Tag Archives: NSA

Nullify the NSA!

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I hate to say it, but I screwed up. I had heard of this event a couple of weeks ago and meant to get involved a whole lot more than I managed to do. I actually heard of it the first time from a post by Gene’O at the Sourcerer Blog. He had a great page on his blog all made up especially for this event (and of course it’ll be an ongoing fight, so check it out and follow it to keep informed).

I wanted to do something to help promote this event. I wanted to rouse people up to take a stand and get involved. I meant to make at least a post of my own (and hopefully a page) about it, but I’ve been so busy lately, the best I could manage to do was to sign the petition, email my congressmen, and post on my Twitter and Facebook pages. I hope at least a couple of people noticed it yesterday and took some action. 🙂

Today I got an email from the ‘Campaign to Stop Government Spying’,  ’cause’ I signed up for it a while back. They sent me an update on how things went yesterday and a reminder that the fight is far from over. Here’s what’s they reported…

The numbers were astonishing.  The Day We Fight Back was featured on over 5,000 websites, generated 84,000 calls, and 172,000 were emails sent while our petition here on Causes reached over 25,000 signatures!

 

In addition to the tremendous online success Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has filed suit against the NSA in what will surly become a landmark case against mass surveillance.

 

It’s a good start, but obviously not good enough since the congress is not yet willing to completely throw out the NSA (and TSA, and the PATRIOT ACT, and Obamacare, etc) and get back to Constitutional government!

Personally, I wish I could throw out (with appropriate punishment) every one of those politicians who allowed this to happen in the first place. Every single one of them who voted to support the NSA in ANY way.

The NSA is an affront to every principle this country was founded on. Its entire purpose is at war with the 4th amendment (and the 5th)(and all the rest of them too!).

I can hardly believe how far we have come in just MY lifetime. We’ve moved from a place where most of us could all live our lives in (relative) peace and prosperity, almost like in the TV shows “Leave it to Beaver” or Andy Griffiths Mayberry,…

To now we’ve somehow wound up in George Orwells 1984, or Huxleys Brave New World. Maybe a mixture of those 2 with a big bunch of Kafkas Metomorphosis thrown in.  In all reality, we’ve far surpassed even the worst nightmares of those visionary authors.

The NSA (along with the TSA and a bunch of other alphabet agencies) are a BIG part of what’s wrong with America.

I don’t agree with those who say we’ve got the government we ‘deserve’. I don’t believe ANYONE ‘deserves’ a government like this. One that treats us as criminals. One that thinks it has the right to track and CONTROL EVERY aspect of our lives.

Why in the world would ANYONE think anybody deserves that? It reminds me of the self righteous hypocrites who think everyone but themselves are sinners and belong in hell. They get a huge enjoyment out of feeling so smug and superior. But no one is perfect (including them), so they deserve to go to hell (and will) too.

The people who think we deserve this are just the same. So, we deserve this suck ass government we have because of what, exactly?

We’re ALL in the same boat! We need to figure that out and stand together to do something to save ourselves from sinking. We need to throw overboard the ones who are bashing holes in our hull and sabotaging our pumps!

Maybe then we can save ourselves and find a way to repair our country to one that will help better our lives again instead of the opposite.

This campaign was called “the Day We Fight Back”. We don’t need A day we fight back, we need to fight back EVERY DAY until they get off our backs and give us back our freedom!

Illegal government spy programs are not the ONLY things we need to fight. We can START with that, then take on the next. We need to keep going until we have ALL of our freedom back.

I hope I can see that someday. I hope I can even see a serious START to it. I know I’m not the one, but there must be SOMEONE out there who can come up with something effective, some way to make some progress, some way to wake people up to what’s REALLY going on and get them to take an interest…

Anyone?

The NSA Speech: Obama Accepts the Logic of Staying Terrorized

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The NSA Speech: Obama Accepts the Logic of Staying Terrorized | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

SSDD. (Same Shit Different Day). That’s about all I can say for Obama and his ‘promise’ to correct the abuses of the NSA (and the rest of the total surveillance state we live in today). 🙁

Anyone out there who seriously thinks Obama is really going to fix anything or rein in these people to their Constitutional limits, read this again…

1. The phone metadata still exists.

2. It will be kept, at least in the short-term, by the government until Congress figures out what to do with it. (And don’t think the telecom lobby won’t play a role in that.)

3. It will be searched.

4. Searches will be approved by a court with a record of being friendly to the government, one without a new privacy advocate.

5. National security letters can still be issued by the FBI without a court order.

6. Much of this activity will remain secret.

Can anyone really believe that ‘our’ government needs to keep track of ALL of your (personal) information? That any kind of freedom can survive this kind of all out attack? That society will really be better off if we are forced to live under these conditions? That YOUR life will be better?

That they are doing all of this for your safety, rather than their sense of power and CONTROL?

Does anyone seriously believe that they REALLY need to know about (and store forever) every single phone call you make? every single website you visit? everything you’ve ever said online? every single thing you buy (unless you use cash)? every single place you go? every single detail of your medical history?

I’m sure that last paragraph doesn’t cover the half of it. I’m only mentioning what I KNOW they are presently collecting (and keeping).

We are already in a state SO much worse than George Orwell ever imagined! Maybe we don’t have ‘Big Brother’ watching us through our TV sets yet.

But we DO have ‘our’ government watching us through our computers. We DO have them following every move we make through our cell phones (and soon enough directly through our cars). We DO have them watching everything else through financial tracking and the countless cameras invading every public space.

We have TSA agents to violate our RIGHT to travel freely (along with our dignity) every time we travel. We have a ‘Constitution Free zone” extending 100 MILES from every border (which covers about 65% of the American population)!

We have the PC thought police to harass us anytime someone gets a little upset with something we say.

We have the FDA to fine us or throw us in prison if they object to the food we choose to eat or the medicines we prefer to take.

We even have Obamacare to (eventually) imprison us if we refuse to allow un-elected government bureaucrats to control our most personal decisions. We can no longer choose how to manage our own BODIES! (How is this different from slavery? oh yeah, WE have to pay for our own abuse!)

I keep hoping that one day soon I’ll wake up from this nightmare. Or rather, that the rest of the American people will finally wake up and come to their senses!

That they will realize that there is something horribly WRONG with what has been going on here lately (intensely ramped up since 9-11). That they need to put a stop to it before it actually hurts THEM (instead of just that “other guy who must’ve done something to deserve it”).

Here’s hoping that day comes soon.

None Dare Call It…

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None Dare Call It… | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Interesting article from Laissez-Faire. It talks about Obamacare and how no one in the insurance industry is really speaking out against it. Yeah, I noticed that too. I know the insurance industry had a hand in the creation of Obamacare.

I admit, I have not read the ‘law’. No, I haven’t got through even 10 pages of it’s 4000 or so. I don’t know exactly everything it says. I only know about a few of the things it’s supposed to do. But I’m pretty sure the big insurance companies didn’t allow Obama or anyone else to cut their throats. To REALLY do them any damage.

MONEY runs this country and there’s no way this situation is any different than any other in the last 100 years. Big money has protected itself at the expense of the rest of us. Let’s wait and see? Or lets get rid of it before it hammers the final nail into our coffin?

I’m pretty sure the insurance companies are going to benefit from Obamacare. WE, (regular people) are the only ones who are really going to be hurt by it. Regardless of the hope that Obamacare will help the little guy, I can pretty much guarantee that the little guy is the only one that is going to get hurt by it.

If it doesn’t hurt you by turning your hospital into a depressingly substandard VA experience, or turning a visit to your doctor into a visit to the DMV (remember the last time you renewed your drivers license). It will for SURE hurt you when it becomes the final straw that breaks our financial system!

Then we’ll all be in the same sinking boat together. Of course the fat cats that created this mess will probably escape. You DID notice that they all exempted themselves from Obamacare, right? Unless you’re a much better prepper than I am, the rest of us are just going to get screwed. 🙁

The worst part of this whole scenario is what they mention towards the end of the article. The people who work in the insurance industry are not the only ones fearfully staying silent. The writer mentions remembering East Germany and the pervasive atmosphere of FEAR.

I can already see signs of it here. I have felt it myself. It’s all I can do to keep my mouth shut at the airport. I have to do it for fear of being hauled off to be ‘indefinitely detained’ and lose my RIGHT to travel forever.

All for simply wanting to exercise my RIGHT to travel FREELY and my RIGHT to speak freely about the loss of that right too!

I have talked to dozens of people since 9/11. Almost all of them are willing to justify our huge loss of liberty in some sadly delusional trade for safety. Apparently, most of them have fallen for the security theater in our airports and truly believe it is really doing something other than stripping them of their freedoms along with their dignity.

I can’t imagine what it must feel like to live like that. To choose to give up your freedom for ANYTHING, much less an impossibility like total safety. It’s really sad. 🙁

No, it’s not (JUST) Obamacare, that’s bothering me, that’s wrong here. It’s the entire system! The basic reasons for the founding of this country are being lost little by little. People just don’t care any more. Either they want ‘free stuff’ like the health care that Obamacare (falsely) promises. Or they are living in such FEAR that they are willing to not only give up THEIR right to live freely, but giving away MY rights too. 🙁

Where Does Facebook Stop and the NSA Begin?

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Where Does Facebook Stop and the NSA Begin? | Mother Jones.

Here’s another article re: the NSA. It goes right along with the one I posted yesterday (and my related rant about it). In case anyone did not realize it, it’s not only the NSA that is spying on us. As this article points out, pretty much EVERYONE is spying on us.

Facebook is just one corporation that is in cahoots with the federal government to suck up our personal information and use it (against us) for their benefit. Apparently Facebook has some kind of deal with the feds to just hand it right on over, no warrant required.

I really don’t like the fact that my information, that I am just hoping certain people to see will be collected by some giant corporation and then sold to the feds. This way the government can get around the constitution (not really- but they hope we’ll fall for it) and steal all our information without going through the bother of obeying the LAW (the constitution) and having something specific enough to look for that they can ask for and get a warrant!

Yeah, I know that when I post to Facebook everybody in the world can look at it if they want. I’m hoping that people that I know, or people with similar interests will stop by my page and join in the conversation. I’m NOT really trying to send it directly to some government goon with nothing better to do than spend his entire career illegally spying on people!

You question my calling it “illegal spying”? I call it that because they do NOT have any probable cause to look at anything I do! They do not have any warrant! ANY time the government looks at ANYTHING to do with you without probable cause and a warrant IS illegal under the constitutions 4th and 5th amendments (and others)!

I just can NOT understand why more people aren’t up in arms over this. People really don’t give a damn about the daily violations and constant erosion of their freedom. WHY? Can anybody explain this total apathy? Have Americans been THAT brainwashed, THAT terrified by their government as to allow anything and everything that same government wants to do as long as they say it’s ‘for our own good’? 🙁

Yeah, I guess Facebook might be classified as a ‘public’ space, but who says the government can sneak up and eavesdrop on a conversation you’re having among friends in the park??

It’s really the same thing.

ALL human beings have a RIGHT to privacy! It’s a basic necessity for any civilized society.

The US government was formed ONLY to PROTECT those rights we already had just because we are human beings! WHEN are people going to realize that the government is NOT doing ANY of this stuff for our own good but only for THEIR own good?

WTF is it going to take to get people to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?????

The NSA Review Panel Is An Even Bigger Joke Than We Previously Thought

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The NSA Review Panel Is An Even Bigger Joke Than We Previously Thought | TechCrunch.

Surprise, surprise, surprise… NOT! Did anyone really think they would do the right thing? Anybody seriously think they would stop their illegal, unconstitutional activities? Anybody actually think they would give up their chance to spy on everything and everybody in the entire world???

Just because they got caught? REALLY???

Anybody who really thought they might, just might do the right thing just because they got caught with their pants down has no inkling of how ‘our’ government really works these days.

We had just better face it, until and unless WE put a stop to this crap, they are just going to find another way to get what they want. What they want is total control over you, me, EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY in the USA (and the world if they can find a way)!

They’re well on their way to accomplishing this sick goal of theirs. They got the PATRIOT Act passed which violated every amendment of the constitution but the one about quartering troops in your home. Then they keep trying to scare the crap out of everyone so they can keep it up. Constant threats we need them to violate our freedoms to protect us from, yeah riiiiiighhhht.

Obamacare is their latest scam and a pretty good jump in their capabilities. After all, if you control someones health, their physical body, then you do pretty much control them. Is somebody going to argue against that?

I’d like to hear those arguments if anyone has one. I know there must be some supporters of this stuff out there. Unbelievable! 🙁 But polls show the majority of Americans support this stuff (illegal spying), http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/05/poll-public-supports-nsa-spying-on-their-email-neighbors-and-foreign-leaders/.

WTF has happened to America? We USED to be the most free country that ever existed and now we have flushed our freedom in the toilet. For WHAT?????

WTF are you so AFRAID of??? WHY do you let them manipulate you like this? You let them take away our hard earned freedom because of FEAR??? Or is it because of apathy? Or you’re too busy to bother? WHY are you allowing this to happen?

I would REALLY like to know. I just don’t get it.

Dilbert vs NSA

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Obama vs Nixon…

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Hard to believe he still hasn’t been charged with anything, he’s done a hell of a lot more to hurt this country then Nixon ever even thought of. He swore an oath to uphold the Constitution (or he SHOULD have) and he has done nothing since he’s been in office but work to destroy it. 🙁

He should have been MORE than impeached over this illegal spying. Don’t even try to tell me he didn’t know about it. He knew. Therefore he was complicit. As the leader of the Executive Branch, he was ultimately responsible. Since he was a ‘constitutional law professor’, he KNEW every bit of every one of those programs was unconstitutional (and so illegal) and it was HIS duty to destroy ALL of them! Period!!

Instead, he chose to destroy the constitution. He should be drug out of the White House on his ass, tarred and feathered and then thrown in a (regular) prison for the rest of his life! And yes, Bush should have had the same treatment for Iraq and the PATRIOT ACT. (But Obama has done NOTHING to get rid of that horrible ‘law’, and our people are STILL in Iraq and Obama could have brought ALL of them home years ago!)

I can’t think of ANY other reason he’s still in office and has evaded the trouble that even Clinton had except that Obama is ‘black’. Yeah, I know, I’m going to be accused of racism. Well, accuse away…

I know I’m not a racist and that anyone who brings that up is only doing it because they have nothing else to say. They have NO rational argument to make, so they start calling names. All those high hopes for our first black president from so many people. Obama has sure given the shaft to the next few dozen blacks who might want to run. It’ll take a LONG time to get rid of his ‘legacy’. I only hope this country can survive the rest of his term. 🙁

I am SO sad to see what has become of my once great country. ALL of our presidents for the last few decades (at least) have been working overtime to destroy that history but Obama is the one in there now and he needs to GO before he’s allowed to do any more damage!

Dianne Feinstein And The NSA Versus James Madison

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Dianne Feinstein And The NSA Versus James Madison : Personal Liberty™.

This woman has NO idea of what the Constitution says or means. She is just an ignorant, power hungry THUG that happens to wear dresses. She is one sick evil bitch and I’ll call her that to her face.

I can NOT understand why the people of California ever elected her, much less allowed her to continue her RAPE of the Californian people and their state for all these years. Anybody from California out there with some sort of explanation?

Is it just that you Californians all are screwed by the system just like the rest of us are in the national elections? Where the media refuses to do its job and inform us of ALL the candidates and instead only allows us to know about its favorites?

The ones representing the 2 favored (really only ONE) parties who have been vetted by the owners of those media outlets? The ones who pass the tests of being…

1. members of the same elite club,

2. willing to follow orders from the leaders of those same elite clubs,

3. NOT willing to do what’s best for the country and follow their oath to protect our rights and uphold the Constitution!

It’s hard to believe there was NO one on the ballot who wasn’t a better choice. Was there NOBODY else running against her? NO ONE ELSE was ever on the ballot against her? Not once in all those years??? Cause ANYBODY would be better than her, I mean REALLY!

“Privacy” Held Hostage By “Security” – Public Unimpressed

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“Privacy” Held Hostage By “Security” – Public Unimpressed | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Another great article from Laissez-Faire. This one on the supposed conflict between privacy and security. I agree completely with Mr Leahy, the real issue is between control and liberty. I don’t know about you, but I will side with liberty EVERY time on EVERY issue!

“Coupon Constitution” Threatens Fundamental Freedom

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“Coupon Constitution” Threatens Fundamental Freedom by Bob Barr.

I couldn’t have said it better. Everything he says is the truth. It’s so sad what we have allowed to happen, what we have done to ourselves. It wasn’t Al-Qaeda that destroyed America, it was US!

Through our FEAR, we allowed everything America stood for to be shot down along with our enemies. We allowed the government to run rampant, in complete contrast to our founders intentions of an extremely LIMITED government with only a few areas of authority.

I hope one day the American people will come to their senses and take back our country before its too late. 

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

NSA’s Secret War Against Online Privacy Seekers

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NSA’s Secret War Against Online Privacy Seekers.

Another interesting email from Global Wealth Protection this morning. I can’t say good, cause its NOT good. Its terrible! Its horrible that “our leaders” think of us as their “adversaries” now instead of their bosses (which we ARE)!!

It’s going to take a lot of effort on our part to have any sort of privacy now. I hope you take it into serious consideration. I’m not sure its worth it for me. I put a lot of my business right out in public (been posting on facebook for a while) and if they want to come and get me, they already know exactly where I am and what I’m doing. I’m a little surprised they haven’t come at me yet 😉

It still seriously bothers me that they’re doing this. Privacy is a basic human right (and NEED). We can not live together (peacefully) in society without it. The government has NO need! In fact, THEY are supposed to be open with what they’re doing. They’ve somehow managed to turn the tables and they hide everything they do and spy on everything we do.

They have absolutely NO authority (no matter what the hell they may try to scam you with)!! They are acting illegally and unconstitutionally and against every principle of a civilized society!

This kind of information gathering is about nothing but POWER and CONTROL (OF US). It has NEVER in the history of the world been used FOR the people, but ALWAYS against them! You give these power hungry psychopaths who fight tooth and nail to “get elected” to be “our rulers” this kind of power (“knowledge is power”) and you WILL regret it.

As they say in the article

“Make no mistake, this is the eye of Sauron. It is the empowerment of arrogance and power… and ultimately of death. You might think me dramatic but history doesn’t lie: Surveillance kills.”

Organizations, Activists Lining Up To Sue Against NSA Surveillance

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Organizations, Activists Lining Up To Sue Against NSA Surveillance : PersonalLiberty™.

I’m thrilled to see this lawsuit moving forward. In the case of First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles vs NSA, the court will be considering if it will allow the illegal, unconstitutional spy programs of the NSA (and other) goons to continue.

I would LOVE to see the courts throw this out and tell the NSA to shut its doors forever. I’m happy to see so many groups join in with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the National Lawyers Guild, Patient Privacy Rights, and many others to fight for our rights. I wish them complete success.

I have to say I have my doubts anything will really change even IF they manage to win a total victory in court. The people who work for these agencies have been brainwashed to believe that by trampling on our constitutional rights they will somehow save the country. Instead they destroy it with their police state tactics. 🙁

We’re All Edward Snowden Now

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We’re All Edward Snowden Now | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Another good post from the Laissez-Faire Bookstore… Yes, I agree, we are all in the position of having to make a choice. Make a stand. How much are we going to put up with? How many wrongs are we willing to just stand by and allow them to perpetrate in our names???

You can no longer deny that ‘our’ government is acting illegally thanks to Edward Snowden. THANK YOU EDWARD SNOWDEN! They have absolutely NO reason, NO authority, NO permission, NO consent to violate our rights and spy on us! They never did, they do NOT NOW!

They are spying on everybody here in the USA and around the world. NOTHING they could find would ever be able to justify this kind of thing, NOTHING! IF they had some kind of reasonable cause, they could always go and get a warrant. Since they don’t do that, obviously they do NOT have any kind of cause.

This needs to STOP NOW!

Members of Congress denied access to basic information about NSA | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | theguardian.com

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Members of Congress denied access to basic information about NSA | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | theguardian.com.

Plain and simple, “our” government has been telling us nothing but LIES about this security stuff since the very beginning. There is NO legitimate purpose to any of this and they know that. They are illegally spying on you, me, EVERYONE in the USA and around the world! They are collecting and storing the data on every phone call, email, website you look at, financial transaction, everything you buy, where you go, EVEN YOUR DNA NOW!! WHY????? Does anyone really think they will NOT use this against us one day? When EVERY single time in the history of the world when a government had the means to abuse their power, they DID! Believe me, I’ve read enough history to know that ‘our’ government is no different. It may have been once, but those days are long gone.

It looks like there are 1-2 Congressmen who actually take seriously their oath to uphold the Constitution. Here’s to ya GOP Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia and Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida! Why aren’t the other 433 members of Congress also clamoring for this illegal, unconstitutional domestic spying to STOP??!!? Are there only 2 who are doing their JOB??

‘Black budget’ summary details U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives – The Washington Post

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‘Black budget’ summary details U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives – The Washington Post.

Unbelievable how much money we spend on ‘intelligence’ (spying). The Washington Post is reporting it’s 52.6 BILLION dollars!!!!! Since Edward Snowden did us all a favor and finally got someone to pay attention to this story of the illegal, unconstitutional spying on EVERYTHING we’ve ever done, now we know and it seems that most of that money is spent spying on US. YOU and ME! I have been keeping my eyes open for years and so I already knew about a lot of what he said. Things like CARNIVORE, TIPS(?), FACTA and others. I have been telling people about it for years and people seem to think there’s something wrong with me for being concerned about the loss of privacy (and so liberty). The constant comment is: “if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about”, yeah, riiiiigggghhtt…

First of all, privacy is a natural HUMAN RIGHT! It is necessary if people are going to live together in a peaceful society. It is a basic component of freedom! The concern about being spied on constantly has NOTHING to do with if someone is doing something “wrong” or not! On that issue, who the hell is deciding what is right and wrong any more? “Our” government????? Yeah, riiiiigghhttt… those same ones that can’t exist without stealing every dollar they spend from the people who actually produce it? Those same ones who do everything they do through FORCE and force ONLY, they do not convince, they do not persuade, they FORCE. Those are the ones we think should be deciding right and wrong????? Well, I do NOT give up my RIGHT to decide how to live my life to anyone else. They do NOT have the authority to decide right and wrong and they do NOT have the right to spy on me or anybody else. They do NOT have the right to pass “laws” that go against the constitution (which promises to PROTECT those rights we already had), and so I expect that out of those 52.6 BILLION dollars they are spending (stealing from productive society), they could eliminate about 99% of it and we would all be just fine. Probably a hell of a lot better off since all that spying is just pissing off everybody around the world!

Thanks to the Washington Post for reporting on this, I hope it gets some good play.

Libertarian Party calls for restoring the Fourth Amendment | Libertarian Party

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Libertarian Party calls for restoring the Fourth Amendment | Libertarian Party.

I vote Libertarian whenever I can. I figure if they are willing to run for office with that label that puts them at such a disadvantage from the start, they must REALLY believe in the principles of liberty. I haven’t seen any candidate from any other party worth voting for in decades. I will vote for freedom and individual liberty on every issue every time and I refuse to support anyone who will take away my freedom. We have already given up WAY too much of our freedoms. Just in my lifetime, we have lost SO much of it. I will never allow FEAR to dictate my choices, my life. I can’t stand it that the people of this country seem to be willing to give everything up for the false feeling of safety and security they get from listening to the government. Its like we’ve morphed from the ‘land of the free and home of the brave’ to the place full of whiny little irresponsible babies who want to be ‘taken care of’ from birth to death. I just wonder what ever gave people the idea that anything like that could even be possible, much less achievable?