Ron Paul Schools Dems; Stands Up Against Terror Hysteria

Behind the Ron Paul sensation is a desperate desire for someone, anyone, to stand up and call "bullshit" on the "War on Terror" and all that it has entailed, from illegal surveillance of citizens and nightmarish foreign adventures to an executive branch mad with power and drunk on its sense of entitlement.

Last week Paul, whose opposition to much of the 20th century makes him terrible on just about every issue which touches the political economy and whose Birchian isolationism leas him to embrace conspiracy theories about shady cabals of globalists undermining American sovereignty and sapping our precious bodily fluids (not to mention his little white supremacy problem), simply schooled Democrats on how to roll back the disasters of the Bush era introducing the "American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007."

Some highlights of the act [HT: Steven D at Booman Trib]:

(a) Findings- Congress makes the following findings:

(1) Unchecked power by any branch leads to oppressive transgressions on individual freedoms and ill-considered government policies.

(2) The Founding Fathers enshrined checks and balances in the Constitution to protect against government abuses to derail ill-conceived domestic or foreign endeavors.

(3) Checks and balances make the Nation safer by preventing abuses that would be exploited by Al Qaeda to boost terrorist recruitment, would deter foreign governments from cooperating in defeating international terrorism, and would make the American people reluctant to support aggressive counter-terrorism measures.

(4) Checks and balances have withered since 9/11 and an alarming concentration of power has been accumulated in the presidency based on hyper-inflated fears of international terrorism and a desire permanently to alter the equilibrium of power between the three branches of government.

(5) The unprecedented constitutional powers claimed by the President since 9/11 subtracted national security and have been asserted for non-national security purposes.

(6) Experience demonstrates that global terrorism can be thwarted, deterred, and punished through muscular application of law enforcement measures and prosecutions in Federal civilian courts in lieu of military commissions or military law.