Civil Rights Under the Democratic/Republican Uni-Party

In our history there have been times when civil rights have been suspended, such as the Civil War and World War II, but they have always been during the War only and some sort of due process remained. What we have now is a situation worse by both the length - over ten years - and extent of deprivation of constitutional rights. We should examine just some of the specifics.

• Wikipedia says, "Extraordinary rendition and irregular rendition describe the abduction and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States has transferred suspected terrorists to countries known to practice torture." This goes to our very soul as a country. Of course it has been shown that torture does not work, but it should be obvious to everybody that this is wrong. Bush started this and Obama openly continues it.
• Obama can give everyone in Gitmo their day in court. Restoring habeas corpus is totally at his discretion, and he has chosen not to.
• Guantanamo remains open.
• The Patriot Act was renewed with no significant objection from either republicans or democrats. This means 13 straight years of restricted Civil Rights through the suspension of the constitution. Both Bush and Obama have authorized spying and in some cases killing American citizens. Both republicans and democrats in Congress voted overwhelmingly for it. Congress then by an overwhelming majority passed the National Defense Authorization Bill further suspending the US Constitution and Obama signed it. The second NDD bill passed 98-0 in the US Senate.

The recent agreement shoved down the throats of 49 State Attorney Generals immunized banks from being charged with manufacturing evidence, and using both forgery and perjury to illegally foreclose on homes. This brings into question whether the rule of law can still be enforced in this country.

If it was wrong under Bush, it is still wrong under Obama. If it is wrong for republicans, it is still wrong for democrats. The solution is simple. Go back to the constitutional guarantees we had prior to 2001. Obama with the enthusiastic support of the democrats has maintained or expanded all civil rights violations Bush started. Torture and deprivation of due process is wrong under both democrats and republicans. Real change will come only when we start to think outside the two party system.

References
1-Criminalizing free speech
2-“Obama bans war criminals, except our own”
3-Did Obama Order Tar Sands Protesters Jailed?
4-Obama’s FBI Targets Antiwar.com
5-Bush 2.0: 100 Ways Barack Obama Is Just Like George W. Bush
6-President Obama Has All The Legal Authority He Needs To Make Recess Appointments Right Now
7-Dept. of Interior Recommended Federal Charges vs. DADT Protesters – 3 Hours Before They Demonstrated
8-Torture Decriminalized: How the State Department Provides Space for the Culpables’ Book Tours
9-Department of Justice Files Writ of Mandamus Against Judge in Dan Choi Case
10-Department of “Justice”?
11-The ACLU on Obama and Core Liberties
12-BART Police Arrest Journalists, Cite KGO, KTVU at BART Protest. Homeland Security Present
13- Targeted Killing Program: America’s Shameful Response to 9/11
14-DoD Persecutes Guantanamo Guard Who Talked About the Torture
15-Choi Legal Team Responds to DoJ Petition for Writ of Mandamus
16-Freedom Is Not Free at the State Department
17-Obama: A disaster for civil liberties
18-Free Speech and Civil Liberties in the PR Age of Obama
19-Obama DoJ Trying to Codify Lying to Judges Over FOIA-Requested Docs Now: WTF?
20-Obama Witch Hunt Against Polar Bear Scientists Takes New Twist – 2nd Scientist Asked to Take Lie Detector Test
21-GOP and Tea Party on Obama’s Foreign Policy “Successes”
22-Bookburning USA: Obama’s Traitor Troops Trash OWS Library as his EPA Awards Book-Burners for Outstanding Recycling
23-Feds Raid Washington State Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
24-Homeland Security Coordinated 18-City Police Crackdown on Occupy Protest
25-The Sound of Democrat’s Silence on Civil Liberties
26-You Can Crush the Flowers, But You Can’t Stop the Spring
27-Thought Crime in Washington
28-Passing Defense Senate Bill: Dianne Feinstein’s Tortured Explanation
29-The Obamanable President: UPDATED
30-Obama and the Rule of Law
31-Obama Crowned Himself on New Year’s Eve
32-ACLU trashes Obama over indefinite detention and torture act
33-2012′s Civil Liberties Apocalypse Has Already Happened
34-ACLU Sues Obama Administration over Assassination Secrecy
35-Repulsive Progressive Hypocrisy
36-The White House’s Dangerous Dance With the Birth Control Mandate
37-George Will Stands Up for Justice in the Don Siegelman Case
38-URGENT Immediate Action Needed! Help Prevent Obama’s Goons from Further Torturing US Rights Observers in Bahrain
39-Obama Administration Asks Supreme Court to Dismiss ACLU Challenge to Warrantless Wiretapping Law
40-Those Weak Losers Who Care about “Law”
41-Pity the Poor Judges
42-Foreclosure Settlement a Failure of Law, a Triumph for Bank Attorneys
43-WikiLeaks: Disgraced Judge Said He Was Targeted for Investigation After Ruling Against Halliburton
44-Murder Is Legal, Says Eric Holder
45-HR 347: The Anti-Occupy Law
46-Weaponizing the Body Politic
47-Obama’s Vile Assassination Doctrine
48-Obama Justice Department Suffers a Monumental Failure
49-Legal Experts Destroy Rationale for Obama’s Assassination Policy … And Slam Democrats for Supporting It
50-Obama Signs Anti-protest Trespass Bill
51-The Terrorists are Winning: The Erosion of Civil Liberties in America
52-Sending Americans Into Exile — the Obama Way
53-Obama’s Personal Role in a Journalist’s Imprisonment
54-Anti-Occupy Bill (H.R. 347) Unanimously Passed and Signed By POTUS
55-New Obama Executive Order Seizes U.S. Infrastructure and Citizens for Military Preparedness
56-A New Age of Enemies
57-Where is Obama as Police Brutalize Citizens?
58-What About Misconduct in the Don Siegelman Prosecution?
59-Native Americans Protest Keystone XL From A Cage -
Activists compelled to stay in enclosure miles from President’s pro-oil event
60-Tim DeChristopher Transferred Out of “The Hole”, But Questions Remain
61-New Counterorrism Guidelines Gives Authorities Vast Access to Private Info of Innocent Americans
62-US Government Keeping Data on Americans with No Connection to Terrorism
63-The Obama DOJ and Strip Searches
64-75% of Americans Support Workplace Protections for GLBT Folks. Obama is not one of them.
65-Legal Atrocities
66-Creating a Prison-Corporate Complex
67-Investors Want Disclosure of Corporate Political Contributions and Lobbying Expenditures
68-Supreme Court: Law Says Organizations Cannot be Sued for Torture
69-Torture on Trial
70-More Federal Judge Abdication
71-Jailed for $280: The Return of Debtors' Prisons
72-Labor Dept. Cancels Child-labor Proposal
73-Income Inequality: Physical Health and Life Expectancy
74-On Memorial Day Weekend, America Reckons with Torture
75-Obama’s War: Criminalize the Left
76-FOIA Revelations Show Administration Role In Occupy Crackdown
77-Obama Defies Federal Court Ban On NDAA Indefinite Detention
78-How Pensions Violate Free Speech
79-The Great Charter, Its Fate, and Ours
80-Feds Wait Until Late Friday To Admit That, Yeah, They Ignored The 4th Amendment
81-Obama Administration Stonewalling UN Questions about Abuse of Occupy Protesters
82-Impunity at Home, Rendition Abroad: How Two Administrations and Both Parties Made Illegality the American Way of Life
83-John Cusack & Jonathan Turley on Obama’s Constitution
84-Twenty Examples of the Obama Administration Assault on Domestic Civil Liberties
85-CIA Whistleblower on Trial, Holder Closes Final Investigation on Torture
86-In Memory of Joshua Casteel
87-Holder: We Won't Prosecute Harsh Interrogations
88-The Persecution of John Kiriakou: Torture and the Myth of Never Again
89-NDAA Case: Indefinite Detention Injunction Does Irreparable Harm, Obama Admin. Lawyers Argue
90-Charlotte Was Transformed into a Total Securitized Metropolis for DNC
91-Unlike Afghan Leaders, Obama Fights for Power of Indefinite Military Detention
92-NDAA: Hedges, Ellsberg et al Take To Social Media Today To Fight Indefinite Detention Law
93-New Justice Department Documents Show Huge Increase in Warrantless Electronic Surveillance
94-Not One More Day in Jail for Gregory Koger!
95-Obama on Wrong Side in Shell Oil Human Rights Case
96-Obama Strikes Another Nail in The Coffin of America
97-Nonviolent Protester of Drone Wars Sentenced to Federal Prison
98-U.S. Military Judge: ‘Torture’ is Not ‘Relevant’ in Guantanamo Cases
99-Eric Holder Rewards the Teams that Gave Torturers and Mortgage Fraudsters Immunity
100-Preparing for a Digital 9/11
101-Obama Adviser Robert Gibbs Blames Denver Teen’s ‘Terrorist’ Father for His Drone Death
102-Exposed 'Kill Matrix' Gives Permanence to US 'War on Terror' -
The Washington Post Reports on the Codifying of Obama's 'Kill List'
103-WikiLeaks Releases US Military Policies for Detention & Avoiding Accountability for Torture
104-WikiLeaks Reveals 'Systematized Human Rights Abuses' at US Detention Facilities: Docs Show 'Anatomy of the Beast that is Post-9/11 Detention'
105-Obama’s Gitmo Betrayal
106-Institutionalized State Assassinations and the November 6 Election
107-Terror Tuesday Cubed: The ‘Disposition Matrix’ Normalizes State Murder
108-Obama Fights for Indefinite Detention
109-Guantanamo Military Commissions: ‘Piece of a Larger Disturbing Trend Toward Centralized Presidential Power’
110-Dramatic Increase in Surveillance of Americans
111-Will Obama’s Second Term Finally Fulfill his 2008 Promises?
112-Obama Won't Fight For Gay Marriage His Second Term
113-Breaking Private Manning
114-Top CIA Official: Obama Changed Virtually None of Bush’s Controversial Programs
115-Torture Superpower
116-Breaking Private Manning
117-Bradley Manning Takes Stand, Puts Military Captors on Trial
118-Defense Bill Nixes Ban on Indefinite Detention for US Citizens
119-NDAA 2013 - Indefinite Detention Without Trial is Back
120-Email and Internet Spying on Americans: Congress Extends Police State FISA Law
121-Revealed: How the FBI Coordinated the Crackdown on Occupy
122-Senate Reauthorizes Surveillance Law for Five More Years Without Reform
123-GOP and Feinstein Join to Fulfill Obama's Demand for Renewed Warrantless Eavesdropping
124-Martial Law by Executive Order
125-Secrecy of Memo on Drone Killing Is Upheld
126-How Zero Dark Thirty Brought Back the Bush Administration
127-Incarceration of Native Americans and Private Prisons
128-NDAA Signed Into Law By Obama Despite Guantanamo Veto Threat, Indefinite Detention Provisions
129-Obama Quietly Signs Abusive Spy Bill He Once Vowed to Eliminate:
After Senate Rejects Oversight Amendments, Bill Sails into Law
130-Prison Math
131-Renditions Continue under Obama, despite Due Process Concerns
132-The Reality of Political Prisoners in the United States: What September 11 Taught Us about Defending Them
133-The Top 10 Most Startling Facts About People of Color and Criminal Justice in the United States: A Look at the Racial Disparities Inherent in Our Nation’s Criminal-Justice System
134-Three Ways Obama Carried Bush’s Tyrannical Torch, in Just One Week
135-US Support for Dictatorship in Iraq Sowing Future Chaos
136-When Power is Unaccountable: Why the NDAA is Unconstitutional
137-20 Extraordinary Facts about CIA Extraordinary Rendition and Secret Detention
138-CIA Torture Architects Debunk ‘Ticking Time Bomb’ Scenario
139-Comparing Obama and Bush’s Records on Wartime Civil Liberties
140-Freedom or Death at Guantánamo
141-Guantanamo Military Commissions: Only The Judge Is In Control, Except When He Isn’t
142-Lessig and Demand Progress: Demand justice for our friend Aaron Swartz
143-2 Years in Jail for Sitting on a Milk Crate? The Shocking Ways America Punishes Poor People Living on the Street (Hard Times, USA)
144-Justice Department Memo Reveals ‘Legal Case’ for Drone Strikes on Americans
145-GOP and Feinstein join to fulfill Obama's demand for renewed warrantless eavesdropping
146-FAA Releases New Drone List—Is Your Town on the Map?
147-Obama Admin. Goes “Ocean’s ’13″ on Senate Intelligence Committee
148-Why Targeted Assassinations Violate US and International Law
149-Hedges v. Obama: Did the Bill of Rights die today?
150-Obama Waives Child Soldier Ban in Yemen and Congo
151-Arrested for Your Politics in America? It's Already Happening
152-John Yoo and the Obama White Paper and Killing Americans in America and Yemen
153-Obama Maneuvers to Keep Kill List Memos Permanently Secret
154-Obama moves to keep kill list memos secret forever
155-The Latin American Exception: How a Washington Global Torture Gulag Was Turned Into the Only Gulag-Free Zone on Earth
156-“I Begged for Them to Stop” Waterboarding Americans and the Redefinition of Torture
157-One Thousand Days Too Many
158-Clapper v Amnesty: Courts and Congress v Our Constitution
159-Our Options Have Narrowed
160-“I Begged for Them to Stop”
161-A Devastating 26-Word Challenge to President Obama's Leadership
162-Declassified: US Government Colluded With Big Banks to Monitor, Disrupt Occupy Protesters as ‘Criminal Threats’
163-Senate Approves Obama's 'Kill List' Architect to Lead CIA
164-lsberg: In Hearing Bradley Manning Act Out of Conscience, Secret Tape Refutes Media Slander
165-The War Against Bradley Manning -- A War Against All Who Speak Out Against Injustice
166-Yes, the president can kill Americans on U.S. soil
167-‘Death of a Prisoner’
168-Growing Support for Same Sex Marriage
169-CIA Whistleblower: “US is a Police State, Obama Consciously Allows Torture”
170-US Support for Emerging Dictatorship in Iraq May Have ‘Catastrophic’ Effects
171-US-Backed Regime in Bahrain Bans All Protests
172-Revealed: Pentagon's link to Iraqi torture centers
173-Bill Moyers Essay: The Hypocrisy of ‘Justice for All’
174-Corporate Kangaroo Courts Supplant Our Seventh Amendment Rights
175-Corporations Are Robbing Us Of Our Right to a Fair Trial
176-Daniel McGowan Back in Jail Days After Writing About His Secretive Prison Unit for Huffington Post
177-25 years after Chico Mendes, killings in the Amazon are endemic
178-Environmental Activist, Prosecuted as If He Was Terrorist, Was Held in Isolation for Political Speech
179-And Justice for Some
180-In Light of Hunger Strike UN Condemns Guantánamo as Breach of International Law, Urges Closure
181-Is President Obama pro-torture?
182-Judge overrules Obama to protect women’s health
183-Will Congress Act to Stop US Support for Honduras' Death Squad Regime? In Honduras, Reagan-era atrocities are back as the Obama administration funds a state implicated in murdering opponents
184-Obama poised to give presidential seal of approval to gross labor rights violations in Colombia
185-Report: Ohio Is Illegally Throwing Poor People In Jail For Owing Money
186-Julian Assange may be unable to leave Britain until 2015
187-'Cartoonish form of despotism' - Assange on Bahrain activist Rajab's imprisonment
188-Chris Hedges Strategy for Radical Change at Green Party of New Jersey Convention
189-Lockdown, USA: Lessons From the Boston Marathon Manhunt
190-DOJ: We don't need warrants for e-mail, Facebook chats
191-EMFing Democracy: Destroying Detroit In Order To “Save” It
192-Trading Democracy for ‘National Security’
193-Military decrees media access to Manning’s hearing is a privilege, not a right
194-Report: Obama Officials Authorized New ‘Cybersecurity’ Warrantless Surveillance Program, Fresh Immunity Given to ISPs
195-The Obama GITMO Myth: New vindictive restrictions on detainees highlights the falsity of Obama defenders regarding closing the camp
196-U.S. condoned torture after 9/11, must close Guantanamo: report
197-The Hijacking of Human Rights by Chris Hedges
198-US Senate declares the entire USA to be a "Battleground".
199-Peter Van Buren: If the Government Does It, It’s “Legal”
200-The Dictators and Billionaires Take Control
201-How the US Turned Three Pacifists into Violent Terrorists
202-‘…and I did Not Speak Out, but Then They Came for… the AP’
203-Nation’s Leading Journalists: Leak Investigations Chilling Our Reporting, Hurting Public’s Right-To-Know
204-Obama DOJ formally accuses journalist in leak case of committing crimes - Yet another serious escalation of the Obama administration's attacks on press freedoms emerges
205-Why Is President Obama Keeping a Journalist in Prison in Yemen?
After supporters protested his “sham” trial, Abdulelah Haider Shaye would have been pardoned. Then Obama intervened.
206-How the US Turned Three Pacifists into Violent Terrorists
207-Feds Say Peace Activists Who Trespassed Onto Nuclear Facility Are A National Security Threat
208-Man faces life in prison for filming cops
209-FBI Says Activists Who Investigate Factory Farms Can Be Prosecuted as Terrorists
210-JUSTICE: Inconvenient truths about Obama's address on terrorism, liberties
211-The CIA: Keepers of the Hit Lists - War Crimes as Policy
212-The Bill of Rights Exists: An Open Letter to Dianne Feinstein
213-They Should Have Listened To Feingold: Obama Vs. The Only Senator Who Voted Against The PATRIOT Act
214-Assange: US rule of law suffering 'calamitous collapse'
215-US government invokes special privilege to stop scrutiny of data mining - Officials use little-known 'military and state secrets privilege' as civil liberties lawyers try to hold administration to account
216-JUSTICE: Green Shadow Cabinet stands with Bradley Manning
217-The Judicial Lynching of Bradley Manning by Chris Hedges
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