[国会记录:2008年3月13日(续)][Page E383]生活在剑______尊敬的罗恩·保罗在众议院，2008年3月13日星期四保罗先生。议长女士，有句话是这样说的:“生在剑下的人必死在剑下。”对于艾略特·斯皮策来说，这再正确不过了。对他来说，这是一把政治利剑，因为他的敌人为他的垮台而欢欣鼓舞。似乎大多数人都认为他罪有应得。国家的非法手段使斯皮策下台，但想想斯皮策用同样的手段对付那么多无辜的人所造成的伤害吧。他实行了所谓的“经济麦卡锡主义”，利用非法的政府权力，在别人被毁的生活上建立自己的政治生涯。无论他的惩罚在道义上多么正当，他的垮台显示了我们社会最坏的一面。发现个人不道德行为的可能性永远不能成为政府监视我们的一举一动并参与诱捕行动的理由。政府用诱捕行动引诱公民违法——即从事法律禁止公民从事的活动——是不合理的，显然应该是非法的。虽然斯皮策使用相同的工具来摧毁个人涉嫌经济犯罪,最终被用来对付他,心满意足的在他下台不应该把我们的注意力从政府监视美国公民是不值得一个国家声称尊重自由和第四修正案。 Two wrongs do not make a right. Two wrongs make it doubly wrong. Sacrifice of our personal privacy has been ongoing for decades, but has rapidly accelerated since 9/11. Before 9/11 the unstated goal of collecting revenue was the real reason for the erosion of our financial privacy. When 19 suicidal maniacs attacked us on 9/11, our country became convinced that further sacrifice of personal and financial privacy was required for our security. The driving force behind this ongoing sacrifice of our privacy has been fear and the emotional effect of war rhetoric--war on drugs, war against terrorism, and the war against third world nations in the Middle East who are claimed to be the equivalent to Hitler and Nazi Germany. But the real reason for all this surveillance is to build the power of the state. It arises from a virulent dislike of free people running their own lives and spending their own money. Statists always demand control of the people and their money. Recently we've been told that this increase in the already intolerable invasion of our privacy was justified because the purpose was to apprehend terrorists. We were told that the massive amounts of information being collected on Americans would only be used to root out terrorists. But as we can see today, this monitoring of private activities can also be used for political reasons. We should always be concerned when the government accumulates information on innocent citizens. Spitzer was brought down because he legally withdrew cash from a bank--not because he committed a crime. This should prompt us to reassess and hopefully reverse this trend of pervasive government intrusion in our private lives. We need no more Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act! No more Violent Radicalization & Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Acts! No more torture! No more Military Commissions Act! No more secret prisons and extraordinary rendition! No more abuse of habeas corpus! No more PATRIOT Acts! What we need is more government transparency and more privacy for the individual! ____________________