====== FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ======
America First Party
1630 A 30th Street #111
Boulder, Colorado 80301
http://www.AmericaFirstParty.org
Monday, 25 November 2002
HOMELAND SECURITY BILL: BAD NAME, BAD BILL
Boulder, CO - The America First Party denounces in the strongest possible
terms the so-called Homeland Security Bill that President Bush signed into
law today. National Chairman Dan Charles stated, "The House and Senate
should never have passed this bill, and the President should not have signed
it. Members of Congress and the President take an oath of office to protect
and defend the Constitution. The misnamed Homeland Security Bill does
little to protect and defend our nation from the terrorist threat. It will
do more to destroy our freedoms than terrorists ever could."
Mr. Charles continued, "By turning this bill into law, our elected leaders
have not shown any true concern for the safety of the American people. They
have not shown concern for their oaths of office. Instead, they have shown
nothing more than their impulse for craven political posturing and contempt
for the American people and the Constitution. The Bill of Rights cannot be
ignored under the guise of defending citizens from terrorism."
The Party has deep concerns about this bill. By decimating the wall between
intelligence services and domestic law enforcement, combined with the
ability to turn the Total Information Awareness program on the American
people with the flip of a switch, this bill turns every citizen into a
suspect. By allowing the President to force immunizations upon every
citizen, it harbingers the day when our government will decree either death
or Gulf War Syndrome upon millions of citizens. And by including special
interest riders, it strips both favored corporations and our own government
of any accountability for their actions.
Mr. Charles continued, "This is a sad day. Republicans and Democrats have
compromised away our basic freedoms with the false promise of security.
Such measures were ineffective in Britainšs war against the IRA, why should
we expect them to be any more effective against Al-Qaeda? This law creates
a huge and unaccountable bureaucracy that will likely get all the funding it
can waste over the next several years. But it fails to do the most basic
thing that needs to be done. It fails to secure our borders. It fails to
fundamentally reform our border control apparatus and immigration policies.
It even fails to give the enforcement agencies the tools they need to
enforce our current laws and stop our enemies from illegally entering or
staying in our country."
Echoing the principles of the America First Party and the sentiments
expressed by more than 90% of the American people in recent polls, America
First National Committeeman Philip White of Michigan said, "You don't need
to read my e-mails or track my bank transactions or listen to my phone
conversations or create new bureaucracies to spy on me. Instead defend our
borders."
Contacts:
Dan Charles, National Chairman, 1-866-SOS-USA1, ext. 4
Romelle Winters, Press Secretary, 1-866-SOS-USA1, ext. 2
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