the Real ID Act once elected."
- Cynthia McKinney
BTC - Exclusive
As debates heat up for the final Presidential selection, the most controversial issue of Real IDs keeps bobbing up from the mire. The heated struggle between citizens, state's rights against federal mandates and the protection of the U.S. identity continues to be an issue.
Many of you may have read BTC's previous President Select post featuring Cynthia McKinney.
During this crucial time for voters, the only rule is to vote the issues and to find the candidate that will support your views on the issues.
We asked Cynthia McKinney some important questions that are being pushed aside by John McCain and Barak Obama.
During this crucial time for voters, the only rule is to vote the issues and to find the candidate that will support your views on the issues.
We asked Cynthia McKinney some important questions that are being pushed aside by John McCain and Barak Obama.
{BeatTheChip= BTC}
BTC: Civil liberties violations are a huge complaint with voters. What is your plan to restore Constitutional balances damaged by legislation like The Patriot Act and The Real ID Act?
Cynthia McKinney : If elected to office I would take immediate steps to repeal The Real ID Act, the Patriot Act, the Secret Evidence Act, the Military Commissions Act, and all other pieces of legislation that are an affront to our bill of rights. In addition, I would use my executive power to void a great many of the 'signing statements' and authoritarian Executive Orders that have concentrated far too much power in the hands of the president. It is imperative to return POWER TO THE PEOPLE, which is my campaign theme. I would make public these power grabs and explain why a real democracy is incompatible with a 'unitary executive,' the Bush/Cheney philosophy.
BTC: Do you have a plan to address DHS's role in The Real ID Act a power acting independently of the vote of the people? Such case would be the waiver of 36 federal laws based on Section 102 C of the Real ID Act to expedite the construction of the Border Wall fence. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case from The Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife.
Cynthia McKinney: The border fence is a wasteful militarized approach to the issue of immigration. It's not the immigrants who are 'illegal'; what is illegal is the way U.S. economic policies treat workers in this country and throughout the world. Thousands who have been funneled into hostile terrain by the fence have perished in the past decade. I agree with the groups who initiated the lawsuit that Congress should not have delegated the power to waive federal, state and local laws regarding the construction of the fence to the Department of Homeland Security.
I would promote international economic policies that would seek to rapidly build up the economies of neighbor nations to our south so that people can voluntarily return home to their families with viable employment and adequate and affordable food production. Then we would see a large migration southward as people rejoin their families from Mexico to Panama. To replace those departing workers, U.S. businesses must significantly raise wages and vastly improve working conditions, especially with regard to health and safety, so that currently unemployed American workers can and will do this needed work.
BTC: How would you address Real Id's role in the plan for Continuity ofGovernment?
Cynthia McKinney : The Real ID is a step toward implementation of a national ID that can then be expanded during a national emergency. We've already seen the violations of civil rights that occur after a disaster. After 9/11, over a thousand people, primarily from Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African countries, were arrested and detained under harsh conditions without charges and denied access to legal counsel. During Hurricane Katrina, police fired their guns over the heads of hurricane survivors attempting to cross a bridge to safety in Gretna, Louisiana. By facilitating the establishment of a federal database of personal information with tremendous potential for misuse, the Real ID will further erode our civil liberties. The real ID is the precursor to a police state of the kind described in Orwell's 1984 and of the nature of state power exercised in Nazi Germany and the U.S.S.R. It is antithetical to democracy and must be vigorously opposed.
BTC: Do you have anything to add about hitchiking legislation to require citizens possess a Real ID to vote or to accept an employment contract?
Cynthia McKinney : I pledge to fight against such legislation. As a member of Congress I supported legislation to promote voting access and election integrity. I have fought to defend and reauthorize the Voting Rights Act, I have advocated for same-day voter registration, and I have voted in opposition to requiring photo ID for voting in federal elections.
BTC: How would you address the mandate that taxpayers are obligated to finance Real IDs- how would the McKinney Administration manage the fiscal burdens passed to the states to fulfill the Real ID Act?
Cynthia McKinney: I would take immediate steps to repeal the Real ID Act once elected.
BTC: Civil liberties violations are a huge complaint with voters. What is your plan to restore Constitutional balances damaged by legislation like The Patriot Act and The Real ID Act?
Cynthia McKinney : If elected to office I would take immediate steps to repeal The Real ID Act, the Patriot Act, the Secret Evidence Act, the Military Commissions Act, and all other pieces of legislation that are an affront to our bill of rights. In addition, I would use my executive power to void a great many of the 'signing statements' and authoritarian Executive Orders that have concentrated far too much power in the hands of the president. It is imperative to return POWER TO THE PEOPLE, which is my campaign theme. I would make public these power grabs and explain why a real democracy is incompatible with a 'unitary executive,' the Bush/Cheney philosophy.
BTC: Do you have a plan to address DHS's role in The Real ID Act a power acting independently of the vote of the people? Such case would be the waiver of 36 federal laws based on Section 102 C of the Real ID Act to expedite the construction of the Border Wall fence. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case from The Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife.
Cynthia McKinney: The border fence is a wasteful militarized approach to the issue of immigration. It's not the immigrants who are 'illegal'; what is illegal is the way U.S. economic policies treat workers in this country and throughout the world. Thousands who have been funneled into hostile terrain by the fence have perished in the past decade. I agree with the groups who initiated the lawsuit that Congress should not have delegated the power to waive federal, state and local laws regarding the construction of the fence to the Department of Homeland Security.
I would promote international economic policies that would seek to rapidly build up the economies of neighbor nations to our south so that people can voluntarily return home to their families with viable employment and adequate and affordable food production. Then we would see a large migration southward as people rejoin their families from Mexico to Panama. To replace those departing workers, U.S. businesses must significantly raise wages and vastly improve working conditions, especially with regard to health and safety, so that currently unemployed American workers can and will do this needed work.
BTC: How would you address Real Id's role in the plan for Continuity ofGovernment?
Cynthia McKinney : The Real ID is a step toward implementation of a national ID that can then be expanded during a national emergency. We've already seen the violations of civil rights that occur after a disaster. After 9/11, over a thousand people, primarily from Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African countries, were arrested and detained under harsh conditions without charges and denied access to legal counsel. During Hurricane Katrina, police fired their guns over the heads of hurricane survivors attempting to cross a bridge to safety in Gretna, Louisiana. By facilitating the establishment of a federal database of personal information with tremendous potential for misuse, the Real ID will further erode our civil liberties. The real ID is the precursor to a police state of the kind described in Orwell's 1984 and of the nature of state power exercised in Nazi Germany and the U.S.S.R. It is antithetical to democracy and must be vigorously opposed.
BTC: Do you have anything to add about hitchiking legislation to require citizens possess a Real ID to vote or to accept an employment contract?
Cynthia McKinney : I pledge to fight against such legislation. As a member of Congress I supported legislation to promote voting access and election integrity. I have fought to defend and reauthorize the Voting Rights Act, I have advocated for same-day voter registration, and I have voted in opposition to requiring photo ID for voting in federal elections.
BTC: How would you address the mandate that taxpayers are obligated to finance Real IDs- how would the McKinney Administration manage the fiscal burdens passed to the states to fulfill the Real ID Act?
Cynthia McKinney: I would take immediate steps to repeal the Real ID Act once elected.
For more information about voting for the McKinney/Clemente please visit : http://votetruth08.com/ .
Cynthia McKinney and Cindy Sheehan along with our preferred Deadline Live! radio maven Jack Blood will be featured speakers at the We The People Festival in Los Angeles.
