Payson Roundup

Editior:

When Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano reported that millions of patriotic Constitution-loving Americans were on her suspect and surveillance list talk radio treated it like a spying storm.

They screeched like magpies for a day or so and then let it go. Why? Not since Stalinist Russia or Faeist Germany have we seen such evidence of an open move toward a police state. If your free speech bothers her, you’re on her list. If you own a gun, you’re on her list. If your political and religious veins differ from hers, you’re on her list. Your designation potential right wing extremist. Her words. Your rights under the Constitution therefore no longer exist.

By what authority has she acquired such power? Better read the national I.D. Act and the misnamed Patriot Act again. They were given to us (by) with the help of many so-called conservatives and most of talk radio.

How many of the people on her list were already being surveilled by Chernoff and the Bush administration for the same reasons? Laws sold as a way to stop foreign terrorist are now being turned against the American people. The national I.D. Act established a massive, centrally coordinated database of highly personal information that is shared with Mexico and Canada and is accessed through your drivers license.

The RFID (radio frequency I.D.) chip embedded in the license ensures your movements are tracked 24/7. It redefines terrorism in broad terms that include members of firearms rights and anti-abortion grasps, or any other such groups is determined by whoever is in power at the time!

Retired Federal Judge Andrew Napolitano (no relation to Janet) in his book “The Constitution in Exile” states the Patriot Act and its progency are the most unconsitutional assaults by government on personal freedom since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.

In effect, the government says “give us your freedom and we will protect you. The Fourth Amendment clearly prohibits search warrants from any authority other than a judge. However the Patriot Act allows federal authorities to write their own search warrants giving them access to all your records and transactions.

In a shortsighted response to the 9/11 terrorist attack the right helped give our government a piece of legislation which Judge Napolitano warns has destroyed our Fourth Amendment right to privacy and the First Amendment right to free speech. Comrade Secretary Napolitano has inherited Gestapo-like powers. No wonder talk radio is silent. It was their baby.

Brian Ottmer