Well, it is now official, the president CAN kill any of us, any time he wishes.
From a report by the Center for Constitutional Rights spring 2011 newsletter, comes the following; "Judge rules the YES indeed, the US has unchecked authority to carry out targeted killings of Americans".
There you have it folks, Gobomber can kill any of us, any time he wishes to do so.
Judge John Bates said that the court had no role to play in reviewing the executive branch's actions and determining the right of a U.S. citizen not to be arbitrarily killed by his own government.
This very same Judge Bates did ask, during oral arguments; "How is it that government surveillance of a U.S. citizen overseas requires review by a judge; government seizure of overseas property of a U.S. citizen can be challenged in front of a judge; but government killing of a U.S. citizen overseas is beyond the purview of a judge?" Even the judge has a hard time coming to terms with the government position on this matter. The report goes on to say that the judge left his question unanswered.
While the case that was under review back in November 2010 dealt with the father of a U.S. citizen in Yemen that was brought by that persons father, it has far reaching implications for us all. IF the government does, in fact, have the authority to kill a U.S. citizen while in a foreign country, it is a very, very small step to hold that the same government has the authority to kill a U.S. citizen here in the old US of A as well.
Just imagine that folks. Piss off the government and rather than lock you up, they will just have you killed instead. Hey, it is much less costly and a whole lot quicker than a trial and jail time.
As it is the Gobomber administration that is arguing FOR this "authority" just who out there in America can honestly say that he is "better" than Shrubbie was?
No doubt some of the "tea party" clowns will cheer this decision. What about the rest of us? What about those of us who still believe in the Constitution and the rule of law?
This no longer looks at all like the America I learned about back in high school civics class. Who needs a dictatorship when the government can kill whomever they choose to kill?
America, what a country.
semper fi
36 comments:
Perhaps this is what 'exceptional' really means, Charlie, as in: 'The U.S. is exceptional because its Government can kill its citizens whenever it wants?
How low can America go? I shudder to think.
David,
It is NOT my country. It stopped being that years ago, but now, it just sinks even deeper into the muck.True, it is self-created muck, but I never thought it would get this bad in my life time.
Well, I'll keep shouting about the crimes and injustices as long as I can. What are they going to do to me? Kill me? Big deal. It would almost be flattering to be thought of as so "important" to need being killed by the government.
It's not just Obama. Any of the corporate politicians would go along with this sort of stuff. Obama just stands out because... he's a Harvard Law School trained Constitutional lawyer as well as the Subverter in Chief of our Constitution.
Perfect symmetry with his status as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and War Criminal.
None of this is going to get better, in fact it will continue to get worse, much worse... until we stand up and do something about it.
Guaranteed.
John,
True, it matters not at all who the person is in that office, any of them would love to have that power over us. I agree also that it is going to get worse before it even begins to change for the better. It will be the next generations who will have to sort it out. I am getting to the end of my ride here.
I posted my reply too soon to John. I WILL continue to keep this blog open as long as I can. I didn't mean to imply that I was going to quit the blog.
I think the thing that depresses me the most is the complete lack of outrage. We're well on the way to becoming the Soviet Union under Stalin, and only a handful of us seem to notice or care. Actually, it's worse than under Stalin, because that was an open dictatorship driven by a power-hungry psychotic. Here it's whoever happens to get elected just pushes things a little farther along the way to the gulag, and we all sit around cheering about American exceptionalism like everything is still wonderful.
Nan,
You got that right. It is a creeping type of take over. How does the saying go? A death of a thousand cuts? Just a few "little measures" here, a few more there and before you know it, there is a dictatorship here in the USA. Maybe that is the plan, it sure seems to be how it has gone so far.
I also wonder at the lack of outrage. You would think that there would be a huge uproar at this. Where did this ever make any media inquiry?
I read that Obama has announced his candidacy in 2012 and already been hailed as the Billion Dollar Man... as though that were admirable rather than repulsive.
So I have announced my candidacy for POTUS in 2012 as well.
I hope to hear of your candidacies and platforms.
Oh no he can't, oh hell no. He really needs to read more. For being a "constitutional law" teacher for an ivy league college, he seems to know very little of our unalienable rights, and the requirements for him to retain office. Or the part about acting contrary to the supreme law of the land, an elected official no longer represents the United States government, no hearings, no trial, no appeal, no lawyers, just, no longer a representative. Someone should tell him. Also, since he's impersonating the president of the USA, he's also breaking the law. One more thing, in order to ignore provisions of the constitution, there's a procedure called "amending" which must be followed, otherwise, "it's as if it(the law)never existed". Okay, just one more, those who swore an oath to protect and defend, are obligated to act on illegal activity.
He can kill us quick... and he can kill us slow :
Fukushima: A 'nuclear sacrifice zone'
The Obama administration has proposed $36bn in federal loan guarantees to jump-start the construction of nuclear power plants in the US
Nuclear operator Exelon Corporation has been among Barack Obama's biggest campaign donors, and is one of the largest employers in Illinois where Obama was Senator. The company has donated over $269,000 to his political campaigns.
Obama also appointed Exelon CEO John Rowe to his Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Energy Future.
Illinois, where Obama began his political career, gets approximately half of its electricity from nuclear power, more than any other state.
It currently has 10 operable reactors at six sites. The Quad-cities Nuclear Power Plant, located on the banks of the Mississippi River, is a GE Mark One plant, with the identical design and nearly the same age as the Fukushima reactors.
I hear you, Charlie. This is no longer my country, but at my age and with my lack of financial resources, immigration is out of the question. I, too, thought it would not get this bad in my lifetime, but sadly, I was wrong. I feel pretty helpless at this point--I'm responsible for an elderly parent and am really afraid that participation in any protests could get me arrested, and I can't take that chance. I get background checked before each temp assignment (only work I can get) and an arrest of any kind would be the kiss of death for future employment. My vote doesn't appear to count for anything any more--I have to laugh at people who tell me that voting for a third-party candidate would be a "waste", as if my votes for Democratic candidates have achieved anything positive over the past 30+ years. People our age remember the Voting Rights Act and the peace demonstrations of the 60s as the last time anything was really accomplished in terms of challenging the same creeping darkness that has nearly overshadowed our country in the last 15 years.
And Obama teams with the Reactionary Republican Supremes to
1. rob a man of the settlement he collected for being framed by prosecutors, and nearly executed for murder; and to
2. negate the establishment clause of our Constitution, enabling local governments to fund religious schools by robbing constituents of their right to challenge such unconstitutional actions.
John,
I read your announcement of your candidacy. I'll vote for you. As for myself, I would not take that job for any price. I am not a leader, and I have never wanted to be any sort of boss.
Joe,
I agree that Gobomber "should" know better than the way he has acted as president. I wonder just what constitution he was a scholar of. From his actions since taking office, it does not seem to me that he has even a passing understanding of the US Constitution and the separation of powers set forth in that document. In particular the one that gives Congress the power to declare wars.
I don't see how any person with a functioning brain can vote for Gobomber again. Yes, the elephant gang will not doubt run some nut-ball, still, it will be very hard to give Gobomber another shot at the job. He has shown us all how little he cares for the working class and the Constitution and the rule of law.
Gesneri,
I totally understand just how you feel. Being disabled myself, I wonder how long Social Security will continue to keep paying us. Two years with no cost of living raise and probably none next year either. Of course the prices for everything have gone up, which makes it all the harder for us to get by each month.
Before Sherie died (January 1999) we had some savings, but her cancer operation wiped that out very quick. Now, all I have is Social Security. Well, we do our best to manage, so far.
While my wife would not care for me to get arrested for protesting or for any other reason, I have no job to protect so, I am free to protest and blog on whatever I feel like doing. I do understand how you need to be more careful though. I don't always succeed, but I DO try to see both sides of things.
I'd move to another country also, IF there was one that was any better than the USA. Where to go if not here? Australia? New Zealand? Iceland? Those seem to be the most promising and even they have their own draw-backs. No place is "perfect" of course, but some are better than others. America surely HAS been a huge disappointment for the working class.
Yes, I hear that line about voting for third party candidates myself. I tell them that it is MY vote and I will give it to the person I decide to vote for.
John,
Thanks for the links. Yes, it is easy to see how far down the country has come, and we have not even come close to the bottom yet. Look for things to get even worse. Would that it were not so.
Very interesting article by Ellen Brown, who has been advocating for state banks and the recapture of Seigniorage by the public for sometime, and now notices that perhaps the real reason for the war against Libya is that Libya had practiced just that
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD14Ak02.html
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16267
Charlie, it is unlikely that I will be elected president, or that anyone else other than yourself will notice that I am 'running'. The real point is, as Mango (Manuel Garcia) did, to make a platform that encompasses what you require of a candidate for the job. So I think each of us should 'run' on our own platform, and discuss the merits of each others' platform planks, and work toward a common subset of planks that we can all support in a common platform... and THEN think about who can campaign for the job on that platform. Waiting for the 'pros' to develop a platform for us is probably the stupidest exercise imaginable. Their interests and ours simply do not coincide.
If anyone is interested in Seignorage, or the creation of money, I put up a very good discussion of same here :
http://robinlea.com/pub/Creating_New_Money.pdf
This is apparently what Gadaffi has done in Libya and the reason the mob is in process of hitting him.
When I was growing up in the 1960's and on up. In my family it was a sacred right to vote and you were not only NOT required to tell anyone WHO you voted for, it was your American RIGHT to privacy in the voting booth. Nobody had the right to influence somebody's sacred duty. There were both Democrats and Republicans in my family and I can't tell you who was who. That is how much we valued American Freedom.
Killing American citizens as Policy - on Presidential orders - is Un-American. As well as disgustingly immoral. Nothing shininglightonahill about it. I don't think people will be thronging here like they used to. Aching for American style, "freedom"
Let's keep perfecting our weapons, racism and hatred on the Indians and Mexicanos of the South, that have been walking across the trails forever to wherever there is work. Wall up, drone, Imprison, separate families, kill horrible immigrants trying to get in and steal jobs! Rich F--kers are laughing all the way to the bank. They make money on every aspect of hate. The Southerners that DO make it in are given the most dangerous horrible jobs like in the meat kills and then when they get injured the company doesn't have to pay them Worker's Compensation.
Gee, for a Constitutional Scholar, no Amendments were made to the Constitution? Just a wave of the (One billion dollar) Presidential hand? Kill, I say, kill.
No innocent until proven guilty?
Bradley Manning is proof of that.
Grace,
You said a lot my friend. Thank you for your comments.
When I was younger, Dad would say how he would vote and tell me why. After I did my Marine time, he only once asked, well, more like demanded, to tell me how to vote. That was 1980 and he would not allow the name of Reagan to be said in his house.
He had a more up front experience with that person as the governor of California and by then Dad had become more political. When Reagan was governor I was still in high school and didn't follow politics that closely. Dad convinced me to vote for Carter. Not that I ever even considered voting for Ronnie.
I agree that what Gobomber is doing IS un-American, maybe I should write it like this; unamerican, without capitalizing American. That a president could even think of having that sort of power to kill anybody at any time of HIS choice is beyond disgusting. I am trying very hard to use "politie" terms here. Not easy as this sort of arrogance is highly of the "piss me off" type.
Our country(??) is entering a very nasty time. Just listen to what the damn fool politicians and their moronic "tea party" clowns are saying. It sure does not sound like the America we grew up in. Divide and conquer all over again. Keep the working class and poor folks divided as if they ever realize they are all in the same boat they might rise up and overthrow the ruling class. What we are in IS class warfare.
Charlie, thank you. You have written a timely and poignant post. Politics became a much more open subject by the 1970's in our house. We lived in Santa Cruz, Ca so we had to ration water as well as wear our sweaters and keep our thermostat low so we wouldn't have to depend on foreign oil. ala Carter. It is ingrained in me. I was a rebellious teen when Reagan came along. Then living in the State Capitol, it was obvious the fat cats who benefitted from Reagan and praised excess - And then the rest of us - including unionized state workers, walking on the streets, sharing our downtown with all the people Reagan had released from the State Mental Hospitals! They would wander, not on their meds, but the checks would come out of the State buildings, so there they would stay. Talking to themselves, sleeping in parks. That was the beginning of the desecration we are living in. Poor people not getting the care they need and normal people blaming the sick people. While the Politicians who made it all possible with a swipe of a pen are sunning themselves at their fancy houses while their kids go to the finest schools. Now, people need to be killed! How out of control does it get???
Help! Professor Peabody! Another politician?? The people en masse? My US President can kill me. Or lock me up indefinitely without a trial!
Sorry, I try to be positive or find a positive possibility. Short of something much more personal that doesn't believe in these evil people even though they and their lies are in charge right now. You've got to put them in their place no matter how high and mighty they think they are. The old Emperor's Clothes. Calls em likes you sees em drives them crazy. Although the worse they treat you, the greater their investment in proving that you are a sick person. If they can't "help" you they will make your life hell. Raising your voice will be considered a violence requiring state action. These are dangerous times in ways we never imagined.
The President hasn't announced that we no longer live in the place our civics classes taught us about because some people are still living the dream. He is not going to ruin it for them.
So keep speaking out. You are in good company.
Grace,
It was 1972, after I was out of active duty in the Marines, that Dad and I got talking politics a good deal of the time.
As I said before, when I was still in high school there were more "important" things than politics to think about.
I do remember Reagan kicking the people out of the state mental hospitals. He said it would save money. Didn't work out that way. It cost MORE to lock them in jails than it ever did to keep them in the hospitals. Funny how Reagan went from president of the Screen Actors Guild to being so anti-union. All for the banksters and war industries. Power to the rich and powerful.
True, we are NOT in the old republic of our high school civics days.
I'll try to post more on this soon.
Thanks again for your comments, you have got me to thinking, and that is always a very good thing.
I saw this one this morning Charlie...
Obama approves drone strikes in Libya
and the horrific realization set in : Libya is a 'dry-run' for Iran.
If Americans let The Assassin in Chief/Nobel Peace Prize Laureate get away with his aggressive war in Libya... Iran is surely next.
I say horrific because... we the people, exercised by our 2 minute hates, are letting him get away with it.
As Gates says in the link above, the deployment of attack drones to launch strikes was purely for “humanitarian reasons.” No problem.
Not only is American looking, sounding and acting more un-American... it - and NATO - are looking, sounding, and acting more like Oceania every second.
Talking Revolution: The New Elderly Generation can Provide the Spark for an American Rising
The title looked nuts to me, but the proposal is sound, says I.
What do you all think?
John,
This sounds like a good idea. Mr. Lindorff has had a few good ones before and this is his best yet.
Of course I would say that, as I am on Social Security and Medicare, have been for some time due to being disabled.
I agree that we need to stand together on this and not allow the politicians to destroy both of those programs.
As to Medicare for ALL, I have been for this for many years. It IS the best idea for the health of all Americans. We DO need a true national health care system.
Thanks for the link.
Yeah, Charlie, the pitch is sound. And the effect of uniting us "children of all ages", as PT Barnum or whoever used to say is very good.
But the part that caught my eye was :
' The way I see it, we in the Baby Boom generation - those people born between 1946 and about 1964 - are just starting to hit retirement age. In another 10 years, we will become a political force twice as powerful and certainly more than twice as noisy and demanding as the current senior lobby. '
You know they say that seniors vote in higher proportion to our numbers than other cohorts, and we're taking it in the neck, and we've been around long enough to recognize that.
Wouldn't it be amazing if salvation came through our hands!
I am beginning to think in terms of a world-wide people's movement. Have a look and let me know what you think...
Can there be an end to our troubles?
They say that Japan is 'greyer' than the US. They've been bullshat on nuclear energy and that will serve as their tinder point... those folks remember being atom bombed... just as medicare/social-security does for us.
John,
Thanks for this link.
I agree with the comment that;"as long as the people are apathetic, the rich can do as they please". OK, not a direct quote, but I did catch the meaning of it.
Somehow we need to get folks to wake up and see just what IS being done to our planet. I agree with you it IS a global mess that needs ALL of us to unite for the common good of all peoples. It is also true that our generation must take a stand and now, not at some future time as it will be way too late then. Our time IS now and we have to do all we can to start to make changes.
Under the heading of "This is not my country anymore"...
US senators call for Gaddafi’s assassination
Two 'good' links on Libya (there can be nothing good about Yet Another US War Crime), in case you haven't seen them :
The war on Libya, the US-NATO agenda and the next great war, and
Libya: All about oil, or all about banking?
The state never has the right to kill its citizens, because the state gets its authority to rule from "the consent of the governed". Right? So, killing citizens just turns the whole system on its head.
Clearly, the corporations and bigwigs who run the whole shebang have fought hard to get their way on this matter. They wanted supreme authority and now they've got it.
It looks like they've succeeded in turning the Bill of Rights into a meaningless museum piece with no real meaning. It's depressing.
The people who run America are evil, and that's not a word that an old atheist like me likes to use very often.
Mike, As a fellow non-believer, I understand your reluctance to call anything evil. Don;t be that way my friend. Evil does exist and you don't need to be religious to see that fact.
Yes, the Bill of Rights has been shredded of late. The corporations do run the country now. They got what they wanted, but there is some small bits of good news. Some folks are starting to talk back to the Congress critters at the recent town hall meetings. See "Think Progress" web site for details.
Now, laws in this country apply to all, not a selected few. This means we, any one of us, have that same privilege, or, I guess it's a "right" now. We can just kill anybody we feel is a danger to liberty, or a threat to our constitutional rights. Watch out Washington.
Joe,
Good one. I sure stirred the pot with this post. More comments on this than I ever had before. Thanks to all of you.
Just one more point. The framers thought it was so important to not kill anybody without due process, they put it in our constitution twice. Once in amendment 5, and again in amendment 14. Both reference "life". And that judge was so wrong in his lunacy about not having jurisdiction. The constitution is the supreme law of the land, he took an oath to defend it.
Joe,
I agree on that. Of course this is Amerikkka in 2011. In other words, what matters the oath? What is that little oath when there is an empire to run?
I took an oath when I enlisted. I swore to defend the Constitution against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. When I was released from active duty, even after I got my final discharge, I was never asked to revoke that oath. Must be why I get so damn upset at the crap the government is doing.
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