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Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 4/22/13: Congress Exploits Our Fears to Take Our Liberty
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Congress Exploits Our Fears to Take Our Liberty
by Ron Paul
This
week, as Americans were horrified by the attacks in Boston, both houses
of Congress considered legislation undermining our liberty in the name
of "safety." Gun control continued to be the focus of the Senate, where
an amendment expanding federal "background checks" to gun show sales and
other private transfers dominated the debate. While the background
check amendment failed to pass, proponents of gun control have made it
clear they will continue their efforts to enact new restrictions on gun
ownership into law.
While it did not receive nearly as much
attention as the debate on gun control, the House of Representatives
passed legislation with significant implications for individual liberty:
the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). CISPA
proponents claim that the legislation is necessary to protect Americans
from foreign "cyber terrorists," but the real effect of this bill will
be to further erode Americans' online privacy.
Under CISPA,
Internet corporations are authorized to hand over the private
information of American citizens to federal agents, as long as they can
justify the violation of your privacy in the name of protecting "cyber
security". Among the items that may be shared are your e-mails, browsing
history, and online transactions.
Like the PATRIOT Act, CISPA
violates the fourth amendment by allowing federal agencies to obtain
private information without first seeking a warrant from a federal
judge. The law also allows federal agencies to pass your information
along to other federal bureaucrats — again without obtaining a warrant.
And the bill provides private companies with immunity from lawsuits
regardless of the damage done to anyone whose personal information is
shared with the government.
CISPA represents a troubling form of
corporatism, where large companies cede their responsibility to protect
their property to the federal government, at the expense of their
customers' privacy and liberty. In this respect, CISPA can be thought of
as an electronic version of the Transportation Security Administration,
which has usurped the authority over airline security from private
airlines. However, CISPA will prove to be far more invasive than even
the most robust TSA screening.
CISPA and the gun control bill are
only the most recent examples of politicians manipulating fear to con
the people into giving up their liberties. Of course, the people are
told the legislation is for "limited purposes," but authority granted to
government is rarely, if ever, used solely for the purpose for which it
is granted. For example, the American people were promised that the
extraordinary powers granted the government by the PATRIOT Act would
only be used against terrorism. Yet soon after the bill became law,
reports surfaced that it was being used for non-terrorism purposes. In
fact, according to data compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union,
76 percent of the uses of the controversial "sneak-and-peak" warrants
where related to the war on drugs!
Sadly, I expect this week's
tragic attacks in Boston to be used to justify new restrictions on
liberty. Within 48 hours of the attack in Boston, at least one
Congressman was calling for increased use of surveillance cameras to
expand the government's ability to monitor our actions, while another
Senator called for a federal law mandating background checks before
Americans can buy "explosive powder."
I would not be surprised if
the Transportation Security Administration uses this tragedy to claim
new authority to "screen" Americans before they can attend sporting or
other public events. The Boston attack may also be used as another
justification for creating a National ID Card tied to a federal database
with "biometric" information. The only thing that will stop them is if
the American people rediscover the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin that you
cannot achieve security by allowing government to take their liberties.