Chris Christie: Rand Paul ‘dangerous’

Politico ^ | 26 Jul 2013 | HADAS GOLD

[mandaladon]

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is ripping libertarians — including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — for challenging government surveillance programs and failing to understand the dangers of terrorism. “This strain of libertarianism that’s going through parties right now and making big headlines I think is a very dangerous thought,” the New Jersey GOP governor said on Thursday at a Republican governors forum in Aspen, Colo. “You can name any number of people and (Paul is) one of them.”

Christie, a potential 2016 candidate who appeared on the panel with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, said lawmakers who are questioning government surveillance programs should hear from the families affected by the Sept. 11 attacks.

“These esoteric, intellectual debates — I want them to come to New Jersey and sit across from the widows and the orphans and have that conversation. And they won’t, because that’s a much tougher conversation to have,” Christie said. “The next attack that comes, that kills thousands of Americans as a result, people are going to be looking back on the people having this intellectual debate and wondering whether they put …” Christie said before trailing off. Paul’s office shot back on Friday, saying Christie may need a “new dictionary.”

[af_vet_rr]

Can Christie explain Ft. Hood or the Boston terrorist attack...I doubt it.

A few thousand Americans died on September 11. Very much a national tragedy, but as I said elsewhere, Christie's reasoning, that we have to give up our freedom because of the deaths of a few thousand Americans over a decade ago, is the same kind of reasoning that could be used to justify police checkpoints on all major roads, looking for drunk drivers. After all, since drunk driving Americans kill tens of thousands every year, they are a much bigger danger to Americans than any terrorist.

[af_vet_rr]

I’d be willing to try a different approach: Since the Islamists have openly stated that we are their enemy, and that they want to kill us; let’s take them at their word. Stop the PC nonsense and name our enemy. I’ll wager that if 10% of the money spent on wiretapping Americans unconstitutionally had been spent on actually destroying the ememies ability to attack us, or securing our own borders, we wouldn’t need to have a conversation on liberty vs. security at all.

I wouldn't take that wager, because you would in.

Furthermore, Bush, and Obama, don't want to offend their Muslim buddies, so they decide we are going to wage a war on terrorism, which is a concept, instead of naming our actual enemies, as you pointed out. That means we get a war that will literally never end, which pleases the defense contractors and their lobbyists, and it pleases the statists like Christie who get to use it as a means of taking our freedom away from us.

[jimpick]

I will sit across from them. It is better they know the truth about how dangerous this spying is. The truth can some times be painful but it still should not be hidden away.

[Hugh the Scot]

I’d go so far as to say “all of them”... It is a convert or die “religion”.

While I do not believe that all practitioners of Islam are actively working at killing us, I can’t help notice the remarkable lack of public condemnation coming from those who insist that Islam is a religion of peace, of those who are carrying out these terrorist acts.

Compare this relative silence to the response of Christians to the Westboro Baptists’ actions (which, while vile, do not directly kill anyone).

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not advocating for a crusade, or judging individuals in their faith. I simply cannot comprehend what would cause a person to adhere to a faith that is causing so much bloodshed and suffering and not be doing everything within their limited power to change the public face of that faith; or abandon it for a new one that better suits my idea of Godliness.

I can promise that if a group of “Christians” were blowing up innocents in some misguided political effort, I would be screaming to the top of my voice that they are NOT representing my God. They’d have to blow me up to get me to stop.

Not everyone who claims to be Christian is. I’m sure that Islam has the same problem; but if they allow the jihadi’s to be the face of their faith, support these terrorists financially, and work in support of the political structure that allows this behavior, they are my enemies.