The 2008 Presidential Election Handbook and Commentary: The Connection to Hope

The 2008 Presidential Election Handbook and Commentary: The Connection to Hope evolved from a 2004 experience at a Las Vegas Public Library at the first covert application of the USA PATRIOT Act to the Las Vegas Library District. The 107th Congress failed the American people in 2001 when it passed the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act) in the dead of night, without reading or debating it. Their lack of due diligence has nullified our fourth amendment rights and caused the American people great anguish. Every elected public official swears to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. Did they? Even more telling, the citizens of this great land have not arisen to correct this injustice.

Shall the USA PATRIOT Act continue without a formidable challenge to its right to exist by the citizens of this country? Without such a challenge, "we the people" will have failed in our responsibility to self-govern.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”— Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America

A McClatchy piece by William Douglas reports, "Opponents of the USA Patriot Act say that a congressional move to consider temporarily extending three key provisions that are due to expire at year's end opens the door to try to alter or eliminate some of the national security strategies implemented by former President George W. Bush and embraced by President Barack Obama..."

Congress has met the USA PATRIOT Act at the crossroads of change several times before, but has not altered or eliminated any section that would restore our fourth amendment rights. We have given them eight years to correct a mistake which many of them acknowledge making. True-blue Americans are all for stopping terrorism, but we are not for minimizing our Bill of Rights. Benjamin Franklin, a great American who worked on a committee of five to draft the Declaration of Independence and signed our Constitution, once said, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

So let the eradication of terrorism be done within the parameters of the Constitution of the United States of America and previous existing laws. (see http://www.mcclatchydc.com for the complete story by William Douglas).

Read Chapter 5 of The 2008 Presidential Election Handbook and Commentary: The Connection to Hope for more information and to become active in this cause. Available at www.healthylivingusa.com/theconnectiontohope and amazon.com or pick it up at your local bookstore.