May 30, 2002

EDITORIAL OPINION PIECE

Stanley for U.S. Senate Campaign
Web Site: http://www.stanley2002.org
Contact: Rick Stanley, (303)329-0481
Email: Rick@stanley2002.org

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The following statement of editorial opinion is offered for your use by Rick Stanley, Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate.

THE WAR ON PRIVACY
by Rick Stanley

The spin doctors are at it again.

Figuring out that the FBI's recently announced "War on Terrorism" is really a War on Privacy is hardly rocket science. Anybody with a little common sense can see that. Just look at the government's previous record with the "wars" they have already declared on America's social problems.

-- During the Great Depression, Roosevelt's "War on Unemployment" quickly became a war on sound money, a war on the supreme Court, and a war on the system of checks and balances. The New Deal had very little real effect on unemployment in America. It took a real war -- World War II -- to snap America out of the economic doldrums. But the New Deal did concentrate a great quantity of totally unconstitutional power in the office of the president.

-- Lyndon Johnson introduced us to the "War on Poverty." Anyone with a little common sense saw through that one right away. In truth it has always been a war on your pocketbook, and a war on the independent practice of medicine. Thirty-five years later poverty in America is just as widespread as it ever was, and the Medicare program has driven the quality of medical care down while simultaneously driving the price through the roof.

-- Tricky Dick Nixon introduced America to the "War on Drugs," another unconstitutional exercise of governmental power designed to control the citizenry. And what is that war really all about? It's about stealing billions of dollars of private property via unconstitutional "asset forfeiture" actions. It's about keeping the price of certain drugs unnaturally high so that the foreign interests who smuggle the drugs can reap immense profits. And it's about treating the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Amendments as if they were so much toilet paper.

Now George W. Bush and Robert Mueller are introducing us to a brave new "War on Terrorism." Is it any wonder that thoughtful American patriots fear these two, and their latest unconstitutional power grab, more than we fear al Qaida? Isn't it perfectly obvious? This isn't a war on terrorism. It's another war against the Constitution. It's another assault on your unalienable rights.

When the FBI was first created, there were grave doubts about the constitutionality of a federal police force. When Tricky Dick Nixon used the FBI to investigate his political enemies the resulting hue and cry eventually forced him to resign his office.

Yesterday the director of the FBI announced that the agency's mission has been altered. It's not a law enforcement agency any longer. Now it's a domestic spy agency. It will poke and pry its way through America's mail -- and e-mail, and phone calls -- without even the semblance of probable cause and without a judicial warrant.

Have you seen the FBI's definition of a "domestic terrorist"? They published it four years ago. It's already been widely publicized. It says that people who "defend" the Constitution are domestic terrorists. It says that people who ask questions when they're stopped by the police fit the profile. It even says that "lone individuals" are probably domestic terrorists.

That description fits nearly every citizen of the United States. Think about it. Have you ever been a "lone individual"? Have you ever asked a traffic cop why he pulled you over? If so, then you fit the profile. You are a suspect. You are now under investigation as a "domestic terrorist."

The FBI's "War on Terrorism" is not what it claims to be. It is another monstrous fraud on the American public. It is just the latest in a long train of usurpations and abuses pursuing invariably the same object: to reduce you, and me, and every other freedom-loving American under absolute despotism.

Enough is enough. It's time to call a halt. We must stop the runaway "War on Terrorism" before it destroys our beloved country. It's time to identify the Senators and Representatives who have sold us out as the traitors that they truly are.

It's time to take our country back.

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Rick Stanley is the Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate from Colorado (www.stanley2002.org). Stanley is a Denver businessman with 27 years' experience serving the construction, plant maintenance and fleet maintenance industries. He is currently the owner and CEO of Stanley Fasteners and Shop Supply.