It is high time for all the partisan enablers of the two-party duopoly to admit their culpability in fostering and supporting the current state of fascism we now serve under via the oligarchic regimes you have voted for.
If you voted for Reagan, Clinton, either Bush, or Obama, you are the reason we have the onerous, stifling government we currently have. If you voted for Grassley, Harkin, Durbin, or Obama for Senate, we have you to thank for the mess we are in. If you voted for an incumbent in the last election, you have forsaken your countrymen and future generations.
We have a rogue government, a government that has been allowed to discard the fundamental principle of our founding documents: a government that governs by the consent of the people and follows the rule of law.
Evidence of these claims is Obama's speech at the National Archives last week, during which he trial-ballooned his plan for justifying prolonged detention without prosecution under a new "legal regime." Obama said that after September 11, 2001, "our government would need new tools to protect the American people, and that these tools would have to allow us to prevent attacks instead of simply prosecuting those who try to carry them out." Standing in front of the founding documents no less, Obama eloquently rolled out his plan to ratchet up even more unconstitutional presidential authority.
Like George W. Bush, Obama continues to perpetuate the myth that his job is to keep us safe: "My single most important responsibility as president is to keep the American people safe." Well, not so much, Mr. President. Here is the oath of office you took: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." (Article II, Section 1, Clause 8.)
The executive branch is not charged with keeping us safe. Yes, the president is the commander-in-chief, but only when we are at war via a vote of Congress. That has not happened since World War II. It is specifically mandated in the Constitution that only Congress shall have the authority to "provide for the common Defence and general welfare of the United States." (Article I, Section 8.)
So as long as Americans swallow this falsehood that the president is there to keep us safe, and as long as you continue to vote for a candidate from the two-headed, two-party beast, our rights and freedoms will continue to be usurped. Is Obama honoring his oath when he seeks to establish a new "legal regime" for the "prolonged detention" of those "who cannot be prosecuted yet who pose a clear danger to the American people"?
Granted, this is in the context of the "terrorists" incarcerated at Gitmo. But this is a supremely slippery slope Obama is taking us down. Americans have been brainwashed into thinking we are at war with "terror" and that anyone the executive branch deems a "potential terrorist" is an enemy combatant and thus worthy of detaining. We can thank the legislation that no one in Congress who voted for it read before they passed it, the USA PATRIOT Act, for this erosion of our liberties.
Many in power easily justify detaining brown-skinned Arabs who in their own country are murderers, rapists, and very bad people. But they "cannot be prosecuted" for a reason. There is no evidence of a crime against America or its people. These people must be subject to "indefinite detention" because of something they might do in the future, according to the president who wants to "leave behind the legacy that makes it easier for future presidents to keep this country safe."
Start applying this same set of standards for detention of your neighbors. Take the Homeland Security Department's "Lexicon for Domestic Terrorists" and apply that to everyone you know. If you or your friends are pro-life, pro-animal rights, pro-environment, pro-gun, anti-tax, or anti-Federal Reserve, or are a "leaderless resistor," you could be deemed a domestic terrorist, just like those who sit in cells in Gitmo. And thus you could be subject to Obama's proposed new "legal regime" and "process of periodic review, so that any prolonged detention is carefully evaluated and justified."
So imagine an America where you can be detained indefinitely for a crime you might commit in the future, as deemed by the same government that simultaneously violates your inalienable rights to due process of law.
Do you feel any safer now?
A full transcript of Obama's remarks is available here: http://www.rcreader.com/commentary/obama-remarks-at-national-archives/
