Tuesday, January 10, 2012

"Liberal family values ... threatening the future of humanity"

US ambassador to The Holy See Miguel H. Diaz (L) walks past two Swiss Guards as he arrives to the Vatican for the audience to the diplomatic corps on January 9, 2012. Pope Benedict XVI the same day warned that liberal family values were threatening the...

US ambassador to The Holy See Miguel H. Diaz (L) walks past two Swiss Guards as he arrives to the Vatican for the audience to the diplomatic corps on January 9, 2012. Pope Benedict XVI the same day warned that liberal family values were threatening the future of humanity, in a veiled reference to homosexual marriage and adoptions by gay couples.

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http://www.daylife.com/photo/0fqJ3TudCjdbW?__site=daylife&q=Same-sex+Marriage



The Vatican Connection: How the Roman Catholic Church Influences the Republican Party.

Photo (Courtesy) https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb-0__G2oWQeBt4_2GxO8zIuKeiIoRVrbGBLB_i08Dg7IZqQwkjJzncGaWd7EeqUCgWJ5FqKOFEd0oD-cUcpQLQf1GOErny7oXJLQOBx0TQiuWJh0CYvWQFjdmcP6tkfr1jXOSEQ/s1600/reagan+and+pope+john+paul.jpg


John M Swomley on how, in the 1996 elections Robert Dole’s endorsement of the Catholic political agenda, along with a similar endorsement by the Republican Party platform, made the Republican Party in effect a religious or sectarian party, how the Catholic bishops took action to aid the Republican Party and how Henry Hyde, in turn, according to the National Catholic Reporter, invited Catholics to help him develop the party’s 1996 platform.

“The Vatican wants to extend its authority over civil law, not only in countries with Catholic majorities but in others with religiously diverse populations. The Catholic bishops have decided to try to impose papal authority in the United States through the abortion issue.”
From: CHISTIAN ETHICS TODAY, APIRL 1997

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The new evangelical vote

White evangelical voters just aren’t as predictable as they used to be.

That’s the news out of Iowa – and it’s bound to be reflected in Republican primary results all over the country.

The most interesting poll data from theIowa caucuses are these: Mitt Romney won in the cities. Rick Santorum won in the rural areas. In Iowa, where the vast majority of voters qualify as “white evangelicals,” these results can only mean one thing. Conservative Christians who reside in urban areas may have been taught in Sunday school that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a heretical sect, but they’re willing to look beyond those teachings and cast a vote for a Mormon who was once pro-choice. Their brothers and sisters who reside in the country are not. Because nearly 80 percent of Americans live in or near cities, that’s very good news for Romney.

It wasn’t long ago that the people who ran political campaigns knew where white evangelicals lived and what they stood for. They lived in a place called the “Bible Belt” (the southeast, extending west through Texas), and they hated abortion. It was, therefore, easy to knock on their doors, visit their churches, befriend their pastors and mobilize their votes.

These white, Christian, antiabortion voters were “worth their weight in gold,” antiabortion lobbyist Marjorie Dannenfelser once told me, for they were among the most zealous of one-issue voters. They would stand in the rain, raise money and pass out leaflets for antiabortion candidates they supported. They helped usher in the Ronald Reagan era, thanks in large part to the efforts of Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority. Twenty-four years later, Karl Rove produced 4 million white evangelical votes to help George W. Bush win a second term.

But much has changed since 1980. While mainstream pundits continue to imagine evangelicals as a cartoonish demographic and wring their hands over their potency — “Whither the White Evangelicals’ Candidate?” wrote the Huffington Post recently — the evangelicals themselves have moved on.

Following the same path as American Catholics and Jews and other once-insular groups before them, conservative Christians have joined the world. “Their civic engagement has become increasingly sophisticated and broad-gauged,” says Ralph Reed, founder of theFaith and Freedom Coalition, although he adds, “I think they were always more sophisticated than people gave them credit for.”

Thanks in part to Falwell, who encouraged education and political engagement in the name of God, evangelicals — along with other Americans — went to college over the past three decades in unprecedented numbers. They found jobs in America’s cities. (Some of the most visible evangelical ministers in America these days pastor churches in places one didn’t used to associate with evangelicals: New York, Seattle, St. Louis, Minneapolis.)

They made friends with their roommates and colleagues and neighbors who were Jews and Muslims and Mormons and atheists. Many of them grew rich. According to data by theBarna Group, a California-based polling outfit, more than a third of practicing Christians in the District, Austin, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Richmond earn more than $75,000 a year.

The result has been a growing flexibility in the political opinions of urban Christians — although very few would go so far as to call themselves liberal. Many retain a strong evangelical identity as well as a passionate commitment to antiabortion principles, but urban evangelicals are more accepting of religious and cultural differences.

“In these more pluralistic settings,” explains David Kinnaman, Barna’s president, “there tends to be increasing interaction with people of various faith commitments. In order to make those relationships work, evangelicals need not to make as big a point about differences.”

All of this should be a comfort to Romney, because another quality of urban Christians is political pragmatism. “They’re a little less strong in traditional values, and a little more aware of the competitiveness of presidential campaigns,” says John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron. “They may not see Romney as the best candidate, but they may believe he has the best chance to beat Obama.”

So although pundits continue to pontificate on whether evangelicals will be able to vote for a Mormon, urban evangelicals answered the question for themselves four years ago. Barna data from the 2008 primaries prove the point: “The more urban they were, the more coastal they were, the less evangelicals saw Romney’s Mormonism as a barrier,” says Kinnaman.


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December Payroll Jobs Report

Photo (Courtesy) http://dis-dot-dat.net/content/photos/ny/img_5505.jpg



January 6, 2012

The following report is based on the work of statistician John Williams of shadowstats.com.

Today’s (Friday, January 6) payroll jobs report of 200,000 new jobs in December is overstated by at least 82,000 jobs. As approximately 130,000 new jobs are needed each month to stay even with population growth, the December job figures actually indicate that the US economy fell another 12,000 jobs behind.

Forty-two thousand of the reported jobs are the result of a glitch in the BLS seasonal adjustment model that produces a false jump in December “couriers and messengers” jobs.

Forty thousand of the jobs result from the “birth/death” model that BLS uses to estimate the net effect of unreported jobs lost from business closures and jobs gained from new start-ups. The model is structured to represent normal times. During the bottom bouncing of this protracted downturn, the model over-estimates new jobs from start-ups and under-estimates job losses from business failures.

The official unemployment rates (U3 and U6) no longer measure all of the unemployed. The Clinton administration ceased counting as unemployed workers who had given up looking for a job for one year or longer. No discouraged workers are included in the widely reported U3 measure. The U6 measure includes workers who have been discouraged for less than one year.

In other words, the longer an economy is in the doldrums, the less the official unemployment rates are reliable measures of the extent of unemployment. The unemployment rate in December as measured by U3 is 8.5%; as measured by U6 which includes short-term discouraged workers (less than one year) is 15.2%. John Williams’ measure which includes the long-term unemployed is 22.4%.

In other words, the real unemployment rate is 2.6 times the widely reported U3 rate, which is the rate emphasized by policymakers and the financial press.

About Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His Internet columns have attracted a worldwide following.




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Monday, January 09, 2012

Are You Ready?






Are You Ready for the One World Government?
A global government predicted in Revelation is about to rise. This global government, such as the United Nations, would have its own law and government to replace the U.S. Constitution and government.

  • Are mass food riots, social unrest and chaos being used to create a new world order?
  • How are the Bilderberg Group, Council on Foreign Relations and Illuminati involved in this global government?
  • Is it true that a United Nations military force is secretly based inside of America?
  • What about the reports of Russian, Chinese and foreign military troops stationed in the U.S.?
  • Have members of the National Guard and police picked up radio signals from foreign troops that use new radio frequencies that are technically banned from U.S. troops, police and the National Guard?

The Royal Society in England meets to discuss “Weather Control” technology. A special research report prepared for the Army in “Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025” was discussed. Are Weather Weapons already being deployed?

There are numerous technologies that can produce Mass Brainwashing. Is it true that advertisers and government can read your brainwaves when you are watching television?

John Dewey is the father of modern education and social engineering through the school system. Is the real purpose of education to educate or indoctrinate?

  • How close are we to the prophecy of Ezekiel 38, which involves Israel, the Middle East and World War III?
  • Was there really a plan to destroy nationalism and patriotism through mass immigration policies that started 50 years ago?
  • Are environmentalism and climate control wealth redistribution mechanisms?
  • Have the elite really made public statements that their end game is to turn America into a totalitarian Marxist State like China?
  • Are there laboratories around the world in which transhumanism and the interbreeding of animal, human and Nephilim DNA are being used to create cyborgs for warfare?
  • Is there an attempt to censor the science of Earthquake forecasting? What does the science of Earthquake forecasting say about Japan, New Madrid and California?
  • Do the elite plan to destroy over 7.5 billion lives through population control, eugenics, vaccines, food, weakening the immune system, wars, genocide and sterilization? If so, why?
  • Every move, action and thought you make can be monitored through new technology. Are you ready? This DVD offers a personal action plan for you and your family. What steps can you take now to occupy until Jesus Christ comes?

Are You Ready for the Coming One World Economic System?
Are the international bankers controlling government, media, education, science, military and culture for their purposes?
Is it true the bankers plan to seize your property, keep its equity and then turn the nation into renters rather than owners?

This goal has two purposes: (1) Increase the wealth of the bankers by trillions of dollars. (2) In a Marxist Revolution it is essential to destroy belief in God, the family and home ownership. The destruction of home ownership creates the psychological destruction of the human personality as an individual created by God. It degrades men and women into falsely believing they have any value. There is no commitment in “marriage” and no belief in God. After this, people are willing to accept the mark of the beast.

  • Why have you not read very much, except in the Wall Street Journal and sources like this, that George Soros has a Bretton Woods II Plan and the Institute for New Economic Thinking?
  • Why are we not being told about the hidden agenda to create a one world economic system where the international bankers control everything?
  • It is hard to believe that a brutal global dictatorship will be brought into power through a new world financial order and global taxes?
  • If accomplished, this economic plan will plunge the human race into a new Dark Age or Tribulation Period, where a small group of elite seize control of the human race who become worthless slaves. Why would anyone want to do this? Why would anyone want to do what Adolph Hitler did?
  • Does the Bible really predict a coming cashless society and the mark of the beast?
  • Did Lord Jacob Rothschild's 1971 Inter-Alpha Group (whose family line included both banking and the Illuminati) create much of the financial chaos in order to move forward their agenda?
  • Will the current global financial policies lead us into the Tribulation Period?
  • Did Lord Bertrand Russell, atheist and Fabian Socialist, call for nuclear wars and Black-death like plagues to kill millions?
  • Why was Adolph Hitler promoted by Britain and American interests to enforce eugenic policies to kill over 6 million people in the concentration camps? There are powerful global interests carrying out those same policies today!
  • Did Hitler and Russell advocate genocide and euthanasia and the “green movement?”
  • Some of the world’s most powerful billionaires have deliberately undercut the world’s food production. What action plan can you take to survive the Planned World Food Crisis and hyper-inflation?

Are You Ready for the Coming One World Religion?
A highly secretive and occult religious movement is organizing all the religions in the world into one. This coming one world religion, which is happening before our very eyes, will provide the spiritual glue to unite the world’s religions into one so that a one world government and a one world economic system can be implemented. The elite understand that money is a spiritual force and that is why we have the all-seeing eye of Lucifer and the words “New World Order” on the back of the dollar bills.

Millions of children are being indoctrinated into witchcraft and paganism.

The Illuminati, founded in 1776, used the Freemasons to spread their power globally. The Illuminati were behind the French Revolution which produced anarchy and revolution. The Illuminati unleashed the spirit of antichrist, where the people held orgies in churches and paraded a topless woman on a horse, who they called the Goddess of Reason. This was a forerunner of the Communist Revolution. Karl Marx was a Satanist and the Illuminati manuscript provided the principles for the Communist Manifesto. The Italian Communist leader, Antonio Gramsci, had close ties to the Masonic leader, Albert Pike, in America, who predicted three major world wars. The third world war was to happen in the Middle East.

The Third Reich and Adolph Hitler were deeply involved in Satanism and the occult. When the U.S. government brought thousands of Nazi rocketry and mind control scientists to America after World War II, many of these men and women were in the occult or practicing Satanists.

Aleister Crowley, who was called the Beast, was a British agent before World War II who had occult-connections all over Europe. Crowley, whose face is on the cover of the Beatle’s album "Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band," remains a powerful influence today. Members of the occult and Satanism have entered the very highest levels of government, religion and military intelligence around the world.

Finally, the Evangelical Movement has been infiltrated by leaders who promote apostasy, spiritual deception and the doctrines of demons. Entire church movements, popular in Evangelical churches today, are based on occult teachings and Marxist theory!

This DVD answers the question how you and your family can learn to use spiritual discernment to protect yourself from being deceived?


Source
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The Hidden Faith of The Founding Fathers




Uploaded by kegslinger on Mar 15, 2011

"The Hidden Faith of the Founding Fathers" by Adullam Films, written & directed by Christian J. Pinto. The full presentation is 3 hours long, and covers the beliefs of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and John Adams. The film also gives a Biblical view of what these men believed, and how their philosophies are acknowledged in Bible prophecy. Learn more at www.adullamfilms.com


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Saturday, January 07, 2012

GINGRICH: ‘There’s a lot more anti-Christian bigotry today than there is concerning the other side – Daily Caller

NH DEBATE::

By at January 7, 2012 | 8:28 pm |

NH DEBATE:: GINGRICH: ‘There’s a lot more anti-Christian bigotry today than there is concerning the other side –  Daily Caller

MANCHESTER, N.H. — During Saturday night’s GOP primary debate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blasted what he said was anti-Christian bigotry in the media, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry promised to end what he sees as the Obama administration’s “war on religion.”

“The bigotry question goes both ways,” Gingrich said, inserting himself into the discussion after a series of questions related to contraception, gay marriage and gay adoption. The former speaker charged that the focus on social issues indicated media bias.


“And there’s a lot more anti-Christian bigotry today than there is concerning the other side. And none of it gets covered by the news media.”


Gingrich specifically knocked a question about whether the assembled candidates would allow gay couples to adopt.


“You don’t hear the opposite question asked,” he explained.


“Should the Catholic Church be forced to close its adoption services in Massachusetts because it won’t accept gay couples, which is exactly what the state has done? Should the Catholic Church be driven out of providing charitable services in the District of Columbia because it won’t give in to secular bigotry? Should the Catholic Church find itself discriminated against by the Obama administration on key delivery of services because of the bias and the bigotry of the administration?”


Shortly after Gingrich’s attack on the media, Texas Gov. Rick Perry pivoted from a question about whether he would consider a third-party run to promise that if elected president he would end what he called “this administration’s war on religion.”


“When we see an administration that will not defend the Defense of Marriage Act, that gives their Justice Department clear instructions to go take the ministerial exception away from our churches where that’s never happened before, when we see this administration not giving money to Catholic charities for sexually trafficked individuals because they don’t agree with the Catholic church on abortion, that is a war against religion. And it’s going to stop under a Perry administration.”


Follow Jamie on Twitter



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Catholic Solidarity at the New Hampshire Republican Debate

*Tonight's Debate was broadcast on ABC.com.


Gingrich started a spat about the Catholic Church being maligned by the current administration;
Romney followed up by mentioning that in Massachusetts Catholic Charities was impeded from arranging adoptions because of its fundamental beliefs;
Perry jumped on the bandwagon and criticized the Obama administration for stigmatizing Catholic Charities because of its principles of Marriage and Abortion.

Regarding this exchange:
The first respondent is a Catholic, the second one is a Mormon, and the third one who mentioned the Catholic religion is an Evangelical, yet, they all spoke with one voice, defending the Church of Rome.

As I watched and listened to these Republican Presidential Candidates it reminded me of this:


When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.--5T 451 (1885).

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Change your diet, change your life: health issues lead to veganism



NOTE: This information is anecdotal and not intended to be used as a diagnosis or treatment for any condition. Any diet or lifestyle changes should be discussed and monitored by your physician.

Imagine being in your 20s but having bloodwork results that look like those of an out-of-shape middle-aged man. This was the situation in which Stephanie Howard found herself in the early 1990s. Testing showed a cholesterol level of 348, in addition to Stephanie being overweight; this 20-something woman was a heart attack in the making.

Stephanie describes her diet at the time as, "...frozen pizza, frozen burritos, canned chili and boxed noodle dishes." She did not cook and had no interest in learning, as both she and her husband lived the busy-all-the-time lifestyle. This came to a halt when Stephanie was prescribed statin drugs. The drugs weren't effective in lowering her cholesterol, and the side effects were monstrous. Stephanie knew she had to find another solution.

During this time, Stephanie also had begun to explore the Seventh Day Adventist religion. Seventh Day Adventists follow the dietary regime of the Old Testament - in short, they practice a variation of keeping kosher. Many of their meals are meat-free. Stephanie noticed that those Adventists who were serious practitioners of their religion also tended to live long, productive lives. She and her husband joined the church, chose to eliminate meat and animal products from their diets and became vegans.

The transition from eating boxed and "instant" foods to veganism wasn't easy. As Stephanie recalls, "At the time, there were very few vegan resources available. I had to learn to cook." Finding recipes that tasted good was also challenging. She remarked, "...We ended up living on beans, rice and oatmeal."

However, there were significant improvements in Stephanie's health and these changes motivated her to stick with her newly found regimen. "I lost a lot of weight and my cholesterol level dropped over 100 points."

Stephanie and her family have been vegans for 16 years. She has not gone back on statin drugs, and states that her family physician and pediatrician are "very supportive" of her diet and lifestyle choices. She is able to shop at local grocery stores in her area, but admits that she takes advantage of the many local farmers markets during the growing season for fruit and vegetables. She advises anyone who wants to make the kind of change she did to "...take it slow. Go one recipe at a time. Start making your own recipes a little healthier by replacing refined flours and sugars with whole grains and adding more fruits and vegetables. Then try something new - there are so many good vegan, whole-foods cookbooks and the web has thousands of free recipes. Try one a week, and if your family likes it, add it to your menu schedule and you are one step closer." She also advises that the change doesn't have to be "..all or nothing.." and that indulging in a pizza or fast-food hamburger once in a while during the transition shouldn't derail the entire process.

Stephanie has graciously offered the following recipe for lasagne. This and other vegan recipes can be found on her food blog, Give Them Something Better and in her cookbookof the same name.

Lasagne
6 cups Tomato Sauce (recipe follows) or jar of commercial spaghetti sauce
12 lasagna noodles, cooked
1 recipe Tofu Ricotta (recipe below)
¼ cup nondairy parmesan cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly coat a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Ladle 1 1/2 cups Tomato Sauce in the bottom of the prepared dish. Arrange 4 noodles over the sauce. Spread 1/2 of the Tofu Ricotta over the noodles. Repeat layers once.

Top with remaining 4 noodles and cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan, if using.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake 1 hour. Makes 16 servings or one 9-by-13-inch dish.

CHANGE IT UP: Meaty Lasagna: Add a layer of vegetarian Italian sausage in the middle of the Lasagna.

CHANGE IT UP: Stuffed Jumbo Shells or Manicotti: Ladle Tomato Sauce into the bottom of the baking dish; place prepared Jumbo Shells or Manicotti, filled with Tofu Ricotta, on top. Cover with additional sauce and bake until bubbly.

SHORTCUT: Use a jar of commercial spaghetti sauce, Tofutti Sour Cream (in place of the Aioli in the Tofu Ricotta), and oven-ready noodles for a lasagna that comes together in a flash.

Tofu Ricotta
Taste it…adjust the seasonings if you need to. If it tastes good plain, it will be GREAT in the lasagna.
2 packages (14 ounces) water-packed tofu, firm or extra-firm
1 package (16 ounces) frozen spinach, thawed and drained (optional)
1 cup Aioli or commercial soy sour cream or soy mayonnaise
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup cane juice crystals or other sweetener
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
¾ teaspoon onion powder
¾ teaspoon garlic powder

Drain excess water from tofu.

Mash tofu in a large bowl with a potato masher or your hands.

Add remaining ingredients to tofu; mix well. Add additional salt or sweetener if needed.

Tomato Sauce
2 tablespoons oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup green bell pepper, chopped (optional)
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon salt
5 cans (28 ounces) tomatoes (any kind will work--crushed, diced, pureed, or sauce)
2 tablespoons maple syrup or other sweetener

Heat oil in a large stock pot over medium. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic; cook until onions are translucent, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.

Add basil, oregano, and salt to stock pot; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add tomatoes and maple syrup to stock pot; stir well. Add water if needed.

Bring to a boil over high heat; lower to a simmer and cook 1 hour. Makes 12 cups.

NOW & LATER: Freeze half of this recipe so you are one step ahead the next time you make an Italian meal.

Tofutti brand tofu products can be found at the Kroger store on Conner Street in Noblesville, Indiana.


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President Obama Signed the National Defense Authorization Act - Now What?

1/02/2012 @ 11:56AM

President Obama signs the National DefenseAuthorization Act after months of debate.


One thing I love about writing on technology is that it’s a subject always filled with hope and optimism. For every frightening use of technology by oppressive governments there’s a corresponding story about the use of that same technology to overcome oppression.

For every story of police abuse I’ve read, there’s another story about corruption and violence exposed by something as simple as a camera phone.

But can technology help us overcome truly pernicious legislation like the National Defense Authorization Act recently signed by the president?

The National Defense Authorization Act greatly expands the power and scope of the federal government to fight the War on Terror, including codifying into law the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects without trial. Under the new law the US military has the power to carry out domestic anti-terrorism operations on US soil.

“The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it,” the president said in a statement. “I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists.”

Worse, the NDAA authorizes the military to detain even US citizens under the broad new anti-terrorism provisions provided in the bill, once again without trial.

There is some controversy on this point, in part because the law as written is entirely too vague. But whether or not the law will be used to indefinitely detain US citizens domestically, it is written to allow the detention of US citizens abroad as well as foreigners without trial.

“Obama’s signing statement seems to suggest he already believe he has the authority to indefinitely detain Americans—he just never intends to use it,” Adam Serwer writes at Mother Jones. “Left unsaid, perhaps deliberately, is the distinction that has dominated the debate over the defense bill: the difference between detaining an American captured domestically or abroad. This is why ACLU Director Anthony Romero released a statement shortly after Obama’s
arguing the authority in the defense bill could “be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.”


The NDAA Makes the Status Quo Worse

Glenn Greenwald makes a compelling case that the law gives the government truly frightening powers. He notes that section 1022 exempts US citizens from the requirement of military detention but still leaves the option open to the state.

“The only provision from which U.S. citizens are exempted here is the“requirement” of military detention,” Greenwald writes. “For foreign nationals accused of being members of Al Qaeda, military detention is mandatory; for U.S. citizens, it is optional.

This section does not exempt U.S citizens from the presidential power of military detention: only from the requirement of military detention.”

“The most important point on this issue is the same as underscored in the prior two points: the “compromise” reached by Congress includes language preserving the status quo,” he continues. “That’s because the Obama administration already argues that the original 2001 AUMF authorizes them to act against U.S. citizens (obviously, if they believe they have the power to target U.S. citizens for assassination, then they believe they have the power to detain U.S. citizens as enemy combatants). The proof that this bill does not expressly exempt U.S. citizens or those captured on U.S. soil is that amendments offered by Sen. Feinstein providing expressly for
those exemptions were rejected
. The “compromise” was to preserve the status quo by including the provision that the bill is not intended to alter it with regard to American citizens, but that’s because proponents of broad detention powers are confident that the status quo already permits such detention.”

In part the National Defense Authorization Act helps to preserve the status quo established a decade ago with the original provisions in the PATRIOT Act giving the government broad new powers in the so-called War on Terror. In part the bill expands those powers, codifying the use of indefinite detention of foreign nationals and possibly US citizens arrested abroad and at home. In part the bill expands the use of the US military on domestic soil, at once complicating anti-terrorism strategies at home and raising serious questions about the role of the military in law
enforcement.All these things should make Americans – and not just Americans – very nervous about the preservation of their civil liberties. That precarious balance between security and liberty is looking ever more tilted toward the former and away from the latter.


The History of Anti-Terrorism is Bad News for Civil Liberties

Just as troubling, these laws suggest that the legal apparatus available to us is insufficient to the task. While due process may work for any other criminal act, terrorism is unique and requires new and expanded powers that ignore the Constitution. These powers are necessary until “hostilities end” – as though terror itself can ever be extinguished.

In the 1970′s the British government began passing a series of anti-terrorism laws that did many of the same things the US government has done since 9/11. At the time, detention without charge was expanded to seven days. Various other powers of arrest and detention were written into law, and these provisions were expanded gradually through the 1980′s as the British government continued to wage its war against the Irish Republican Army.

Far from wiping these laws from the books when the IRA disarmed, many of these laws were simply reinforced by the 2001 Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act and the 2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act.

The problem with fighting a war on terror is that it’s in many ways a war on ideas. The IRA may have disbanded, but that didn’t stop terror from taking a new shape in the form of Al-Qaeda. Britain’s struggle against Irish dissidents may have been a good excuse for earlier anti-terror legislation, but Islamic radicalism is just as potent a threat.


You Can’t Wage a War on an Idea

In the United States the Cold War had barely ended before the threat of terrorism replaced it and, in some ways, became an even more urgent reason to expand government power at the expense of privacy and civil liberties. Unlike the Cold War, Americans have actually died in the War on Terror. Also unlike the Cold War, the enemy we face is not embodied in another country or people, but rather in a form.

Terrorism is a tactic, not a state. It is used to create overreaction in its targets. The initial reaction by the US government to the 9/11 attacks was understandable but wrong-headed. Over a decade after that national tragedy, the government is still overreacting. Each time we allow our fear to undermine our freedom we concede to the very terrorists we hope to defeat.

“The legislation could also give future presidents the authority to throw American citizens into prison for life without charges or a trial,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders in a statement. “This bill also contains misguided provisions that in the name of fighting terrorism essentially authorize the indefinite imprisonment of American citizens without charges.
While we must aggressively pursue international terrorists and all of those who would do us harm, we must do it in a way that protects the Constitution and the civil liberties which make us proud to be Americans.”


Technology, Social Media, and Grassroots Activism Online Can Help Combat Bad Legislation

Support for the National Defense Authorization Act is decidedly bipartisan.
Opponents like Senator Sanders (an independent who describes himself as a socialist) and Rand Paul (a Republican and a libertarian) also come from both sides of the aisle.
The same people tend to be opponents of other civil-liberty-quashing bills like the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, two bills being debated in congress which would give the government and the industry sponsors of the bills broad new powers over the internet and freedom of speech online.

To me, this underscores the need to look beyond politics as usual.
Technology is changing the way institutions, governments, and individuals interact. The symmetry of power is shifting and governments and non-state actors alike are scrambling to keep up. Sometimes this creates real security threats.
Hacking outfits like Anonymous present a real challenge to governments and corporations. At times these groups may act honorably, attempting to expose corruption. At times they may act without such noble intentions. Either way there is no denying that security is an issue going forward and that the overreaction of governments to a myriad security risks poses its own set of problems and challenges.

I’ve writtenin the past that people concerned with civil liberties should begin to walk away from the old left-right dichotomy entirely and focus on electing civil libertarians to congress whether these are members of the left like Russ Feingold or of the right like Rand Paul. Of course, both Paul and Feingold will fall short of the ideal civil libertarian when it comes down to it, but both are a far cry better than 90% of their colleagues.

We have few options available to us at this point. The NDAA may be challenged in the courts, and this will almost certainly happen if the president (or a future president) actually makes use of the powers related to US citizens. Even then, however, the courts could come down on either side. The Supreme Court is not exactly filled to the brim with civil libertarians.

Until that time, however, we can try to abandon politics-as-usual and focus on electing oliticians who care more about curtailing government excess than expanding government power endlessly in our never-ending War on Terror. And we can use technology, social media, and other tools at our disposal to act outside of politics altogether to work to create alternate institutions and
communities.

Look at what Reddit has done with its boycott of GoDaddy.com – now the online community is planning to unseat a congressman (or two or three) over the SOPA/PIPA legislation. The power of online activism is only just emerging. Technology may only be a tool, but I think we’ll discover that it’s a powerful one.


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