Sematary
09-15-2008, 09:14 AM
I'm working on my testimony for the Ct. legislature (I have some time on this one since they don't go into session until January) concerning REAL ID and I just wanted to get some feedback. This is only a rough draft and not yet complete but I think it's coming along.
Dear Mr. Chairman and members of the committee
I stand before you today, a simple, humble servant of the Constitution of the United States of America. For many years now, this revered document has been slowly and methodically torn asunder by the very people who we elected and were charged with protecting it against all enemies – foreign and domestic. They (meaning Congress, the Executive branch, and the Judiciary – mainly the Supreme Court of The United States) have failed to uphold the most basic tenets of this document which is the very basis of the legal system in our nation. Over the years, the Constitution has been eviscerated by a ruling class who’s only goal is to attain ever more power over the people and to take control of our lives in every facet they can imagine. I say “they” because THEY do not represent me. THEY would destroy everything that generations of Americans dating back to the war for Independence have fought and died for. THEY do not care about personal liberties, or sound money, or freedom of speech. THEY do not care about the constitution.
The Patriot Act, which in several parts has been found to be wholly unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the Military Commissions Act – which gave the President of The United States the power to incarcerate people without habeas corpus and other odious and onerous pieces of legislation, including the one we are here to discuss today – the REAL ID Act of 2005, have served to effectively destroy much of the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment has taken a major hit with the advent of the hideous and mis-named “free speech zones” which seek to protect the powerful from hearing the voices of their detractors. The Second amendment has been gutted by over 20,000 gun laws which have done nothing to protect the average citizen but which have served to protect a potentially tyrannical government by keeping the citizenry from owning the weapons NECESSARY to defending themselves from that tyrannical government.
When our last president signed into law the Military Commissions act, he effectively destroyed our legal system because, on his say so alone, the President of The United States is able to declare ANYONE an enemy combatant and lock them up and throw away the key. It is foul legislation such as this which allows the most basic tenets of our constitution to be ignored so that suspects can be incarcerated and even tortured – something almost NO American would ever approve of.
The REAL ID act, which I am asking you to take a look at today, was passed in the shadows, hidden deep within the bowels of a spending package for the military. Many, if not most, members of Congress never read the language, as they are known to do and probably have no idea what it is that they passed on to the President to sign into law. What the REAL ID act is, is an unfunded mandate by the federal government to the states, instructing them to implement, for the Department of Homeland Security, an identification card designed BY the Department of Homeland Security so that they can keep tabs on American citizens. That is it’s ONLY purpose. Certainly, “they” dress it up in fancy language that the average American and even the people who signed it into law don’t understand but it is a national identification card that will contain biometric data on the person carrying it.
The data that will be required to be included in the card is still being decided by the Department of Homeland Security and ideas being bandied about include full medical history, retinal scans, thumb prints and more. Along with a law going through Congress right at this moment which would allow the IRS FULL ACCESS to our debit and credit card transactions, the federal government would have the most massive database of information on every citizen ever assembled. I shudder at the thought of drawing parallels to to Nazi Germany but this legislation wreaks of foul intent and violates several portions of the constitution and must not be allowed to stand.
I am here before you, as a patriot, a citizen, a concerned citizen who wants to protect the constitution which made this the greatest nation on the planet. The REAL ID act not only violates our fourth amendment right to privacy in our papers and I quote:
“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.”
but it also violates the 10th amendment which reads as follow:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
I ask you, my fellow citizens and the elected representatives of the people of the state of Connecticut, to join me in sending a clear message to the Congress of The United States of America, that we will NOT allow our constitutional rights to be stolen from us in the dead of night. We will NOT stand by, silent and cowed, as the very fabric and backbone of our nation is gutted by a government which has lost touch with the people and which no longer functions to serve the purpose of defending the Constitution of The United States of America.
I would like to remind you of something that Benjamin Franklin said many years ago…
“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Dear Mr. Chairman and members of the committee
I stand before you today, a simple, humble servant of the Constitution of the United States of America. For many years now, this revered document has been slowly and methodically torn asunder by the very people who we elected and were charged with protecting it against all enemies – foreign and domestic. They (meaning Congress, the Executive branch, and the Judiciary – mainly the Supreme Court of The United States) have failed to uphold the most basic tenets of this document which is the very basis of the legal system in our nation. Over the years, the Constitution has been eviscerated by a ruling class who’s only goal is to attain ever more power over the people and to take control of our lives in every facet they can imagine. I say “they” because THEY do not represent me. THEY would destroy everything that generations of Americans dating back to the war for Independence have fought and died for. THEY do not care about personal liberties, or sound money, or freedom of speech. THEY do not care about the constitution.
The Patriot Act, which in several parts has been found to be wholly unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the Military Commissions Act – which gave the President of The United States the power to incarcerate people without habeas corpus and other odious and onerous pieces of legislation, including the one we are here to discuss today – the REAL ID Act of 2005, have served to effectively destroy much of the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment has taken a major hit with the advent of the hideous and mis-named “free speech zones” which seek to protect the powerful from hearing the voices of their detractors. The Second amendment has been gutted by over 20,000 gun laws which have done nothing to protect the average citizen but which have served to protect a potentially tyrannical government by keeping the citizenry from owning the weapons NECESSARY to defending themselves from that tyrannical government.
When our last president signed into law the Military Commissions act, he effectively destroyed our legal system because, on his say so alone, the President of The United States is able to declare ANYONE an enemy combatant and lock them up and throw away the key. It is foul legislation such as this which allows the most basic tenets of our constitution to be ignored so that suspects can be incarcerated and even tortured – something almost NO American would ever approve of.
The REAL ID act, which I am asking you to take a look at today, was passed in the shadows, hidden deep within the bowels of a spending package for the military. Many, if not most, members of Congress never read the language, as they are known to do and probably have no idea what it is that they passed on to the President to sign into law. What the REAL ID act is, is an unfunded mandate by the federal government to the states, instructing them to implement, for the Department of Homeland Security, an identification card designed BY the Department of Homeland Security so that they can keep tabs on American citizens. That is it’s ONLY purpose. Certainly, “they” dress it up in fancy language that the average American and even the people who signed it into law don’t understand but it is a national identification card that will contain biometric data on the person carrying it.
The data that will be required to be included in the card is still being decided by the Department of Homeland Security and ideas being bandied about include full medical history, retinal scans, thumb prints and more. Along with a law going through Congress right at this moment which would allow the IRS FULL ACCESS to our debit and credit card transactions, the federal government would have the most massive database of information on every citizen ever assembled. I shudder at the thought of drawing parallels to to Nazi Germany but this legislation wreaks of foul intent and violates several portions of the constitution and must not be allowed to stand.
I am here before you, as a patriot, a citizen, a concerned citizen who wants to protect the constitution which made this the greatest nation on the planet. The REAL ID act not only violates our fourth amendment right to privacy in our papers and I quote:
“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.”
but it also violates the 10th amendment which reads as follow:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
I ask you, my fellow citizens and the elected representatives of the people of the state of Connecticut, to join me in sending a clear message to the Congress of The United States of America, that we will NOT allow our constitutional rights to be stolen from us in the dead of night. We will NOT stand by, silent and cowed, as the very fabric and backbone of our nation is gutted by a government which has lost touch with the people and which no longer functions to serve the purpose of defending the Constitution of The United States of America.
I would like to remind you of something that Benjamin Franklin said many years ago…
“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”