Neil Kiernan Stephenson vs Candice Miller on the issues.
As I find it unlikely that Candice Miller will agree to debate me, I feel compelled to take on her record and positions on the issues here.
Let me start by saying that I am not into mudslinging politics. You will never hear personal attacks from me against who a politician is personally. However, I do feel that it is absolutely correct to hold any elected official accountable for whatever they voted on or didn’t in the name of our district. When I perused Candice Miller’s website, I found a decided lack of positions on many issues I find very important. Issues like the war, gas prices, etc. So you will have to excuse me if I don’t have a lot to debate with Candice Miller. I can only debate her on what I have to work with. I would say that a lack of substance in a politician is generally a good indication that they have weaknesses in many popular issues.

On the economy:

Candice Miller:
“Our state is experiencing difficult economic times and it is important that our citizens are better able to provide for their families well being. That is why I was proud to support tax cuts for every family in the 10th District, helping them to meet their needs. I will continue to fight for lower taxes for working families during my service in Congress.”

Neil Kiernan Stephenson:
Tax cuts to families while a good start, will not solve the problem. Asking Michigan residents to pay less taxes doesn’t mean much when we don’t have jobs to pay even the reduced taxes. Respectfully Ms. Miller, Michigan needs a lot more. Michigan is in great financial turmoil, and giving money back to families needs to start by getting more corporations to our state and to our country for that matter. De-regulation whenever practical, along with giving industries incentives to come back to Michigan and the United States is the answer. Give the residents of Michigan’s 10th district their jobs back if you really want to fix the economy.

Candice Miller:
“Many workers have spent a lifetime with an expectation, based on promise, that they would receive a pension upon their retirement. That is why I was proud to work to enact pension reform legislation that was supported by both business leaders and labor unions, because even companies that are struggling want to meet their pension obligations to their workers and workers need to have the peace of mind that the pension that they worked a lifetime to secure will be there when they retire.”

Neil Kiernan Stephenson:
If we stopped robbing Social Security this pension issue would be less of a problem. If our dollar wasn’t being destroyed with inflation this would be less of an issue. If we would get rid of a lot of the regulations that in turn cost them a lot of money they might not be struggling to keep up with their pension obligations to their workers. More legislation is not the answer. Laws that force companies to pay for anything drive jobs overseas. Let the workers and their employers work these things out. Get any form of government out of it.

Candice Miller:
“I was also proud to support an effort in the House to raise the federal minimum wage to overtime to $7.25 per hour. This would help those at the bottom rungs of the workforce earn more money to pay for their education and better meet the needs of their families.”

Neil Kiernan Stephenson:
If raising federal minimum wage was the answer, we wouldn’t have to keep doing it. Aside from the fact that raising the cost of labor to businesses just causes them to raise their prices to pay for the difference, the Federal Reserve inflates the currency. The inflation lowers the value of our currency and causes prices to rise. Prices rise and with it, the cost of living. So, after a brief bubble of prosperity that goes on as the prices adjust, politicians look good, and we just end up doing the same thing all over again in a few years. We need to address the root cause of this problem instead of continually providing band aid after band aid. That cause is the Federal Reserve bank. If elected I will support Ron Paul’s Federal Reserve Abolition Act to put an end to this scam that is the Federal Reserve. We need to move to sound money that can be depended on. Not currency with a value that fluxes up and down at the whim of private bankers intent on manipulating inflation and interest rates to their own benefit.

The Global War on Terror:

Candice Miller:
“Throughout much of the past 20 years terrorists have targeted innocent Americans for murder in an effort to undermine our democracy and our commitment to spreading freedom across the globe. It was only when those terrorists attacked us so directly on September 11, 2001 that America finally got a vivid understanding of the evil we face and the lengths they will go in an attempt to destroy freedom.”

Neil Kiernan Stephenson:
Unconstitutional laws that border on fascism that have been passed under the guise of “anti-terrorism” have done far more to undermine our democracy then any of the acts of terrorism on September 11th. Our attackers made it clear what their motives were. And it was not to attack us because of our freedoms. There are plenty of countries on this Earth that enjoy even more freedoms then we do yet you don’t see Islamic extremists attacking those countries. As Candice Miller would seem to think they are acting also to undermine our efforts to spread freedom across the globe, why is it then that almost every time that the United States intervenes around the globe they set up a dictator with our backing in the name of “freedom”? Why is it in our efforts to spread freedom we do so by sending in the CIA to train storm troopers, and by teaching Nazi-like interrogation tactics to these same dictators? I love my country. And I hate what was done on 9/11, and I think we should find the specific parties responsible and deal with them. But we also have to face some hard facts. The people who are attacking us don’t list our bill of rights as their motivation. They talk about wanting us out of their countries, and out of their lives.

Candice Miller:
“Since that day we have been at war with Islamic extremists. We have taken that war on the offense by toppling the Taliban in Afghanistan, killing or capturing the majority of al Qeada’s leadership and toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq who had been a longstanding supporter of terrorists. I look forward to the day when the Iraqi forces stand up sufficiently to protect their new found freedom and our brave men and women can return home.”

Neil Kiernan Stephenson:
Invading Afghanistan did not get us Osama Bin Laden, which allegedly was the reason we went over there. We refused the Taliban’s offer to turn over Bin Laden if we would just provide evidence. And since Osama Bin Laden was fingered as being behind September 11th the American people have yet to see any evidence to prove that he was involved in the first place. President Bush and his administration in one of the most embarrassing back-pedals in the White House’s history admitted that there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11. Let alone any terrorist organization. There was no Al Qeada in Iraq until we invaded and occupied that country. And I am confident that it would be made clear that the administration intentionally mislead the American people if Congressman Kucinich’s impeachments of Vice President Dick Cheney and President George Bush come to fruition. If elected I plan to get behind Dennis Kucinich’s efforts to hold this administration accountable for this farce of a war that has killed more Americans then died in the 9/11 attacks. And countless innocent Iraqi and Afghan civilians caught in the crossfire in this war. Most Iraqi’s I have spoke to feel that they were better off under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein then they are now. And after studying the situation more closely I don’t blame them. If a people who’s country we occupy say they were more happy under the previous tyrannical dictatorship then they are now that we are there, I think there is some doubt as to the Iraqi people’s “new found freedom”.

Candice Miller:
“Here at home we must also remain vigilant because of the knowledge that our enemies want to hit us here at home again. In order to defend against this threat we must give our law enforcement and intelligence gathering organizations the tools they need to make our nation more secure. As has been said, Americans are safer today than we were on September 11th but we are not yet safe.”
I would ask the scores of people wrongfully arrested and detained since we gave our law enforcement and intelligence gathering organizations the Patriot Act and other unconstitutional atrocities to protect our freedom if they feel “safer” today then before September 11th.
Note: Many of the Unconstitutional laws that I refer to that attack our civil liberties Candice Miller herself voted on. More on that below.

On National Security:

Candice Miller:
“Our Constitution requires the federal government to provide for the common defense of our nation in order to secure the blessings of liberty. As your member of Congress I take an oath to uphold the Constitution so a strong national defense is a top priority.”

Neil Kiernan Stephenson:
National defense should be just that, national defense. Defense would imply that we should secure our sovereign territory and our own borders, not spread out our armed forces all over the world in police actions that just cause the ranks of our enemies to swell with new volunteers, with every bomb or stray bullet that accidentally kills a child or other innocent person. Didn’t we learn anything in Vietnam?

That said, I would comment on Candice Miller’s commitment to uphold our constitution.
Candice Miller voted in the following ways that are not in the spirit or the letter of the Constitution of the United States:

Voted in favor of S 1927
This amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 passed 227-183 on August 4. The bill gives U.S. spy agencies expanded power to eavesdrop on foreign suspects without a court order. The existing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act contained a 30-year-old statute requiring a warrant to monitor calls intercepted in the United States, regardless of their origin. Civil liberties and privacy advocates argue the bill jeopardizes the Fourth Amendment privacy rights and allows for the warrantless monitoring of virtually any form of communication originating in the United States.

Voted in favor of S 3930: Military Commissions Act.
This Act deprives detainees of Habeas Corpus.
Habeas Corpus (Latin: [We command] that you have the body)
[1] is the name of a legal action, or writ, through which a person can seek relief from unlawful detention of himself or another person. The writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action.

Voted in favor of H R 5825: Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act.
This bill would endorse President Bush’s ongoing warrantless electronic surveillance of suspected terrorist communications and allow, but not require, the administration to submit the program to a secret national security court for review.
According to The Washington Post, the president has always argued he has the power as Commander in Chief, under the Constitution, to run the warrantless wiretapping program but sought to work out a deal whereby Congress would vote to endorse it. Some members of Congress and civil libertarians argue that the president’s actions with regard to warrantless wiretapping have been illegal and unconstitutional — and argue Congress should not to vote to support him.

Voted against an amendment to H R 2862:
This vote temporarily stopped federal law enforcement officials from being able to easily seize library and bookstore records. The authority to get the records without a traditional warrant was one of the provisions of the original 2001 Patriot Act. President Bush opposed any curtailing of federal law enforcement authority and threatened to veto any bill with this amendment attached.
The amendment said that, going forward, authorities would have to get a search warrant from a judge or grand jury instead of relying on approval from the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act Court, which has a lower threshold of proof. The Justice Department argued it had used this authority wisely and very selectively since it was extended in the original Patriot Act law. A coalition of liberals, conservatives and libertarians (including many Republicans), rejected the Bush administration’s arguments. They asserted the authority was a threat to the privacy of law-abiding citizens and voted to revoke it.

Voted in favor of H.R. 3199 USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005
This brought back many of the provisions of the Patriot Act that were supposed to expire. For more details go to http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-3199&tab=summary

A note on the Iraq war and the war in Afghanistan:
Neither the Iraq war or the war in Afghanistan follow the Constitution’s guidelines for war. Candice Miller has voted against any measure that would allow for a timetable for withdrawal. And has consistently voted to continue the war, despite it’s unconstitutionality.

Candice Miller, as a citizen of Michigan’s 10th district I would like you to honor your oath to uphold the constitution. And while your at it, vote to impeach the President and the Vice President for deceiving the American people into an unconstitutional war.

Posted: August 15th, 2008 under Neil vs Candice.
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