Ron Paul – The Revolution: A Manifesto – Page 106 through Page 112

Page 106: Some economists make the case that if the courts had continued to persecute polluters under the auspice of violating property rights, we’d already have technology that produces much less pollution. Campaign finance reform is a distraction from the real issue that faces the nation. As long as the government has the authority to appropriate resources from the American people and give them to special interests, it will be impossible to end lobbying and pressure from those who want a piece of the action.  

Page 107: The American people have no idea just how many special interests have lobbyists in Washington D.C.. No lobby group should be favored over any other. Instead, the whole system should be eliminated by revoking the government’s power to bestow benefts on special interests. For that to happen, a large number of freedom loving Americans would have to take a stand. Ron Paul was surprised to learn just how many freedom loving Americans were still out there. During his campaign they supported issues that promised them no special benefits, just freedom for Americans.

Quote: “I oppose the whole apparatus, the whole immoral system by which we use government to exploit our fellow citizens on behalf of our own interests.”

Page 108: Blank

Page 109: Freedom means not only that the economy ought to be free but also that the government has no right to interfere with our personal lives. The government must respect our privacy and the legal process should follow traditional legal standards. The family should be the main social agent in charge of teaching morality. The war on terror has put citizens on alert to the methods that the government uses to violate our right to privacy.

Quote: “Economic freedom and personal liberty are not divisible.”

Page 110: Americans were unaware that the federal government was listening to their telephone calls without a warrant. The New York Times knew about the story for a year but didn’t publish the facts because they supposedly didn’t want to endanger Americans by making the information public. This fact shows us that our media is not as independent as we may think. The warrantless wire-tapping program was administered by the U.S. National Security Agency. The government didn’t even bother to get warrants issued by secret courts, as required by the Foreign Intelligence Security Act of 1978 (FISA). It appears that all the government has to do is mention national security and Americans are willing to sacrifice their rights.

Quote: “It looks very much like the old story: the government says ‘national security’ and the natural and normal skepticism that our founding fathers taught us to have toward the government is promptly abandoned.”

Page 111: The executive branch wanted the program kept secret because it was against the law. The government said that they were only eavesdropping on people with terrorist connections. In light of the vast number of people that the government wire-tapped, their statement is not believable. Moreover, if the government actually knew which people had terrorist connections, why did they only seek to wiretap them? Shouldn’t they have taken even more aggressive action, like arresting them? The president eventually claimed authority for the program under the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF). However, it seems clear that congress had not intended that the act give the president that type of power.

Page 112: Bruce Fein, former deputy attorney general under Ronald Regan, said that such an interpretation of the AUMF would have also meant that the president could break into houses and torture Americans in order to obtain intelligence. It is not realistic that congress would have intended to give the president those powers. In addition, FISA deals specifically with gathering intelligence while AUMF does not. FISA should, legally, have overridden AUMF. The executive branch considered ammending FISA, but decided it would be impossible. They instead decided to take the course of claiming the powers under AUMF.