Civil Liberties

[Libertarian Toker]

Civil Liberties

http://www.badnarik.org/Issues/CivilLiberties.php

The erosion of our civil liberties since 9/11 does not represent a new phenomenon. It represents an acceleration of long-existing trends. As president, my goal will be to to reverse those trends and to restore, respect and enforce the Bill of Rights.

In crafting the Bill of Rights, the framers were careful to acknowledgeâ??implicitly and explicitlyâ??two key truths:

The first is that government does not grant rightsâ??it acknowledges them. They exist independently of government. They're part of who and what we are. And, as Jefferson noted in the Declaration of Independence, the only legitimate function of government is to secure them.

The second is that government is a servant to whom we delegate powers, not a master who dispenses privileges. The Constitution carefully enumerates the powers we, the people, delegate to our governmentâ??and it specifically denies that government any powers not so delegated. Our rights lie beyond the pale of that delegation. They are sacrosanct. Any government which infringes upon them is engaged in an intolerable usurpation.

The history of our nation is the story of a government constantly attempting to outgrow the Constitutional box we put it in and of a people struggling to stuff it back into that box. Sadly, government has grown so far beyond its Constitutional bounds that we can barely see the box any more.

How did that happen? A little at a time. There's always someone who would have us trade a little liberty for a little securityâ??a "reasonable gun control" law here, a "War on Drugs" there ... before you know it, it all adds up. What it adds up to is the USA PATRIOT Act, the FBI spying on library patrons and hundreds, maybe even thousands of prisoners held without charge, counsel or even public acknowledgement that they've been "detained."

How do we fix it? By being just as uncompromising in our defense of liberty as our enemies are in their attacks upon it. Let us take our cue from Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

As your president, I will act in accordance with my oath to the Constitution of the United Statesâ??all_ of it, with special emphasis on the Bill of Rights. I will veto legislation which in any way infringes upon those rights. I will shut down any agency or activity in the executive branch which has, as its mission, the infringement of those rights. And I will direct the Attorney General and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to aggressively prosecute, under USC Title 18, Sections 241 and 242, any government employee who violates those rights.

I'm Michael Badnarik, Libertarian for President. I ask the tough questionsâ??to give you answers that really work!

Libertarian Toker Reviewed by Libertarian Toker on 08-06-2004. Civil Liberties Civil Liberties http://www.badnarik.org/Issues/CivilLiberties.php The erosion of our civil liberties since 9/11 does not represent a new phenomenon. It represents an acceleration of long-existing trends. As president, my goal will be to to reverse those trends and to restore, respect and enforce the Bill of Rights. In crafting the Bill of Rights, the framers were careful to acknowledgeâ??implicitly and explicitlyâ??two key truths: The first is that government does not grant Rating: 5

[Phresh as it Gets]

i have something to say to you and nader, STOP RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT!! you have no chance of winning at all and all your doing is taking votes away from kerry, which will put bush in office for another term, meaning we will be even farther from marijuana legalization of any kind. i know kerry isnt a weed advocate but bush is no better, so stop running for president you fuck face!!!!

[teresaj2k]

haha i like phresh

[Libertarian Toker]

i have something to say to you and nader, STOP RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT!! you have no chance of winning at all and all your doing is taking votes away from kerry, which will put bush in office for another term, meaning we will be even farther from marijuana legalization of any kind. i know kerry isnt a weed advocate but bush is no better, so stop running for president you fuck face!!!!

What kind of logic is that? If Mike is taking votes away from anyone, it's bushy he is taking them from. Kerry is a drug warrior. He will do nothing to end the drug war or legalize weed. As a matter of fact, he will increase the drug war. He is saying he will aggressively prosecute the drug war, and has plans to do just that. He also says he will put 100,000 more cops on the streets. Since Kerry and Bushy are both skulls members, and answer to the same power structure, then all your doing is continuing what is already going on. Here is one example of many;

"The Toxic Career of Rand Beers
Kerry's Drug War Zealot
By SEAN DONAHUE

"When Rand Beers quit his job as counter-terrorism advisor to President Bush, and signed up with John Kerry's presidential campaign, he quickly became a hero to Democratic Party loyalists and the "Anybody but Bush" crowd. But Beers, who has become Kerry's top national security advisor and would likely serve as National Security Advisor or Secretary of State in a Kerry administration, has a dark history. Under Presidents Clinton and Bush, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, and was one of the chief architects of and apologists for the United States' cruel policies in Colombia.

Beers was most closely associated with the disastrous aerial crop fumigation program the U.S. introduced in southern Colombia. The State Department hired DynCorp, a private military contractor, to fly crop dusters at high altitudes over the rainforests of southern Colombia, spraying a chemical cocktail that includes a stronger version of Monsanto's popular and controversial herbicide, Round-Up, over suspected coca fields. Beers was the public face of the fumigation program, defending and advocating for it in Congressional hearings and in the media."

http://www.counterpunch.org/donahue01262004.html

I don't base my vote on the drug war alone, but I will never vote for someone that wants to continue the drug war. If someone can overlook all the jacked up things wrong with it, and wish to continue it or even do more, then that someone has no biz being prez. If he is to weak to admit the drug war is a failure, or just to stupid to know better then to continue the drug wars tyranny, then why in the hell would I vote for him? Oh yeah, to be a part of the "anything but Bushy" herd. No thanks man!

If you truely want the change you claim to want, then it wouldn't matter to you that it looks like the LP stands no chance to have people elected, you would be fighting to give them that chance, which is what I do. If you don't fight for what you believe in, your chance will never come around. What your doing is continuing the cycle of no one but the two major partys having any kind of a chance, and that's what they want you to do. The LP is better then the others we have to choose from, why not support them and try to get them the chance they so rightly deserve? Seems to me that we are fucked either way if one of the two major partys gets voted in. Kerry and Bush are two peas in a pod. They are the same. If Kerry was elected and proved to be just as bad as bushy, would you then vote to have the Republican running against him in the next election in to office for the same reasons you want Kerry in now? Would you vote for a repo for the same reasons you are voting for Kerry? If so, when is it that a third party would ever have a way to get the chance to be elected if everyone keeps voting one out instead of one in? I don't want to lay a bunch of blame on you, but it is that type of thinking that steals away the LP's, or any third partys chances. If everyone that thought like you do from the repos and demonrats would vote for Mike, he would stand a very good chance of actualy being elected. Our system has turned into one of voting people out instead of voting people in. Maybe if the people would vote for someone they actualy want in office in the first place, they wouldn't be needing that "anyone but Bush" additude. Calling an advocate for an to the drug war a fuck face says a lot about you. Even more so since your doing it to promote someone that will continue the drug war.

Toker