Ron Paul seems to think so.
UNCONSTITUTIONAL? RON PAUL’S LETTER IN FULL
As President, I would not hesitate to use decisive force to repel any imminent threat. National defense is a primary function of Congress and the commander-in-chief, and, as chief executive, I would carry out my duties as outlined in the Constitution and in accordance with the rule of law.
President Obama apparently believes he is not bound by the Constitution or the rule of law. When it was reported that Anwar al-Awlaki was killed by U.S. drone strikes in Yemen last week, certainly no one felt remorse for his fate. Awlaki was a detestable person we believe helped recruit and inspire others to kill Americans through terrorist acts.
We have to take the fight against terrorism very seriously. In 2001, I supported the authority to capture and kill the thugs responsible for 9/11. In our efforts we must, however, work hard to preserve and respect our great American constitutional principles.
Awlaki was a U.S. citizen. Under our Constitution, American citizens, even those living abroad, must be charged with a crime before being sentenced. As President, I would have arrested Awlaki, brought him to the U.S., tried him and pushed for the stiffest punishment allowed by law. Treason has historically been judged to be the worst of crimes, deserving of the harshest sentencing. But what I would not do as President is what Obama has done and continues to do in spectacular fashion: circumvent the rule of law.
On Feb. 3, 2010, Dennis Blair, then the country’s director of national intelligence, admitted before the House Intelligence Committee that “Being a U.S. citizen will not spare an American from getting assassinated by military or intelligence operatives.” This open admission by an Obama administration official, not even attempting to keep it classified or top secret, sets a dangerous new precedent in our history.
The precedent set by the killing of Awlaki establishes the frightening legal premise that any suspected enemy of the United States – even if they are a citizen – can be taken out on the President’s say-so alone. Part of the very concept of citizenship is the protection of due process and the rule of law. The President wants to spread American values around the world but continues to do great damage to them here at home, appointing himself judge, jury and executioner by presidential decree.
When Nazi leader and Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann was convicted and executed by the Israeli government in 1962, it was after he was captured, extradited and tried. Respect for the rule of law never has been for the protection of monsters like Eichmann or Awlaki, who should meet their just fate – but for the protection of the vast majority of innocent citizens who should never become subject to mere governmental whim.
I think so too.
Read on.
Is the pepper spraying of peaceful demonstrators unconstitutional?
Yes.
How about the unwarranted search and seizure going on at our airports?
Yup.
The even more unwarranted, racially dictated search and seizure going on in our ghettos?
Ditto.
Constant surveillance of the population on every possible level?
Of course it is.
The refusal to let us arm ourselves so that we have a chance of resisting when the PermaGov’s thugs comes to our door because of “information” gleaned from that unconstitutional surveillance?
50+ years of undeclared and thus congressionally unsupervised wars?
The theft of our services, our cultures and our very lives by a kleptocratic oligarchy that makes client killers like Hosni Mubarak and his secret police forces look like the neighborhood crank pissing on the lawns of neighbors he doesn’t like?
I have lived the above mentioned 50+ years in an ever-increasing state of alarm over the problems of this country. I have never, ever heard a national politician tell the unvarnished truth of what is going on here until Ron Paul raised enough money to make himself heard over the bread and circuses din of the media.
He may be wrong about some things, but he sure as hell is honest.
I’ll take it.
This other lying horseshit ain’t making it, that’s for sure.
AG
P.S. I smell a Kent State moment headed our way. As the Wall Street thing grows and spreads to other cities, sooner or later some badly trained, ill-tempered cop like Tony Baloney (NYPD Deputy Investigator Anthony Bologna…the fool who did the pepper spraying that tripled the crowd on Wall Street overnight.) is going to pop a cap in some white kid’s ass. It’ll have to be a white kid, because people of color in this country can very easily identify w/Osama bin Laden’s query “By what school of thought is your blood considered blood while our blood is water?” No one in power here (Or especially in the media…”Why…that looks like my son!”) will give much of shit unless it’s a white kid. Preferably middle class and college educated.
But once that happens?
Watch out!!!
Watch.
Unless the weather turns really bad in NYC very soon, this thing is going to keep growing. We oughta put a statue up to Tony Baloney. Like Crispus Attucks at Lexington, the people he sprayed on Wall Street were the casualties heard `round the world.
Watch.
P.P.S. By the way…”Deputy Inspector” is a rank higher than the Captain’s rank usually held by NYC cops who are charged with heading a precinct. This wasn’t some wet behind the ears patrolman twit fresh outta the Police Academy who ran this game; this was a boss of bosses twit.
Bet on it.
