Land of the Free?

The National Anthem;  Americans  sing it at the start of every sporting event the words are known by all Americans adult and school child alike. Do we really know what the meaning of the song is? Do we take the words and their meanings for granted? The last line of the song “ The land of the free and the home of the brave”,  Are we truly free, are we really brave? That’s how the song ends, well my fellow Americans i do not believe we are truly free and i do not believe we are really brave, if we are then we would be marching in the streets with pitchforks and rifles in-hand seizing our federal and state capitols, arresting our political leaders for there treasonous behaviors and the laws that have eroded our freedoms that the countries founders sought and held so dear in their harts and minds.

We are currently under assault from the political leaders that “we the people” have elected and entrusted with our freedoms that should be “self evident” and should be “endowed by our creator”. Americans have turned into sheep following the herder only to have their rights as sovereign U.S. citizens sheared away.

Arpril 18, 2011 downtown Miami was invaded by black helicopters at 09:15 no warning was given and no explanation was offered other than “no comment” Residents in the neighborhood saw and heard several military-style, “pitch-black” helicopters flying around and hovering on the top of buildings in Miami’s Brickell section.

This was a training exercise the first of many planed by federal officials. The operation which included the Miami-Dade police’s SE Regional Domestic Security Task Force. (Homeland Security) This was a top secret affair, no briefings to city agencies or first responders no press releases were given by city officials. Off duty personnel in the area theorized that it may have been a U.S. customs operation or even a movie shoot.

Sgt. Bill Williams, who oversaw the operation for the Miami-Dade Police Department, was not immediately available for details. The following day a Miami police spokesman said the helicopters were conducting an “operational” training drill. He was not allowed to comment on details of the drill. “The city had its reasons to not inform residents about the drill”

July 25, 2011 The Mayors office in the city of Boston issued this press release
Joint federal military training exercises will take place within and around the Boston area between July 26th and August 5th. Military personnel will conduct training exercises to ensure the military’s ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirements. Helicopters will be used in some exercises.
The Boston Police Department is working with military personnel to coordinate training sites that will minimize negative impacts on our Boston citizens and their daily routines. Safety precautions have been taken to prevent risk to the general public and the military personnel involved. With that, training site locations are not open to the public and will be guarded by uniformed personnel to provide additional safety.

January 24 2012
The U.S. military invades Los Angeles and the the CBS news report from that day should be some what disturbing to most Americans for this blog author it is an appalling example of how far we have slid down the slippery slope to state militarization.
“If you notice a heavy military presence around downtown Los Angeles this week, don’t be alarmed — it’s only a drill.”
The CBS report seams to be very similar to the press release issued by the Mayors office in Boston some months earlier.
Joint military training exercises will be held evenings through Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The LAPD will be providing support for the exercises, which will also be held in other portions of the greater Los Angeles area, police said.
Training sites “have been carefully selected to ensure the event  does not negatively impact the citizens of Los Angeles and their daily routine,” a department official said.
The training, which a department official said would involve helicopters, has been coordinated with local authorities and owners of the training sites, police said. Police said safety precautions have been taken to prevent risk to the general public and military personnel involved. The exercises are closed to the public, police said. The exercises are designed to ensure the military’s ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirements, police said.

The thing that is shocking is that CBS is not reporting on the legality of such an operation and the impact on the people in the area. Has the news media lost its back bone in investigative reporting, by the looks of this short article that seams to be the case. Who are these unnamed officials and spokesmen, give some names attach some accountability to this story.  A reporters name is not even present in the article.

The fact is that the American government is moving more and more towards a totalitarian state. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) and the new provisions contained within are proof that the U.S. government is on the road to a fascist state similar to the situation in 1930s Germany and we all know what happened then. 

Republican senators Rand Paul and Mark Kirk from Illinois observed that the unamended law would mean that any American citizen suspected of aiding terrorism would get just one hearing, where the military could assert that the person is a suspected terrorist, and then he could be locked up for life, without ever being formally charged.  "I'm very, very, concerned about having U.S. citizens sent to Guantanamo Bay for indefinite detention," said Sen. Paul. Kirk and Paul were the only Republicans joining Sen. Udall in his bid for amendment to rein in federal authority at the executive level. Udall is a member of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees.  His amendment would remove the controversial provisions - which military experts and others say would harm national security - and require the Intelligence, Judiciary and Armed Services committees to hold hearings on the proposal and work out a compromise. 

According to legal experts, the wording of the new National Defense Authorization Act effectively repeals the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C. § 1385), which limits the use of federal military personnel to enforce laws within the United States.  The Act allows for the imposition of martial law only where specifically authorized by the United States Constitution (invasion, insurrection, etc.) or Act of Congress.  Under the provisions of the unamended NDAA, the president will have the power to impose martial law, and thereby suspend the Writ of Habeas Corpus, on his own authority.

As this blog author as previously detailed in September of 2011(Holder’s Terrorist or Tourists) the Obama Administration is desperately trying to get the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba closed. The NDAA of 2012 will allow the transfer of terror suspects and untried individuals from Gitmo to their home countries or a third country, including countries in the E.U and the mainland U.S.. Previous laws regarding the transfer of such individuals made this imposable. Section 1028 of the NDAA will effectively nullify the provision that the U.S. take legal responsibility of transferred terrorists to third countries or countries that an individual may be come a recidivist.

The NDAA effectively turns the The Bill of Rights and the Constitution into worthless documents threatening not only the civil right of American citizens but citizens of other countries. The provisions within the 2012 version of the NDAA nullify existing restraints on the executive branch of government to the point of the president being an elected dictator and the U.S. into a totalitarian state being under the control of one man who has his finger on the button to destroy the world at a whim.

When president Obama signed into law the NDAA of 2012 or (H.R. 1540 as it is designated) The president issued a signing statement in which he repeatedly uses the the term “My administration will interpret” well what will those interpretations be by his administration? For that matter, how will the upcoming administrations define H.R. 1540? This is a 500 page resolution so vague it needs to be interpreted is that what president Obama is insinuating, and of a matter of common sense the document can be defined differently by differing political factions?
We have experienced nothing but bad decisions thus far by the Obama administration regarding legal and financial matters that has seriously hindered the U.S. nationally and internationally. Operation Fast and Furious and the New York terror trial fiasco come to mind as just two of the recent blunders committed by the Obama administration and Attorney General Eric Holder. If Obama and Holder get their way then Holder will be a principal decision maker in the transfer of terrorists from Gitmo to the U.S. mainland and abroad. 

I submit to you readers that American citizens are not free people as the founding father's intended, and that the rights afforded every American within the Bill of Rights have been compromised with this legislation and others like it. Likewise the limitations on federal government outlined within the Constitution have been bastardized. For these reasons alone if you are an American and a Patriot then take to the streets with pitchfork in hand to take back your freedoms and put an end to the growing treasonous behavior in Washington and your state capitols.

Thomas Paine

“An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.”

“I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.”