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| quote: | Originally posted by dj_ilan_yosef
Brian Bodine, Chairman of the College Republicans at Texas, asserted, "Freedom and liberty should not have to be attributed to the Republican Party or the Democrat Party. However, President Bush is the only leader [out of the Presidential candidates] firmly defending these inalienable rights."
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With all due respect to those guys, and I’m sure they are doing what they feel is right for their country, give me a freakin’ break.
The “Patriot Act” (what a disgusting name!) championed by Bush and Ashcroft is in complete disregard of those same "inalienable rights,” while John Kerry sponsored the sunset clause for the "Patriot Act."
Furthermore, how is Bush defending America when he severely under-funds those policemen, firemen, and other emergency workers who would first respond to terrorist attacks here at home? How he is defending America when he values spending on military hardware over health care, housing or even something as basic as body armor for our troops; the people who fight the wars? There are troops in Iraq right now using outdated Vietnam era body armor because some of their families can’t afford to pay the thousands for the modern body armor that could save their lives. Their families shouldn’t have to pay for that in the first place, and it’s a disgrace they have to. There are troops in Iraq right now driving in unarmored humvees, making them sitting ducks for roadside bombs. How is that defending Americans when we have the capability, and indeed already a fleet of armored humvees? How is holding American citizens without right to trial and right to an attorney for an indefinite period of time defending Americans?
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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
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Now the Reagan and Bush Sr. Administrations were different and those were different times, but clearly this Administration does not have a monopoly on national security concerns, nor a monopoly on patriotism. In fact this Administration is eroding those very freedoms that make this country as beautiful as it is.
And can someone please explain to me how calling one "unpatriotic" for dissenting is at all patriotic? What ever happened to those “inalienable rights?” Do they only apply to those who agree with their opinions?
Oh yeah, we have the “Patriot Act” now instead of the Bill of Rights. How could I forget?
| quote: | Originally posted by Shakka
Nothing wrong with free speech! |
Unless someone with a "homicide bomber" T-shirt considers my speech "unpatriotic" right? 
Oh, and let's just forget about that whole Establishment Clause fluff in the First Amendment. What Madison, Paine, and Jefferson really meant was that America was founded as a "Christian Nation" after all.
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Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.
-James Madison |
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It was during John Adam's administration that the Senate ratified the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, which states in Article XI that "the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion."
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"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."
- James Madison, fourth president and father of the Constitution
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Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore man to all of his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
-Thomas Jefferson, 1801
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| quote: |
Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.
-Thomas Jefferson, 1808
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I don’t know how the Founding Fathers could have been any more clear.
Luckily most of Bush’s infringements of the First Amendment were done through Executive Order, so they can be reversed once he is kicked out. Luckily Democrats and moderate Republicans alike supported a sunset clause for the “Patriot Act” so that it can also be reversed once Ashcroft is kicked out. Luckily there are Democrats from rural areas like Howard Dean and Tom Daschle who are not against the second amendment, and realize its value. Hopefully their views will be adopted in the new Democratic platform.
Honestly guys, I think we all need to look past party rhetoric here. I'm willing to admit the democrats are hypocrites when they are (like Kerry's "special interest" donations or some on the far left’s stances on gun control for example). I’d never vote for Dianne Feinstein since she supports a complete ban on guns, and I’d never vote for Joe Biden since he authored and snuck through the “Rave Act.” In fact I would help unseat Biden if I were able to since most Northeastern Republicans are more than competent compared to their Southern counterparts. Well it’s doubtful they could be any worse than that ******* Biden is anyways.
When people in my party are hypocrites, I call them on it.
It would be nice if the other side of the aisle did the same once in a while.
| quote: | Originally posted by Yoepus
ahh my alma mata ... I'm so proud. |
I've honestly never met a commie Republican before.
Well I guess it takes all kinds. :P
| quote: | Originally posted by MrSquirrel
I just came into this thread to find out what a "Republication" was.
I never found out though 
MrS |
It must be their idea of America after they are through ravaging the Bill of Rights.
Tax breaks are simply not as important as those freedoms on which our country was founded, which are in fact priceless.
Right wing libertarians (as well as left wing libertarians like me) I'm sure would all recognize that.
It's the social conservative authoritarians who are out of touch with the spirit of America, and are indeed a danger to America.
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http://www.discoboomer.com/forums/
Last edited by DaveSZ on Feb-08-2004 at 14:14
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