Can there be any greater outrage? -- and other lines of defense

Fellow citizens, can there be any greater outrage than the Bushite government's plan to abolish the Bill of Rights through the use of the terror card?

When the Constitutional Convention of 1787 presented the proposed Constitution to the people of the new nation known as the United States of America, the people demanded that a Bill of Rights be added, or else the Constitution would not be ratified.

Thus we have the First Ten Amendments, the majestic Bill of Rights of the American Constitution. The Americans of 1787 intended the Bill of Rights to endure through all time, as the untouchable covenant ensuring that the people would be the masters and government the servant. They intended that the protections of the Bill of Rights would belong to all succeeding generations of Americans as their national birthright, never to be taken away or given away. For any U.S. congress or president to try to nullify anything in the American Bill of Rights is a betrayal of every reason that the public offices they hold even exist.

Yet today, the United States Congress is on the verge of re-enacting, at the request of the Bushite president, a detestable legislative act that they have the gall to call the Patriot Act, and that on its face seeks to nullify Constitutional protections that were written for the very purpose of protecting the people from the very government action that is about to take place.

Under the misnamed Patriot Act (actually one of the most unpatriotic laws ever enacted), agents of the Federal Government will claim the right to seize private papers, records, and belongings of American citizens without obtaining warrants from judges, and without having to demonstrate probable cause to suspect the commission of crimes - in direct conflict with the Fourth Amendment, and in direct contradiction to one of the very reasons the American Revolutionaries rose against the British Empire to create our nation. As if that were not bad enough, Federal agents also claim and will claim the right to compel librarians to inform the Government what books an American citizen has checked out of a library - as if we all lived in George Orwell's nightmarish Big Brother society under the control of thought police, instead of in the United States of America.

These provisions were abominable when the Patriot Act was first enacted four years ago. It would be even more abominable today to re-enact them, after so many voices in America have been raised against doing such damage to fundamental protections that were intended to protect us from tyranny for all time.

I salute the small coalition of Senators from both parties, including Democrats Feingold (Wisconsin), Salazar (Colorado) and Durbin (Illinois), and Republicans Murkowski (Alaska), Craig (Idaho) and Sununu (New Hampshire), who are fighting to block these police-state measures. Their battle is an uphill one, as majorities from both parties appear to support these eviscerations of our liberties, with most Senate Republicans displaying their usual blind lemming obedience to their White House master, and most Senate Democrats once again running like scared rabbits from a Bushite play of the terrorism card. The opposition Senators need all the support we can give them. Nevertheless these atrocious measures may get re-enacted; but if they do, there are other lines of defense against them that do not depend upon the votes of Senators.

After the voters of Texas choose me to serve them as Attorney General in next November's elections, before I take office I will swear an oath to the Constitutions of the United States and Texas. In obedience to that oath, my highest duty will be to honor and protect the fundamental birthright of the people of Texas to their Constitutional protections. No government agent has the Constitutional authority to seize your private possessions without a warrant or probable cause, no government agent has the Constitutional authority to pass judgment on what books you choose to read in a public library, and no pack of scaredy-cat politicians has the Constitutional authority to give any government agent such powers.

Let there be no doubt about this - as Texas Attorney General, chief legal advisor to the other officers of State Government, and the people's lawyer, I will apply every effort and resource of my office to defending the Constitutional rights of the people of Texas against these or similar provisions of the so-called Patriot Act or any other such legislation, no matter how many gutless politicians of no matter what political party enact them or seek to apply them. I hope 49 other state attorneys general will do the same.

David Van Os
Democratic Candidate
For Texas Attorney General 2006
www.vanosfortexasag.com

But I left Texas 12 years ago.

Go git 'em Cowboy.

The DoD visits my computer every day and I am sick and tired of it!

I thought you knew that :shrug:

seriously though, this was a great piece!!!!

:applause:

I'm *SO* voting for you!

You can count on my vote.:thumbsup:

;)

We need to revolve, like the earth revolves around the sun. We need to return to the place we were - a place where democracy, justice, and reason were revered and tyranny scorned. That which was earned through the struggle of generations can be wiped from the earth by just a couple of generations of devious salesmen and lazy citizens.

I met him a few years ago at a function at Threadgill's in Austin, which featured Jim Hightower.

David Van Os showed up Jim Hightower on the stump. And I don't mean that badly for Jim.

For those of you non-Texans reading this, DVO is the real deal. Yes, I serve on his steering committee and blog for him, so I'm biased. He is a true progressive populist in the vein of Harry Truman.

http://vanosfortexasag.com

If I lived in Texas, you'd certainly get my vote.

Nominated.