[ Big Brother is Already Here: NRA Spokesman Says ]
No one can accuse National Rifle Association (NRA) executive
vice president Wayne LaPierre of being a knee-jerk anti-Bush
liberal. But in a fiery February speech at the Conservative
Political Action Conference, LaPierre courageously blasted
the staggering increase in regulation, government spending,
speech restrictions and privacy invasions that have followed
September 11.
Here are some excerpts from his speech, which was entitled
"Frightened, or Free?":
"Since [September 11], we've watched social and political
marketers jockey for position, seeking advantage on the back
of tragedy for more government regulation, intrusion and
expansion. We've witnessed a fire sale of American liberties
at bargain basement prices, in return for the false promise
of more security.
"Freedom is the first bargaining chip of a scared people. But
it's always a losing bet.
"...[O]ur airports have become a place where you can see
*physically* what's happening to us *psychologically*.
"You see red-faced, teary-eyed 15-year-old girls enduring
security wands orbiting their breasts while electronic
squeals detect the metal in their underwire bras.
"You see grandmothers shaken down and stripped of their
cuticle clippers and knitting needles. You see grandfathers,
men who likely fought or lost loved ones for this country, in
various stages of undress.
"You see women cringe as security men let their wands linger
between their legs...
"Too many are too timid to ask what these outrages are
supposed to achieve. Too many are too polite to say that our
Bill of Rights is too sacred to give up for homeland security
or for anything else.....
"You know, we don't put people in jail for free speech in the
United States of America. But that's exactly what the
McCain-Feingold bill would do. It outlaws political speech by
groups like the NRA or CPAC or ACLU or NAACO or Fund for
Animals or the Sierra Club 30 days before a primary election
and 60 days before a general election. No political speech
for any individual or any organization ... except politicians
and the big media conglomerates!...Where in the Constitution
does it say they're freer than us?
"...You know, in civics class we learned that if you see
something you don't like in America, you join a group, get
active, speak up and the worst thing that can happen is you
lose. Under this bill, you speak up and the worst that can
happen is you go to federal prison for 5 years and pay a
$25,000 fine.
"It's the biggest, dirtiest, stinkin'est assault on freedom
I've ever seen. We as citizens should be free to say whatever
we want about politicians 20 days, 30 days, five minutes
before an election. That's what makes America different.
"...King George threw colonists in jail for pamphleteering
against the crown. You tell me, what's the difference?
"...The America being designed right now won't resemble the
America we've been defending. The muzzling and cattle-prod
treatment of honest Americans is just a visible version of
intrusions already happening invisibly, electronically,
silently.
"...Many politicians are endorsing a national ID card, at the
same time the federal government is working with the states
to develop driver's licenses that can electronically store
information, like fingerprints.
"Plus your retinal scan, voiceprint, hand geometry or DNA.
Maybe your credit history, your residential information, your
banking history, your medical and mental health records, your
marital status, your ATM withdrawals, turnpike use, library
checkouts, movie rentals, pharmacy prescriptions, phone call
records, and firearms by serial number and address. Imagine
all that information encrypted in a hologram on your national
ID card ... but a hologram you can't read. Only higher
authorities can read it.
"What's the potential for abuse of a system where all that
information gets compiled and is available only to criminal
hackers, corporate marketers, corrupt politicians and
government hacks?
"...Meanwhile, Congress has given the CIA vast new powers and
billions of dollars to use them. The CIA can now read
secret grand jury testimony without a judge's prior approval.
They want to intercept email without a warrant and more
powers to eavesdrop on people.
"And the technology exists to pull it all off.
"You heard about the cameras and software that captured every
fan's face at last year's Super Bowl in Tampa. Computers
instantly compared each face to those of criminals stored in
a database.
"Around the country, work is underway on optical technologies
that can identify you hundreds of feet away by the color
spectrum emitted by your skin, or your body's unique
dimensions, or the "force profiles" of your walking feet, or
the speckles in your irises.
"Beyond detecting human *identity*, they're detecting human
*intention*! Like computers programmed to recognize movement
associated with criminal behavior. Another system tracks
features of your face and figures out what your expressions
mean emotionally! Computers will look at what's on your face
and decide what's in your heart.
"The only people who can stop all of this are you and me.
Indeed, the only people who've ever drawn the line, by
refusing to toe the line, are the patriots like you who stand
up and say, NO MORE.
"Maybe you think that with President George W. Bush in the
White House, everything is safe. You think you can put aside
your principles, just this once, to be a loyal conservative.
"...I know the risks I run by what I say here. I've taken
some lonely roads to stand up for the principles I believe
in. But if we, as conservatives, don't stand up for these
fundamental truths, who will?
"Never accept the idea that surrendering freedom -- any
freedom -- is the price of feeling safe...
"The more we tolerate forfeiture of freedom, the more we are
a nation where privacy is a luxury and freedom is suspect,
the more we distrust each other and government distrusts us
... the more our liberty will be frisked, X-rayed,
fingerprinted, strip-searched, silenced and finally lost.
"My friends, the bottom line is this: The danger isn't that
Big Brother may storm the castle gates. The danger is that
Americans don't realize that he is already inside the castle
walls."
NOTE:
These 'excerpts' are from " Liberator Online, Vol. 7, No. 6"
Also:
Too often when we dictate who will lead
another country, we only replace one group of thugs with another- as we just did
in Afghanistan- with the only difference being that the thugs we support are
expected to be puppet-like and remain loyal to the US, or else.
Although bits and pieces of the
administration's plans to wage war against Iraq and possibly Iran and North
Korea are discussed, we never hear any mention of the authority to do so. It
seems that Tony Blair's approval is more important than the approval of the
American people!
Congress never complains about its lost
prerogative to be the sole declarer of war. Astoundingly, Congress is only too
eager to give war power to our presidents through the back door, by the use of
some fuzzy resolution that the president can use as his justification. And once
the hostilities begin, the money always follows, because Congress fears
criticism for not "supporting the troops." But putting soldiers in
harm's way without proper authority, and unnecessarily, can hardly be the way to
"support the troops."
Let it be clearly understood- there is
no authority to wage war against Iraq without Congress passing a Declaration of
War. HJ RES 65, passed in the aftermath of 9/11, does not even suggest that this
authority exists. A UN Resolution authorizing an invasion of Iraq, even if it
were to come, cannot replace the legal process for the United States going to
war as precisely defined in the Constitution. We must remember that a covert war
is no more justifiable, and is even more reprehensible.
Only tyrants can take a nation to war
without the consent of the people. The planned war against Iraq without a
Declaration of War is illegal. It is unwise because of many unforeseen
consequences that are likely to result. It is immoral and unjust, because it has
nothing to do with US security and because Iraq has not initiated aggression
against us.
We must understand that the American
people become less secure when we risk a major conflict driven by commercial
interests and not constitutionally authorized by Congress. Victory under these
circumstances is always elusive, and unintended consequences are inevitable.
NOTES:
These 'excerpts' are from " Liberator Online, Vol. 7, No. 6"
SOURCE: US House of Representatives
(Source: http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2002/cr022602.htm )
[ 2:44am ct 3/28/2002 MLM/mlm ]