index 177, Re: Rights? In The New America You Don’t Get Any Rights!

Rights? In The New America You Don’t Get Any Rights! By Michael Snyder, on January 9th, 2012 One of the unique things about the Constitution of the United States was that it guaranteed certain rights for its citizens. Those rights provided the foundation for an era of freedom and prosperity that was pretty much unprecedented in human history and dozens of other nations eventually copied many of the ideas contained in our Constitution and Bill of Rights because they worked so well. Of course our system never functioned perfectly, but when you compare it to what has gone on for most of human history, it truly was a bright light in a sea of oppression and totalitarianism. Unfortunately, our rights are now being systematically taken away from us. In America today, the politicians have convinced most of us that in order to keep us all “safe” we must give up many of our rights and move toward becoming a totalitarian police state. In the “new America”, you don’t get any rights. They tell us that giving people rights is too dangerous. Instead, you get some limited “privileges” which can be revoked at any time by the authorities. Sadly, most Americans have become so dumbed-down that they don’t even realize what is happening. How many Americans do you think have actually read the Constitution? Personally, I went through high school, college and even law school without ever being required to read the Constitution of the United States. Isn’t that amazing? Most Americans don’t even understand that they have rights because they have never even read the documents that grant them those rights. You can find the text of the U.S. Constitution right here . If you have never taken the time to read the whole thing, you really should. According to the U.S. Constitution, the following are some of the rights that we are supposed to have…. -Freedom of religion -Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures -The right to due process of law -The right to a speedy and public trial -Freedom from cruel and unusual punishments Unfortunately, all of those rights are under attack in America today. In most cases, a right is not taken away all at once. Instead, opponents of these rights take what is known as an “incremental approach”. For example, we are told that there are certain limits on the freedom of speech. We are told that we cannot yell “fire” in a crowded theater and we accept that because it sounds reasonable. But then once everyone agrees that there are “limits” on that right, the control freaks that run things just keep trying to tighten those limits in thousands of different ways until our freedom of speech is whittled away to almost nothing. It is imperative that we stand up for our liberties and freedoms. If we don’t defend them now, eventually they will be gone for good. The following are some examples of how our rights are under attack in America today…. The federal government has become absolutely obsessed with monitoring everything that Americans say. This chills free speech because it gives people the feeling that there is always somebody “watching”. It has recently been revealed that the Department of Homeland Security plans to monitor social media outlets on the Internet. If you use the wrong “keywords” or if you are a key “influencer” on the Internet, there is no doubt that someone from the federal government will be keeping tabs on you. The following comes from a recent RT article …. Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that came out of DHS headquarters in November, Washington has the written permission to retain data on users of social media and online networking platforms. Specifically, the DHS announced the NCO and its Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS) can collect personal information from news anchors, journalists, reporters or anyone who may use “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.” In particular, the powers that be seem to have become absolutely fascinated with Facebook, Twitter and blogs. As I have written about previously , the Federal Reserve has decided to start monitoring social media sites and blogs in order to keep track of what is being said about them. And as a recent Fox News article detailed, the Department of Homeland Security is also developing such a system…. Though still in development, DHS is looking to establish a system for monitoring “forums, blogs, public websites and message boards.” The idea is to gather and analyze publicly available information, and then use that information to help officials respond to disasters and other situations. So why do they have to spend so much time, energy and money keeping track of what we are all saying on the Internet? Why don’t they just let us be? One would think that the federal government has bigger problems to deal with at this point. Unfortunately, this trend toward endlessly snooping on American citizens is not likely to reverse any time soon. So could what you say on the Internet get you labeled as a “trouble-maker” or as a “potential terrorist”? Recently, Barack Obama signed a new law which allows the U.S. military to arrest “potential terrorists” on U.S. soil, hold them indefinitely without trial and even ship them off to Guantanamo Bay for endless “interrogation” sessions. The insanity of this new law was detailed in a recent article by Henry Blodget …. The reason this law is horrifying is not that terrorists deserve to be handled with kid gloves. They don’t. The reason it’s horrifying is that, without due process, it is too easy for the government to just declare someone a terrorist who isn’t actually a terrorist. It’s too easy, in other words, for government employees to do what everyone else does: Make mistakes. If you don’t think it’s possible for the government to mistakenly assume that someone is a terrorist who isn’t, read this story by Lakhdar Boumediene , who was just held as a terrorist by the U.S. government in Guantanamo for 7 and a half years. At Guantanamo, Boumediene says he was tortured for not telling his U.S. captors what they wanted to hear–that he was a terrorist. He was only eventually freed after his case went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court ruled that it might be a good idea to ask the government to present the evidence that led it to believe that Boumediene was a terrorist (the government didn’t present any). Sadly, according to Obama this new law just reaffirms what he already had the power to do. In his signing statement, Obama stated that he already had the authority to arrest American citizens, hold them without trial and ship them off to prison camps. Of course that would come as a complete shock to the original drafters of the U.S. Constitution, but very few Americans seem concerned with what the U.S. Constitution actually says these days. Now there is a new bill before Congress that would even give the federal government the power to instantly strip individuals of citizenship if they are suspected of being “hostile” to the United States. It is known as the Enemy Expatriation Act, and you can read this new bill for yourself right here . According to the bill, you can be stripped of your U.S. citizenship for “engaging in, or purposefully and materially supporting, hostilities against the United States.” So what does it mean to “materially support” hostilities against the United States? Does simply criticizing the government fall under that category? Unfortunately, when you have a law that is really vague it gives authorities the leeway to do pretty much whatever they want. At least we still have the Internet where we can communicate with one another and share all of this information, right? Well, maybe not for long. As I have written about previously, a new law under consideration by Congress would permanently change the Internet forever and could potentially silence thousands of important voices. That is why we must stop SOPA . It is a horrible law which could be used to brutally censor the Internet. Some of the biggest names in the Internet community are speaking out against SOPA. For example, a recent CNN article contained some stunning quotes about SOPA from one of the co-founders of Google…. Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, has been outspoken against the efforts. The bills “give the U.S. government and copyright holders extraordinary powers including the ability to hijack DNS (the Internet’s naming system) and censor search results (and this is even without so much as a proper court trial),” Brin wrote last month on his Google+ page as Congress was considering the measures. “While I support their goal of reducing copyright infringement (which I don’t believe these acts would accomplish), I am shocked that our lawmakers would contemplate such measures that would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world.” Everywhere you turn these days, our liberties and our freedoms are being attacked. There is a relentless assault on everything that it means to be an American. No matter how hard you try, it just seems like you can’t get away from it. For example, many of us have been so disgusted with the TSA that we simply do not fly anymore. Well, the TSA is not content to just monitor airports anymore. Now they are bringing their own special brand of “security” to thousands of other locations across the country as the Los Angeles Times recently detailed …. The Transportation Security Administration isn’t just in airports anymore. TSA teams are increasingly conducting searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and other mass transit locations around the country. “We are not the Airport Security Administration,” said Ray Dineen, the air marshal in charge of the TSA office in Charlotte. “We take that transportation part seriously.” The TSA’s 25 “viper” teams — for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response — have run more than 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year. Department of Homeland Security officials have asked Congress for funding to add 12 more teams next year. So even if you never fly again, there is still a good chance that you will get the “rubber glove treatment” from a TSA “viper team” at some point. Without a doubt, this country is slowly becoming a giant prison . And one group that gets targeted by the government almost more than anyone else is Christians. In America today, there is a war against Christianity. The Christian faith is being attacked in hundreds of different ways , and under the Obama administration this attack has only just intensified. There seems to be an obsession with pushing Christianity out of every single shred of public life in this country. For example, family members were recently banned from bringing Bibles to wounded veterans at Walter Reed National Medical Center. The following is from a recent CNSNews article …. In a Sept. 14 policy memorandum, Col. Chuck Callahan, chief of staff of Walter Reed National Medical Center, banned family members from bringing Bibles and other “religious items” when visiting wounded military personnel at the facility. Thankfully, this policy was later reversed after a tremendous national outcry, but there are dozens and dozens of other “policies” like this that have not been reversed. They say that we still have “freedom of religion” in this country, but there is a non-stop effort to push it into a box that is getting smaller and smaller with each passing day. Our 2nd Amendment rights area also being brutally assaulted. Restrictions on gun owners keep getting tighter and tighter and tighter. Things have gotten so bad that now even gun manufacturers don’t even know what is legal and what is not. The following comes from a recent article in the Washington Times …. Despite overseeing an industry that includes machine guns and other deadly weapons, ATF regulations for the manufacture of weapons are often unclear, leading to reliance on a secretive system by which firearms manufacturers can submit proposed weapons for testing and find out one at a time whether they comply with the law, critics say. The ATF recommends that manufacturers voluntarily submit weapons for case-by-case determination. But those judgments are private and, it turns out, sometimes contradictory. Critics say nearly identical prototypes can be approved for one manufacturer but denied for another. But it is not just the federal government that is becoming incredibly oppressive. We are seeing state and local governments all over the country also move in the direction of totalitarianism. Here are just a couple of examples that have been brought to my attention in recent days…. *Up in Massachusetts, police were recently sent to collect an overdue library book from a 5-year-old girl . *In St. Louis, a proposed law would make it mandatory to spay or neuter all cats and dogs and would make it mandatory to microchip all cats and dogs. When you step back and look at the bigger picture, a clear trend emerges. As 2012 began, over 40,000 new laws went into effect all over America. Some of these new laws are good, but most of them are about restricting the liberties and freedoms of individual Americans. We have become a nation of control freaks. In the final analysis, we don’t have any absolute rights anymore. Instead, what we have are “privileges” that are being systematically stripped away. But this is not how America was supposed to be. We were supposed to be the freest nation on the face of the earth. So what in the world happened to us? Mainstream Media Lies: 23 Things That Are Not What They Seem To Be On Television » A Dodgy Bloke I hate to sound like a broken record but much of the deterioration of our rights has it’s genesis with George “He kept us safe” Bush, after 9/11. Now the chickens have come home to roost, add to that the start of financial repression, and dark hungry days are ahead. I have a thesis why this is happening Government has one duty to stay in power. The Powers that be know unstable times are coming if you have a stable of loosely written laws on the books you can lock up anybody when the SHTF who gets frisky. I know this falls into the “Alex Jones” FEMA camps the tin hat crowed. Personally I think civil war or revolution is a real possibility people revolt on thier knees not on thier backs. Also another FYI watch the retirement plans of state county and city workers. How do you think those cops in the last photo will react when they find out thier retirement went up in smoke. If you don’t know what I’m talking about go back to sleep. Kevin A Dodgy Bloke Your correct that the first job (and one can say by extension only job) of government is to protect government. I think your incorrect regarding the pensions of the “security forces”. They will tax the rest of us to keep them financially secure for our “protection” of course. Kevin A Doggy Bloke Your correct with laws that are so written as to be used at will against whoever they want. In Jamaica marijuana is illegal yet you smell it everywhere. Count the minuets from the time you get through customs until your offered some to purchase and you won’t make an hour. It’s in essence rope that the masses collectively tie around their necks awaiting the government to rein in political opposition. My name is Christina Ziegler I think you should start the revolt Gutter Economist EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 – allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports. EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 – allows the government to seize and control the communication media. EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 – allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals. EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 – allows the government to seize all means of transportation, including personal cars, trucks or vehicles of any kind and total control over all highways, seaports, and waterways. EXECUTIVE ORDER 10999 – allows the government to take over all food resources and farms. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 – allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001 – allows the government to take over all health, education and welfare functions. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 – designates the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all persons. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003 – allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004 – allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005 – allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways and public storage facilities. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 – specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921– allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency. It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, Congress cannot review the action for six months. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has broad powers in every aspect of the nation. General Frank Salzedo, chief of FEMA’s Civil Security Division stated in a 1983 conference that he saw FEMA’s role as a “new frontier in the protection of individual and governmental leaders from assassination, and of civil and military installations from sabotage and/or attack, as well as prevention of dissident groups from gaining access to U.S. opinion, or a global audience in times of crisis.” FEMA’s powers were consolidated by President Carter to incorporate the… EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 – grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11049 – assigns emergency preparedness function to federal departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued over a fifteen year period. EXECUTIVE ORDER 12148 – created the Federal Emergency Management Agency to interface with the Department of Defense for civil defense planning and funding. An “emergency czar” was appointed. FEMA has only spent about 6 percent of its budget on national emergencies. The bulk of their funding has been used for the construction of secret underground facilities to assure continuity of government in case of a major emergency, foreign or domestic. EXECUTIVE ORDER 12656 – appointed the National Security Council as the principal body that should consider emergency powers. This allows the government to increase domestic intelligence and surveillance of U.S. citizens and would restrict the freedom of movement within the United States and grant the government the right to isolate large groups of civilians. The National Guard could be federalized to seal all borders and take control of U.S. air space and all ports of entry. EXECUTIVE ORDER 12919 – Collects EOs 10995, 10997, 10998, 10999, 11000, 11001, 11002, 11003, 11004, 11005 and 11051 together into one new Executive Order. National Security Act of 1947 – allows for the strategic relocation of industries, services, government and other essential economic activities, and to rationalize the requirements for manpower, resources and production facilities. 1950 Defense Production Act – gives the President sweeping powers over all aspects of the economy. Act of August 29, 1916 – authorizes the Secretary of the Army, in time of war, to take possession of any transportation system for transporting troops, material, or any other purpose related to the emergency. International Emergency Economic Powers Act – enables the President to seize the property of a foreign country or national. These powers were transferred to FEMA in a sweeping consolidation in 1979. For more information, goto http://www.infowars.com/deliberately-engineered-economic-collapse-in-usa-leading-to-martial-law/ Ameen WOW!! DB200 “International Emergency Economic Powers Act – enables the President to seize the property of a foreign country or national.” Does this mean that all gold stored in Fort Knox, belonging to foreign countries, can be seized legally by the USA? Does this also mean that when China and the USA go to war with each other, China stands to lose quite a lot of investments? Observer There is NO gold in Fort Knox! Ask any local resident, many of whom have military family members stationed there. They are guarding an empty coffer. Kevin I thought they needed to pull this off before the conforming generations (born previous to 1946) were still a major voting block. While I see it before my eyes one would think the people that came of age in the 1960s would know better then to surrender rights to the government. Apparently I was mistaken. thomas jefferson “All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution, are null and void.” Chief Justice Marshall, Marbury v. Madison i will NEVER submit to this TYRANNY! give me Liberty or give me death and you can BET your sweet A** i WILL NOT go down without a fight Freedom isnt Free- But damnit its worth dying for- especially for my children- they WILL NOT live under a totalitarian regime as long as i have a breath Joshua10 If you don’t know your rights…You Don’t Have Any! Tamara Do not, in your frustration, deny ANY man or woman or child their rights! As frustrating as their ignorance is, they have been lied to and are as the weak in their ignorance. The good protects the weak from the wolves. The wolves are gathering…. REED RICHARDS Michael, As Gutter Economist has outlined it, Rights? The masses have no rights! And they never did. But don’t worry. The masses could care less about freedom. And they never did. Evidence that the masses don’t care about freedom? Ron Paul is not the frontrunner by a very wide margin in the presidential race. He is the only candidate who is running to restore civil liberties, ending senseless, grinding people into hamburger wars, and restoring sanity to fiscal and monetaruy policy. Is that what the masses want? Of course not. But they will finally get a taste of the iron fist when the FEMA Camp roundups begin DB200 What is a FEMA Camp? Observer FEMA was empowered to set up camps, mostly in highly unpopulated areas in the western US, where populations could be moved to ostensibly save them from extreme danger from such things as earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, other natural disasters, that threaten their homes & communities. Each camp can hold thousands of people. Knowing the propensity of our government to “protect” us from ourselves, these camps are also capable of holding all those rounded up who are in opposition to anything the government wants at any given time. They are the modern version of the Japanese internment camps employed during WWII. Citizens opposed to government policies and practices are prime targets for placement in these camps, especially now that the NDAA says that US citizens even simply suspected of ‘terrorist’ thoughts or activities (and who defines what a terrorist is? – the government, of course) can be indefinitely held, without charge or trial. Anyone who thinks ANY current administration is wrong can now be branded a terrorist, and 99% of the commenters here, if found, could also be sent to the FEMA camps. The powers that be are just waiting for the one major calamity it would take to execute the FEMA camp orders ~ and that calamity is most probably going to be an economic one, with natural disaster (with concomitant economic collapse) a close secondary excuse to round up We, The People, who need Big Brother’s ‘help.’ Only God can help those who believe in “Live Free or Die” ~ armed insurrection will be met with instant execution, so there’ll be no need for internment at FEMA camps. Once the believers in the 2nd Amendment are exterminated, the entire geography of the United States will comprise one extremely large FEMA camp. Igos Do You People Know What Lies Out West??? Do You?!?! YELLOWSTONE SUPER VOLCANO! The Camps Are There So The Government Can Commit Massive Genocide. Unlike Hitler Whom Killed 6 Million The Camps Out West Will Hold Numbers So Massive It’ll Put Hitler To Shame….