Posted on 03/08/2003 9:29:27 AM PST by forest
[NOTE: This text was first published in the March 7, 1997 newsletter. It was an important message in 1997, but seems even more important today.]
Last week we gave Rep. Ron Paul's toll-free Legislative Update number (1-888-322-1414) and suggested that readers listen to his message "The Coming Police State." We were told by a lot of people that they missed it.
Originally, that message was part of a one hour speech Rep. Paul made on the floor of the House. And, thanks to Jeff in Michigan, we have the complete text. Below is the shortened version of Rep. Paul's speech recorded as the "Legislative Update:"
Centralizing power and consistently expanding the role of the Government requires an army of bureaucrats and a taxing authority upon which a police state thrives. There are over 100 laws on the books permitting private property seizure without due process of law. We have made it easy to seize any property by absurdly claiming the property itself committed the crime. The RICO mentality relating to law enforcement permits even the casual bystander to suffer severely from the police state mentality.
The drug war hysteria and the war on gun ownership started by Roosevelt in 1934 have expanded Federal police power to the point that more than 10 percent of all of our police are Federal. The Constitution names but three Federal crimes, so where is the justification? Talk about swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. We have hovering over us daily the Federal police from the EPA, OSHA, FBI, CIA, DEA, EEOC, ADA, F&WL, INS, BATF, and worst of all, the IRS. Even criticizing the IRS makes me cringe that it might precipitate an audit. It seems that all administrations, to some degree, used the power of the agencies to reward or punish financial backers or political enemies.
So much [of] that had its origin in the 1930's, it was then that the FBI's role changed from friendly investigator helping local authorities to that of national police force.
We live in an age where the fear of an IRS registered letter bearing news of an audit surpasses the fear of a street mugging. The police are supposed to be our friend and the Federal Government the guarantor of our liberties. Ask the blacks in the inner city of Los Angeles if they trust the police and revere the FBI and the CIA. We should not have to cringe when a Federal agent appears at the door of our business. We should not even see them there.
A Congress sworn to uphold the Constitution ought to be protecting our right to our property, not confiscating it. Congress ought to protect our right to own a weapon of self-defense, not systematically and viciously attacking that right.
Congress ought to guarantee all voluntary association, not regulate and dictate every economic transaction. We should not allow Congress to give credence to inane politically correct rules generated by egalitarian misfits. Setting quotas ought to insult each of us.
We need no more centralized police efforts. We need no more wiretaps that have become epidemic in this last decade. We have had enough Wacos and Ruby Ridges.
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Physical searches without a warrant have been allowed for centuries.
True, but not in Anerica, Roscoe.
Warrantless searches were made illegal by our Constitution.
The Patriot Act contradicts our Constitution.
Badly.
Except personal nukes. Personal nukes are impracticable.
The real problem with allowing each man to possess his own personal nuke is that he could just about guarantee that he would never be brought to justice after having targeted his oh-so-tolerant libertarian neighbors. Some straight-thinking man bent on self-preservation would take the law into his own hands and preemptively and permanently adjust the nuke-bearer's attitude before the device could be ever be triggered. That may be a most unlibertarian action to take, but it is what can be expected to happen where libertarian hubris and stupidity meets human reality.
Only if you are a terrorist. Are you a terrorist?
False. In America, legally, regularly.
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Physical searches without a warrant have been allowed for centuries.
"strict libertarian scrutiny" means according to libertarian principles, Roscoe. It doesn't mean "let the Libertarian Party police the government."
Any governmental power should be subject to overview according to libertarian principles, just as our libertarian Founders intended.
No doubt.
Which principles? FR's libertarians pick and choose like it's a Chinese menu.
Me? Libertarians recognize that limit with their initiation of force standard.
It's been there all along- I don't know how you missed it.
"Gunga Diner"
That's one of the drawbacks of liberty.
People can use it to do things that you or I disapprove of.
There is a bar in the Yukon, Skagway, I believe where the special of the house is a shot of whiskey with a pickled human toe in it.
The toe was amputated due to frostbite and they thought that it would be funny to serve it to customers.( as far as I know, the toe does this voluntarily as do the patrons of the bar)
Now if you want to go up there and make them stop doing that, be my guest.
I think that they would just toss you out in the snow. Why? Because their little prank with the pickled toe doesn't hurt anybody else.
There are people who eat human placenta. Should there be laws against that?
The point is that no matter how much you dissaprove of someone's actions, you you can't justifiably impose your will on them unless they are hurting others.
It is not possible to force morality on others without being immoral yourself.
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exodus - but not in America, Roscoe. Warrantless searches were made illegal by our Constitution. The Patriot Act contradicts our Constitution.
Roscoe - False. In America, legally, regularly.
No, Roscoe.
There is no legally passed law that allows our citizens to be searched without a warrant .
And so it goes.
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