just beyond lies one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the nation. What makes Congress more worthy of protection from terrorists than ordinary citizens?

To understand the nature of our domestic response to the September 11th, 2001 attacks, we must understand the nature of government. Government naturally expands, and any crises- whether real or manufactured- serve to justify more and more government power over our lives. Bureaucrats have used the tragedy of 9-11 as an excuse to seize police powers sought for decades, such as warrantless searches, internet monitoring, and access to bank records. It should be no surprise that the recently released report of the 9-11 Commission has but one central recommendation: bigger government and more spending at home and abroad.

Every new security measure represents another failure of the once-courageous American spirit. The more we change our lives, the more we obsess about terrorism, the more the terrorists have won. As commentator Lew Rockwell of the Ludwig von Mises Institute explains, terrorists in effect have been elevated by our response to 9-11: “They are running the country. They determine our civic life. They shape our private life. They decide how public resources are spent. They may dictate who gets to be the next president. It should be obvious that the government doesn’t object. Not at all. The government benefits, by getting ever more reason for ever more money and power.”

Every generation must resist the temptation to believe that it lives in the most dangerous time in American history. The threat of Islamic terrorism is real, but it is not the greatest danger ever faced by our nation. This is not to dismiss the threat of terrorism, but rather to put it in perspective. Those who seek to whip the nation into a frenzy of fear do a disservice to a country that expelled the British, fought two world wars, and stared down the Soviet empire.

Liberty is lost through complacency and a subservient mindset. When we accept or even welcome automobile checkpoints, random searches, mandatory identification cards, and paramilitary police in our streets, we have lost a vital part of our American heritage. America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long.