America For Purchase

Republicans for years have been slowly taking away Americans’ right to privacy and civil liberties, as they spit on the U.S. Constitution by passing discriminatory laws and giving sweeping surveillance and the right to search any American, at any time, without court order, for all American citizens. The Patriot Act and FISA were just the beginning for Republicans to strip the rights of U.S. Citizens.  Now Republicans are attempting to racial profile Americans and remove Americans’ right to U.S. Courts of Law and American’s citizenship.

From Republican George W Bush and Republican Dick Cheney’s Patriot Act and FISA, to Arizona’s punitive approach to immigration by Arizona’s Republican Governor Jan Brewer’s anti-immigration bill to would be Republican Joe Lieberman (who claims he is an Independent) and Republican Mass. Senator Scott Brown’s proposed bill to give the government more power by taking away U. S. Citizenship of Americans and to other Republicans who want to deny Miranda Rights to U.S. Citizens!First Amendment – Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Fourth Amendment – The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1 – All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Below are 4 examples of continuing Republicans’ blatant efforts to take away Americans’ constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties:

Point 1: Joe Lieberman and Republican Scott Brown’s new law called the Terrorist Expatriation Act, supported by Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Republican Sen. John Kyl, gives complete constitutional power to the U.S. State Department to determine if any U.S. Citizen is affiliated with a terrorist organization allowing Americans’ citizenship to be removed.  It allows the U.S. State Department to treat constitutionally protected American citizenship like an administrative matter.  On the surface, fighting terrorism is of great national interest, but overreacting and overreaching by Lieberman and Brown based on the recent successful capture of would be terrorist Faisal Shahzad not only violates the Constitution of the United States, it further chips away at the rights of all Americans.  This bill applies to any and all American citizens before due process and before any convictions.   

Have Americans noticed each time there is an attempted terrorist attack Republicans rush to take away more freedoms of all Americans. Rather than supporting the efforts of Homeland Security, the CIA, FBI and police agencies, Republicans clearly demonstrate their lack of faith in those who keep America safe.                                                         

The irony is, the system worked in capturing Faisal Shahzad!  No one was tortured. No one’s civil rights were violated. No one’s privacy was violated. And the suspect is cooperating. Federal, state, and local authorities did their jobs; the public was alert, but did not panic, the public was responsible, and not terrified, no one was killed, no one was hurt, and it took less than three days for the suspect to be captured.

If Republicans conspire to change America because of, in this case, one single failed bomb plot, they are aiding and abetting the enemy by advancing the terrorist’s goals and caving into the fear-mongering Republicans have authored for the past decade.

Point 2: Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer’s punitive anti-immigration law (SB 1070) compels police officers to ask for proof of legal status whenever they have an ill-defined “reasonable suspicion” that someone they have stopped for some other purpose is an illegal alien.  This Republican law clearly forces police to use skin color, accent or limited proficiency in English as the basis for ‘suspicion’ and it invites racial profiling. The law compels police to search for undocumented immigrants based on an ill-defined “reasonable suspicion” of illegality. This law not only poisons police relations with immigrant communities, it is an attempt to preempt federal immigration laws, and substantially violates the U.S. Constitution. The privileges and immunities clause of the 14th amendment says, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” 

Then there is Republican Rep. Debbie Riddle of Texas who said “I’m really tired of political correctness and so are my constituents and I think the folks of Texas are to.  The reality is I’m also tired of hyphenated Americans.” What Riddle is really saying is I’m really tired of Hispanic-Americana, Asian-Americana, African-Americana, Jewish-Americana, Gay-Americans.  This is a typical Republican response demonstrating white, arrogant racism, in this case against Latinos, which is what the Republican Party stands for, only white Americans.

It is unthinkable that in the 21st century, a Latino or anyone with ‘dark skin’ could be stopped and asked to see his or her papers.  Imagine our Latino veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan, having fought for our liberties overseas and being asked for their papers to prove they belong in the United States! Undocumented Latinos have joined our armed forces to fight for their adopted country.                                 

Never before in our modern history has an American government purported to give police the power to stop someone because of their appearance (race) and then require the stopped person to prove a negative on the spot, namely, that he or she is not in the US illegally.                                                         

Point 3: Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “I want to stop reading these guys their Miranda Rights”, in response to the recent arrest of Faisal Shahzad’s bombing attempt in New York. Republicans immediately began complaining that even though Shahzad is an American citizen, authorities should deprive him of his Miranda rights. Republican Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said that Mirandizing Shahzad would be “a serious mistake,” Republican Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said, “Did they Mirandize him? I know he’s an American citizen but still.” Independent (Republican) Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) suggested that Congress should perhaps create a process to strip “American citizens who choose to become affiliated with foreign terrorists” of their citizenship and Republican Lindsey Graham stated he wholeheartedly agreed with his colleagues and wanted to write legislation that would allow authorities to deprive them of their rights. 

Florida Republican Dan Fanelli is advocating racial profiling at Florida and other US Airports.  Then there is Republican Rep Peter T. King of New York, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, who said he was troubled by the rush to charge Mr. Shahzad as a civilian. “In these kinds of cases, the first preference should be a military commission because you can get more information,” he said.

As Matt Yglesias notes, “You can’t have a system where a cop comes up to me and says ‘you’re a terrorist, therefore you have no citizenship rights, therefore I’m putting you under arrest and you don’t get any due process and now it’s off to jail with you — no rights, no warning.” “And the whole reason cops Mirandize suspects is that if you don’t, you risk having your evidence thrown out of court. If you gather all the information before Mirandizing, you could be throwing the whole thing into doubt.”   Does Graham really want to make all of the United States into the equivalent of a battlefield in Pakistan?

Americans should be mindful that Republicans cannot take rights from one American citizen without risking the rights of every American citizen. Miranda rights apply to everyone in the territory of the US, citizen, foreign resident and visitors, or anyone who resides in the United States. Republicans, as much as they want, cannot legislate away the Miranda rights of anyone charged with a crime.   Republicans are under the mistaken impression that Mirandizing a suspect grants special rights, when all it does is inform someone of existing rights.

Interestingly enough, Republicans were silent when the nine white Christian Hutaree militia terrorists had their Miranda rights read.  Republicans never advocated throwing out constitutionally guaranteed American rights when Timothy McVeigh reigned down terror in Oklahoma City.

Terrorists have been successfully tried in U.S. Courts: Richard Reid, Zacharias Moussaui, Ramzi Yousef, Omar Abdel Rahman, Bryant Neal Vinas, Mohammed Jabarah, Shahawar Matin Siraj, Mohammed Junaid Babar, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.  The Military tribunals Republicans continue to push over U.S. Legal jurisprudence have only tried 3 people and 2 have already been freed from prison; David Hicks served 9 months and released Salim Ahmed Hamden now free, and Ali Al Bahlul who is still in prison. This is what Lieberman and Brown are supporting!

A Bush Administration document in 2008 cites “319 convictions or guilty pleas in terrorism or terrorism-related cases arising from investigations conducted primarily after September 11, 2001.”  Between those convicted of terrorism-related crimes (150) and individuals with ties to international terrorism convicted of other crimes (like obstruction or perjury–the total is 240), 390 people have been sent to prison using our U.S. Justice and civilian courts.  The list of terrorists convicted itself is interesting in its own right.

When Republicans seek such radical change to America’s legal judicial system and from the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution, they betray upholding their oath to defend and protect that great document and the rights it affords all American citizens. 

Point 4: Republican George W Bush and Dick Cheney passed the Patriot Act into law on October 24, 2001 just 45 days after the September 11 attacks, The USA PATRIOT Act broadly expanded law enforcement’s surveillance and investigative powers and represents one of the most significant threats to civil liberties, privacy and democratic traditions in U.S. history. This act gave sweeping search and surveillance authority to domestic law enforcement and foreign intelligence agencies and eliminated the checks and balances which had been the difference between the free world and the suppressed.  This act continues to threaten Americans’ fundamental freedoms by giving the government the power to access medical records, banking, financial and tax records; information about the books one buys, it authorized the use of “sneak and peek” search warrants giving law enforcement the power to break down any American’s door at any time of the day or night and conduct unconstitutional searches and seizures; searching one’s home or business in secret without telling the owner. It allowed wiretaps for any suspected violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and offers possibilities for the Government to spy on and monitor any computer user’s searches, e-mails and in fact record every stroke on any computer. ALL of the provisions of the Patriot Act do not require a court order.

The Patriot Act eliminated Government accountability but freely eliminated privacy rights for individual Americans.  It created more secrecy for Government activities, making it extremely difficult to know about actions the Government are taking.

Then there is the Republican sponsored Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which allows for increased surveillance of phone calls of law abiding Americans.  FISA repealed legislation enacted in the 1970s that prohibited this type of pervasive surveillance of Americans.

The one common denominator of Republicans is simply is a grasp for power by the government, particularly over the judicial branch represents “the looming sacrifice of civil liberties at the altar of national security.”

The Republican agenda for American citizens is to continue to whittle away at the very freedoms guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.  They use ‘suspected’ terrorism as the mechanism for taking away these rights.  At every opportunity Republicans continue to encroach on the privacy and free speech, challenge habeas corpus and introduce and eliminate lawful protections established 200 years ago, all under the guise of ‘security’.

In Conclusion:

All the aforementioned points clearly violate the U.S. Constitution: 

• They violate the Fourth Amendment, which says the government cannot conduct a search without obtaining a warrant and showing probable cause to believe that the person has committed or will commit a crime;
• They violate the Fourth Amendment by failing to provide notice (even after the fact) to persons whose privacy has been compromised. (Notice is also a key element of due process, which is guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment);
• They violate the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech by prohibiting the recipients of search orders from telling others about those orders, even where there is no real need for secrecy and they violate the First Amendment by effectively authorizing the FBI to launch investigations of American citizens in part for exercising their freedom of speech;
• The violate the Fourteenth Amendment depriving American citizens due process of law and their right to equal protection under U.S. law. 

Republican Sen. Senator Christopher S. Bond  recently stated “We’ve got to be far less interested in protecting the privacy rights of these terrorists than in collecting information that may lead us to details of broader schemes to carry out attacks in the United States,” 

When Republican Eric Cantor recently bloviated about the Obama Administration being complacent amid warning signs about terrorism after another failed attempt, Americans must remember this comes from a Republican under the Bush/Cheney Administration which was so incomprehensibly incompetent as to allow the worst ever terrorist attack on American soil even after receiving at least 10 warnings about the foreboding 9/11 attacks that Pres. George W. Bush ignored and then lied about.

These are Republicans keeping America safe!  They are Republicans who want America’s vote.   

 

Republicans cannot support the U. S. Constitution only when it suits their political views and pick and choose from those Amendments, cafeteria-style, to support their agenda of taking away freedoms from all Americans, regardless of political persuasion. 

During all of the aforementioned, teabaggers have been silent! For a group ready to overthrown their own United States Government and remain silent on the most basic freedoms of the U.S. Constitution, only gives credit their only failed complaint is simply about race. “Don’t tread on me”, “My gun is unloaded, this time”, Socialism, Communist, and all their other protests have no legitimate merit as they continue to carry the water for Republicans in helping to take away the rights of a free society.  When Republicans and their Tea Party shout “return to the Constitution” they do not really mean it, which is another reason they have no credibility.  What they really mean is, get another ‘white Republican man’ in the White House!

America is in serious risk of crossing a line that cannot easily be undone. Republicans are about to hammer the final nail into the coffins of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. If hard working, taxpaying Americans do not speak out, if we exchange our liberties for the illusion of security, then we forfeit the very ideals that make America great. The concepts of individual liberty and equal justice that this nation was founded upon will be forsaken and we will join the ranks of dozens of other nations whose freedoms have been forfeited for the sake of the power and the forfeit of freedom and democracy.

As Benjamin Franklin said: “Those who would surrender their liberty for security deserve neither”.

Arbitrary government is what men have been sacrificing to overcome for the past millennium. Republicans are a throwback to the despotism of an earlier age; they do not serve the interest of liberty, justice and freedom of the American people.

Tags Bill of Rights Bush Administration Christopher Bond civil rights Dick Cheney Eric Cantor FISA George W Bush GOP Jan Brewer Joe Lieberman John Cornyn John Kyl Miranda rights news politics Patriot Act racial profiling Republican fear mongering Republican party SB 1070 Scott Brown tea party teabaggers terrorism Terrorist Expatriation Act U S Constitution

Filed under: Republicans