Libertarian Senate candidate slams Patriot Act
RALEIGH (Sept. 22) -- Democrats and Republicans in Congress are
advancing a movement against the U.S. Constitution, violating citizen's
rights and subjecting people abroad to illegitimately initiated military
force, accused Tom Bailey, Libertarian candidate for U..S. Senate.
"The real question on the table in this election is: do we want to stay
with the Constitution, or do we not," said Bailey in a talk to the
Research Triangle Park Rotary Club recently.
Bailey said Congress "ducked the responsibility" of upholding
governmental checks and balances on the executive branch when they
authorized President Bush to use military force as he saw fit in a
resolution passed shortly after the September 11 attacks.
"Only the representatives of the people themselves should have the
power to commit this people to war," he said. "Our founders knew they
didn't want one guy to be the one to make that decision and yet that's
exactly what our Congress did."
The USA Patriot Act, a bill passed by Congress intended to protect
against terror threats, has given the Federal government powers of
previously unprecedented proportions including the secret confiscation of
private property and information without a legally-issued warrant, Bailey
said.
"It's not about library books," he said. "It's about your financial
records in the banks, it's about making your doctor give them every bit of
medical information about you that they want, and not telling you that
they were even asked about it."
Bailey said he opposed any continuation of the Patriot Act or
abridgements of constitutionally guaranteed rights in pursuit of national
security.
"The United States Constitution was written in the wake of war," he
said. "It was designed for exactly this kind of crisis."
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