Assaulting Your Birthright
Dear Friends of Liberty,
Despite the new Republican Majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, Americans who believe in the Constitution have good cause to be concerned about what's going on in Congress.
Early this spring, House Republicans tried to force a re-authorization of the badly mis-named Patriot Act through Congress. Using legislative trickery, House leadership attempted to steamroll freshmen legislators with a consent calendar vote on the Patriot Act.
Several congressman helped Campaign for Liberty expose this attempt to green-light Constitution-shredding legislation using a legislative trick normally reserved for non-controversial bills.
After we sounded the alarm, our members responded with a wave of phone calls and e-mails into Congressional offices.
Due to the decisive activism taken by our members, the consent calendar vote failed to receive the two-thirds needed to pass. While this was deeply embarrassing to the House leadership and the Constitution-haters supporting the re-authorization of the unconstitutional Patriot Act, the legislation wasn't dead.
House Leadership repeatedly placed the Patriot Act on the calendar, only to yank it off as floods of grassroots activists' phone calls continued to blast Congressional offices. After much arm twisting, a one-year extension of the Patriot Act passed the House with bi-partisan opposition.
Similarly, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) tried to sneak the Patriot Act through the Senate without a vote at all. Outnumbered, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) used every parliamentary tactic available to him to stall the effort.
In the end, the Senate passed and the House concurred with a 90 day extension of the Patriot Act. That means this summer the Campaign for Liberty and liberty-loving Americans must rejoin the fight against the re-authorization of this monstrous bill.
During the debate this summer, every issue related to this tyrannical bill is sure to be on the table. The top bargaining chip is almost certain to be the length of re-authorization, with many Big Government supporters pushing for a permanent extension of the bill, while others have proposed one, three and five year extensions as a compromise.
We are committed to fighting any length of extension of the liberty-shredding, unconstitutional Patriot Act.
While many on the nanny-staters on the Left and many fakes on the Right will try to confuse Americans about how the mis-named Patriot Act will affect them, the unconstitutionality of the bill is clear.
Some of the worst provisions include:
- Roving, warrant-less wiretaps of virtually ALL forms of electronic communications by U.S. citizens.
- Secret federal searches without warrants OR knowledge of the resident.
- Blanket warrants for the search and seizure of all library records, without naming individual suspects or providing probable cause.
- Judicial warrants replaced with "National Security Letters" signed by unaccountable bureaucrats. Also makes provision to gag anyone served with a "National Security Letter" from disclosing them.
- Drastic expansion of the definition of "domestic terrorism," which the government has already used to target advocates of small government.
- Expands asset seizure to permit the taking of assets from anyone "suspected" of terrorism, even if that person is NEVER charged or sent to trial.
- Lone wolf provisions which allow the government to spy on ANYONE even if they're not associated with a terrorist organization or foreign national, without due process or notification.
We have already seen how pro-liberty groups have been classified as "right-wing extremists" for something as simple as carrying a flag or handing out literature.
If this bill stands, we will continue to see that placing a pro-liberty bumper sticker on your car, or supporting a pro-liberty candidate will continue to land citizens on the "domestic terrorist" list under provisions of the Patriot Act and definitions set by the Department of Homeland Security.
Continued grassroots pressure is the only way to defeat the re-authorization of this Constitution-shredding bill.
Will you sign our petition to let your congressman know that we won't stand for the continual erosion of our liberties?
I will continue to keep you updated about any developments and how you can help push back against this encroachment on our freedoms.
P.S. - We are going into the precincts with this fight. Can you help our ground troops arm themselves by donating $5 or $10 towards their fight against the Patriot Act?