Liberty Maven

To get what you want, you must first ask for it.

You might NOT get EVERYTHING you want, but you’re more likely to make progress.

If you want the Patriot Act to be repealed, you must tell Congress. Otherwise, it will never be repealed, nor will it even be reformed.

Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, is offering a bill that renews some of the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act. It includes civil liberties protections, but also extends the Patriot Act for TWO MORE YEARS.

The bill, S.193, WOULD BE AN IMPROVEMENT. But it’s NOT what we want. If we call for outright repeal of the Patriot Act . . .

* Congress may be awakened to its abuses and start investigations
* Even if we don’t get an outright repeal, more members might start calling for reform and endorse measures like S.193

On the other hand, if we ask for something like S.193 as our starting point . . .

* We’ll have no chance of repealing the Patriot Act, which is what we want (as illustrated in the letter below)
* Even a compromise like S.193 will end up being more watered-down than it would have been if we had asked for repeal directly.

That’s why we, at DownsizeDC.org, are calling for REPEAL of the Patriot Act, even while others are calling for mere reform.

If you agree with our analysis, then please ask Congress for what you want. Read More »

Quote of the Day: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” – Fourth Amendment to the Constitution

Forty-five days after 9/11, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act without reading it. This new law was supposed to protect you from terrorism, but it has really left you unprotected against lawless federal agents.

The Patriot Act contains numerous violations of the Fourth Amendment. It gives federal agents vast new powers that have been abused to investigate innocent Americans.

In 2001 and 2006 concerned members of Congress urged expiration dates on some of the Patriot Act’s most controversial powers. Regrettably, Congress has constantly renewed those powers, despite a multitude of FBI abuses. Last year, the extension was passed with just a voice vote!

Now, another expiration is at hand — February 28, 2011. Unfortunately, Rep. Mike Rogers, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has introduced H.R. 67 to renew the provisions for another year.

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I often grow sleepy reading the incessant and inane Twitter comments from the Left about Rand Paul. Granted, it’s hard for some to be enlightening in 140 characters or less. Given some of the comments though, I doubt they’d be enlightening with more characters at their disposal. So in that regard, thank gods for Twitter’s character limit!

Rand Paul’s ideas, like his fathers, do go beyond the length of a tweet, or a debate soundbite. And they are even enlightening, sometimes. To demonstrate this here is a recent tweet from an un-named and un-enlightening liberal individual:

DADT REPEALED!!
65-31. Sorry for your loss, Rand Paul…SUCK ON IT!

The casual reader would automatically assume that Rand Paul’s position on “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” would be strong on keeping it in place. However, Rand Paul’s actual position is that it should be left up to the Pentagon (or “the leadership of the military“) to decide whether to repeal it or keep it. The statement from his campaign also denounced the “political posturing” associated with the issue.

Paul’s position, at first glance, could be seen by some as political posturing in its own right, but digging a bit deeper, isn’t his position the correct one? Isn’t it also a libertarian one? It is essentially, a states rights argument. Shouldn’t the decision be made by those that are closest to the issue? This statement hardly demonstrates that Paul is against DADT repeal.

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Editor’s Note: After a long hiatus, we’ve just received another article submission from Richard Deekbag. His previous submission was posted here in an effort to represent a perspective opposite of Liberty Maven’s typical material. You can read that previous article, Why Ron Paul is wrong on every damn thing!, here. This new submission is being posted for the same reason. Remember, he’s an anti-Ron Paul neocon who runs the following website (we apologize for the length of the URL):

http://ohmygodronpaulwilleatallofourbabiesandourbabiesbabiesandtheirbabiesbabiesuntiltherearenobabiesleft.com/

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By Richard Deekbag

What a joke! All these idiots complaining about their junk being touched by the TSA. I say we should just stand there and take it like real men. I say, “If it’s for national security then TOUCH MY JUNK, PLEASE!!” It’s the patriotic thing to do. If you opt-out of the junk-touching then the terrorists win, pure and simple. If you opt-out of the junk-touching then you hate America!!

I do think there is room for the TSA to improve this process though. It appears that all females get to be felt up by female TSA agents and all males get to be fondled by male TSA agents. This is a discriminatory practice. The TSA should ask the traveler if he or she is a homosexual. If the answer is affirmative then the traveler should be appropriately touched by a member of the opposite sex.

Yes, all touching in the name of national security is appropriate. Other than that small change I applaud the great work of the TSA over the past few weeks. The skies are infinitely safer and there can be no one who says they aren’t friendlier with this policy in place. In fact, they just published a children’s book to help children adapt to the new policy. Here’s is the cover:

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While touring in support of his recently released children’s book, the self-proclaimed pro-lifer and Christian, Mike Huckabee, called for the death of the WikiLeaks leaker.

From Politico:

By Craig Hensler

They say, “To cook a frog, don’t toss it into boiling water, put it into cool water and turn the heat up slowly”.

Our government would tell us that for the right (they call it a privilege) to fly on a commercial flight, we must submit either to a dose of radiation and provide a naked rendering of our body or submit to a government groping. . . or both. Either option, would be considered a crime if committed without a claimed “government authority”. The history of airline/airport security for the past forty years clearly shows that security is not the goal

Although airline hijackings have existed since, at least, the 1930′s, they didn’t “come into vogue” until the 1960′s with demands from hijackers to be taken to Cuba or some other political venue or for the payment of a ransom. This changed in 1970 when three airliners were hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The aircraft were forced to fly to Jordan where the passengers were ultimately released and the aircraft were destroyed. Today, this would be classified as a major “terrorist” event. In reality, they were political hijackings, which occurred only because they were allowed to occur. In 1970, as today, the existing security measures did not address the problem nor were they meant to correct the problem. At best, they were (and are) all theater meant to provide a sense of security.

Each of these hijackings could have been prevented – at minimal cost, without government involvement and without the sacrifice of personal liberties. Simple: lock and reinforce the cockpit door. Although, we’ve all been herded through metal detectors, emptied our pockets and had our bags x-rayed, nobody thought to “lock the door” for more than thirty years; until after 9/11.

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Here’s Ron Paul, again showing his justified outrage at the TSA with Neil Cavuto earlier today. They also discussed tax cuts and public ownership of GM.

Earlier today in a business meeting one of the participants from out-of-town complained of being groped by the TSA prior to his flight earlier this morning. He said that the TSA goon knelt down in front of him and began working his hands up his leg. The TSA goon then looked up and said, “Just warning you. I’m going to keep going until I hit resistance.” The business colleague then said, “I swear I almost felt like I was raped. It was completely uncalled for.”

I think Americans are finally starting to really get fed up. Now, Ron Paul is coming to our defense, yet again. He introduced a bill earlier today about this very problem and his speech on Capitol Hill demonstrates just how fed up he is over this complete disregard for individual rights. Check out the video below.

Leave it to the federal government to come up with a way to liven up cigarette sales in America. Beginning in September 2011, the Food and Drug Administration will require cigarette manufacturers to put graphic warning labels that depict the horrors of smoking. The pictures will have to cover half a package’s front and back and will feature diseased lungs,‭ ‬corpses, and a man smoking a cigarette through a tracheotomy tube.

Let’s face it, cigarette packaging has become a tad too stodgy what with basic lettering, models holding cigarettes, camels, and smiling people. These new visually-stunning graphics should help spark sales and, finally, we’ll have packaging worthy for other uses other than being tossed into the recycling bin.

And while the FDA’s at it, why not do something about those dreadfully dull names cigarette companies slap on their products, names like Kool, Winston, Camel, Marlboro. What’s that about? If you want to get sales a-popping throw in a little danger. Fill those store shelves with brands like Death Stick, Lung Destroyer, Widow Maker, Cancer Maggot, and so on. Now that’s something worth asking for at your local grocery store, a whole lot more exciting than asking meekly for a pack of Benson & Hedges.

But why should the FDA stop there. Hell, if you’re going to run the entire retail system in this country, make McDonald’s put an x-ray of clogged arteries on the side of their Big Mac box; stick a coffin photo next to the mileage tag of every Smart Car waiting to be sold; affix a drawing of a retching man on Budweiser bottles; etch a broken toe graphic onto bowling balls; put baby pictures on condom packs; and, finally, place a picture of a dewy-eyed horse on every hot dog package sitting in grocery store coolers in this country.

Will sales go through the roof or what?

While many may think of this activity as nagging adults, in reality this is nothing more than plain, old-fashioned concern, the kind of concern you would have heard in your mother’s voice as she would shout out at you in your youth: “Get off that fence, you’re going to fall off!”, “Let that dog go, he may have rabies!”, “Stop playing with those matches!”, and the one that always got my attention as a boy, “Quit playing with your father’s loaded gun!” Our government is really an anxious mother looking out for its head-strong kids.

If this isn’t a brilliant stroke of genius coming out of the Obama Administration to get the economy going, to put Americans to work, to create an unending stream of new jobs, well I don’t know what else it could be.

Quote of the Day: “I don’t know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747. That’s why we haven’t put them in our airport. — Rafi Sela, leading Israeli airport security expert, referring to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, which has some of the toughest security in the world

As you read what follows . . .

* If you want your Congressional Representatives to take action to stop the TSA from using using scanners that will show you naked, please ask yourself . . .
* How many more people in YOUR district would need to pressure YOUR REPRESENTATIVES to get them to take action to protect YOU.
* What is the number? How many people will it take in your district?
* Whatever that number is, what can you do today, right now, to get others in your district to take the action that you are taking. Please reach out and touch people and get them to join YOU in asking Congress to protect YOU.
* Doing this isn’t up to DownsizeDC.org. It’s up to YOU. All we can do is provide you with tools to make it easier to get what you want. The rest, recruiting others to help YOU get what YOU want, is entirely up to you.

Here’s the issue . . .

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