http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...-of-the-free/2012/01/04/gIQAvcD1wP_story.html Turley makes a lot of good points in this. Among the ten reasons is the NDAA's indefinite detention clause. Slowly but surely, we're moving towards a police state.
I think police state is a harsh way of saying it. We still have more civil rights then almost any other nations, on top of we basically founded civil rights. We do need to stand up for our rights though and stop letting our corrupted goverment destroy this country.
Yup. The U.S. has been sliding inexorably to the right and away from true democracy for half a century. The job is almost complete now.
Every year, the State Department issues reports on individual rights in other countries, monitoring the passage of restrictive laws and regulations around the world. Iran, for example, has been criticized for denying fair public trials and limiting privacy, while Russia has been taken to task for undermining due process. Other countries have been condemned for the use of secret evidence and torture. Even as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any definition of a free nation must include their own the land of free. Yet, the laws and practices of the land should shake that confidence. In the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an expanded security state. The most recent example of this was the National Defense Authorization Act, signed Dec. 31, which allows for the indefinite detention of citizens. At what point does the reduction of individual rights in our country change how we define ourselves? While each new national security power Washington has embraced was controversial when enacted, they are often discussed in isolation. But they dont operate in isolation. They form a mosaic of powers under which our country could be considered, at least in part, authoritarian. Americans often proclaim our nation as a symbol of freedom to the world while dismissing nations such as Cuba and China as categorically unfree. Yet, objectively, we may be only half right. Those countries do lack basic individual rights such as due process, placing them outside any reasonable definition of free, but the United States now has much more in common with such regimes than anyone may like to admit. These countries also have constitutions that purport to guarantee freedoms and rights. But their governments have broad discretion in denying those rights and few real avenues for challenges by citizens precisely the problem with the new laws in this country. The list of powers acquired by the U.S. government since 9/11 puts us in rather troubling company. Assassination of U.S. citizens President Obama has claimed, as President George W. Bush did before him, the right to order the killing of any citizen considered a terrorist or an abettor of terrorism. Last year, he approved the killing of U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaqi and another citizen under this claimed inherent authority. Last month, administration officials affirmed that power, stating that the president can order the assassination of any citizen whom he considers allied with terrorists. (Nations such as Nigeria, Iran and Syria have been routinely criticized for extrajudicial killings of enemies of the state.) Indefinite detention Under the law signed last month, terrorism suspects are to be held by the military; the president also has the authority to indefinitely detain citizens accused of terrorism. While the administration claims that this provision only codified existing law, experts widely contest this view, and the administration has opposed efforts to challenge such authority in federal courts. The government continues to claim the right to strip citizens of legal protections based on its sole discretion. (China recently codified a more limited detention law for its citizens, while countries such as Cambodia have been singled out by the United States for prolonged detention.) Arbitrary justice The president now decides whether a person will receive a trial in the federal courts or in a military tribunal, a system that has been ridiculed around the world for lacking basic due process protections. Bush claimed this authority in 2001, and Obama has continued the practice. (Egypt and China have been denounced for maintaining separate military justice systems for selected defendants, including civilians.) Warrantless searches The president may now order warrantless surveillance, including a new capability to force companies and organizations to turn over information on citizens finances, communications and associations. Bush acquired this sweeping power under the Patriot Act in 2001, and in 2011, Obama extended the power, including searches of everything from business documents to library records. The government can use national security letters to demand, without probable cause, that organizations turn over information on citizens and order them not to reveal the disclosure to the affected party. (Saudi Arabia and Pakistan operate under laws that allow the government to engage in widespread discretionary surveillance.) Secret evidence The government now routinely uses secret evidence to detain individuals and employs secret evidence in federal and military courts. It also forces the dismissal of cases against the United States by simply filing declarations that the cases would make the government reveal classified information that would harm national security a claim made in a variety of privacy lawsuits and largely accepted by federal judges without question. Even legal opinions, cited as the basis for the governments actions under the Bush and Obama administrations, have been classified. This allows the government to claim secret legal arguments to support secret proceedings using secret evidence. In addition, some cases never make it to court at all. The federal courts routinely deny constitutional challenges to policies and programs under a narrow definition of standing to bring a case. War crimes The world clamored for prosecutions of those responsible for waterboarding terrorism suspects during the Bush administration, but the Obama administration said in 2009 that it would not allow CIA employees to be investigated or prosecuted for such actions. This gutted not just treaty obligations but the Nuremberg principles of international law. When courts in countries such as Spain moved to investigate Bush officials for war crimes, the Obama administration reportedly urged foreign officials not to allow such cases to proceed, despite the fact that the United States has long claimed the same authority with regard to alleged war criminals in other countries. (Various nations have resisted investigations of officials accused of war crimes and torture. Some, such as Serbia and Chile, eventually relented to comply with international law; countries that have denied independent investigations include Iran, Syria and China.) Secret court The government has increased its use of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has expanded its secret warrants to include individuals deemed to be aiding or abetting hostile foreign governments or organizations. In 2011, Obama renewed these powers, including allowing secret searches of individuals who are not part of an identifiable terrorist group. The administration has asserted the right to ignore congressional limits on such surveillance. (Pakistan places national security surveillance under the unchecked powers of the military or intelligence services.) Immunity from judicial review Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has successfully pushed for immunity for companies that assist in warrantless surveillance of citizens, blocking the ability of citizens to challenge the violation of privacy. (Similarly, China has maintained sweeping immunity claims both inside and outside the country and routinely blocks lawsuits against private companies.) Continual monitoring of citizens The Obama administration has successfully defended its claim that it can use GPS devices to monitor every move of targeted citizens without securing any court order or review. (Saudi Arabia has installed massive public surveillance systems, while Cuba is notorious for active monitoring of selected citizens.) Extraordinary renditions The government now has the ability to transfer both citizens and noncitizens to another country under a system known as extraordinary rendition, which has been denounced as using other countries, such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan, to torture suspects. The Obama administration says it is not continuing the abuses of this practice under Bush, but it insists on the unfettered right to order such transfers including the possible transfer of U.S. citizens.
These new laws have come with an infusion of money into an expanded security system on the state and federal levels, including more public surveillance cameras, tens of thousands of security personnel and a massive expansion of a terrorist-chasing bureaucracy. Some politicians shrug and say these increased powers are merely a response to the times we live in. Thus, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) could declare in an interview last spring without objection that free speech is a great idea, but were in a war. Of course, terrorism will never surrender and end this particular war. Other politicians rationalize that, while such powers may exist, it really comes down to how they are used. This is a common response by liberals who cannot bring themselves to denounce Obama as they did Bush. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), for instance, has insisted that Congress is not making any decision on indefinite detention: That is a decision which we leave where it belongs in the executive branch. And in a signing statement with the defense authorization bill, Obama said he does not intend to use the latest power to indefinitely imprison citizens. Yet, he still accepted the power as a sort of regretful autocrat. An authoritarian nation is defined not just by the use of authoritarian powers, but by the ability to use them. If a president can take away your freedom or your life on his own authority, all rights become little more than a discretionary grant subject to executive will. The framers lived under autocratic rule and understood this danger better than we do. James Madison famously warned that we needed a system that did not depend on the good intentions or motivations of our rulers: If men were angels, no government would be necessary. Benjamin Franklin was more direct. In 1787, a Mrs. Powel confronted Franklin after the signing of the Constitution and asked, Well, Doctor, what have we got a republic or a monarchy? His response was a bit chilling: A republic, Madam, if you can keep it. Since 9/11, we have created the very government the framers feared: a government with sweeping and largely unchecked powers resting on the hope that they will be used wisely. The indefinite-detention provision in the defense authorization bill seemed to many civil libertarians like a betrayal by Obama. While the president had promised to veto the law over that provision, Levin, a sponsor of the bill, disclosed on the Senate floor that it was in fact the White House that approved the removal of any exception for citizens from indefinite detention. Dishonesty from politicians is nothing new for Americans. The real question is whether we are lying to ourselves when we call this country the land of the free.
Here are the (real) Top Ten reasons: 1. Obama 2. Biden 3. Clinton 4. Geithner 5. Panetta 6. Holder 7. Salazar 8. Vilsack 9. Bryson 10. Solis
You do realize that both the Patriot Act and the NDAA received support from the majority of both parties, right? If you keep thinking in terms of party, you're just helping to keep the status quo in place. Both parties play for the same team. Obama and Romney both serve corporate and authoritarian interests.
yeah but more and more of them are being taken away from us everyday and were getting much closer every year to a police state.If cops beating citizens around the country just for having peaceful protests and kicking old people out of wheelchairs is not being in a police state,then what is?
Well, big banking is the most powerful special interest. There's also the military industrial complex. Our system has been thoroughly bought by various industries. The extent to which both parties have been bought is as easily seen as simply looking at who their donors are. There are only minor differences between Democrats and Republicans in actual actions, even if their rhetoric is different. They occasionally differ on matters of social policy, but even that has become less contentious.
that would be the council on foreign relations.they are a TEAM of people in high positions of power around the world who have an agenda to get rid of people that are not rich and powerfil like them.If you are not rich and corrupt,then they consider you the enemy.everyone of the candidates running for office except for paul is a CFR member.Obama,Mccain,Bush,Clinton,they all are as well.
The corruption stems from the influence of MONEY in our politics. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has issued a reasonable call to action.
You should try to do more than just use soundbites like "stand up for our rights". For example Chris hedges is suing Obama and Panetta. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_im_suing_barack_obama_20120116/ "The act authorizes the military in Title X, Subtitle D, entitled Counter-Terrorism, for the first time in more than 200 years, to carry out domestic policing. With this bill, which will take effect March 3, the military can indefinitely detain without trial any U.S. citizen deemed to be a terrorist or an accessory to terrorism. And suspects can be shipped by the military to our offshore penal colony in Guantanamo Bay and kept there until the end of hostilities. It is a catastrophic blow to civil liberties."
The only way to get rid of a corruption this deep would too be to purge the entire political body and reform it with clean uncorrupted ideas. Its like cancer you have to cut that crap out or it spreads. Well we are terminal. Also, on another note what do people think of rewriting the constitution every 19 years like Jefferson proposed. I believe it could stop the cancer from growing or at least slow it down.
good luck on that.that wont go nowhere.there is one different law for politicians than there is for us. especially presidents,they can get away with ANYTHING.
This idea might have worked in his day, but I would definitely not trust our current politicians with this concept. It's a good thing that the Constitution can't be changed easily. Sanders's idea is a very good one, although it will be very difficult to get it through.
Except we have a hissy fit when he sleeps with his secretary. God, America depresses me sometimes. We don't do anything about our dying economy our "Super World Power" status falling out of are hands, but god help are president if he gets some on the side.
the american sheeps disgust me,they stand by and live in denial that we arent a free country and just watch them destory our country more and more and dont do anything about it.were where we are today because the stupid american people let our government be taken over by the elite and watched it happen.
Honestly we haven't been a constitutional republic for decades now...but the last decade is the worst. Ubama sure hasn't helped much in that regard...in fact he's the biggest usurper of the Constitution we've ever had in this country. The other problem is "When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic". Benjamin Franklin.
Well, I wouldn't say that the elite takeover was recent -- it's just more blatant than normal. No matter what system you devise, there will be an elite ruling class. That much is a given. It's only a matter of how your system limits their ability to oppress the majority. Lately, these restrictions have been dwindling.
Don't worry, so long as Libertarians as seen as sane, rational people our government can't get too out of control.
As long as politicians have favors to sell, they'll sell them. There will always be ways to sell one's power to the highest bidder. It may not be for cash, but there are perks one can obtain for one's self or for one's family, friends and other contributors. Removing money from politics isn't going to fix the problem. Removing power by downsizing government is the only way. As for campaign finance reform, almost all legislation toward that end will be skewed to help incumbents and to reduce the ability of third parties to make themselves heard.
