Duncan Hunter for President

[ChamberedRound]

Hey all,

Just an administrative note:

I've noticed this thread slowly moving off-topic recently. IMHO, this thread was intended by the OP to be a thread to discuss Duncan Hunter as a presidential candidate, but recent posts have moved into a discussion of Ron Paul and his candidacy, as well as a debate over who the next President should be.

For those unaware, there's already a thread discussing Dr. Paul here:

http://www.pafoa.org/forum/national-...president.html

so comments specifically about him should be posted there. If you think comments there have relevance here, link them so as not to take this thread off-topic. Likewise, I would invite any user to create a new thread for the purposes of debating who the next/best candidate should be, rather than do that here and take away from the topic at hand.

Thanks all!

[Broomhandle]

I can't vote for him if he voted for the Iraq war resolution. I will find out his position...

[NineseveN]

The problem with Hunter (and many, nay gun owners) is that, while he may be pro-gun, he's not pro-liberty.

Quotes from his Presidential Campaign Website:
11. Enforcement of federal obscenity laws and broadcast decency:
I voted in favor of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005, which increases the penalties for violations by television and radio broadcasters who transmit obscene, indecent, and profane material on public airwaves.
I also have concerns with the questionable material our children continue to have through the Internet and other entertainment products. I believe those distributing harmful material to young people should be held responsible. As a result, I drafted legislation, the Parent's Empowerment Act, which will allow parents to sue any person who knowingly sells or distributes a product that contains material that is harmful to minors, empowering parents to protect their children from the predatory practices of pornographic distributors.

7. A federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman:
I firmly believe that marriage is one of the most important social institutions we have and that it is central to promoting family values and raising children in a healthy environment. It is for this reason that I cosponsored and voted in favor of H.J. Res. 88 (Musgrave-CO), which proposes an amendment to the U.S. Constitution declaring that marriage in the United States shall consist solely of the union of a man and a woman. I firmly believe that children need the unique influence offered by both a father and a mother.

5. Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment:
I believe the current decisional law on the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment is inconsistent and flawed. For example, the recent decisions on the Ten Commandment display, where the Supreme Court ruled that in Texas it is appropriate to have a Ten Commandments monument on the courthouse grounds, but in Kentucky the same display violates the Establishment Clause. The Founding Fathers developed these clauses to guarantee the right of all citizens to worship and to protect the church from the state, not to strip religion from the everyday lives of Americans.
Another example of where the Establishment Clause has been abused by activist judges is the case surrounding the Mt. Soledad Veterans’ Memorial in San Diego California. Knowing that the Memorial, which incorporates a cross, did not violate the federal Establishment Clause, the courts applied the more restrictive state Establishment Clause and ordered the cross removed. I led the successful fight to protect the long-standing veterans’ memorial from being destroyed through a series of legislative step involving the transfer of the memorial grounds from state to federal control.

1. Right to Life Amendment:
I would amend the U.S. Constitution and provide blanket protection to all unborn children from the moment of conception by prohibiting any state or federal law that denies the personhood of the unborn. Likewise, I have also introduced the Right to Life Act, which would legally define “personhood” as the moment of conception and, therefore, guarantee all constitutional rights and protections, including life, to the unborn without utilizing a constitutional amendment.
2. Federal laws relating to abortion and human life protections (e.g, embryonic research and end of life, etc.):
There are several areas of federal law that require human life protections. I have cosponsored the following pieces of legislation:
· The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, which would amend the federal criminal code to prohibit transporting a minor across state lines to obtain an abortion, if this action circumvents the minor's native state's parental involvement law. I voted in favor of this bill when it passed the House 270-157 on April 27, 2005.

· The Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2005, which would prohibit and criminalize efforts at reproductive cloning.

· The Parent's Right to Know Act of 2005, which would prohibit federal funding to carry out federal family planning programs in which service providers in the project knowingly provides contraceptive drugs or devices to a minor, except in specific circumstances.

· The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2006, which would require abortion providers to notify women who want to have an abortion 20 weeks after fertilization that the evidence suggests their unborn child feels pain and they may request anesthesia for their unborn child in order to reduce or eliminate the pain.

I have also supported human life protection efforts with the following votes:
· I supported the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act, banning the practice of fetal farming, the creation of embryos specifically for the purposes of scientific research.

· I voted in favor of the Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act, which would direct federal funding to stem-cell research that does not rely on embryos.

· I voted against the Stem-Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, which would have directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct and support research that utilizes human embryonic stem-cells, regardless of the date on which the stem-cells were derived from a human embryo.

· I voted against amendments offered to the National Defense Authorization Act permitting taxpayer funded military facilities overseas to be used to support abortions on demand for military women and military dependents.

· I voted against amendments providing UN funding to groups that support coercive abortion programs.

In essence, Duncan Hunter wants his own religious and moral views to be codified into law, which does not support liberty. Not to mention that there’s no mention of the Second Amendment on that site where he outlines the issues important to him.

Now, you might be a religious person that supports his views, but that doesn't make them right. We all get to have our own views about a lot of topics, it gets dangerous when we want to see them put into law and enforced on others, thereby removing their own right to choose or to experience equal benefits under the law. It's not liberty when you do that, no matter how good a reason you think you've got.

I won't be voting for anyone that wants to infringe on or bend the constitution to support their own agenda, whether it be banning guns in the name of safety or banning content, speech or actions based on dogma or their own personal morals.

As gun owners, we cannot afford to be hypocrites. If we want to argue that the Second Amendment is absolute, regardless of whether or not someone is scared by it, regardless of whether or not it may or may not have an effect on crime (because the ultimate purpose of the Amendment fart outweighs any supposed societal dangers), then either we apply that across the board and forget all this "to protect and preserve the family/decency/morality/institution or marriage" crap right now, or we're not in the right according top liberty, we're simply Rosie O’Donnell and Sarah Brady in the reverse, no better, no worse overall.