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The Final Push To Veto Indefinite Detentions without Trial
President Obama has not signed the National Defense Authorization Act, and he hasn’t vetoed it either. So there is still time to call the White House and sign the national petition against the NDAA.
ACLU Petition On 2012 NDAA – ‘President Obama: Listen to the American People, Not Your Advisers’
By Amy Goodman / Nation of Change / December 21, 2011
Accused whistle-blower Pvt. Bradley Manning turned 24 Saturday. He spent his birthday in a pretrial military hearing that could ultimately lead to a sentence of life … or death. Manning stands accused of causing the largest leak of government secrets in United States history.
More on Manning shortly. First, a reminder of what he is accused of leaking. In April 2010, the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks released a video called “Collateral Murder.” It was a classified U.S. military video from July 2007, from an Apache attack helicopter over Baghdad. The video shows a group of men walking, then the systematic killing of them in a barrage of high-powered automatic fire from the helicopter. Soldiers’ radio transmissions narrate the carnage, varying from cold and methodical to cruel and enthusiastic. Two of those killed were employees of the international news agency Reuters: Namir Noor-Eldeen, a photojournalist, and Saeed Chmagh, his driver.
For many years I have thought of myself as a Democrat. The principles of the Democratic Party were more closely aligned to my own political beliefs. That is not to say that I have not crossed over to vote for Republican candidates that I thought were better qualified than their rival Democrat. Shortly after I was given the privilege of voting, I voted for William Knowland; and in the not so distant past, while living in Maine, I voted for both Olivia Snow and Susan Collins, both Republicans. (And..by the way, both elected to office.)
By Nadin Abbott / December 19th, 2011
Members of a coalition of Democrats, Occupy San Diego, Move-On and other liberal groups, took over Congresswoman Susan Davis’s (D) office today to protest of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. They first drove to the Clairemont Mesa Office of the Democratic Party, where they intended to stage a sit-in, but the office was locked and a sign on the door indicated they would be holding limited hours during the holidays. Before they left the Clairemont Mesa area several people spoke, while the protesters held signs that were received well by drivers. Among them was Mr. Dick Eiden, running as an Independent against Congressman Darrell Issa (R-49th District.) He invited protesters to get involved in his campaign, since his intention is to “Occupy Congress.”
by Lucas O’Connor / Two Cathedrals / Dec. 16, 2011
A tentative ruling issued yesterday (Dec 15) in Superior Court could provide a significant blow to the proposed Jacobs Plan to redesign Balboa Park. In the tentative ruling, taken under submission after a hearing today, a judge said that the Memorandum of Understanding between the City and Irwin Jacobs to support the plan, agreed to before the legally required environmental review, is illegal — tripped up because it “effectively constitutes an approval of the project as proposed.”
By Dave Rice / The San Diego Reader / Dec. 17, 2011
Southern California Gas Company employees rallied across the state yesterday to protest a proposed labor agreement brought forth by the company’s parent, San Diego-based Sempra Energy. Picketing took place at Sempra facilities in Los Angeles, Anaheim, Compton, Visalia and Redlands.
Sempra employees with the Utility Workers Union of America and the International Chemical Workers Union have been without a contract since the previous agreement expired on November 1. Members say they have rejected the “last, best and final offer” made by the utility, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
An osprey was found dead near a Point Loma roost on Wednesday, December 14, just one week after an area resident saw another osprey dead on Sunset Cliffs Bridge.
The two recent osprey deaths on the peninsula come after a dead osprey with a dart in its chest was found this summer, also on Sunset Cliffs Bridge.
Shawn Steele, who lives near Robb Field and frequently observes birds in the area, was driving across the bridge when he saw an osprey carcass in the road on the afternoon of December 7.
“It did not look like it was hit by a car,” Steele said via email. “No loose feathers. I stopped my car and got a good look at it and could not tell the cause of death.”
For many of us the 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life is, for better or worse, inextricably bound to the yuletide season. Growing up I was subject to the annual revisiting of the film and, surreally, it was even running on the hospital TV the Christmas eve that my wife went into labor with our son who finally graced us with his presence on Christmas day, forever transforming the holiday into a celebration of life itself in my family.
Of course, the part of the film that always makes people cry is when George is saved by the incredible generosity of his neighbors in Bedford Falls who flood over to his house bearing cash to keep him from being arrested for bank fraud after his Uncle Billy loses all the money from their building and loan business on the way to deposit it.
As cultural historian George Lipsitz has pointed out, It’s a Wonderful Life, is part of a postwar film wave that began to redefine American freedom as free enterprise: “the freedom to own more commodities, to experience upward mobility, and to form nuclear families built upon male authority and female domesticity.”
Julia Glover pulls on her knitted gloves, wraps her scarf tighter around her shoulders as the chilly breeze whips through San Diego’s newly named Freedom Plaza. Fixing her eyes grimly on the costumed patrons of the ballet in tuxedos and firs as they line up for the annual Nutcracker presentation at the Civic Theatre, across the square from the Occupy San Diego base camp, she shivered and said sadly, “there they go, the fools of empire, the subsidiaries of the 1 percent, they will never understand, much less appreciate what Bradley Manning did for us.”
From Florida, she was visiting a friend in San Diego and was determined to spend her 68th birthday marching for Pfc. Manning on their shared birthday, December 17th. As she waited for the Saturday march to begin, listening to San Diego Occupiers discuss strategy at their daily General Assembly gathering in the plaza, she commented “we need to occupy Ft. Meade; all of us, thirty or forty thousand from across the nation, marching upon the base, requiring our government to release this young hero.”
Upset over plans by President Obama to sign the National Defense Authorization Act, various members of local progressive groups had an emergency meeting Sunday morning and formed San Diegans to Save the Bill of Rights. The group is holding a sit-in at the Democratic Party headquarters on Monday, December 19th.
Here is their Press Release:
From: San Diegans to Save the Bill of Rights
In protest of President Obama’s promise to sign the National Defense Authorization Act, San Diegans to Save the Bill of Rights are holding a sit-in at the headquarters of the San Diego County Democratic Party.
What: Sit-In Protest at Democratic Party Headquarters
Date: Monday, December 19, 2011
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Place: 8340 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, San Diego, Calif.
This much we know: if President Obama signs the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), then it will be legal for American citizens to be arrested on United States soil, and be held indefinitely without trial. The House and Senate have now both passed the bill and it is going to Obama’s desk, where it is anticipated that he will quickly sign it.
Once the bill goes into law, it is a serious threat to the Bill of Rights and the rule of law within this country. It would seriously undermine the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Amendments in the Bill of Rights.
Here is what the NDAA will cut up, here is the (actual) text of these amendments that protect American citizens that will be decimated:
Fourth Amendment – Protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Fifth Amendment – due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, eminent domain.
A lot is going on with Occupy San Diego.
First, a group of the occupiers are planning to re-occupy “Freedom Plaza” – the name given to the Civic Center Plaza by demonstrators – on Saturday, December 17th. They believe they have a right to sleep in public space, and declare:
“Therefore we’re lawfully re-occupying Freedom Plaza.”
By Mirna Alfonso / Murrieta Patch / Dec. 15, 2011
A disabled and bedridden schoolteacher Lesliane Bouchard, is in danger of being evicted. She vowed not to leave her home at 40734 Mountain Pride Drive in Murrieta.
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