Showing posts with label Department of Homeland Security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Department of Homeland Security. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Guns, Terrorism, and Immigration: Reaction to the News of December 8th, 2015

Written on December 8th, 2015
Edited on December 12th, 2015



To those who say that a law from the 1950s rightfully bans Muslims from entering the country because Muslims’ loyalty to their religion trumps their loyalty to America: Christians’ loyalty to their religion does the same thing. In 2014, Oregon Republican congressional candidate James Buchal told an audience “we have no king but Jesus.” Also, only one of the two San Bernardino shooters was born outside of the United States, and there have been reports that there were three white male shooters, instead of the two people we’re being told committed the mass shooting.
To those who say we should stop people on the no-fly list and/or the terror watch list from getting guns: seventy-two Department o Homeland Security employees were on the terror watch list as of August 2015, and the no-fly list has included a two-year-old, an eight-year-old with a name similar to a suspected terrorist, now deceased Senator Ted Kennedy, former judge Andrew Napolitano, and current U.S. Representative Don Young. Also, the Fifth Amendment says nobody may be deprived of property (including guns, and the right to get them) without due process of law. Also, the San Bernardino shooters did not fly from their home to the site of the shooting, nor were they on the no-fly list.
To those who say the Second Amendment only gives us the right to own muskets, and that it was written before machine guns, and only gives the right to bear arms to well-regulated militias: the Second Amendment does not give rights, it preserves already existing rights; every male between 18 and 45 were legally defined as “the militia” under the U.S. Code, also the National Guard (today’s official “regulated” “militia”) didn’t exist until the early 1900s; and the first machine guns existed at least 70 years before the Second Amendment was written, so the framers knew about such advanced weapons.
To those who criticize Donald Trump for his statements commending FDR’s proclamations bringing about the detention of 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II: I’m glad you’ve finally decided to admit that FDR wasn’t all he’s cracked up to be. Maybe now, you’d like to criticize him for cheating the American public out of 28% of the value of the gold that his government stole from them, as well as for confiscating and destroying food produced on private property simply because it would have been unfair if the producers had decided to sell it. And maybe those FDR supporters with German and Italian ancestry should admit that if FDR had been consistent about interning people who supposedly had ancestral or genetic loyalty to the Axis Powers, your grandparents would have been born in internment camps.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Identification and Travel Documents

The following was written in April 2014, as part of a response to the Campaign for Liberty's 2012 survey questionnaire for candidates running for federal office.



16. Will you oppose any legislation that requires states and citizens to participate in a National Identification Card program?

     Yes, I will oppose any legislation that requires states and citizens to participate in a National Identification Card program.
     I will vote to repeal the portion of the REAL ID Act of 2005 which established and implemented regulations for the security standards of driver's licenses and identification documents.
     I do not believe that anyone who is born in the United States or becomes a citizen should be required or expected to carry identification or travel documents on them at all times. I will not vote to support any proposed federal laws – nor urge states to adopt laws - that requires businesses to scan individuals' driver's licenses when checking their age to confirm alcohol and tobacco purchases, nor will I support laws providing for requiring travel or identification documents to contain either bar codes, computer chips, or tracking devices. If holograms and embedded ink are good enough for our money, they should be good enough for our identification documents.
     I believe that Americans would be appalled if they discovered that Native Americans are required to carry blood quantum cards due to federal law (the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934). Although tribes accepted this requirement 80 years ago, and the law allows them autonomy over determining quantum laws so as to limit benefits for descendants of Native Americans with low blood quantum, there is no reason that anyone born in the United States should be expected to carry such a document. It is the relic of a regrettable, racist era in American history, and it was not voluntary because it was one of few choices offered to a conquered and besieged people.
     I will oppose federal legislation requiring employers to participate in the e-Verify program - under the Department of Homeland Security's Basic Pilot Program – because such legislation only serves to turn businesses into police departments.
     Additionally, I will oppose federal legislation to require presentation of proof of residency and identification documents in order to vote; these effectively amount to Reconstruction-era poll taxes. I will sponsor federal legislation to abolish such legislation enacted by the states as serious civil rights violations which diminish the freedom of not only members of racial and ethnic minorities but poor and homeless people of all races.
     I believe that any and all federal mandates to purchase and/or carry identification and travel documents should only follow appropriate constitutional amendment (although in that case I will vote against my own amendment) or else invoke a financial obligation on the part of the party making the command, i.e., the pockets of members of Congress themselves.




For more entries on homeland security and terrorism, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/03/911-heres-what-i-think-happened.html
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/wiretaps-searches-and-patriot-act.html

For more entries on the interior and tribal relations please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/personal-and-political-connotations-of.html

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