Not Laughing with You

    Soon, it will be Maine's turn to weigh in on the presidential horse race.  There are several candidates in the field promising change and many more who would just assume stay the course.  One thing is clear: we cannot continue to live beyond our means, going $2 billion deeper into debt to China and Saudi Arabia every day, printing more money than we can account for, and passing all of our problems on to the next generation.
    Who can be trusted to lead the nation in this era of unknown dangers and economic uncertainty?  We all want a strong defense, economic prosperity, and to live by the values we choose.  But who is speaking for the heart of America?  And who will put her back on course?
    We deserve a president with the humility to admit that our government has grown too powerful.  Ron Paul would be a true president of the people.  He is a Christian, a veteran, and a strong family man.  As a doctor, thousands of women have trusted him with the care of their newborn child.  Americans can trust Dr. Paul to deliver real change to our broken health care system and put medical decisions back in our hands. 
    Our soldiers and veterans prefer Ron Paul because he will bring a responsible end to the war in Iraq and restore honor to our presidency.  After all, they fight for our freedoms and to defend the Constitution. 
    After 10 terms, Congressman Paul has had to break with his party many times and the lobbyists don't even stop by his office anymore.  He is our nation's leading advocate for freedom- boldly defending civil liberties and property rights wherever the rule of men threatens to replace the rule of law.
    If you agree that our republic has drifted far from its beginnings and that we must recapture her strength in the spirit of liberty and justice for all, please register Republican by January 17th and caucus for Ron Paul.  America's future rests in our hands.

Today on The FOX Morning News, Ray & Ted spoke with Judge Andrew Napolitano, FOX News Senior Judicial Analyst and author of "A Nation of Sheep".  The good judge took the Bush administration to task for suspending habeas corpus, which protects everyone under the dominion of the United States government from being jailed indefinitely without being charged of a crime or being given an opportunity to defend oneself.  Those identified loosely as "enemy combatants" are routinely treated, not as criminals, but as chattel.  It is simply unconscionable that any human being could be jailed without explanation and without due process.  Many of these individuals were taken prisoner in Afghanistan, locked up in Guantanamo until they could be hidden away in CIA secret prisons or delivered to US-allied governments known to practice torture.  Where did we learn this kind of "counter-resistance"?  Why the Soviet Union, of course.  We looked at the worst our former enemy did, and copied it.  But this is just one recent stunt by the long arm of American lawlessness. 

In his book, Napolitano cites myriad ways, both visible and invisible, in which our own government works against the American people by denying us our natural-born rights and rescinding our precious liberty.  Why does any of this matter?  We must never forget that the United States of America is an historical anomaly.  Never before had a nation been consciously formed on the principle of rights.  Ours was the first system of laws devised in such a way that all authority was severely limited, by design, and the government is expected to bow down to the people- never the other way around. 

If current trends continue, America will no longer be the envy of the world, that shining city on a hill, giving hope and promise to generations of poor, oppressed people who struggle daily for a chance, just a chance at freedom.  We will be just like every other place in history, where men are ultimately enslaved by the force of collective want.  Remember, there is no difference between tyranny and anarchy.  In either case, the individual has no rights.  It matters not whether his rights are usurped by the aggression of brutes or of tyrants.  Our freedom is guaranteed to us by the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.  The US Constitution does not distinguish between citizens and non, those who wish us well and those who wish us ill.  So even when times are bad, even when we get really desperate, in dealing with a properly-defined government, the rights of the people may not be revoked.  War is not a blank check on our liberty and it is now well past the time when reasonable people should be afraid, not of terrorists, but of a government so clearly willing to exploit the fears of its citizens for the most trivial partisan gains.

I thank Judge Napolitano for speaking so eloquently, so forcefully, and so often on the subject of rights and clearly identifying threats to our American understanding of human dignity and self-ownership.  He'll make one hell of an Attorney General when Ron Paul is President.