The idea of civil rights is that some rights are better off residing in the individual than the state. It is based on the history of governments  abusing their power. Two examples of documents which do this are the U.S. Constitution and the United Nation Universal Declaration of Human Rights 

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 - well over ten years - and extent of deprivation of constitutional rights. Permanent wars mean an excuse to permanently suspend civil rights. As Hunter S. Thompson predicted on  9/12/2001: “The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for peace in our time, in the U.S. or any other country. Make no mistake about it: we are at War now- with somebody - and we will stay at war with that strange and mysterious enemy for the rest of our lives.” (See also Continuous Wars)

The reason I have so many references is to show this is a steadily increasing trend that I continuously update. It is not a vanishing blip on the radar. Failure to deal with this trend will have disastrous consequences for the future.

United States Torture?

The question of torture by the United States  goes to our very soul as a country. 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."  Of course it has been shown that torture does not work, but more importantly it should be obvious to everybody that this is wrong regardless if done by a republican or democrat.  See references 8, 14, 38, 68, 69, 82, 85, 87, 88, 98, 99, 103, 131, 155, 156, 169, 172, 181, 195, 196, 258, 265, 337, 376, 390, 395, 398, 399, 402, 405, 406, 438, 439, 441, 458-462,482, 484, 485, 486, 488, 495, 506, 543-550, 601-603, 618, 619, 623, 654, 655.

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.  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

Unfortunately a problem with documentation is the press either hides behind pay sites or lets active references lapse in which case we delete the references.

1-25 deleted
26-You Can Crush the Flowers, But You Can’t Stop the Spring
27-Thought Crime in Washington
28-deleted
29-deleted
30-Obama and the Rule of Law
31-Obama Crowned Himself on New Year’s Eve
32-deleted
33-deleted
34-ACLU Sues Obama Administration over Assassination Secrecy
35-38 deleted
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-deleted
41-45 deleted
46-Weaponizing the Body Politic
47-54 deleted
55-New Obama Executive Order Seizes U.S. Infrastructure and Citizens for Military Preparedness
56-A New Age of Enemies
57-64 deleted
65-Legal Atrocities
66-Creating a Prison-Corporate Complex
67-70 deleted
71-Jailed for $280: The Return of Debtors' Prisons
72-deleted
73-deleted
74-On Memorial Day Weekend, America Reckons with Torture
75-Obama’s War: Criminalize the Left
76-78 deleted
79-The Great Charter, Its Fate, and Ours
80-deleted
81-deleted
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-deleted
85-deleted
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-deleted
91-Unlike Afghan Leaders, Obama Fights for Power of Indefinite Military Detention
92-deleted
93-New Justice Department Documents Show Huge Increase in Warrantless Electronic Surveillance
94-deleted
95-Obama on Wrong Side in Shell Oil Human Rights Case
96-deleted
97-Nonviolent Protester of Drone Wars Sentenced to Federal Prison
98-deleted
99-Eric Holder Rewards the Teams that Gave Torturers and Mortgage Fraudsters Immunity
100-deleted
101-104 deleted
105-Obama’s Gitmo Betrayal
106-Institutionalized State Assassinations and the November 6 Election
107-deleted
108-Obama Fights for Indefinite Detention
109-111 deleted
112-Obama Won't Fight For Gay Marriage His Second Term
113-deleted
114-Top CIA Official: Obama Changed Virtually None of Bush’s Controversial Programs
115-117 deleted
118-Defense Bill Nixes Ban on Indefinite Detention for US Citizens
119-deleted
120-Email and Internet Spying on Americans: Congress Extends Police State FISA Law
121-Revealed: How the FBI Coordinated the Crackdown on Occupy
122-deleted
123-GOP and Feinstein Join to Fulfill Obama's Demand for Renewed Warrantless Eavesdropping
124-Martial Law by Executive Order
125-127 deleted
128-NDAA Signed Into Law By Obama Despite Guantanamo Veto Threat, Indefinite Detention Provisions
129-deleted
130-Prison Math
131-Renditions Continue under Obama, despite Due Process Concerns
132-deleted
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-deleted
139-Comparing Obama and Bush’s Records on Wartime Civil Liberties
140-142 deleted
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-deleted
145-GOP and Feinstein join to fulfill Obama's demand for renewed warrantless eavesdropping
146-147 deleted
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-deleted
152-John Yoo and the Obama White Paper and Killing Americans in America and Yemen
153-deleted
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
157-159-deleted
160-“I Begged for Them to Stop”
161-deleted
162-Declassified: US Government Colluded With Big Banks to Monitor, Disrupt Occupy Protesters as ‘Criminal Threats’
163-deleted
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
167-168 deleted
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-deleted
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-deleted
179-And Justice for Some
180-In Light of Hunger Strike UN Condemns Guantánamo as Breach of International Law, Urges Closure
181-deleted
182-Judge overrules Obama to protect women’s health
183-deleted
184-Obama poised to give presidential seal of approval to gross labor rights violations in Colombia
185-186 deleted
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-deleted
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’
193-194 deleted
195-The Obama GITMO Myth: New vindictive restrictions on detainees highlights the falsity of Obama defenders regarding closing the camp
196-deleted
197-The Hijacking of Human Rights by Chris Hedges
198-199 deleted
200-The Dictators and Billionaires Take Control
201-deleted
202-deleted
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-deleted
207-Feds Say Peace Activists Who Trespassed Onto at
208-Man faces life in prison for filming cops
209-FBI Says Activists Who Investigate Factory Farms Can Be Prosecuted as Terrorists
210-deleted
211-The CIA: Keepers of the Hit Lists - War Crimes as Policy
212-deleted
213-They Should Have Listened To Feingold: Obama Vs. The Only Senator Who Voted Against The PATRIOT Act
214-deleted
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-deleted
217-The Judicial Lynching of Bradley Manning by Chris Hedges
218-Ag-Gag Laws Silence Whistleblowers
219-Backgrounder on Obama's Big Data Domestic Spying System
220-California man faces 13 years in jail for scribbling anti-bank messages in chalk
221-Locking Out the Voices of Dissent
222-Declassified: US Government Colluded With Big Banks to Monitor, Disrupt Occupy Protesters as ‘Criminal Threats’
223-Despite What the President Said, There's Nothing “Transparent” About a Secret Court Issuing Secret Rulings
224-Court: Chevron Can Seize Americans' Email Data - In an almost unprecedented decision, a federal judge has allowed Chevron to subpoena Americans' private email data—and said the First Amendment doesn't apply.
225-DOJ Says Public Has No Right To Know About The Secret Laws The Feds Use To Spy On Us
226-deleted
227-deleted
228-John Roberts’ scary secret powers: Running the shadowy FISA court, where 10 of 11 judges he appointed are Republican, could even trump his SCOTUS role
229-Lawrence Lessig on Big Brother’s Prying Eyes
230-California chalk protester hit with gag order
231-Murdering Occupy
232-Obama Signs 2013 NDAA, Blocking Closure of Gitmo - Obama initially threatened a veto, but instead signed it into law with a vague proviso
233-Pennsylvania Activist Arrested For Writing Pro-Health Care Message In Chalk
234-deleted

235-Jailed Journalist Barrett Brown Faces 105 Years For Reporting on Hacked Private Intelligence Firms
236-Remember When the Patriot Act Debate Was All About Library Records?
237-Obama Closes Office Working to Shut Down Gitmo: Obama has fundamentally signed on to the belief that individuals can be held forever without due process
238-While DOMA is Gone, the Supreme Court has Crushed Consumers and Citizens this Week
239-Activist Heavyweights Convene Against NDAA

240-Chilling Legal Memo from Obama DOJ Justifies Assasination of US Citizens - The president's partisan lawyers purport to vest him with the most extreme power a political leader can seize

241-deleted

242-NYPD assaults judge trying to protect handcuffed homeless man from beating, judge sues
243-Documents Show How White House and Democrats Worked to Protect the Banks Against Protests: Did the White House Direct the Police Crackdown on Occupy?

244-Homeland Security Creates "Constitution-Free" Zones
245-Exclusive: FBI allowed informants to commit 5,600 crimes

246-How We Got From 9/11 to Massive NSA Spying on Americans: A Timeline

247-Anti-Protest Law Passes Nearly Unanimously And Is Signed By The President
248-deleted

249-NDAA Indefinite Detention Without Trial Approved by Appeals Court
250-North Carolina Cop Suspended – Without Pay – for Arresting Man Video Recording him

251-NSA director admits to misleading public on terror plots (The administration has been amping up stats about foiled plots to bolster support for mass surveillance)

252-Obama signs anti-protest Trespass Bill

253-Revealed: how US and UK spy agencies defeat internet privacy and security

254-deleted

255-The Last Chance to Stop the NDAA by Chris Hedges

256-Thou Shalt Not Praise His Name: Rep. Lewis Praises Snowden . . . Then Quickly Retracts Praise

257-The Manning Trial Began on 9/11 - Welcome to Post-Constitution America

258-U.S. Tortured Detainees And Top Officials Are Responsible: Report

259-Under Obama II, Five More Years…of Widespread Government Surveillance

260-deleted

261-Why Have Police In America Turned Into Such Ruthless Thugs?

262-deleted

263-Your Rights: If An Agent Knocks What to do if you or your organization are targeted by federal law enforcement

264-America's political prisoners exposed

265-'Big, striking horror:' US military doctors allowed torture of detainees, new study claims

266-EFF Files 22 Firsthand Accounts of How NSA Surveillance Chilled the Right to Association

267-Fracking Activist Silenced for Doing EPA's Work

268-How Dollarocracy is Destroying America

269-Muzzling the Freedom of Information Act

270-Guantánamo Bay: The Hunger Strikes - video animation

271-deleted

272-Three Ways Obama Carried Bush’s Tyrannical Torch, in Just One Week

273-US: Forced Guilty Pleas in Drug Cases -Threat of Draconian Sentences Means Few Willing to Risk Trial

274-Protesting Big Bank Financing of Toxic Industries May Get You a Year in Jail, While Execs Go Free

275-deleted

276-Court Blocks NYPD Stop-and-Frisk Reforms, Removes Judge Who Found Program Unconstitutional

277-Obama & Holder Win Court Case, Keep Thouands in Prison Under Unfair 80s Crack Sentencing Laws

278-'Ag-gag' law that thwarts investigations on factory farms is challenged in Utah

279-Cecily McMillan's Occupy trial is a huge test of US civil liberties. Will they survive?

280-Chris Hedges: Fighting the Militarized State

281-Chris Hedges: Legalizing Oppression

282-Chris Hedges: The Crime of Peaceful Protest

283-Chris Hedges: The Post-Constitutional Era

284-Confused logic approves NYPD surveillance of Muslims

285-deleted

286-deleted

287-Barack Obama's Conservative Utopia in 7 Charts - While politicians on the far right scream socialism, President Obama has quietly created a conservative America. And the statistics prove it.

288-Persecuted and Imprisoned for Environmental Activism

289-deleted

290-Killing of leaders was being planned: Exposing the Federal Government's Plan to Crush the Occupy Movement

291-FBI Continues To Withhold Information On Occupy Assassination Plots: A U.S. District Court judge says the FBI’s reasons for withholding information on assassination plots against Occupy movement leaders in several U.S. cities aren’t good enough.

292-Hedges v. Obama: Supreme Court Leaves NDAA Intact

293-deleted

294-Michigan Loses ‘Right To Farm’ This Week: A Farewell To Backyard Chickens and Beekeepers

295-deleted

296-deleted

297-Jailing of an Alabama blogger: It’s worse than we thought - A New York Times report on the imprisonment of a journalist may have underplayed how chilling the case is

298-deleted

299-Senate Report Exposes Torture and Misrepresentations By CIA Officials . . . But Recommends No Prosecution

300-deleted

301-Supreme Court Won’t Hear Chris Hedges’ Indefinite Detention Case

302-305 deleted

306-The Creeping Expansion of Corporate Civil Rights

307-UN Human Rights Committee Finds US in Violation on 25 Counts

308-deleted

309-Time To Release John Kiriakou, As Senate Releases Torture Report

310-"NATO 3" Trial: Terror Case Called Weak, Chicago Police Witch Hunt Alleged

311-Plein Air Artist Alex Schaefer Collides with the Commercialization of Art and Activism

312-Cecily McMillan’s Guilt: Injustice at Its Most Basic

313-Just Say No to Tasering Students and Militarizing Our Schools

314-Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy - New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy: totally integrated corporate-state repression of dissent

315-deleted

316-"Bush's Fourth Term Continues": Guantanamo, Torture, Secret Renditions; Indefinite Detention

317-10 Supreme Court Rulings — Before ‘Hobby Lobby’ — That Turned Corporations Into People

318-deleted

319-America entering dangerous new age: The post-constitutional era - Our speech is being monitored. Our lawmakers work in secret. It's a brave new world

320-321-deleted

322-Cecily McMillan’s ‘Law Of Love’ Suffers US Injustice

323-Drone Lawyer: Kill a 16 Year-Old, Get a Promotion

324-An ex-banker and Occupier walk into a jail. Guess which one's serving time? Cecily McMillan is behind bars, unlike any of the architects of the financial crisis. In an exclusive conversation with the Guardian, she explains why her sentence serves a purpose

325-deleted

326-Editorial: Sentence against Ithaca drones protester is a farce and an outrage

327-Man Sentenced to 30 Days for Catching Rain Water on Own Property Enters Jail

328-An Exceptional Decline for the Exceptional Country? The Empire as Basket Case

329-deleted

330-Great Moments From Roberts Court Dissents

331-Ex-CIA Analyst Ray McGovern Beaten, Arrested for Silent Protest at Clinton Speech

332-How Corporate America Shut the Courthouse Doors to Average People

333-How FBI Entrapment Is Inventing 'Terrorists' - and Letting Bad Guys Off the Hook: The feds have seized an Orwellian power - the power to decide which ideas are dangerous, regardless of the genuine threat they pose.

334-deleted

335-Obama’s monsters ball: How the White House opened its doors to some of Africa’s most evil dictators and homophobes and turned blind eye to their human rights record

336-If the Law Is Bullsh*t, You Must Acquit

337-339 deleted

340-It’s Time to Reform the Supreme Court — Here Are Five Ways to Do It

341-Jail the Bankers? Obama Has Been Their Staunchest Defender

342-deleted

343-Lawyers: Man Jailed for Nine Years Is Innocent, Railroaded in Bush’s War on Terror

344-345 deleted

346-Constitutional Rights Essentially Suspended in Ferguson as Police Raid Homes Door to Door

347-Officials Cast Wide Net in Monitoring Occupy Protests

348-351 deleted

352-Read Justice Ginsburg's Passionate 35-Page Dissent of Hobby Lobby Decision

353-Senate Democrats confirm drone memo author for second-highest US court

354-357 deleted

358-U.S. Funds “Terror Studies” to Dissect and Neutralize Social Movements

359-Why is Obama administration prosecuting sexual torture victim Rasmea Odeh?

360-deleted

361-Will Potter: The shocking move to criminalize nonviolent protest

362-deleted

363-Exposed: Pentagon Funds New Data-mining Tools to Track and Kill Activists, Part I

364-Exposed: Pentagon Funds New Data-mining Tools to Track and Kill Activists, Part II

365-Exposed: Pentagon Funds New Data-mining Tools to Track and Kill Activists, Part III

366-367 deleted

368-Human Rights Lawyer Arrested For Standing On NYC Sidewalk Waiting For Kids To Use Bathroom

369-Israel Bars Amnesty, Human Rights Watch Workers from Gaza

370-deleted

371-U.N. urges U.S. to stop police brutality after Missouri shooting

372-Israel lobby group outlines dirty tricks against campus Palestine activists

373-The Ordeal of Stanley L. Cohen: Justice as Farce by Chris Hedges

374-deleted

375-FBI Dismisses Murder Plot against Occupy Leaders as NSA and Big Business Cracks Down on Dissent

376-379 deleted

380-Top Ten US Aid Recipients All Practice Torture

381-deleted

382-After Taking on Whirlpool Corp., Black Activist in Small Michigan Town Set to Serve Jail Time for A Minor Offense

383-384 deleted

385-Anatomy of the Deep State

386-Nader and Fein at HLS: "America's Lawless Empire: The Constitutional Crimes of Bush and Obama" (YouTube)

387-Newsletter: Respect Our Human Rights Or We'll 'Shut It Down'   includes Universal Declaration of Human Rights

388-Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy - New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy: totally integrated corporate-state repression of dissent

389-Happy Holidays?: Obama Endorses A Militarized Israel, Land Grabs, And Domestic Spying - At a time when many were distracted by the hectic holiday season, Obama signed into law U.S. support for a militarized Israel, the transfer of sacred Native American land to a mining company, and increased domestic spying.

390-America Didn’t Just Prosecute Torturers, We Executed Them

391-UN criticizes US police practices, grand juries after police shootings: Human rights officials say they have 'legitimate concerns' over recent grand jury decisions

392-US criticised by UN for human rights failings on NSA, guns and drones - Geneva panel share deep concerns over US record on host of different subjects, including racial inequality and Guantánamo

393-Banning Dissent in the Name of Civility

394-Historical Truth, Nazis and the Corruption of the Federal Judiciary

395-398 deleted

399-Let Us No Longer Keep Silent About Torture

400-deleted

401-Tomgram: Matthew Harwood, The Fear of Lone-Wolf Terrorism Rises

402-deleted

403-Obama Administration Using Century-Old Racist Case Law to Block Citizenship - American Samoans are the only people born on US soil but denied birthright citizenship.

404-Our silence over Charlie Hebdo — freedom of speech for whom?

405-406 deleted

407-Prominent U.S. judge quits Justice Dept evidence commission in protest

408-Robert Scheer: On Civil Liberties, Obama’s ‘Probably the Worst President We’ve Had’

409-Seven Lessons From How Police Crushed Occupy

410-These Six American Heroes Said No to Torture

411-The Real American Exceptionalism: From Torture to Drone Assassination, How Washington Gave itself a Global Get-Out-of Jail-Free Card

412-deleted

413-When the Republicans Really Were the Party of Lincoln

414-415 deleted

416-Held for hours at secret Chicago 'black site': 'You're a hostage. It's kidnapping'

417-deleted

418-“He makes George W. Bush and Nixon look good”: Why Obama’s attack on privacy is so historic: Pioneering columnist Robert Scheer tells Salon just how bad our privacy nightmare has really gotten

419-An Indiana woman is facing 20 years in prison for "feticide"

420-Attack on Small Farms: Michigan Removes ‘Right-To-Farm’ & Bans Backyard Farms

421-Best of TomDispatch: Karen Greenberg, Barbarism Lite