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The Homeland Security Monstrosity
LewRockwell.com ^ | 11-19-02 | Rep. Ron Paul, M.D.

Posted on 11/19/2002 7:58:26 PM PST by metalbird1

"The Homeland Security Monstrosity"

Congress spent just a few short hours last week voting to create the biggest new federal bureaucracy since World War II, not that the media or even most members of Congress paid much attention to the process. Yet our most basic freedoms as Americans – privacy in our homes, persons, and possessions; confidentiality in our financial and medical affairs; openness in our conversations, telephone, and Internet use; unfettered travel; indeed the basic freedom not to be monitored as we go through our daily lives – have been dramatically changed.

The last time Congress attempted a similarly ambitious reorganization of the government was with the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947. Back then, congressional hearings on the matter lasted two years before President Truman finally signed legislation. Even after this lengthy deliberation, however, organizational problems with the new department lasted more than 40 years! What do we expect from a huge bureaucracy conceived virtually overnight, by a Congress that didn’t even read the bill that creates it? Surely more deliberation was appropriate before establishing a giant new federal agency with 170,000 employees!

When the Homeland Security department first was conceived, some congressional leaders and administration officials outrageously told a credulous rank-and-file Congress that the new department would be "budget neutral." The agency simply would be a reorganization of existing federal employees, we were told, and would not increase the federal budget. In fact, the agency was touted as increasing efficiency, rather than expanding federal power. Of course the original 32-page proposal sent over by the White House quickly grew to 282 pages in House committees, ending up at more than 500 pages in the final version voted on last week – with a $3 billion price tag just for starters. The sheer magnitude of the bill, and the technical complexity of it, makes it impossible for anyone to understand completely. Rest assured that the new department represents a huge increase in the size and scope of the federal government that will mostly serve to spy on the American people. Can anyone, even the most partisan Republican, honestly say with a straight face that the Department of Homeland Security does not expand the federal government?

The list of dangerous and unconstitutional powers granted to the new Homeland Security department is lengthy. Warrantless searches, forced vaccinations of whole communities, federal neighborhood snitch programs, federal information databases, and a sinister new "Information Awareness Office" at the Pentagon that uses military intelligence to spy on domestic citizens are just a few of the troubling aspects of the new legislation. To better understand the potential damage to our liberties, I strongly recommend a November 14th New York Times op-ed piece by William Safire entitled "You Are A Suspect." The article provides a devastating critique of the new Homeland Security bureaucracy and a chilling warning of what the agency could become. The article can be read on my website, under the section entitled "Speeches."

November 19, 2002

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.

[One of the very few who would get my enthusiastic vote. -MB1]


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government
KEYWORDS: constitution; government; homelandsecurity; repronpaulrtx
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1 posted on 11/19/2002 7:58:26 PM PST by metalbird1
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To: metalbird1
Bill never even imagined what George has wrought.
2 posted on 11/19/2002 8:03:48 PM PST by Ragin1
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To: metalbird1
Yet our most basic freedoms as Americans – privacy in our homes, persons, and possessions; confidentiality in our financial and medical affairs; openness in our conversations, telephone, and Internet use; unfettered travel; indeed the basic freedom not to be monitored as we go through our daily lives – have been dramatically changed.

More hysteria from Ron Paul.

He's gonna get tossed out on his libertarian ass if he continues to oppose Bush.

3 posted on 11/19/2002 8:04:46 PM PST by sinkspur
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To: Ragin1
Bill never even imagined what George has wrought.

Bill was responsible for 9/11.

4 posted on 11/19/2002 8:06:09 PM PST by sinkspur
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To: sinkspur
Homeland Insecurity: Deconstructing the Constitution

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=%5CCommentary%5Carchive%5C200211%5CCOM20021114b.html

By Tom DeWeese CNSNews.com Commentary November 14, 2002

Let the political pundits proclaim a new era of post-Reagan conservatism based on the victory of the Republican Party that now controls both Congress and the White House. It is an illusion and a dangerous one.

The election was a voter revolt against further onerous taxation and a response to the threat of the global Islamic holy war. It was neither about conservative values nor a conservative political agenda.

Anyone who looks at the legislative agenda of the Bush administration is forced to conclude that Americans are being stripped of their most valued Constitutional protections. Moreover, the administration has embraced Ted Kennedy's ultra-liberal education and open borders agenda. It continues to further the objectives of the radical environmental agenda called "Sustainable Development."

This is not conservatism. It neither advances, nor protects the freedoms granted by our Constitution. It does just the opposite.

First, let us examine the administration's response to the most immediate threat to America, the global Islamic holy war. The so-called Homeland Security bill is one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation ever put forth by any administration. As Phyllis Schlafly correctly states, "If passed, it will mean a giant increase in Big Government without any effect on the front lines of our security, the FBI and CIA, and little effect on the INS and the visa-issuing section of the State Department."

This single act of government agency reorganization will take away sole control of immigration numbers from Congress and permit the President to set those numbers in concert with other nations and international bodies, i.e. the United Nations.

At a time when thousands of Mexicans and others from South America are streaming across our 2,000-plus mile southern border every single day, the Homeland Security Bill would permit the President to legitimize this wholesale invasion. The Bush administration is on record advocating another amnesty for illegal aliens at a time when there is an estimated eight to eleven million of these lawbreakers loose in the nation. How many of them are from Middle Eastern nations and harbor bad intentions?

If the first year following 9-11-01 is any example, we have all witnessed the government's inability, unwillingness and astonishing disregard for any real security measures. Thousands of visas have been issued to people coming from the very nations sponsoring the Islamic Jihad.

Our borders are no more secure than they were the day the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked, and the federalization of airport screeners actually lowered the standards by which these people were hired.

The "profiling" of airline travelers continues to be forbidden, but the Transportation Security Administration has already spent millions to develop a secret system to profile all Americans. It is called CAPPS II, the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening system, and its purpose is to create an automated system to integrate and analyze both government and private sector databases for the alleged purpose of determining "a threat risk assessment on every airline passenger." Did you get a speeding ticket? Did you purchase a gun? Having a credit problem? Should your name be in any of the countless databases involved, for any reason, you could be refused the right to travel.

Most Americans are unaware that the hurriedly passed USA Patriot Act permits the federal government to ignore the protections of the Fourth Amendment and conduct surveillance without court-issued search warrants. This most fundamental protection no longer exists. Given the liberal philosophy promulgated to generations that have passed through our schools since the 1960s, few are likely to object. Most certainly, the members of Congress who passed the Act did not.

Even the issue of your personal health is no longer yours to determine. Throughout this year, state legislatures were asked by the Bush administration to enact the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA) that would authorize state officials to forcibly inject anyone with a drug, vaccine, or other treatment. If you refused, health officials would be authorized to remove you and your family from your home and have you quarantined.

MSEHPA would grant authority to seize and destroy your property without compensation. It would permit the rationing of medical supplies, food, and fuel in a declared public health emergency. Most states refused to pass the most egregious elements of MSEHHPA or even vote on the proposed legislation. What is more fundamental to your personal freedom than the right to determine what medical treatment you will accept?

And what is more fundamental to a free society than that its citizens not be required to carry and produce a national ID card on demand? The Homeland Security bill, however, will initiate this hallmark of authoritarian governments. The President's National Strategy for Homeland Security (NSHS) program will convert everyone's driver's license into a national ID card. It does so with the vaguely worded recommendation for the coordination of "suggested minimum standards for state driver's license."

It gets worse. The NSHS also recommends a plan for "military support to civil authorities." The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 was passed to protect Americans against a President-any President-who would use the nation's military to enforce the law against civilians.

As Phyllis Schlafly notes, "It is a terrible mistake to confuse and combine the different missions of the police and the military. The police are trained to respect civil liberties and use the least amount of force, whereas the military are trained to kill the enemy as rapidly as possible."

This was most dramatically demonstrated when US Army tanks participated in the taking of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993. Nearly a hundred civilians, women and children included, brought together by common religious beliefs, were gassed and burned to death on the orders of Janet Reno, then-Attorney General for former President Clinton.

Even the most cursory examination of the programs sponsored by the Bush administration reveals a frightening indifference to the Bill of Rights and other elements of the U.S. Constitution. This isn't inadvertence. This is a deliberate series of legislative and administrative choices, all of which diminish the individual freedoms Americans have long taken for granted.

This isn't homeland security. It is homeland insecurity for every American who still thinks that the rule of law will protect him or her against surveillance and the demand that they turn over all aspects of their daily lives to the approval of the government.

(Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report and president of the American Policy Center, an activist think tank headquartered in Warrenton, Va.)

Copyright 2002, Tom DeWeese

5 posted on 11/19/2002 8:06:11 PM PST by nonliberal
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To: metalbird1
The list of dangerous and unconstitutional powers granted to the new Homeland Security department is lengthy. Warrantless searches, forced vaccinations of whole communities, federal neighborhood snitch programs, federal information databases, and a sinister new "Information Awareness Office" at the Pentagon that uses military intelligence to spy on domestic citizens are just a few of the troubling aspects of the new legislation.

I'm not surprised Hillary voted Yea.

6 posted on 11/19/2002 8:07:28 PM PST by copycat
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To: nonliberal
Hysteria from Tom DeWeese.

"Boogeymen under the bed" brought to you by Libertarians-cowering-in-the-corner.

7 posted on 11/19/2002 8:08:10 PM PST by sinkspur
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To: metalbird1
Wrong. When all those agencies are merged, most existing separate high level administrative position will no longer be needed. The same with many duplicative support positions. The combined agency will be cheaper to run, better coordinated and require fewer personnel than all the existing eparate agencies. This new agency will serve as a model for merging other existing fragmented agencies. The federal government/bureaucracy will get smaller.
8 posted on 11/19/2002 8:09:04 PM PST by Consort
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To: sinkspur
It is funny that the ones yelling never post the actual language of the point in question only their interpretation. I guess they don't need no steenking facts.
9 posted on 11/19/2002 8:11:07 PM PST by Texasforever
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To: Jimer
LOL - and just when was the last time the federal government got smaller? Federal jobs eliminated. LOL
10 posted on 11/19/2002 8:11:19 PM PST by Nam68
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To: Texasforever; sinkspur; Jimer
I'm sorry, but this is the "paranoid fantasy" thread - you gents must be looking for the "rational discussion" thread that's a few doors down...
11 posted on 11/19/2002 8:13:34 PM PST by general_re
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To: metalbird1
Addle brain inflated bureaucratic nightmare run by absurd authority figures..who couldnt find their azzes with both hands in the dark...

The incompetent leading the unwilling to do the unnecessary for the ungratefull...

The federal govt hasnt properly managed a program since I dont know when..imagine this inbreed bunch of cross purposed (not to mention cross-dressing) geeks running anything??

If the run this like they run the govt...which of course they will....

The biggest money wasting boondoggle of the last 10 million years of vertebrate history...

And we wont be one whit safer..

As they surely find it essential to disarm the average honest tax payer..and empower criminals

This whole fiasco is one giant PORK fest
12 posted on 11/19/2002 8:14:31 PM PST by joesnuffy
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To: Nam68

LOL.... heck lots of people being let go from jobs all around the world. Someone has got to pickup the slack and hire them. Or else more welfare payments to be made. LOL.......

13 posted on 11/19/2002 8:15:49 PM PST by deport
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To: general_re
I'm sorry, but this is the "paranoid fantasy" thread - you gents must be looking for the "rational discussion" thread that's a few doors down...

I would answer that but I am being watched.

14 posted on 11/19/2002 8:17:45 PM PST by Texasforever
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To: Ragin1
"Bill never even imagined what George has wrought."
-------
Too true, but that's the beauty of it.
A Dem could never have pulled it off.

HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, November 14, 2002

Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to read "You are a Suspect" by William Safire in today's New York Times. Mr. Safire, who has been one of the media's most consistent defenders of personal privacy, details the Defense Department's plan to establish a system of "Total Information Awareness." According to Mr. Safire, once this system is implemented, no American will be able to use the internet to fill a prescription, subscribe to a magazine, buy a book, send or receive e-mail, or visit a web site free from the prying eyes of government bureaucrats. Furthermore, individual internet transactions will be recorded in "a virtual centralized grand database." Implementation of this project would shred the Fourth Amendment's requirement that the government establish probable cause and obtain a search warrant before snooping into the private affairs of its citizens. I hope my colleagues read Mr. Safire's article and support efforts to prevent the implementation of this program, including repealing any legislation weakening privacy protections that Congress may inadvertently have passed in the rush to complete legislative business this year.

New York Times, Nov. 14, 2002
"YOU ARE A SUSPECT"
(By William Safire)

Excerpt:
Washington--If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you: Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend--all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."

To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you--passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance--and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen.

This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario.
[cont'd]
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2002/cr111502.htm
15 posted on 11/19/2002 8:18:20 PM PST by metalbird1
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To: metalbird1
ping
16 posted on 11/19/2002 8:23:43 PM PST by ambrose
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To: Jimer
"When all those agencies are merged, most existing separate high level administrative position will no longer be needed."
-------
That drivel {and more} is as amusing and delusional
as once a communist state becomes 'fixed,' the
government will simply "wither away" {doncha know--lol}.
17 posted on 11/19/2002 8:24:37 PM PST by metalbird1
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To: Texasforever
I would answer that but I am being watched.

LOL - even paranoids have real enemies, right? ;)

Where'd you get off to? Seems like I haven't seen you around for a bit...

18 posted on 11/19/2002 8:28:28 PM PST by general_re
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To: general_re
It's only rational if we agree with you, obviously. I thank you for patting yourself on the back over your imagined 'rational discussion,' and in return, issue you an invitation to the statist-in-conservative-clothing forum over at www.securitybeforeliberty.com. Have fun with the soccer moms!

I think we should work on some new mottos for the Federal Department Of Homeland Security:

"Keeping You Safe From The Boogeyman!"

"This Week's Special: EXTRA Super Duper Safeness, in new ORANGE!"

"Those Loopy Militia Types Come Right After Iraq!"
19 posted on 11/19/2002 8:30:08 PM PST by LibertarianInExile
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To: Jimer
The federal government/bureaucracy will get smaller.

Maybe. Time will tell.

20 posted on 11/19/2002 8:32:28 PM PST by templar
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