Welcome Congressman Duncan Hunter - LIVE Thread (virtual Free Republic press Conference)

From San Diego, CA | 8/13/07 | Duncan Hunter/Freepers

[pissant]

To members of Free Republic and friends, I would like to introduce a candidate for President of the United States and the current congressman from the 52nd district of California, Duncan Hunter!! To Americans who value the patriotism and missions of our Armed Forces, to those who want to put fear into the hearts of our adversaries from Beijing to Tehran, to those who value the rule of law when it comes to illegal immigration, to those who realize that the unborn deserve full legal protection beginning at conception, to those who believe Peace through Strength is far more than a motto, to those who do not like giving communist China unfettered access to our markets while they cheat at every turn, to those who want to halt and reverse losses of US sovereignty to global entities, and to those who want the GOP to return to Reaganism, Mr. Hunter is the Best choice.

Congressman Hunter currently is the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, after spending the previous 4 years as its chair. He is an original co-sponsor of the Fair Tax bill and he is the author of the Secure Borders bill, signed by President Bush in 2006, which mandates 800+ miles of double fence across the smuggling corridors of the SW. He also is the man who has led the fight against NAFTA’s Mexican truckers having free reign on our roads, has forced congressional oversight of the executive branch’s ‘Security and Prosperity Partnership’ with Canada and Mexico, and was instrumental in saving our military intelligence officers from having to jump through bureaucratic hoops unrelated to combat.

A Vietnam combat Veteran himself, he currently has a son in the Marine Corps, Capt. Duncan Duane Hunter who is busy hunting jihadis in Afghanistan after two tours in Iraq. Congressman Hunter has been the anti-dote to the liberals in Congress doing their damndest to cut and run from the battlefield. Mr. Hunter knows that this war is our generation’s calling, and “the only way we can leave is to WIN”.

Below are 15 questions we compiled last month on Free Republic, which we sent to Congressman Hunter a few weeks ago. They are followed by his answers. This is the springboard we will use to kick off Mr. Hunter’s live “virtual press conference” on FR today.

Please stop by and say hello and you may post additional questions. HOWEVER, Please realize that time limitations will prevent him from answering all the questions you may have. Though he may get time later to forward answers to many left unaddressed during this session.

Please drop Jim Robinson a note of thanks as well. For not only hosting this event, but for having the best conservative website in the country!

Also, no disruptors allowed. Your posts will be removed.

The following is our Kickoff Q&A session:

[Carry_Okie]

It is simply preposterous to blame TR for the nanny state that has since ensued.

rotflmao. TR believed in the nanny state and said so. He was willing to go to any length to get it done.

Whenever in our Constitutional system of government there exist general prohibitions that, as interpreted by the courts, nullify, or may be used to nullify, specific laws passed, and admittedly passed, in the interest of social justice, we are for such immediate law, or amendment to the Constitution, if that be necessary, as will thereafter permit a reference to the people of the public effect of such decision under forms securing full deliberation, to the end that the specific act of the legislative branch of the Government thus judicially nullified, and such amendments thereof as come within its scope and purpose, may constitutionally be excepted by vote of the people from the general prohibitions, the same as if that particular act had been expressly excepted when the prohibition was adopted. This will necessitate the establishment of machinery for making much easier of amendment both the National and the several State Constitutions, especially with the view of prompt action on certain judicial decisions--

Oh yeah, make the Constitution easy to amend. Great idea. /s

[pissant]

I could provide numerous quotes showing him to be the champion of individualism. And being against judicial tyranny is not necessrily a bad thing. We could use some of that now.

You are taking snippets to make a very weak case.

[cake_crumb]

That was it, huh? Shame he didn’t have more time to answer questions, but his answers were very good. Hopefully, I won’t be a day late for round two.

[cake_crumb]

"The border fence is necessary for national security. Border control is necessary."

I know. I'm for the fence.

The problem is that every time legislation to build it has been passed, it winds up being delayed in the courts by the environazis and "human rights groups", sometimes for years and who always gets the blame? The environazis? No, not here, except by a few. The "human rights groups"? No, not here, except by a few.

I hope that, if Hunter wins, he won't be blamed when the environazis and "human rights groups" pull the same stunt. It would be a nice change if everyone stopped acting like the US president is omnipotent and able to overcome any instance where our enemies within take advantage of our Constitution.

P.S, I've ALWAYS been for the fence.

[AliVeritas]

I cannot believe not one person pinged me...

[pattty]

Dear Congressman Hunter, just want to let you know, I’ll be voting for you in the primaries. I have you bumper sticker on the back of my S10 Chevrolet truck. Good luck to you. We really need someone like you!

Jim and pissant, thank you so much for putting this together!

[cripplecreek]

It would be a nice change if everyone stopped acting like the US president is omnipotent and able to overcome any instance where our enemies within take advantage of our Constitution.

I agree but I also think the GOP and president have tried too hard to be "bipartisan" and they only get beat up for it. Duncan Hunter on the other hand seems to draw a lot of silence from the democrats when he tells it like it is. I don't know if it's respect or fear but I like it.

[pissant]

Sorry!! Have you requested to be on the DH Ping list?

[pissant]

You bet Pattty!

[pattty]

Please add me to your ping list. Thanks!

[pissant]

Crapola. I told Antoninus and Ultrasonic007 to add you awhile ago, yet I forgot to do the same.

correcting now...

[pattty]

Thanks!

[Sun]

“So much goodness in one package. We are blessed to have him in the running, and we’ll be even more blessed if he wins. All Hunterheads: Pray daily for his victory. America needs a man like him, now more than ever!”

Yes!

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

I agree with you, pissant, that TR was indeed a great president. What his detractors here are failing to either realize or acknowledge is that the country was vastly different during his time, with a great deal of abuse and corruption within the country's economic system that resulted in people actually dying or getting killed. The most infamous examples of industries that absolutely needed federal regulation were the food and drug industries, which were so bad that Congress had to enact the 1906 Food and Drugs Act after Upton Sinclair exposed them in his book, The Jungle.

You can read the whole story here.

Also, real monopolies such as Standard Oil and U.S. Steel existed and completely obliterated the free market system of the time. They had to be broken up, and TR was correct in doing so.

[airborne]

Here’s another question -

Congressman Hunter,

Would you support withholding federal funds from so called “sanctuary cities” who do not allow law enforcement to question the legal status of criminals and/or suspects?

[Sun]

Duncan Hunter on Foreign Policy

Voted YES on deterring foreign arms transfers to China. (Jul 2005)
Voted YES on reforming the UN by restricting US funding. (Jun 2005)
Voted NO on keeping Cuba travel ban until political prisoners released. (Jul 2001)
Voted NO on $156M to IMF for 3rd-world debt reduction. (Jul 2000)
Voted NO on Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China. (May 2000)
Voted NO on $15.2 billion for foreign operations. (Nov 1999)

excerpt http://www.issues2002.org/CA/Duncan_Hunter.htm

[Carry_Okie]

You are taking snippets to make a very weak case.

So far, I have quoted TR extensively from reliable sources, while you have offered NOTHING.

The same speech Before the Convention of the National Progressive Party in Chicago, August, 1912:

• Demands the Seventeenth Amendment "We should provide for the election of United States Senators by popular vote."
• Advocates a massive estate tax: "By such action we shall certainly be able to remove the element of contributory causation on the part of the trusts and the tariff towards the high cost of living. There will remain many other elements. Wrong taxation, including failure to tax swollen inheritances and unused land and other natural resources held for speculative purposes, is one of these elements."

  As if saving an asset for later use was some sort of crime.

• Thumps for minimum wage laws: "To the second end, we hold that minimum wage commissions should be established in the Nation and in each State to inquire into wages paid in various industries and to determine the standard which the public ought to sanction as a minimum; and we believe that, as a present installment of what we hope for in the future, there should be at once established in the Nation and its several States minimum standards for the wages of women, taking the present Massachusetts law as a basis from which to start and on which to improve."

  And he repeats it for emphasis:

  "We stand for a living wage. Wages are subnormal if they fail to provide a living for those who devote their time and energy to industrial occupations. The monetary equivalent of a living wage varies according to local conditions, but must include enough to secure the elements of a normal standard of living--a standard high enough to make morality possible, to provide for education and recreation, to care for immature members of the family, to maintain the family during periods of sickness, and to permit of reasonable saving for old age."

  Seems to me only socialists call for a "living wage."

• Socializes control of natural resources, particularly water: "Moreover, we must insure so far as possible the use of certain types of great natural resources for the benefit of the people as a whole. The public should not alienate its fee in the water power which will be of incalculable consequence as a source of power in the immediate future. The Nation and the States within their several spheres should by immediate legislation keep the fee of the water power, leasing its use only for a reasonable length of time on terms that will secure the interests of the public."

  This is in direct antipathy to the principle of private property, not to mention totally unconstitutional, but that never deterred your hero.

  TR also instituted government control of whole industries, particularly utilities and railways. We've seen how that worked out. Then there are national forests, which were instituted ILLEGALLY. We've seen how well that worked out too, seeing as 190 MILLION ACRES are at now risk of catastrophic fire.

  What TR was trying to do was to correct socialism with more socialism. Socialism doesn't work, even in the hands of a relatively benevolent despot like TR. Maybe some day, you'll figure that out.

[pissant]

I’ll tell you why. Start a thread about TR and I will shoot your boat full of holes. This in not the purpose of this thread.

[Paperdoll]

Hey! What a great testimony for Rep. Hunter! :)

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

With all due respect, you're committing one of the big fallacies of historical argument here with your interpretation of TR's speeches and statements concerning inheritance taxes and living wages. Specifically, you're applying presentist standards to events that happened nearly a century ago, when the country's political and economic systems were vastly different than they are today.

What TR was trying to do was break up the giant monopolies that had all but taken over the country and to reign in the so-called "robber barons" such as John Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Andrew Carnegie who had set up virtual fiefdoms throughout the U.S.

While I don't agree with everything TR did or said, he did more than any other president before him to make America a world power, and any criticism of him and his policies have to be made within the context of the times in which he lived in order to be historically valid.