Liberals, Strangely, at War With Freedom

Read the two previous articles in this series: Part I: Salami Technique Takes Freedoms Away

"The era of shrinking federal government has come to a close." – Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

In the wake of Sept. 11, the liberal establishment, which once strenuously opposed increased state police powers, is reviving every imaginable, discredited big-government attempt to squelch your freedoms.

Many of these ideas germinated in the Clinton era, and most of the federal government's hierarchy is still managed by Clinton-Gore appointees, who have been making a big push for this anti-freedom agenda.

No doubt, public reaction after the September attacks helped the USA PATRIOT Act pass so quickly.

Obviously, the sweeping powers granted the government in this legislation had been well-baked long before September. The rush to approve the bill was so speedy, it's also clear that many in Congress did little to review its provisions.

Authoritarian programs and regulations that will take away your freedom and privacy, the same ones that in past years have been overwhelmingly rejected by the American people, are suddenly again on the fast track to passage.

In a recent edition of Lee Bellinger's respected American Sentinel newsletter, he outlined the left's power grab program:

President Bush has opposed a national ID card, but lawmakers and bureaucrats are trying to create one using the back door.

The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) is pushing hard for a scheme cooked up by Bill Clinton to convert your driver's license into a high-tech national ID card.

Under this scheme, all state driver's licenses would have to conform to new federal standards and include "biometric identifiers" such as your fingerprints or iris scans.

Even worse, all state DMVs would be linked in a new national database with comprehensive information on you – such as tax records and work history – which would be accessible to thousands of federal bureaucrats at the push of a button.

That won't do anything to stop foreign terrorists, since neither their "biometric identifiers" nor their personal information will be in the U.S. government database. But national IDs will give liberal power mongers the power to track everything you do and to have much more control over your life.

The Air Transport Association wants all travelers to carry trusted traveler smart cards containing detailed personal information such as criminal history, personal financial data, etc., etc., plus biometric identifiers.

Just like internal passports required to travel in the ex-Soviet Union, under this scheme you would have to show your trusted traveler ID before boarding an airplane, cruise ship or train, or even renting a car.

The government would like to make the program "voluntary." This means that users of the card would have speedier access through airport security. Other law-abiding citizens who don't "accept" the card will be punished – they'll have to go through time-consuming and vigorous security checks.

Once these cards become widespread, trying to protect your privacy will make you instantly suspect and at a minimum subject to repeated police interrogations – if you are allowed to travel at all.

They also could be used to prevent you from traveling if the government claims you owe taxes, child support payments, or simply are "suspect" without asserting why.

Rest assured, once the system is implemented it won't be long before the card is required – especially if there is another terrorist attack that will give government officials an excuse.

Schools across the country are starting to require students to carry high-tech ID cards, which track their every movement.

In the wake of 9-11, schools are also accelerating implementation of "Parents As Teachers" and "School to Work" programs. Under Parents As Teachers, government social workers will be assigned to every family of school age children and visit them in their homes.

Will parents who are religious Christians, own guns or criticize big government be at serious risk of having their children taken away?

Under School to Work, detailed lifetime psychological files are being created for all children in government schools. Under this program, by the age of eight, government bureaucrats will recommend what career your child should pursue – just as in the ex-Soviet Union.

Under this liberal scheme, now being implemented, Certificates of Initial Mastery will be required to work. These certificates will only be issued after children have performed many hours of mandatory volunteerism (much of which has nothing to do with education), given politically correct answers on their tests and submitted to invasive and very personal psychological testing and tracking.

In Washington, D.C., a model lifetime tracking program called Destiny, run by the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles, is now being tested for future national implementation.

Another characteristic of totalitarian communist states, like Cuba and Communist China, is mandatory "volunteerism." Any free time people have after working, sleeping and eating, is consumed by the state in the form of political lectures and assigned "volunteer" work – such as harvesting crops or working in hospitals. Those who don't volunteer are subject to harassment and even prison.

Under the name USA Freedom Corps, an unholy alliance of liberals and conservatives have revived Bill Clinton's AmeriCorps, expanding it fivefold, to 250,000 paid volunteers. In the event of another terrorist attack, young people across the country may be drafted into the Freedom Corps.

Many of these "volunteers" may be used to spy on other Americans, including their parents. Quoting directly from the Freedom Corps' Web site,

The new citizens corps includes initiatives to engage Americans in specific homeland security efforts in communities throughout the country. The volunteer initiatives, led at the local level by new Citizen Corps Councils, include a Medical Reserve Corps, a Volunteers in Police Services Program, a doubling of Neighborhood Watch, a new Terrorist Information and Prevention System. …

Since September, National Guard troops and soldiers have become familiar sights at airports and even some sports stadiums. Now under a $37 billion-plus Homeland Defense program, a military commander is being created for the U.S.

In the first place, the military is trained to kill the enemy, not enforce laws, catch criminals or respect the rights of the innocent. Second, federal agents, including troops, have sovereign immunity from prosecution for any crimes they might commit, such as getting gun happy and shooting innocent civilians – making them much more of a potential threat to you than local police are.

Under the new Homeland Defense initiative, the federal government also plans to take much more control of your local police, "assisting" them with organization and intelligence and providing massive quantities of military-style weapons.

The real danger of all these programs is not facing us today or even tomorrow. V The framework is being set up so in the not-so-distant future American freedoms will be tremendously curtailed and government will have unprecedented power over its citizenry. V In America, we have always rejected and feared increased state powers that give government officials the right to monitor and control citizens engaging in private activity.

But now, under the cover of the war on terrorism, many liberals who were once at the forefront of limiting government powers are now demanding these powers be increased.

The real question conservatives and liberals need to ask is why, in a war against terrorists, is there a demand for this massive increase in surveillance, militarization and regimentation being directed against the American people?

Even with these new police powers, no one has yet to explain how they would have thwarted the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and others made against Americans abroad in recent years.

Instead of surrendering our freedom, we need to demand, again and again, that agencies like the CIA, FBI and INS fulfill their responsibilities, use the powers already granted them by the Congress, and root out terrorists before they make it to our shores.

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