This nation seems to be in a state of flux. The old
constitutional protections guaranteed by the Constitution under The Bill of
Rights have been replaced by Executive Orders and various bills approved by the
House and Senate and signed into law by various Presidents. It is not one
political party, nor one President that is responsible for disposing with the
troubling Bill of Rights that impedes the Federal and State governments
handling of "dissidents". It is an economic class, the richest people in the
land.
The reason I maintain this is because either it is
the wealthiest people that hold office, according to The Center for Responsive
Politics Open Secrets' website;
"About 47 percent of Congress, or 249
current members are millionaires. " In 2010, the estimated median net worth of
a current U.S. senator stood at an average of $2.56 million," according to the
Center's research.
"Despite the global economic meltdown in 2008 and the sluggish recovery that
followed, that's up about 7.6 percent
from an estimated median net worth of $2.38 million in 2009 " and up 13 percent from a median net
worth of $2.27 million in 2008. " Fully 36 Senate Democrats, and 30 Senate
Republicans reported an average net worth in excess of $1 million in 2010.
The same was true for 110 House Republicans and 73 House Democrats." ( ABC
News )
The reason for this is because our election process
in this nation is fundamentally flawed. There has been no effective Campaign
Finance Reform since 2002, and the Citizen's
United ruling from the Supreme Court
has devastated the election process. Money controls our government, the people
be damned. When the only viable candidates are from the two parties that rule
this nation, voting becomes little more than an afterthought.
Americans are now witnessing the aftershock from failing
to address this situation. We as a people must ask this one overriding question
that has plagued us since the beginning of time; Cui bono? (who benefits?). Let
me answer that question, it sure isn't us.
Witness the passage of the NDAA and the subsequent
court battles of those principled individuals that are trying to stop it. The
NDAA is an infringement on our liberties yet only a handful of Americans
realize how important it is to overturn this terribly offensive and
liberty-robbing provision. We hear of no challengers to this provision in the
U.S. House of Representatives or in the U.S. Senate. While the vote in the
Senate was 67 for and 29 against, and the vote in the House was 283 to 136,
only Rand Paul stood up against the Act and tried to put in a provision
excluding US citizens. He said this about the provision;
"When you're accused of a crime in our country you get a trial, you get a
trial by a jury of your peers, no matter how heinous your crime is, no matter
how awful you are , we give you a trial."
Apparently, Congress doesn't think so, as his amendment
was ignored. We hear almost nothing from the Congressmen and Senators that
voted against this provision slipped into the National Defense Authorization
Act in 2012.
How does this affect ordinary Americans? Well, when
the government grabs the authority to have the military pick you up and hold
you without trial or legal representation if you support al Qaeda or (vaguely) "associated
forces" until this charade called "The War on Terror" is over, it can cause one
to take pause. I for one, curtailed most of what I wanted to write until my
wife and I got our passports. I imagine that many people in this nation also
thought twice about the increase of governmental power.
At this time in our history we are witnessing
another governmental creep toward total control. The use of drone strikes against American citizens without due process
is being debated, not in Congress, but on the internet, on left wing and right
wing sites alike. This situation, along with the President's authority to
blast anyone he deems to be an "enemy" to kingdom come, is against everything
this nation has stood for it its history. The order to execute an American, without
due process, is a travesty of justice. The sad fact is that this has already
been done!
The extra-judicial killing of On September 30, 2011 a
drone strike in Yemen killed American citizens Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan.
Both individuals resided in Yemen at the time of their deaths. The executive
order approving al-Awlaki's death was issued by the Obama administration in
2010 and challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for
Constitutional Rights in that year. The U.S. President issued an order,
approved by the National Security Council that al-Awlaki's normal legal rights
as a civilian should be suspended and his death should be imposed, as he was a
threat to the United States. The reasons provided to the public for approval of
the order was Al-Awlaki's links to the 2009 Fort Hood Massacre and the 2009
Christmas Day bomb plot, the attempted destruction of a Detroit-bound
passenger-plane. Telegraph
UK
While it can be argued
that Anwar al-Awlaki was a "terrorist" and a traitor, his sixteen-year old son (Abdulrahman
al-Awlaki), who was blown to pieces by an American drone a week later, could
not be justified. In fact both killings (the father and the son) can't be
justified! Killing Americans (no matter what the government claims they have
done) is not only against the Constitution, but against everything this nation
was founded on!
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