Jackson Lee explained her vote by recalling the difficult early years of the United States of America. She reminded her colleagues that, although the early U.S.A. was besieged by European powers intent on ruining the new nation, the founders did not allow their fears to interfere with the growth of liberty. The early Americans stood firm in support of the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable search and seizure in a way that many Americans today are reluctant to emulate.

Jackson Lee declared:

“To win the war on terror, the United States must remain true to the founding architects of this democracy who created a Constitution which enshrined an inalienable set of rights. These Bills Of Rights guarantee certain fundamental freedoms that cannot be limited by the government. One of these freedoms, the Fourth Amendment, is the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. We do not circumvent the Fourth Amendment, or any other provision in the United States Constitution, merely because it is inconvenient.

As an American citizen, the security and safety of my constituency is pinnacle, but I will never stand for legislation that infringes on the basic rights afforded in our Constitution. When our founding fathers drafted the constitution, after living under an oppressive regime in Britain, they ensured that the American people would never experience such subjugation. Where are the protective measures for our citizens in the Patriot Act? Why are the measures addressed in the last Congress not included in the bill?

Instead of reauthorizing these provisions, Congress should conduct robust, public oversight of all surveillance tools and craft reforms that will better protect private communications from overbroad government surveillance.”

In these times when phantom fears are provoking many politicians in Washington D.C. to rush to sacrifice our constitutional freedoms for a thin semblance of security, we need more leaders like Sheila Jackson Lee who remember what true American courage looks like. Courage means that, even if there are dangers out there in the world, we keep hold of our freedoms.

If you’re a resident of the 18th congressional district in Texas, display your support to Representative Jackson Lee. Put this bumper sticker on your car to show that when Sheila Jackson speaks in support of liberty in the Constitution, she speaks for you.

If you live further to the east, consider making your way to Washington D.C. this Saturday to show some leadership yourself. This Saturday, March 12, 2011 at noon, there will be a protest against the Patriot Act outside the U.S. Capitol Building.

Some people think that’s a problem. Me, I think it’s great that we in the USA have the freedom to come to our own conclusions about religion. We don’t have religion crammed down our throats, like people have in too many other other countries.

Sadly, new U.S. Representative Billy Long doesn’t see things that way. Congressman Long has declared that he thinks that our government ought to have the power to force us into religious worship.

We don’t have freedom from religion, he says, even when our personal morals disagree with the religion that Long’s big government would choose for us.

That’s not the kind of leadership we need in Congress. It would be wrong to re-elect Billy Long.

To have an International Blasphemy Day would seem oxymoronic, since blaspheming is an act of individual rebellion against a religious system that insists there can be no violation of its self-interested thought barriers. Blasphemy shouldn’t be an organized activity — it should be without limits, not restricted to One Official Day.

But this is a different day. It’s International Blasphemy Rights Day. And when there are tens of thousands of religious bodies in the United States — and millions of religious organizations around the world — dedicated to imposing their religious strictures on everyone else, all to prevent people from questioning the veracity of their often quite wacky suppositions, then by gum there needs to be some organization to push back a little bit, and in order to do it right some organization is called for. This is organization to defend my right, your right, all our rights to believe what we believe and to say out loud what we don’t believe.

You have a right to blasphemy. And if you believe that you have the right, you need to stand up for it.

This video asks the bumper sticker designer that question, and also – “Do you really hate Islam?”

Allen West, the Republican Party nominee for Congress in Florida’s 22nd District, has made a speech publicly railing against the idea of coexistence:

As I was driving up here today, I saw that bumper sticker that absolutely incenses me. It’s not the Obama bumper sticker. But it’s the bumper sticker that says, ‘CoExist,’ and it has all the little religious symbols on it. And the reason why I get upset, and every time I see one of those bumper stickers, I look at the person inside that is driving. Because that person represents something that would give away our country. Would give away who we are, our rights and freedoms and liberties because they are afraid to stand up and confront that which is the antithesis, anathema of who we are. The liberties that we want to enjoy.

Watch the video of these remarks and you’ll see that Allen West makes these comments without the slightest sense of irony, which is quite sad. The “rights and freedoms and liberties” that are the foundation of American society are found in the Constitution. The very first freedoms are written in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In other words, Government shall not be used as a cudgel for one group to dominate another, for one belief to suppress another, for one religion to eliminate another. The central idea of the U.S. Constitution, which is the Supreme Law of our Land (Article VI), is CoExistence of different people, of different religions, of different expressions, of different ideas.

The GOP’s new nominee Allen West stands against CoExistence.

Allen West stands against the idea of America.

If you are for the American value of coexistence, be against the election of Allen West this November.

In order to justify their opposition to social programs that help their neighbors, the Tea Party activists come up with elaborate conspiracy theories about Muslims from Kenya and Communist plots to enslave us all by keeping Americans healthy.

The Boston Tea party was for freedom. Today’s Tea Party is for fear.

The practice of banning books, as Sarah Palin tried to do, is founded upon the idea that books are dangerous things that pollute the minds of the people who read them. Sarah Palin believes that it’s a good idea for the government to control the books that people read, because Sarah Palin believes that the government knows better than the American people what ideas are good for them.

Not just any government, of course. Sarah Palin hates the idea of the constitutional democracy established back in the 1700s at the birth of the USA with the Bill of Rights. Palin can’t stand the idea of the separation of church and state, or the right to a free press.

No, the kind of government that Sarah Palin seeks to lead is a theocratic government, in which fundamentalist Christian religion uses the federal government of the United States to force its beliefs on everyone else. She wants her religious beliefs taught in public school science classes. She wants libraries to ban the reading of books that don’t support her extremist right wing version of Christianity. Like the ayatollahs of Iran, Sarah Palin wants to ban books.

Unfortunately, a large segment of the population of the United States agrees with Sarah Palin. They love the idea of censoring books and other forms of free speech. They believe that it’s the government’s job to protect people from dissent.

Sound the warning that Sarah Palin, who would likely inherit the presidency from an elderly President John McCain, is an authoritarian who has no respect for the foundations of American liberty. Put this bumper sticker on your car to warn against the book burners for Palin.