Airing Date Jan.14, 2012
To place $16 trillion into perspective, remember that GDP of the United States is only $14.12 trillion. The entire national debt of the United States government spanning its 200+ year history is "only" $14.5 trillion. The budget that is being debated so heavily in Congress and the Senate is "only" $3.5 trillion. Take all of the outrage and debate over the $1.5 trillion deficit into consideration, and swallow this Red pill: There was no debate about whether $16,000,000,000,000 would be given to failing banks and failing corporations around the world.
The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve.
Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
Audit
http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation
Source: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-696
FULL PDF on GAO server: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11696.pdf
Senator Sander’s Article: http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3
"Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
First Amendment
NDAA - National Defense Authorization Act
The relevant sections of the bill are 1021 and 1022.
* Section 1021 asserts the President’s authority to arrest suspected (not convicted) terrorists and gives him the option to choose whether or not they even get a trial, and if so, what kind of trial.
* Section 1022 requires that a certain class of terrorist get no trial. Instead they must be held in military prisons, for as long as this President, or any future President desires.
SECTION 1021
Section 1021 is very expansive in its reach. It “includ[es] any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.”
* Who is “any person?”
* What is a “belligerent act?”
* What is “direct support?”
One could be safe in assuming these words mean whatever a creatively-minded prosecutor, a flexible judge, and an ignorant jury define them to mean — except that, under this act, one might never get as far as a court hearing.
These terms will be defined by the bureaucrats in power.
They could be used against political opponents.
1021 has no exceptions. There’s not even a hint of an exception. Remember, that section gave the President the authority to arrest you and a set of options on how you were to be handled. These choices are completely divorced from the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments, as well as the Treason provisions of Article III. The President’s new alternatives are:
1. Detention without trial by the military
2. Trial by a military commission
3. Trial by some other court of the President’s choosing
4. Shipping you off to a foreign jurisdiction
SECTION 1022
1022 is a requirement — a binding mandate upon the President.
Lauren Digioia was the only arrested person I could identify.
At 2:15 the undercover bald guy gives the signal and the police officer moves in to arrest.
NDAA Protests End In Ironic Swarm Of Arrests
Congress and President Obama have declared war on Americans. The last time America was declared a military zone President Roosevelt authorized the internment of Americans with Executive Order 9066, issued February 19, 1942.
NDAA 2012 repeals the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th amendments to the Constitution. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land and declares our right to due process. No law shall supersede it. We have a right to our day in court with a jury of our peers.
One of the causes of the American Revolution was the denial of the right to jury trial, the use of admiralty courts (military tribunals) instead, and the application of the laws of war to the colonists. After that experience, and being well aware of the infamous Star Chamber in English history, the Founders ensured that the international laws of war would apply only to foreign enemies, not to the American people. Thus, the Article III Treason Clause establishes the only constitutional form of trial for an American, not serving in the military, who is accused of making war on his own nation. Such a trial for treason must be before a civilian jury, not a tribunal.
The international laws of war do not trump our Bill of Rights. We reject as illegitimate any such claimed power, as did the Supreme Court in Ex Parte Milligan (1865). Any attempt to apply the laws of war to American civilians, under any pretext, such as against domestic “militia” groups the government brands “domestic terrorists,” is an act of war and an act of treason.
Senator Graham said that America is part of the battlefield, and as such, Americans can be captured, interrogated, and killed with no due process. Senators Graham, Kyl, and McCain say the law of war (military law) applies to us.
The senators claim the 2001 AUMF is in accordance with 1971 Non-Detention Act and allows Americans to be detained indefinitely without acces to an attorney. They argue that the Supreme Court has held that the President has the constitutional authority to detain enemy combatants, including U.S. citizens.
Non - Detention Act 1971:
No citizen shall be imprisoned or otherwise detained by the United States except pursuant to an Act of Congress
The senators say the act of congress that allows you be detained indefinitely is the AUMF 2001. So, no, the paragraph below from NDAA 2012 Section 1021 does not protect you. We are talking about the law of war, according to our congressmen and president, not criminal law which includes due process.
(d) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this section is in
tended to limit or expand the authority of the President
or the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military
Force.
Senator Graham: Under domestic criminal law, we can't hold someone indefinitely.The only way to do that legally is under the law of war.
http://www.emptywheel.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/111201-Senate-NDAA-Debate.pdf
Senator Kyl - I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a statement that makes very clear where military detention is necessary: to allow intelligence gathering that will prevent future terrorist attacks against the American people.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: Wartime Detention of Enemy Combatants--Including U.S. Citizens Who Join the Forces of the Enemy--Is An Established Practice That Is Clearly Constitutional.
Senator Kyl goes on to say:
Nothing precludes the United States, the executive branch, from thereafter deciding to try the individual as a criminal in the criminal courts with all the attendant rights of a criminal. But until that determination, it cannot be denied that the executive has the authority to hold people as military combatants, gather intelligence necessary, and hold that individual until the cessation of hostilities.
In military custody, by contrast, not only are there no lawyers for terrorists. The indefinite nature of the detention--it can last as long as the war continues--itself creates conditions that allow effective interrogation. It creates the relationship of dependency and trust that experienced interrogators have made clear is critical to persuading terrorist detainees to talk. Navy Vice-Admiral Lowell Jacoby, who at the time was the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, explained how military custody is critical to effective interrogation in a declaration that he submitted in the Padilla litigation. He emphasized that successful noncoercive interrogation takes time--and it requires keeping the detainee away from lawyers.
http://www.emptywheel.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/111201-Senate-NDAA-Debate.pdf
"Hear our cry Obama!" and "deliver us Obama," the Gamaliel Foundation chants in December 2008. The Foundation is the community organizing group that helped sponsor Obama's initial work in Chicago.
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A tax on toilet paper; I kid you not. According to the sponsor, "the Water Protection and Reinvestment Act will be financed broadly by small fees on such things as . . . products disposed of in waste water." Congress wants to tax what you do in the privacy of your bathroom.