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By ADAM LIPTAK, The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Constitution has seen better days.
Sure, it is the nation’s founding document and sacred text. And it is the oldest written national constitution still in force anywhere in the world. But its influence is waning.
In 1987, on the Constitution’s bicentennial, Time magazine calculated that “of the 170 countries that exist today, more than 160 have written charters modeled directly or indirectly on the U.S. version.”
A quarter-century later, the picture looks very different. “The U.S. Constitution appears to be losing its appeal as a model for constitutional drafters elsewhere,” according to a new study by David S. Law of Washington University in St. Louis and Mila Versteeg of the University of Virginia.
The study, to be published in June in The New York University Law Review, bristles with data. Its authors coded and analyzed the provisions of 729 constitutions adopted by 188 countries from 1946 to 2006, and they considered 237 variables regarding various rights and ways to enforce them.
“Among the world’s democracies,” Professors Law and Versteeg concluded, “constitutional similarity to the United States has clearly gone into free fall. Over the 1960s and 1970s, democratic constitutions as a whole became more similar to the U.S. Constitution, only to reverse course in the 1980s and 1990s.”
“The turn of the twenty-first century, however, saw the beginning of a steep plunge that continues through the most recent years for which we have data, to the point that the constitutions of the world’s democracies are, on average, less similar to the U.S. Constitution now than they were at the end of World War II.”
There are lots of possible reasons. The United States Constitution is terse and old, and it guarantees relatively few rights. The commitment of some members of the Supreme Court to interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning in the 18th century may send the signal that it is of little current use to, say, a new African nation. And the Constitution’s waning influence may be part of a general decline in American power and prestige.
In an interview, Professor Law identified a central reason for the trend: the availability of newer, sexier and more powerful operating systems in the constitutional marketplace. “Nobody wants to copy Windows 3.1,” he said.
In a television interview during a visit to Egypt last week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court seemed to agree. “I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012,” she said. She recommended, instead, the South African Constitution, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or the European Convention on Human Rights.
The rights guaranteed by the American Constitution are parsimonious by international standards, and they are frozen in amber. As Sanford Levinson wrote in 2006 in “Our Undemocratic Constitution,” “the U.S. Constitution is the most difficult to amend of any constitution currently existing in the world today.” (Yugoslavia used to hold that title, but Yugoslavia did not work out.)
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/us/we-the-people-loses-appeal-with-people-around-the-world.html?_r=3&partner=MYWAY&ei=5065By ADAM LIPTAK, The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Constitution has seen... more
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In 2010, 37 active Marines in the US Military committed suicide. Had Pvt. Lazzaric T. Caldwell been successful in his attempt, he would’ve been number 38.
Since discharged, Pvt. Caldwell has battled post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses. In his latest battle, however, he’s fighting the Armed Forces.
Pvt. Lazzaric T. Caldwell was stationed in Okinawa, Japan when he attempted suicide in 2010. Caldwell has survived thankfully and is still around, but so are his troubles. He is taking the Marines to court after the US Military sentenced him to 180 days in jail for his attempted suicide.
Caldwell argues that the military should be trying to help servicemen who have been driven to suicide due to active duty, not punish them. Taking into account the US Armed Forces as a whole, Marine suicides are only but a fraction. In 2009, the figure of active-duty suicide extended to 309, and the number of attempts — more than 1,000 — exceeded the number of battlefield casualties that year.
Although the Military insists that they are trying to bring that number down, Caldwell says sending their own men and women to jail for their actions isn’t the right way to do it.
"I thought it was unfair and I thought it was just kind of morally wrong to punish somebody for something of that nature," Caldwell tells The Associated Press. "Seeing the kind of state I was in, there should have been a way of getting help instead of just a punishment.”
Navy Lt. Mike Hanzel is representing Caldwell as the discharged Marine attempts to fight that sentence and agrees that this is something that should be highlighted. As more servicemen attempt suicide, the Military should be digging for solutions, not dishing out sentences.
"I think it definitely touches important issues which are affecting all the branches of the armed forces right now," Hanzel adds to the AP via email.
"(I)f you succeed in committing suicide your service is treated honorably and your family receives full benefits," Hanzel says. "(I)f you are unsuccessful in a genuine suicide attempt, you can receive a federal conviction and get a bad-conduct discharge and jail time, which is what happened to Pvt Caldwell."
Caldwell was not sentenced for his suicide attempt, per se. Instead, rather, he was brought to military tribunal with the charge of "intentional self-injury without intent to avoid service.” The government says this charge is in place to maintain discipline within the armed forces.
Retired Army Judge Advocate Victor M. Hansen tells the AP that cases such as Caldwell rarely make it to court. "It happens but it doesn't happen a lot," he says.
Despite the government’s insistence that the rule is good for the armed forces, the Marine Corps experienced a record number of suicide attempts in 2011. In the last year, a total of 175 active servicemen attempting to take their lives.
http://rt.com/usa/news/suicide-attempt-caldwell-military-461/In 2010, 37 active Marines in the US Military committed suicide. Had Pvt. Lazzaric T.... more
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Police in the Kaliningrad region have mistaken a marathon for a gay pride parade.
Several athletes gathered in the town center of Sovetsk on Saturday for the run, but were approached by police, who detained some of them, including teenagers.
Police later explained they had been falsely tipped-off about a planned but illegal gay pride march in the town.
Organizing pride parades has long been a big problem among activists in Russia’s gay community.
In Moscow, they have been unsuccessfully applying for permission to hold a parade for several years – with former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov branding them "satanic" on one occasion.
With Luzhkov replaced by Sergey Sobyanin, the LGBT community hoped for change, but the new mayor deemed such events in the capital to be “unnecessary.”
The bans have always been warmly supported by the Russian Orthodox Church, with its officials supporting what they say is the authorities' right to ban any propaganda based on its potential moral damage to the people.
In July 2011, Russia paid 30,000 euros in compensation to gay activists over its decision to ban so-called pride marches.
The fine was issued by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that the decision to repeatedly ban gay pride parades in 2006, 2007 and 2008 was unlawful.Police in the Kaliningrad region have mistaken a marathon for a gay pride parade.... more
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EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) — A child was charged with murder and felony assault in the fatal stabbing of a 12-year-old boy, authorities said Wednesday.
San Diego County district attorney's office spokesman Steve Walker declined to say if the defendant was the victim's 10-year-old neighbor who was taken into custody shortly after the stabbing. The neighbor is the only person who has been identified by homicide investigators as a suspect.
A detention hearing was scheduled for Thursday in juvenile court.
The 12-year-old died Monday, a little more than an hour after he was stabbed in the 10-year-old's driveway in a quiet, kid-friendly neighborhood in El Cajon, east of San Diego.
The victim slept at the boy's home for two nights before he was attacked at the end of the holiday weekend, said Cody Vales, a close friend of both boys. He said they were "like best buddies."
Vales, 16, said the 10-year-old appeared calmer since he began taking a new medication about three weeks ago, becoming "a new kid." He said the younger boy wasn't one to pick a fight but exploded when he felt provoked.
Vales said the boy once punched him in the face for accidentally bumping his pelvis when they were jumping on a trampoline. The boy threw a tantrum when he spilled a cup of water inside his house and was asked to clean up.
"If you pushed his buttons and cussed him out, he'd just lose it on you," Vales said.
The 10-year-old liked to play football and practice Muay Thai boxing and jujitsu, Vales said. He was muscular and a little short for his age.
The 10-year-old's adoptive mother, who lived with the boy and her father, was the only person who knew how to calm him, Vales said. She hugged him and reassured him that everything would be all right.
"The nicest woman you'd ever meet," Vales said. "If it was anybody else, they wouldn't be able to put up with (him)."
The victim's mother told U-T San Diego that she knew the 10-year-old and his mother well.
"Please don't make it out that he was this terrible human being," Lisa Carter told the newspaper. "He's not some monster."
The neighborhood in San Diego's foothills is one of modest, aging one-story homes on narrow, winding roads. The two boys played often with others at a playground clubhouse in the mobile home park where the victim lived. They sometimes pretended to be pirates.
It is unusual for children so young to kill. Law enforcement agencies reported 11 homicides nationwide by children 12 and younger in 2010 — the same number as in 2009 and 2008, according to FBI data.
James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern University in Boston, said that 1976 through 2010, 242 homicides were committed in the United States by children 10 and younger, according to his analysis of FBI statistics. Of those, 48 percent of victims were family, 20 percent were acquaintances and 8 percent were friends.
Fox said there are typically no telltale signs to predict such acts of violence.
"Overwhelmingly the most common element is just an argument," he said. "It's the same motivation why kids fight."
California requires that children be at least 14 to be charged as adults, said Shaun Martin, a University of San Diego law professor. State law allows children to be detained until they turn 25 if tried and convicted as juveniles.
http://news.yahoo.com/child-charged-murder-san-diego-area-death-005500719.htmlEL CAJON, Calif. (AP) — A child was charged with murder and felony assault in... more
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Beginning earlier this morning at midnight, Wednesday, January 18, 2012 some major Internet companies did something historical - by going dark for 24 hours as part of an online protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA.Beginning earlier this morning at midnight, Wednesday, January 18, 2012 some major... more
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Cass Sunstein wrote a paper in 2008 advocating thought and speech control through goverment enforcement titled Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures.
In it, Sunstein recommends a number of bizarre ways in which the government could "ban conspiracy theories including “infiltrating” social network websites, chat rooms and message boards; called "cognitive infiltration,”
The find comes as a government document reportedly relates the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s command center routinely monitors dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, WikiLeaks and news sites including the Huffington Post and Drudge Report.
Sunstein said government agents “might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action.”
Sunstein defined a conspiracy theory as “an effort to explain some event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role.”
Some “conspiracy theories” recommended for ban by Sunstein include:
•“Holocaust denial"
•“Anti-Israel sentiments"
•“9/11 Truth"
•“The theory of global warming is a deliberate fraud”
•“The view that the Central Intelligence Agency was responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy”
•“The 1996 crash of TWA flight 800 was caused by a U.S. military missile”
•“The Trilateral Commission is responsible for important movements of the international economy”
•“That Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by federal agents”
•“The moon landing was staged and never actually occurred”Cass Sunstein wrote a paper in 2008 advocating thought and speech control through... more
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by Ryan Gallagher - 05 February 2012
In the last twelve months it has attacked government websites in Syria, declared cyber war on a brutal Mexican drug cartel, and exposed an anti-WikiLeaks "dirty tricks campaign" allegedly plotted by a prominent US security firm. But on Friday, Anonymous, a diffuse network of internet hackers, reached a new level when it intercepted and leaked a conference call between FBI agents and Scotland Yard detectives.
The astonishing feat - confirmed as genuine by the FBI - was apparently carried out after the hackers breached email accounts belonging to the authorities. In doing so, they were able to snoop on communications being exchanged between forces involved in a joint international anti-hacking operation across England, Ireland, Holland, France, Denmark, Sweden and America. In a piece of surreal real-life theatre, the tables were embarrassingly and dramatically turned. The investigators became the investigated; the watchers became the watched.
The call in question, which lasts around 16 minutes, is one of the boldest leaks ever produced by the hackers, and it may also be one of the most revelatory. A fascinating glimpse into a highly classified world, it shows the extent to which the Metropolitan police is willing to collaborate with its foreign counterparts as part of cyber-crime investigations, even if doing so means interfering with the British judicial process. At one point during the call, for instance, one of the Scotland Yard detectives tells his FBI colleagues that they secretly delayed an ongoing court case involving two UK-based suspected hackers - Jake Davis and Ryan Cleary - at America's behest.
"Following some discussion with the New York office, we're looking to try and build some time in to allow some operational matters to fulfil on your side of the water," the Scotland Yard detective is quoted as saying. "We've got the prosecution making an application in chambers, i.e. without the defence knowing, to seek a way to try and factor some time in, that won't look suspicious." He goes on: "Hey, we're here to help. We've cocked things up in the past, we know that."
The FBI has previously declined to comment on whether it would pursue extradition of Cleary or Davis, both of whom are facing a series of charges in Britain for their alleged involvement with Anonymous and its affiliated offshoot, LulzSec .
The call suggests, however, that the US could indeed be building its own case against the hackers. Davis in particular, who stands accused of being the audacious LulzSec spokesperson known online as "Topiary", would no doubt be wanted by the Americans. Over a two-month period in 2011, LulzSec perpetrated a series of high-profile attacks on the websites of US-based multi-national corporations and state agencies - including the CIA and the US senate - making it a prime target for cyber-crime investigators within the FBI.
Prior to the leaked call, it was clear that Davis's legal team already suspected US involvement on some level. This was made apparent last month, during a short hearing at Southwark Crown Court, when Gideon Cammerman, Davis's lawyer, expressed concern about outside interference, asking prosecutors that any "letters of request from a foreign jurisdiction" are presented to him when evidence is formally exchanged on 30 March, prior to Davis and Cleary entering pleas on 11 May. (A letter of request is a method used by a foreign court to seek judicial assistance, such as to obtain information or a witness statement from a specified person.)
Responding to concerns raised by Cammerman, a source within the Crown Prosecution Service said that they could not officially comment on the matter of foreign involvement until after 30 March, but stressed both prosecution and defence had a "common interest in the case being tried here [in the UK] effectively," hinting that any possible US extradition request could hinge on the outcome of the British trial.
In the meantime, the key question is whether Anonymous is sitting on more hacked information as explosive as the conference call, which, depending on its content, could have potentially massive repercussions.
To some extent, the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic have now been put on the back foot. Likely rattled and aghast that their own private conversations were hacked by the very hackers they are paid to investigate, they will be apprehensive about what could come next.
Cleary's lawyer, Karen Todner, has starkly warned that "whole cases could be blown apart" as a result of future security breaches; Anonymous, as ever, has promised more revelations are yet to come.
"You think we're done? Fuck no," tweeted one of its most prominent hackers, Sabu, on Friday. "Truth is we're still in the agents (sic) mailbox right now."
Ryan Gallagher is a freelance journalist based in London. His website is hereby Ryan Gallagher - 05 February 2012
In the last twelve months it has attacked... more
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I'm under no illusion that we'll ever be able to get rid of Obama, but this should shake some of the pro-Obama crowd up a bit.
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When Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush on June 9, 2008, the 35 had been selected from drafts of nearly twice that many articles.
President Obama has accumulated his own massive list of high crimes and misdemeanors that were unavailable for Bush's list (thing's like openly murdering U.S. citizens, launching massive drone wars, selectively and abusively prosecuting numerous whistleblowers as spies, holding Bradley Manning naked in isolation, attacking Libya without so much as bothering to lie to Congress, etc.).
Nonetheless, it is instructive to review the 35 Bush articles in the Obama age. It quickly becomes apparent that Obama has either exactly duplicated or closely paralleled most of the 35. Here's what I mean:I'm under no illusion that we'll ever be able to get rid of Obama, but this... more
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A federal jury has awarded $22 million to a New Mexico man who was kept in solitary confinement for two years and forced to pull his own tooth after being arrested for drunken driving in Dona Ana County.
Civil rights attorney Matt Coyte said the jury awarded Stephen Slevin, 58, the damages Tuesday after a six-day trial in Santa Fe.
Jess Williams, spokesman for Dona Ana County, declined comment other than to say the county plans to appeal.
"We have believe we have strong legal issues to raise with the appeal," he said.
Slevin was arrested while driving through the southern New Mexico county in August 2005. He ended up in solitary confinement because he was suffering from depression and someone checked a box on a form indicating he was suicidal, Coyte said.
Slevin was given some drugs for depression but never saw a mental health professional, Coyte said. He said his client wrote letters for months seeking help, but they were ignored.
"By January 2006, his last letter goes out looking for help. Then he falls into this delirium. He was there for the next 20 months," Coyte said.
Coyte said that in May 2007, Slevin was sent to a mental health facility in Las Vegas, N.M., for two weeks but then was returned to the Dona Ana County jail and solitary confinement.
"He immediately decompensates," Coyte said. "He sends off another letter at this point asking for medical care. ... He is forced to pull his own tooth. He rocked it back and forth over a period of eight hours before he was able to pull it out of his mouth."
Slevin was finally released in June 2007, Coyte said. He was never convicted.
"He entered this facility with overt symptoms of mental depression," Coyte said. "But that's not the issue. ... He was stuck in a 6-foot-by-11-foot cell with a concrete bench for a bed. And he sat in that cell. We had documentary evidence that he didn't get out for anything — for recreation, a shower — for months at a time."
http://news.yahoo.com/nm-man-pulled-own-tooth-jail-awarded-22m-224826036.htmlALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A federal jury has awarded $22 million to a New Mexico... more
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By David Edwards
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he expects all undocumented immigrants to leave the country through a program of “self-deportation.”
During an NBC Republican presidential debate in Florida on Monday, The Tampa Bay Times‘ Adam Smith noted that the candidate has said that all undocumented immigrants should leave the country, but has said that he would not “round up people and deport them.”
“So if you don’t deport them, how do you send them home?” Smith wondered.
“Well, the answer is self-deportation,” Romney replied. “People decide that they can do better by going home because they can’t find work here because they don’t have legal documentation to allow them to work here.”
“Isn’t that what we have now?” Smith asked. “If somebody doesn’t feel they have the opportunity in America, they can go back anytime they want to.”
“Yes, we would have a card that indicates who’s here legally,” Romney explained. “And if people are not able to have a card and have that through an E-Verify system to determine that they are here legally then they are going to find that they can’t get work here. If people can’t get work here, they’re going to self-deport to a place where they can get work.”
At a campaign event in Iowa last month, the former Massachusetts governor outlined his plan to allow immigrants the chance to receive a green card if they “go back home.”
“For those that have come here illegally, they might have a transition time to allow them to set they affairs in order, and then go back home and get in line with everybody else,” Romney said. “They start in the back of the line, not at the front of the line.”
“We’re not going to go across the country and round people up. It’s just too big of a task. There are what? Eleven, 12, 15 million — who knows the total number? But what we are going to do is that we are going to give people a chance to transition to be able to go home to get in line and then, ultimately if they would like to, to have a green card to come into this country legally.”
As Mother Jones‘ Adam Serwer pointed out, having a immigrants deport themselves is a conservative idea that has been around at least since 2005, when it was pushed by the Center for Immigration Studies.
“Although immigration reform advocates would prefer a solution that involves a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants already here, Romney and his top immigration advisers believe they can remove millions of people through heavy-handed enforcement that makes life for unauthorized immigrants intolerable,” Serwer wrote.
“But make no mistake, when Romney is discussing ‘self-deportation,’ he’s talking about creating a United States where parents are afraid to register their kids for school or get them immunized because they might be asked for proof of citizenship. He’s talking about the type of country where local police can demand your immigration status based on mere suspicion that you don’t belong around here. ‘Self-deportation’ is just a cleaner, less cruel-sounding way of endorsing harsh, coercive government polices in order to make life for unauthorized immigrants so unbearable that they have no choice but to find some way to leave.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/24/romney-advocates-self-deportation-for-undocumented-immigrants/
Watch this video from NBC News, broadcast Jan. 23, 2012.
"Sure!!! Great Idea DoucheBag, that's like asking GW and Cheney to turn themselves in at the Hague!!!"By David Edwards
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Mitt... more
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Who would get the money?
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BP Plc (BP/), the operator of the Macondo well that caused the worst U.S. oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, may reach a settlement with the U.S. for as much as $25 billion, Morgan Stanley said.
The company and the Department of Justice will probably agree on a sum of $20 billion to $25 billion before the trial scheduled to start on Feb. 27, analyst Martijn Rats said in a note published today. The figure, which includes civil charges, criminal penalties and fines under the Clean Water Act, exceeds the $12 billion that BP set aside for these costs, he said.
BP took about $40 billion in charges related to the April 20, 2010, blowout on the Deepwater Horizon rig and set up a $20 billion fund for victims of the spill. The higher-than-expected cost of a settlement will prevent BP from raising its dividend, Rats said.
The result of the trial, “would be particularly uncertain and difficult to predict,” Rats wrote in the note. “Given the large amounts involved, we believe both BP and the DoJ will find the associated risk unattractive.”
A settlement will probably come after BP announces fourth quarter results on Feb. 7, Rats said. BP has already settled with four of the six other companies involved in the spill.Who would get the money?
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BP Plc (BP/), the operator of the Macondo well that... more
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Ron Paul took a day off from the campaign trail on Wednesday, not to pause from politics, but to urge his colleagues on Capitol Hill to overturn the provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that allows indefinite detention for Americans.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or the NDAA, was inked by President Barack Obama on New Year’s Eve, despite immense opposition from Americans who were concerned by vague language that could allow the commander-in-chief to use military forces to domestically police the United States. Under Section 1021 of the NDAA, any person, US citizen or not, can be held without trial by American armed forces if they are suspected of being engaged in hostilities against the country by al-Qaeda or associated forces.
Opponents of the act — and there are many — have questioned the language of the specific section, as it could be written to allow the president to enforce the law to imprison anyone suspected of any crime that could be considered by the right person in office to be an act of terror. President Obama said that he would not abide by this rule, but despite a signing statement that his administration won’t act in that manner, it does not mean that the promise will be upheld.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero called Obama’s approval of the legislation is "a blight on his legacy," insisting that “he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,” and the Council on American-Islamic Relations called the bill an “ill-conceived and un-American legislation” that will “forever be seen as a stain on our nation’s history — one that will ultimately be viewed with embarrassment and shame.” Additionally, this week RT reported that noted journalist Chris Hedges has filed a lawsuit against the White House over the legislation, questioning the legality of the authorization and calling it “a catastrophic blow to civil liberties.”
On Wednesday this week, however, Ron Paul spoke from Capitol Hill, not South Carolina where the rest of his Republican Party rivals were campaigning before the state’s primary scheduled for this weekend. While in Washington to vote against raising the debt ceiling, Congressman Ron Paul also used the opportunity to go after Obama for signing the NDAA and offered a proposal that, if passed, would strike Section 1031 off the Act.
The move makes Paul not just the first frontrunner in the race for the GOP nomination to speak out against the act, but the first congressman to openly offer a solution to the legislation since it was authorized into law.
Paul began his address on Wednesday by noting that the National Defense Authorization Act was “quietly signed into law by the president on New Year’s Day,” sarcastically saluting it by adding, “and what a way to usher in a New Year.”
“Section 1021 provides for the possibility of the US military acting as a kind of police force on US soil, apprehending terror suspects – including Americans — and whisking them off to an undisclosed location indefinitely,” said Paul.
“No right to attorney, no right to trial, no day in court.”
While GOP contender Mitt Romney said during a debate from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina last week that he would have also authorized such legislation, Congressman Paul went over his time limit on stage in urging Americans to pay attention to the dangerous provisions included in the Act. In front of the debate crowd, Paul told the US not to lose faith in the country’s judicial system. From Washington only a week later, Congressman Paul asked his peers to think about America’s past once more, asking, “Have we not tried in civilian court and won convictions of hundreds of individuals for terrorist or related activities?” He added to his fellow legislature that this transformation away from a country founded on the ideals of the Constitution would soon lead America on the road to a place no one would wish it goes.
“This is precisely the kind of egregious distortion of justice that Americans have always ridiculed in so many dictatorships overseas,” said Paul, comparing it to the gulag system of the Soviet Union.
“Is this really the kind of United States we want to create in the name of fighting terrorism?” asked the congressman from Texas.
While Hedges attacked Obama in drafting his explanation of the lawsuit, Paul spoke from the Capitol that his own peers in Congress are just as responsible for crafting the NDAA and corrupting others lawmakers into signing it, even as they themselves openly acknowledged the dangers of the act.
“Sadly, too many of my colleagues are too willing to undermine our Constitution to support such outrageous legislation,” said Paul. “One senator even said about American citizens picked up under this section of the NDAA, ‘When they say, “I want my lawyer,” you tell them, “Shut up. You don't get a lawyer.”’ Is this acceptable in someone one who has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution?” he asked. The congressman in question was Senator Lindsay Graham, who did indeed have such vile words in encouraging others to sign the Act. “For those American citizens thinking about helping al-Qaeda, please know what will come your way: death; detention; prosecution,” explained Senator Graham while the Act was originally up for discussion.
Sadly, prosecution could very well be the last step in an instance where an American is imprisoned under the NDAA. In Section 1031, citizens can indeed be held indefinitely, and as we’ve learned with the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that term of detainment could easily extend a decade, if not longer, without a trial ever being ordered. Over 170 prisoners are still held at Gitmo, including some that have been there without charge since the US began installing suspected war criminals there more than ten years ago. Under Section 1031, your neighbor, uncle or yourself could be the next person to don an orange jumpsuit and Ron Paul recognized how detrimental this is to American liberty.
In his closing remarks Wednesday, Paul explained that he was without a doubt opposed to acts of terrorism. “I recognize how critical it is that we identify and apprehend those who are suspected of plotting attacks against Americans. But why do we have so little faith in our justice system?” he asked.
Paul added that he wished to continue going after terrorists, but said, “let us not abandon what is so unique and special about our system of government in the process.”
“I hope my colleagues will join my effort to overturn the shameful Section 1021,” concluded the congressman.
http://rt.com/usa/news/ron-paul-ndaa-detention-209/Ron Paul took a day off from the campaign trail on Wednesday, not to pause from... more
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Chicago Teen Beating http://snipurl.com/21rjcpb Gang Shouting
Racial Slurs Attacks Teen, Video Posted On YouTubeChicago Teen Beating http://snipurl.com/21rjcpb Gang Shouting
Racial Slurs Attacks... more
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The High Court has ruled in favour of the Metropolitan Police over an appeal in the 'kettling' case brought by G20 demonstrators following the 2009 protests.
Student Hannah McClure and Josh Moos, a campaigner for the Plane Stupid group, both attended the protests and won a High Court case declaring officers had used 'violent [and] unjustified force' to contain them.
However, Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls, Lord Justice Hughes and Lord Justice Sullivan sitting at the Court of Appeal have now ruled that the High Court's decision was flawed.
'Kettling' is when demonstrators are contained or corralled inside police cordons and prevented from leaving.
It was used by officers to restrain protesters at a Camp for Climate Action during the G20 summit nearly three years ago, in Bishopsgate, central London.
At the time of the decision, which did not outlaw kettling, the police expressed concern that it could have an impact on their ability 'to prevent disorder within protests'.
On the same day, Ian Tomlinson died after a protest in which he was struck by PC Simon Harwood. The demonstrations were at a separate, more explosive, G20 protest at the Royal Exchange in London.
However, the High Court had ruled police had no reason to 'kettle' protesters at the climate camp, which was more peaceful but nevertheless saw demonstrators held behind a cordon for up to four hours later into the evening.
'Kettling' tactics continue to be advocated by police forces and some kettling was in evidence during the summer riots in 2011.
VIDEO: How police kettling looks to protesters (amateur footage)The High Court has ruled in favour of the Metropolitan Police over an appeal in the... more
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Beginning earlier this morning at midnight, Wednesday, January 18, 2012 some major Internet companies did something historical - by going dark for 24 hours as part of an online protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. Ray Suarez discusses the planned blackout with Ben Huh, the CEO of the Cheezburger Network, a participating company, and NBC Universal's Rick Cotton, who supports the legislation as written.Beginning earlier this morning at midnight, Wednesday, January 18, 2012 some major... more
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Amid significant pressure from tens of thousands of internet users and major web behemoths like Google, Facebook, and Reddit, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is, in its current form, Dead on Arrival:
Misguided efforts to combat online privacy have been threatening to stifle innovation, suppress free speech, and even, in some cases, undermine national security. As of yesterday, though, there’s a lot less to worry about.
The first sign that the bills’ prospects were dwindling came Friday, when SOPA sponsors agreed to drop a key provision that would have required service providers to block access to international sites accused of piracy.
The legislation ran into an even more significant problem yesterday when the White House announced its opposition to the bills. Though the administration’s chief technology officials officials acknowledged the problem of online privacy, the White House statement presented a fairly detailed critique of the measures and concluded, “We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.” It added that any proposed legislation “must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet.”
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Though the administration did issue a formal veto threat, the White House’s opposition signaled the end of these bills, at least in their current form.
A few hours later, Congress shelved SOPA, putting off action on the bill indefinitely.
Sourced From Washington Monthly via The Daily SheepleAmid significant pressure from tens of thousands of internet users and major web... more
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Brace Yourselves: The great Reddit blackout of 2012 is nigh. The site's administrators announced that they would shut down the website on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST. The Daily Blender will be joining in the fight. Will you join with all of us? Stop American Censorship.Brace Yourselves: The great Reddit blackout of 2012 is nigh. The site's... more
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Jessica Ahlquist, Teenage Atheist, Wins Case To Remove Prayer Banner From Cranston High School
First Posted: 1/14/12 08:47 AM ET Updated: 1/14/12 04:55 PM ET
By Kimberly Winston
Religion News Service
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(RNS) A federal judge ruled Wednesday (Jan. 11) in favor of a teenage atheist who sought the removal of a prayer banner from her Rhode Island high school.
Attorneys for Jessica Ahlquist, 16, argued that a banner on display in Cranston High School West's auditorium titled "School Prayer" and addressing "Our Heavenly Father" is a violation of the Constitution and the Supreme Court's 1962 decision banning state-mandated prayer in school.
Lawyers for the school district argued that the banner had hung in the school since the 1960s and was more secular than sacred.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux disagreed and ruled that the banner should be removed immediately. He also upbraided school officials for holding community meetings about the mural that "at times resembled a religious revival." At one meeting, several school officials read from the Bible or declared their faith. Ahlquist needed a police escort to leave one meeting.
"I am hopeful that this case can be looked back on in the future and encourage others to stand up for their rights as well," Ahlquist said from the Providence office of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented her.
Ahlquist had to leave Cranston High School West due to threats, but said she is considering a return.
Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State hailed the ruling as "a 40-page slam dunk."
Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, praised Ahlquist. "She fought for the rights of nonbelievers and religious minorities and is an example for everyone."
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Jessica Ahlquist, Teenage Atheist, Wins Case To Remove Prayer... more
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By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
In an appearance in New Hampshire on Monday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney reminded voters that he has “personal experience” in hiring undocumented immigrants.
And if that weren’t strange enough, Romney then immediately suggested that he wonders about immigration status every time he hears someone speaking with “an accent.”
“The first priority: get the fence built,” he said, responding to a woman’s question about immigration policy. “At the same time, have an employment verification system so that we know who’s here legally and who’s not here legally. I have personal experience with this. You don’t know who is here legally. You don’t have a way of telling. If someone comes and they, they speak with an accent, you say, ‘Well, are you here legally or illegally?’ And they tell ya — well, how do you know?
“So, I want an employment verification system with a card where it indicates if they’re here legally, if they’re here illegally, what their work status is so you can hire them. If they’re not here legally, you know you don’t hire them. And we need to have that kind of system or we don’t know who’s here legally or not. So, those are the first few things.”
One key problem with Romney’s answer: his handlers probably don’t want him reminding voters that he had a team of undocumented immigrant workers taking care of his lawn for over a year, even after a reporter notified him of their status.
It took two visits by The Boston Globe before Romney decided to fire his former landscaping company — a misstep that has haunted him on the campaign trail.
But Romney’s “personal experience” in paying undocumented immigrants didn’t stop there.
When Romney was CEO of Bain Capital, a venture firm best known for buying up large businesses, selling off their most valuable assets and firing all their workers, he found his company paying illegal workers at a subsidiary in Providence, Rhode Island. Bain-owned Waters Corps. had been employing the services of Aid-Maintenance Co. for cleaning services — and Aid-Maintenance Co. had a long history of hiring undocumented immigrants.
Luckily for Romney, Bain did not own Aid-Maintenance Co., it was merely paying them. Much like his scrape with The Boston Globe, in this case too he claims ignorance, even though the CEO of Aid-Maintenance Co. was fined over $130,000 in the years before he accepted a contract with the Bain-owned firm.
Another basic issue with Romney’s response: the program he proposed already exists.
It’s called E-Verify, and it works by cross-referencing the Social Security and Homeland Security databases for basic employment information workers are required to submit before they can be put on payroll. The system serves the dual purpose of validating an individual’s citizenship and eligibility to work if they’re not a citizen, meaning there is already a card that signifies one’s legal work status.
If an employer doesn’t use that, then they’re probably not interested in knowing their employees’ citizenship status and could be held accountable by the federal government for hiring ineligible workers. First time offenders can be fined up to $2,000 per worker, and the fee doubles on second offense.
If Romney did know of this program and is actually calling for another one that’s similar or larger, it’s not clear what that might be. Either he’s proposing that the federal government begin issuing special identification cards to each citizen qualifying them to work in the U.S., or he’s proposing a federal mandate to the states, which would seem to go against his closely held views on states’ rights.
Problem is, Romney doesn’t elaborate on his official campaign website, and the only mentions of immigration to be found on his “jobs” page are references to “human capital” and the importance of attracting immigrants with advanced degrees. The only other mention of immigration, in his foreign policy plan, simply states that Romney would build a border fence and use the military in tandem with Mexican troops to escalate prosecution of the U.S. drug war.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/10/romney-i-have-personal-experience-hiring-undocumented-immigrants/
This video was published to YouTube on Monday, Jan. 9, 2012.
"Yeah, I hear the same Bull Sh*t at work... We have three of them and as far as the owner will tell you: "I am an employer... Not an Investigator" I say Total BS!!!!"By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
In an appearance in New Hampshire... more
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