Its Time! ..Who should be the next President?

[paulcs]

Churchill! Buchanan thinks Churchill was "mushy?" I'd say that was out of leftfield, although we all it came from the far rightfield corner.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Gurm]

The Hitler quote was definitely NOT referring to foreign leaders, but the leaders of Germany who he plowed through to gain power.

------------

How do we feel about other candidates?

Ok, here goes:

I know nothing about Harry Browne the person, or next to nothing. However, I agree almost 100% with his platform. The federal government has no business doing what it does on a daily basis. Period. End of story. I'm not sure I like the whole "competing states" idea but it's better than the current system.

Ralph Nader used to be a voice of reason, but I can't agree with half of his platform, and he's got enough of his own skeletons in the closet - turns out he's just a politician after all, too.

As for George Dubbya, well... he hasn't got the experience, ESPECIALLY in terms of policy and foreign affairs, to be president. But he has toked up, which I like. And I imagine he's not afraid to swear or drink, being from Texas.

The question now is - do I vote for the candidate I support and agree with (Browne) or do I vote merely to help keep the candidate I hate (Gore) out of office by voting for his rival (Bush)?

- Gurm

P.S. We wouldn't have to slander Gore if he weren't an evil, dishonest, criminal.

------------------
Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Pneumatic]

Why is there so much energy being devoted to a candidate that will get 0% of the vote? Why not read and study up on someone that actually has a CHANCE at winning the election. You know full well that we will never even hear the name Buchanan on election night.

[Pneumatic]

Oh! I have been wondering about the BOOMSTICK thing. I just found what it was. http://shagpro.simplenet.com/Lise/ED/boomstick.wav

[Joel]

Why is there so much energy being devoted to a candidate that will get 0% of the vote?

We should not say 0% of the votes because they will get votes.

Why? If nothing else but to show that there are people out there that are totally fed up with the way things are. And the presidential election is not the only series of elections coming up in the next few years. Also a vote for someone is a affirmation on your part that you agree with what that person stands for and that you will stand behind them in what they do.

Joel

[LAMFDTK]

Buchanan needs 5% of the vote right now this fall to keep the Reform party a recognized third party in the U.S. The Reform party is currently receiving funds from tax payers. 12.5 million (Algore and Dubya got $67.56 million each), to build this party into a major party will take 5% to keep the funds and the status and a lot of work.

There is plenty of time to get to all the canidates before the votes are cast.

As to continue the Debate on Buchanans Quote I will reseach the correct source in his books.I am not 100% on Churchill. Can you imagine Dubya writting a book? And how about this masterpiece?
[URL=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452269350/alamanceindepend/103-2168065-4983820]

"... it seems clear that the climate-induced suffering in
France from 1783 to 1789 played a major role in worsening
the political mood in which the French Revolution took
place. However, it seems just as clear that climate
changes were only one of the many causes leading to these
events." (p.61)

Get out a clean fork and eat the words of AlGore!


[This message has been edited by LAMFDTK (edited 07 October 2000).]

[Joel]

Buchanan needs 5% of the vote right now this fall to keep the Reform party a recognized third party in the U.S. The Reform party is currently receiving funds from tax payers. 12.5 million (Algore and Dubya got $67.56 million each), to build this party into a major party will take 5% to keep the funds and the status and a lot of work.

I don't know about you but I don't think any of them should be using my tax dollars. In this thread alone we have seen a misuse of 300 million dollars by our government and we are talking about put one of them back in there to misuse more.

Joel



[This message has been edited by Joel (edited 07 October 2000).]

[LAMFDTK]

Joel here is the Whitewater convictions.

WHITEWATER:

5) Webster Hubbell: Bill Clinton friend and political ally; Hillary Clinton Rose Law Firm partner: embezzlement; fraud; two felony convictions (Wall Street Journal "Whither Whitewater?" October 18, 1995)

6) Jim Guy Tucker: fraud; three felony convictions (Wall Street Journal "Second-Term Stall" February 11, 1997; Associated Press "Tucker Pleads Guilty to Cable Fraud" February 20, 1998)

7) William J. Marks Sr.: Jim Guy Tucker business partner; one conspiracy conviction (Associated Press "Whitewater Defendant Pleads Guilty" August 28, 1997)

8) Jim McDougal: Bill and Hillary Clinton friend, banker, and political ally: eighteen felony convictions (Wall Street Journal "Immunize Hale" May 29, 1996)

9) Susan McDougal: Bill and Hillary Clinton friend; former wife of Jim McDougal: four felony convictions (Wall Street Journal "Immunize Hale" May 29, 1996)

10) David Hale: Bill and Hillary Clinton friend, banker, and political ally: two felony convictions of conspiracy and mail fraud (Wall Street Journal "The Arkansas Machine Strikes Back" March 19, 1996)

11) Chris Wade: Whitewater real estate broker; two felony convictions (Wall Street Journal "Hard Evidence From a Federal Investigator" August 10, 1995)

12) Stephen Smith: former Governor Clinton aide; one conviction (Wall Street Journal "Hard Evidence From a Federal Investigator" August 10, 1995)

13) Larry Kuca: Madison real estate agent; fraudulent loans (Wall Steet Journal "Hard Evidence From a Federal Investigator" August 10, 1995)

14) Robert Palmer: Madison appraiser; one conspiracy felony conviction (Wall Street Journal "Hale Predicts Hillary Conviction" October 21, 1996)

15) Neal Ainley: Perry County Bank president; embezzled bank funds for Clinton campaign; two misdemeanor convictions (Wall Street Journal "Arkansas Bank Shot" May 4, 1995)

16) John Latham: Madison Bank CEO; bank fraud conviction (Wall Street Journal "Smoke Without Fire" January 12, 1996)

17) John Haley: attorney for Jim Guy Tucker; misdemeanor guilty plea; tax fraud (Associated Press "Tucker Pleads Guilty to Cable Fraud" February 20, 1998)

18) Eugene Fitzhugh: Whitewater defendant, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of trying to bribe David Hale; is appealing a ten month prison sentence (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "Whitewater Defendants" February 22, 1998)

19) Charles Matthews: Whitewater defendant, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of bribery, served fourteen months of a sixteen month prison sentence (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "Whitewater Defendants" February 22, 1998)

I'm sure that the situation would have panned out if the Rebubs had guts, but history has proven they were without.

[paulcs]

I assume Gore is talking about the series of famines and "bread riots" in pre-Revolutionary France.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[LAMFDTK]

I never posted Buchanans positions. here they are. We can compare them with the other 4 canidates.

In the 27 years since the Supreme Court declared that abortion is a Constitutional right, over 35 million unborn American children have been slaughtered; 1.4 million every year; 4,000 every day.
Had the United States suffered 35 million casualties in a 27-year war, pundits and politicians would be calling it the greatest tragedy in the history of mankind. But because this calamity is cast in terms of "choice", they wash their hands of the blood of these innocents.
I believe that life begins at conception, and I will use the Bully Pulpit to defend the sacred rights of the unborn to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
As a committed, no-compromise pro-life President, I will:
· Insist that my running mate be pro-life.
· Require that my nominees to the Supreme Court be pro-life.
· Educate the American people to the scientific truth that life begins at conception.
· Defund the abortion industry from Planned Parenthood to UNFPA to fetal-tissue research.
· Support an act of Congress conferring constitutional rights of personhood on unborn children.
· Push for passage of a Human Life Amendment to protect all unborn children.
Mother Teresa called abortion "a war against the child." The silent screams of these innocent unborn beckons us to battle, and we must fight on—for the sake of our children and the soul of our country.

Affirmative Action
The end of state segregation, and the onset of equal opportunity for all is one of the great achievements of my lifetime, and I honor the accomplishments of those who dedicated their lives to the principle that all men are created equal. Of all the needs of this nation, none is greater for our peace and happiness than racial reconciliation. But we do not alter the evil character of racial quotas or racial discrimination simply by changing the color of the beneficiary.
No government in this Land of the Free has the moral or constitutional right to discriminate against people because of the color of their skin, and government-sponsored prejudice—no matter how benign its purpose—belongs in the same graveyard as the late Jim Crow.
We must end the backsliding toward hyphenated-Americanism by abolishing quotas and set-asides and abandoning the futile politics of victims-and-villains. Instead of patronizing minorities by presuming that they cannot succeed without government assistance, we must work together to bridge our racial divide and rediscover what brings us all together as one nation and one people. As President, I will eliminate all forms of discrimination in federal agencies, including reverse discrimination, and push for passage of a colorblind civil rights bill that ensures equal justice for all and special privilege for none.

Agriculture
For many Americans, these are the best of times, but not everyone is marching in the great parade of American prosperity. Look past the record Wall Street profits and the healthy 401Ks, and you'll see a harvest of heartache in the heartland of America where silos store last year's crop that was packed in because prices were too low to turn a profit.
Washington may believe it inevitable that the family farm must pass away. But, as a conservative, I believe that family farms and rural towns must be conserved. So I'm offering a ten-point pact, a Bill of Rights for the Family Farm:
1. Abolish all inheritance and capital gains taxes on family farms.
2. Renegotiate NAFTA and oppose any trade deal that throws open our markets without requiring free and fair access to overseas markets.
3. End these taxpayers bailouts of foreign competitors of U.S. farmers.
4. Review all existing embargoes and sanctions of foreign countries and stop using food as a weapon.
5. Enforce existing anti-trust laws to prevent the mega-mergers that are forcing vertical integration of American agriculture.
6. Require price disclosure.
7. Support ethanol as vital to a policy of U.S. energy independence.
8. Rewrite the Endangered Species Act so that Congress is forced to vote on every species that is listed as endangered.
9. Exempt family farms from OSHA and begin a regulatory revolution to restore sanity to federal regulation by imposing a moratorium on new regulation, requiring a sunset provision of five years on all regulation, and instituting a defined annual cutback in paperwork for family farms.
10. Restore farmers' property rights under the Fifth Amendment and end the regulatory theft of property rights without just compensation.
In 1785, Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Jay that America's farmers were our "most vigorous, most independent, most virtuous" citizens, who are "tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests with the most lasting bands." We must keep faith with our farmers by ensuring that their dreams are not buried beneath dumped imports, or plowed under by transnational corporations with no allegiance to anything but their own bottom line.

Bureaucracy
America is being bankrupted by a bloated federal bureaucracy that now squanders more of our tax dollars than at any point in our nation's history. We are an over regulated, overtaxed, and over governed society.
Last year, 53 federal agencies and 127,000 federal employees spent over $17 billion of our tax dollars writing and enforcing federal regulations. This approaches a regulatory reign of terror—especially against small business.
As President, I will roll back this regulation juggernaut by dismantling the Department of Education, Department of Energy, and Department of Housing and Urban Development. I will also defund the National Endowment of the Arts, the National Endowment of the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Bureau of Land Management will also be eliminated, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms merged into the FBI.

China
We must neither ignore nor isolate China, but we cannot embrace as a "strategic partner" an expansionist power that persecutes dissidents, perverts our elections, plunders our nuclear arsenal, and targets our cities.
China's ongoing oppression of women, Christians, Tibetans and political dissidents is an affront to American values, but instead of shaming the regime, the Clinton-Gore Administration persists in its failed policy of appeasement.
In the last decade, we have allowed Beijing to run up $300 billion trade surpluses. Our trade concessions have given China the second largest hoard of hard currency in the world--$150 billion, yet we still provide Beijing with World Bank and Asian Development Bank loans and permit the purchase of our latest technology.
As President I will:
· Call on Congress to suspend MFN, and require that all Chinese imports be taxed at the same rate China imposes on goods from the U.S.A.
· Block the transfer of any new high-tech military technology.
· Maintain U.S. economic leverage over Beijing by opposing the admission of China to the World Trade Organization.

Crime
Our Founding Fathers believed that insuring domestic tranquility was one of the first functions of government. But in spite of federal prevention programs and anti-crime initiatives, our streets are still not safe, and the U.S. still leads the industrialized world in violent crimes. A Buchanan Administration would:
· Pass sentencing guidelines to ensure tough, consistent consequences.
· Institute mandatory minimum sentences and restrict parole to make time sentenced closer to time served.
· Streamline the trial, appeal, and post-appeal process so that justice is sure and swift.
· Require prisoners to work to reimburse taxpayers for the cost of their incarcerations.
· Allow judges pre-trial authority to detain dangerous defendants.
· Encourage restitution for victims as part of sentencing.
· Impose the death penalty for particularly ruthless and heinous capital crimes.

Culture
Everyday we see new evidence of the corruption of our popular culture: Filthy art financed with tax dollars. Television steeped in raw sex and romanticized violence. Movies that mock religious faith. Music that extols social chaos.
After generations of feeding our children this filth and permitting moral polluters to dump their poison into our cultural well, why are we surprised that ours has become a sick society.
A generation ago, secularists, through our Supreme Court, succeeded in banishing God and the Bible from our classrooms and today we ream moral relativism's rancid harvest. Our cities have become battlegrounds, and our schools killing fields. Traditional morality has come to be regarded as quaint nonsense, and fixed standards of right and wrong have given way to the mushy mentality of "do your own thing."
We must reclaim American morality by putting truth into that void. Traditional values like patriotism, loyalty, courage and decency must again become the currency of cultural exchange. We must restore the dignity of each citizen by ensuring that the lives of our weakest—from the unborn to the elderly—are protected. And we must detoxify our popular culture by ensuring that the values for which America has always fought—family, faith, and freedom—remain the centerpiece of our society.
The standard for American leadership must be high, because the stakes are high; the safety of our children, the character of our culture, the soul of our country.

Defense
Teddy Roosevelt admonished us: "Speak softly and carry a big stick." But today, we have forgotten that wise counsel as we whittle down the stick and raise the decibel count of our bombastic rhetoric.
Under Clinton-Gore, our global commitments have expanded, but our defenses have declined. Planes are cannibalized for spare parts, recruitment has hit historic lows, and munitions stocks run short. Funding has been slashed to pre-Pearl Harbor levels, and for the first time in fifty years, our Pacific fleet has been stripped of carrier-based air support.
Since this Administration took office, the following forces have been stripped from America's arsenal: 709,000 regular service soldiers, 293,000 reserve troops, 8 standing Army divisions, 20 Air Force wings with 2,000 combat aircraft, 232 strategic bombers, 13 strategic ballistic missile submarines with 3,114 nuclear warheads, 500 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 4 aircraft carriers, and 121 combat ships and submarines.

Drugs
Over 77 million Americans age 12 or older—36% of the population—report illicit drug use at least once in the lifetime, and 11% admit to using drugs with the past year. Many of these offenders claim theirs is a victimless crime, but on a recent trip to Des Moines, I saw firsthand the fallacy of that argument. In Iowa, where I visited House of Mercy, a drug treatment center for methamphetamine-addicted infants, one in ten babies born was drug-affected. These innocent victims may suffer developmental damage, learning difficulties, and chronic illness.
The plague of illegal drug is spreading from our cities and up from our porous southern border into the American heartland. And the consequences are devastating. A Buchanan Administration will renew our commitment to winning the War on Drugs by:
· Increasing drug interdiction efforts at our borders.
· Suspending Mexican drug certification unless Mexican authorities sharpen efforts to apprehend and extradite international cartel leaders.
· Encouraging faith-based treatment centers.
· Supporting minimum mandatory sentencing for drug traffickers and tough sentencing for repeat offenders.
· Cutting prison drug use by requiring periodic mandatory testing.
· Trying chronic youth offenders as adults.
· Allowing judges to impose tough juvenile sentences to deter young offenders from falling into a life of crime.
· Making juvenile records a factor in adult sentencing.

Education
Herbert Spencer was right when he wrote that "Education has for its object the formation of character." But of late, America's schools have failed this primary function. Politically correct programs that revise our history and revile our values have turned schools into testing grounds for liberal social experimentation, separating parents from their children and Americans from their heritage. Esteem rather than excellence has become the highest standard, and skill development has replaced classical Liberal Arts instruction.
As we move into a new millennium, the education of America's young people will be vital to our principled progress. Parents and local educators rather than Washington bureaucrats must chart our children's educational course, and leftist schemes like Goals 2000 and School to Work must be stopped cold. Students must be revalued as individuals rather than assembly line products, and traditional values—love of our land, our heritage, and our traditional sense of right and wrong—must again become the centerpiece of American classrooms.
As President I will:
· Abolish the Department of Education and return its functions and funding to state and local control.
· Oppose leftist programs like Goals 2000 and School to Work that emphasize skills over true education and turn students into "human resources."
· Support local solutions: tuition vouchers that can be redeemed at all schools—public and private, secular and religious—but have no government strings attached, charter schools and magnet schools.
· Take back our public schools by passing a constitutional amendment to allow voluntary prayer.
· Reject "multicultural" curricula that denigrate our history and teach our children to identify themselves as hyphenated Americans rather than as citizens of one nation under God.
· Protect the rights of homeschooling parents to educate their children.
· Support tax-free education savings accounts.
· Oppose national testing and teaching standards as intrusions on the rights of parents and the primacy of local communities.

Environment
We have an obligation to be good stewards of this great land, and we all have an interest in maintaining clean air and water and in protecting natural resources. But our focus must always be conservation rather than control.
International treaties that cripple our industries and federal regulations that violate property rights by converting private holdings into public "habitats" are not the answer. Neither are Big Government buy-ups that to date have given Washington titles to 650 million acres, one-third of the land in the U.S.
Rather than building more bureaucracy, a Buchanan Administration will introduce a sensible, incentive-driven plan for community-based stewardship that is pro-growth, pro-people, and pro-environment. We will:
· Promote local responsibility and accountability by abolishing the Bureau of Land Management and giving the 500 million acres of BLM lands back to the states.
· Give states flexibility to pursue alternatives for promoting green space, preserving historic sites, minimizing congestion, protecting water quality, and cleaning up hazardous waste.
· Offer incentives to industry to develop resource-efficient technologies. Today, steel cans are 60% lighter than they were in 1955, a compact disc holds the equivalent of five tons of telephone books, and a single fiber optic line requiring 65 kilograms of silica carries the data once transmitted by a one-ton copper cable.
· Oppose international environmental accords like the Kyoto Treaty that would devastate American industry and obligate our country to onerous environmental regulations that do not apply to other nations.
· Require Congress to vote on every endangered species and compensate property owners when their land is seized and converted into protected habitat. We want to see the bald eagle and grizzly bear survive, but unelected bureaucrats must not be allowed to violate property rights in the process.
· Hold polluters to high standards of accountability and establish incentives for individuals and businesses to clean up pollution they create.

Foreign Aid
Americans will be first at the scene to help victims of natural disaster from Kurdistan to Honduras. But the steady siphoning of $30 million a day and $17 billion a year in foreign aid from the U.S. Treasury must come to an end.
Today, one-forth of America's national debt is traceable to foreign aid, yet we continue to dig deeper into debt to fund "friends"—three-quarters of whom more often than not vote against the U.S. in the U.N. The looting of America for the construction of the New World Order must end. America needs a policy that phases out foreign aid and focuses instead on forgotten Americans here at home. The time has come for nations to quit presuming upon American benevolence and begin paying the full cost of their own development and defense.

Foreign Policy
Americans will be first at the scene to help victims of natural disaster from Kurdistan to Honduras. But the steady siphoning of $30 million a day and $17 billion a year in foreign aid from the U.S. Treasury must come to an end.
Today, one-forth of America's national debt is traceable to foreign aid, yet we continue to dig deeper into debt to fund "friends"—three-quarters of whom more often than not vote against the U.S. in the U.N. The looting of America for the construction of the New World Order must end. America needs a policy that phases out foreign aid and focuses instead on forgotten Americans here at home. The time has come for nations to quit presuming upon American benevolence and begin paying the full cost of their own development and defense.

Health Care
Americans will be first at the scene to help victims of natural disaster from Kurdistan to Honduras. But the steady siphoning of $30 million a day and $17 billion a year in foreign aid from the U.S. Treasury must come to an end.
Today, one-forth of America's national debt is traceable to foreign aid, yet we continue to dig deeper into debt to fund "friends"—three-quarters of whom more often than not vote against the U.S. in the U.N. The looting of America for the construction of the New World Order must end. America needs a policy that phases out foreign aid and focuses instead on forgotten Americans here at home. The time has come for nations to quit presuming upon American benevolence and begin paying the full cost of their own development and defense.

Immigration
During the 45 years leading up to the Immigration act of 1965, 10 million immigrants came to the United States, and assimilated successfully into American culture. They fought for America in four wars, built up our factories, enriched our culture, and helped make the United States the mightiest industrial empire on earth.
But the onset of mass immigration since the late 1960s has overwhelmed the American melting pot. Exploding crime statistics, swamped social services, and the rise of ethnic militancy tell the sad story.
This year, 1.3 million more immigrants will pour into the U.S.—400,000 of them illegal aliens. If America is to survive as "one nation," we need an immigration "time out" to mend the melting pot.
As President I will:
· Halt illegal immigration by securing our porous borders and strengthening internal enforcement.
· Stand with the three-in-four Americans who agree that mass legal immigration must be reduced by restoring the 20th century average of 250,000 to 300,000 immigrants per year.
· Support a national campaign of assimilation to teach newly adopted Americans our culture, history, traditions, and English language. To do otherwise risks our national unity and keeps the newest members of the American family from full participation.

Political Reform
We must end the glorified bribery that passes for fundraising in congressional campaigns, cleanse our capital city of the buying and selling of political influence, and open our political system to new participants.

CAMPAIGN REFORM
· Campaign Finance
Last year the Republican Party raised $28 million in soft money and the Democrat Party took in $20 million. Their congressional committees netted over $50 million. This election year, analysts anticipate a combined take of $500 million. A Buchanan Administration will end this special interest subsidization of the Establishment parties by rewriting Federal law to:
· Abolish soft money contributions, and outlaw use of union dues for political campaigns.
· Require disclosure of all contributions within 48 hours via the Internet.
· Increase individual donor limits to $3,00 and index it to inflation.
· Ballot Access
We will open access for third parties by backing federal standards to make ballot access simple, uniform, and fair.
· Voter Participation
The U.S. currently ranks 52nd in voter participation among 58 industrialized nations. We will reverse this downward spiral by allowing citizens with picture I.D. to register and vote on election day.
· Citizen Involvement
Rather than holding the popular will captive to gridlocked bipartisan legislatures or activist courts, we will use the support initiative and referenda to open up the democratic process.
CONGRESSIONAL REFORM
We will not break the stranglehold of the Beltway parties until we break up the incumbent protection racket by limiting terms and ending lavish congressional pensions. A Buchanan Administration will:
· Restore the right of states to limit terms.
· Abolish future Congressional pensions.
· Require candidates to raise 50% of their campaign funds from their own states or districts.

Sanctions
After seven years, the Clinton Administration has yet to find the right formula for dealing with what we now call "the rogue nations." Five years of bribes to North Korea seem only to have whetted the hermit kingdom's appetite for more bribes. On the other hand, U.S. sanctions have failed to dislodge or weaken the grip of hostile regimes in Iraq, Iran, Cuba, or Serbia, but have antagonized our allies who defy them, and spread resentment against America all over the world. In our desire to punish old enemies, we seem to be creating new ones. Indeed, sanctions have become the feel-good but ineffectual foreign policy of the self-righteous.
After nine years of sanctions against Iraq, we have failed in our goal of ousting Saddam; it is not he or his henchmen who suffer, it is the innocent people of Iraq. And it is impossible to argue that the death of scores of thousands of children is a price proportional to the threat associated with Saddam Hussein's survival in power.
U.S. economic warfare is not confined to Baghdad. In Mr. Clinton's first term, the U.S. imposed 61 unilateral sanctions on 35 countries. And there is monumental hypocrisy in how Mr. Clinton applies his sanctions policy. He blockaded, starved and invaded tiny Haiti for human rights violations, but proudly chaperones China into the WTO. He imposes sanctions on Myanmar as a threat to the security of the United States, but shovels billions in aid to a North Korea that is building missiles to target America.
Looking over the record of U.S. sanctions against rogue states, it seems that they almost fail us. Sanctions impose suffering not on dictators, but on their oppressed people; they antagonize allies and undermine our leadership; they build up deposits of resentment and hatred against us among Arab, Islamic and Asian people; they deny our businessmen and farmers access to markets our rivals rush to capture; and they fail either to disarm or dislodge the targeted regime. They only massage our sense of moral superiority over other nations.
Among my first acts as President will be to declare an end to all sanctions on the sale or transfer of U.S. food, medicine, or goods essential to a decent life or a civilian economy now in force.
There may arise circumstances in which sanctions appear the only possible action. No president can forswear the option. But if they are to be reapplied, I will understand what the world used to know: that embargoes and blockades are weapons of war. If they are to be used, they must be designed so that innocent people are not the principal casualties; and they should be imposed only on regimes that engage in acts of war against the United States.

2nd Ammendment
The Second Amendment guarantees the individual right to own and use personal firearms, and as President I will ensure that this right is not compromised.
The gun-control lobby has long peddled the myth that gun ownership causes crime. But as we saw in Littleton, Colorado, where 19 gun and anti-explosive laws were violated in the massacre at Columbine High, additional legislation is not the answer. The urban barbarism that has turned our streets into battlegrounds and our classrooms into killing fields will not be stopped by an assault on the Second Amendment right of law-abiding American gun owners to keep and bear arms.
Convicted felons should forfeit their right to own firearms, but sportsmen, hunters, and law-abiding Americans should be allowed to use guns for pleasure or personal or family safety. Private ownership of guns gives the citizens of this free republic the means to protect life liberty and property, and I will fully and faithfully protect that right.

Small Businesses
While giant corporations have been downsizing or moving productions overseas, small business has retained its American character. Through ingenuity, hard work, and thrift, small business creates 2 of 3 new American jobs and produces 51% of America's GDP.
As President, I will transform America into one vast enterprise zone by getting big government out of the way of free enterprise and unleashing the entrepreneurial genius of our small business community.
A Buchanan Administration will:
· Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment with a tax limitation provision.
· Shift the tax burden from small businesses to multinational corporations and foreign importers.
· Eliminate inheritance taxes on all family businesses and family farms.
· Impose a moratorium on new federal regulation, a sunset provision of five years on all regulation, and a defined annual cutback on paperwork for small business.
· Review and rollback unfunded mandates of the past and place restrictions on future unfunded mandates.
· Eliminate all quotas, contract set asides and affirmative action from federal programs and federal law.
· End the legal assault on American business with tort reform.
· Restore property rights under the 5th Amendment. Just as we believe in no taxation without representation, we believe in no regulatory deprivation of property rights without just compensation.

Social Security
In his 1998 State of the Union address, President Clinton vowed to "Save Social Security First," but the White House has yet to come up with a plan. The Congress also speaks of lockboxes and percentage pledges, but continues to sign off on new Big Government programs that plunder will the surplus.
With the Congressional Budget now projecting $2.6 trillion in budget surpluses over the next ten years, we have an unprecedented opportunity to reform the Social Security system.
A Buchanan Administration would:
· Guarantee today's recipients every penny promised under the current system. Seniors will continue to receive their benefits without disruption or deduction.
· Stop the raid on the Social Security Trust Fund by requiring that all payroll taxes be devoted to Social Security alone.
· Work with Congress to develop a pay-as-you-go Social Security plan that will secure the system while allowing American workers to begin building personal retirement accounts.

Trade
The architects of GATT and NAFTA have locked arms with their corporate collaborators to impose upon America a trade policy that is neither fair nor free. This year we will run a $300 billion trade deficit. A fourth of our steel, a third of our autos, half our machine tools, two-thirds of our textiles will be imported. America, once the world's greatest creditor, will once again be its greatest debtor.
The bulls run wild on Wall Street, corporate profits boom, and CEOs ring up record salaries. But in Middle America, our industrial base is eroding, factories are closing, and manufacturing jobs are moving overseas. America's independence and her working men and women are being sacrificed on the altar of the Global Economy.
Manufacturing jobs today comprise the smallest share of the labor force in over 100 years. More mothers and wives are in the labor force than ever before in our history, but median family income still lags below where it was when Ronald Reagan left office.
As our industrial capacity erodes, and America sacrifices her self-sufficiency, we become increasingly vulnerable to incompetence and corruption beyond our shores. In a Global Economy just one default from disaster, financial blunders from Mexico to Asia shake U.S. markets, put our nation's financial stability at risk, and lead to endless bailouts of our "trading partners."
In 1994, for the first time, the U.S. joined a global institution, the World Trade Organization, where we have no veto power and the one-nation, one-vote rule applies. For America to continue down this road to global interdependence is a betrayal of our history, our sovereignty, and our heritage of liberty.
The time has come to realize that other nations do not believe in our brand of free trade. While we merrily open our markets, predatory partners like China and Japan each run up $70 billion surpluses at America's expense.
As President, I will:
· Use the trade laws of this country and the power of my office to protect the jobs of our workers, the standard of living of America's families, the independence of our country, and the sovereignty of the United States.
· Impose tariffs upon foreign imports, the same taxes imposed on goods made in the U.S.A., and use the revenue to slash income taxes for all Americans.
· Put the American Economy before the Global Economy by withdrawing from international organizations that threaten our sovereignty and independence.
· Break open foreign markets to American products with reciprocal trade treaties.
· Protect vital U.S. industries by passing tough anti-dumping legislation.

Veterans
Teddy Roosevelt was right when he said that a man good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.
We owe eternal gratitude to the 41 million who fought our wars dating back to the American Revolution, to the one million Americans who died in service, and to our 23 million living veterans.
They deserve timely care and reasonable compensation for service-related injuries. The long waiting periods, wasteful programs, and top-heavy bureaucracy at the Department of Veterans Affairs are an affront to those who risked their lives to secure our peace. A Buchanan Administration will streamline the processing of requests and ensure that the highest quality care is delivered in the shortest possible time.
We also pledge that no experimental vaccines or procedures will be tested on our brave men and women in uniform, and we will commit all necessary resources to properly treat those suffering from service-related illnesses.
Today we live free because of the sacrifice of America's armed forces, and because they did not shrink from duty; neither can we.

[paulcs]

That's the longest post in history! There are shorter phone books. It took me fifteen minutes just to scroll past it.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[paulcs]

"On the other hand, U.S. sanctions have failed to dislodge or weaken the grip of hostile regimes in Iraq, Iran, Cuba, or Serbia, but have antagonized our allies who defy them, and spread resentment against America all over the world."

Yeah, that bum in Serbia will never leave!

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 10 October 2000).]

[Joel]

Equal Time

Harry Browne - Libertarian

I am running for President because I want you to be free . . .

Free to live your life as you think it should be lived, not as Al Gore or George W. Bush thinks you should live it;

Free to raise your children by your values, not those of some far-off bureaucrat who sees your children as foot soldiers in a plan to create a Brave New World;

Free to keep every dollar you earn and spend it, save it, give it away as you think best, not as the politicians will allow after they've spent what they want.
George W. Bush, Al Gore, Pat Buchanan, and Ralph Nader are arguing over one basic issue: which one is best qualified to run your life? Which one knows best what kind of school your child should attend? Which one knows how your health-insurance company should treat you? Which one knows best how to organize the economy, determine how much of your own money you should be allowed to keep, and decide what is a proper way for you to live?

I am running because I don't believe they are capable of running your life. I don't believe I am capable of running your life. I believe only you know best how to run your life.

I want to get government out of your life, so that you're free to make your own decisions, manage your own earnings, and live as a free, sovereign individual not as a dysfunctional child who must be guided, managed, and cared for by an all-powerful government.


The Issues

In practice, this means I want to:

Free you from the income tax by making the federal government so small it can handle its constitutional functions with just the tariffs and excise taxes already being collected.

Unlock the door and let you out of the fraudulent Social Security system so you can decide how much of your income to save and what to do with those savings, and so you can enjoy a truly safe and prosperous retirement. And for those already dependent on Social Security, provide a private annuity financed by selling unneeded government assets. No longer should you have to depend on politicians for your retirement.

End the insane War on Drugs that has turned the drug business over to criminal gangs, locked up a million non-violent Americans, spawned law-enforcement corruption, and provided a justification for destroying your individual liberty whether or not you have any interest in drugs.

Make government employees respect every one of the Bill of Rights keeping your property safe from search and seizure, keeping the government out of areas not specifically authorized in the Constitution, and restoring your freedom to live your life as you think best.

Repeal the thousands of gun laws that do nothing to stop gun violence by criminals but do invade your privacy gratuitously and put you at a disadvantage to violent criminals who will never be inconvenienced by those laws.

Bring the troops home from overseas where they breed anti-American resentment and quit relying on our overwhelming national offense, create a secure national defense, withdraw from all international organizations and mutual-defense treaties, and allow other countries to manage their own affairs.

For each problem America faces today, my solution involves less government, rather than new government programs, new regulations, new taxes, and new powers for the politicians. I want you to be free to live your life as you think best not as the politicians claim is best for America.

What Do You Want?

The other presidential candidates want the burning issue of this election to be: Who is best qualified to lead the nation?

I want the issue to be: How quickly can we restore all the liberty you've lost to arrogant politicians?

I want to bind the politicians down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution, as Thomas Jefferson put it.

I want you to be able to enjoy the real promise of America which is to live as a free, sovereign individual.

You may not agree with me on every issue. You may disagree with me on how fast we should downsize government. You may feel I have little chance to win. You may not be sure I could carry out everything I want even if I do win.

But these are details. The most important question you must ask yourself is this:

Do you want much smaller government?

Do you want to be free of the income tax, free of the Social Security tax, free of meddling politicians who believe the only part of your life that belongs to you is what they don't need?

Do you want to restore the full force and effect of the Constitution?

Do you want it?

This is by far the most important question of this or any election season. If you do want much smaller government, it's obvious that you'll never get it with Republicans or Democrats who are falling over themselves proposing new government programs, new ways to manage your life.

So the first step you must take is to stop supporting those who are making government bigger.

Make the commitment to yourself now that you will no longer endorse the actions of those who believe they know how to lead you, to manage you, to run your life.

Vote Intelligently

If you vote for George W. Bush because you can't stand Al Gore, your vote will be interpreted as an endorsement for every big-government program George Bush wants to inflict upon you. If you vote for Al Gore because you're afraid of the religious right, your vote will be interpreted as an endorsement for all the plans Al Gore has made for running your life.

The only unmistakable vote you can cast the only way you can tell the politicians you're fed up with big government and you won't tolerate it anymore is to vote Libertarian.

Only in that way can you make it clear that they no longer have your vote in their pocket, that you will no longer vote for anyone who presumes to intrude upon your freedom and sovereignty.

My detailed views on many different issues. Can be found here www.harrybrowne2000.org/stands/index.htm

Joel

[LAMFDTK]

"End the insane War on Drugs that has turned the drug business over to criminal gangs, locked up a million non-violent Americans, spawned law-enforcement corruption, and provided a justification for destroying your individual liberty whether or not you have any interest in drugs."

I can't get with Legal Drugs! and that is the why Harry Browne can't get his message out past this one issue. I think that the drug war is a joke and we can do better. But making LSD and Dope legal is insane! IMO. I like the LIBs though! Anything but the two party system that is one party.

[Joel]

The main point is less intrusion into our lives from a big fat bloated spend happy government.

I quess I should have posted the longest thread in this forum because it is obvious that you didn't take the time to read the details of the issues.

Less government intrusion means greater freedoms which is what our founding fathers wanted for us and one of the reasons why we fought for and declared our independence.

Joel