[Ada Coddington]

Ron Paul for president; Bob Barr for vice president

[SusanUSA]

I'm sure you already have this but I just found it today. A BUMP for his 10/15 column! And thanks for the post.

Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk-A Weekly Columnn

[rellimpank]

"maybe they can do the same for the Democrats."--No, they can't because the DemocRATS are the party of the ignorant led by clever criminals and traitors--

[arielb]

Too bad some people are more concerned about the civil liberties of suspected terrorists than the civil liberties of those targeted by terrorist attacks. If they did then perhaps 5000 people would still be here today

[A Vast RightWing Conspirator]

How did Republican conservatives become the most important defenders of civil liberties on the Hill?

How can anyone writing such a sentence and such an article not be named 'STUPID'?

[wildandcrazyrussian]

as many as 1,000 new agents in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms--"jackbooted thugs," as an NRA fundraising letter sent that March had described them--
**********
I was under the impression (since I didn't receive the letter myself) that the NRA letter merely alluded to the fact that there are indeed in existence some individuals who act in an intimidating manner. There actually do exist individual policemen and government agents who exceed the limits (I know since a close relative of mine was on a jury that convicted a policeman of murder by shooting a kid he had just handcuffed and who was just standing there). Just like there are good and bad people in every profession.

I really think it iw wrong for the author to give the false impression that the NRA specifically NAMED the FBI, BATF, etc. and he should rewrite his article to eliminate that misreading.

[Piquaboy]

Where does the ACLU get its funding? Would someone tell me, as they need their money cut off. Should be called ASLU. Which is the American Socialist Liberty Union.

[JohnGalt]

Indeed.

They give the ACLU way too much credit here.

Their only interest is suing the government on behalf of alleged civil rights infraction victims.

[Dick Bachert]

I'd remind all who read this that it was one of histories most notorious socialist tyrants, Adolph Hitler, who correctly declared

"What great luck for rulers that people do not think."

Yes, 9-11-01 was a terrible event and we must find and punish those responsible. And, sadly, there WILL be others.

But we must not punish ourselves and those who come after us by killing the idea that was America and for which idea so many have already paid the ultimate price. Should THAT happen, America the PLACE will no longer be worth saving. What’s to save?

Although Bush has apparently turned thumbs down to the NATIONAL ID CARD some in government have lusted after for decades, trust me, it WILL – like some perverted Phoenix -- rise from the ashes of the NEXT tragedy. The fact is that IF government at the state level – often commanded to be so by the feds -- had NOT been so free and easy with, for example, DRIVER’S LICENSES and a number of other “official” documents (which we now know several of the murderers secured from various states), it’s possible their miserable lives might have been complicated and their plot foiled.

But here’s the more fascinating question: WHY THE HELL WERE SOME OF THESE GUYS EVEN IN THIS COUNTRY? Much to the FBI’s and CIA’s consternation, it has come out that a number of them had long histories of suspicion of complicity in OTHER terror attacks and DIRECT ties to bin Laden.

It is common knowledge that the INS (ask any of the guys in the field!) had its hands tied in rounding up and deporting Hispanics ON ORDERS FROM ON HIGH to “go easy.” I wonder how much of THAT attitude slopped over to ALL aliens, legal and illegal.

And isn’t it interesting that we have heard so little lately about AMNESTY for illegals? And the operative term here is “heard.”

If the tragic events of 9-11 prompt a long overdue review of our entire immigration policy, the 5,000+ may not have died in vain.

Now the same government that so miserably failed in its prime Constitutional duty to protect America from all enemies, both foreign and domestic by allowing 5,000 of them to be slaughtered like helpless cattle – after we have ALREADY handed over huge chunks of our freedoms – may now be poised to seize the remainder. That that seizure is with the acquiescence of a majority of the citizens here DOES NOT make it acceptable. That is why America was INTENDED to be a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC and NOT the DEMOCRACY the Founding Fathers abhorred.

The strong, self-reliant men who created this place understood the danger of trading freedom for “security.”

"Gentlemen may cry, 'peace, peace'--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! Is life so precious, or peace so dear, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry to the Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania Assembly, Nov. 11, 1755

Let me conclude by reminding you that the Nazi concentration camps and Soviet gulags were some of the most secure places on the planet -- for all BUT the inmates.

Is THAT what YOU want for YOUR kids and grand-kids?

Let's work the problem, people -- starting with thinking it all the way through.