U.S. House Betrays U.S. Citizens with H. 1540: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012

(Update, 1-2-2012: President Obama signed NDAA FY2012 into law over the New Years holiday weekend. Here is the link to the presidential statement released concerning Obama's "serious reservations". If his reservations are so damn serious, why sign it, why ask for the provisions? Sounds more like he's paving the way for codified authoritarianism. Remember: the Nazis were obeying the law.)

Fellow Heroes, as promised:

H. 1540 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 vote and bill from govtrack.us

I pay a good bit of attention to the news, yet, I don't remember hearing about this passing in the House of Representatives back in May of 2011. I did, however, hear about the senate version of the bill passing in December of 2011 (yeah, that's now in case you were wondering). To learn more about the senate's betrayal of America follow this link. This is the House's version of a bill that declares the United States military can arrest anyone inside the United States that the government declares a terrorist. Peaceful Occupy protesters in London are currently being labeled terrorists (see my S. 1867 post).

H. 1540 passed the House of Representatives with 322 Ayes, 96 Nos, and 13 Not Voting.

That's 322 Traitors to the People.
96 Heroes to the People.
And 13, Absent to the People.

The 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the People peacefully to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

While the First Amendment exists as a complex sentence, its components are actually quite simple, regardless of what the courts may have decided over the years:

- Congress CANNOT make laws "respecting an establishment of religion"
Religious tolerance is law: Congress cannot push for one religion over another, to do so would be to establish a state-sanctioned religion. Every law that grants religious organizations special privileges is in violation of this amendment. (Sorry to break that one to America, I know it comes as a surprise).

- Congress CANNOT make laws "prohibiting the free exercise [of religion]"
Religious tolerance is law: Congress cannot prohibit religious followers from practicing their religion. There are many religions and the people who follow these religions have the right to do so without prohibition from the government.

- Congress CANNOT make laws "abridging the freedom of speech"
Free speech is law: Congress cannot create laws banning speech. Hate to break it to everyone but speech can be negative or positive (hate or love) and congress has no right to ban any of it. Isn't that great? Doesn't that suck? And, yet, isn't that one of the things that makes this an awesome place? You have the right to say whatever you want. Holy Shit, what a novel concept that totally goes against politically correct speech and every hate-speech law that exists.

- Congress CANNOT make laws "abridging the freedom of...the press"
Free press is law: Congress cannot create laws preventing the press from reporting the news. Which means all those federal organizations created by congress to monitor and police airwaves (FCC, etc.) are actually in violation of the 1st Amendment's free speech and free press clauses - oops.

- Congress CANNOT make laws "abridging the freedom of...the People peaceably to assemble"
Peaceful assembly is law: protesters can peacefully assemble and congress has no legal standing to create law that criminalizes that peaceful assembly. Yet another reason why it is imperative that protesters remain peaceful during these trying times. Bring your tents (thank you Wall Street Occupiers)! Wear your tents (thank you Melbourne Occupiers)!

- Congress CANNOT make laws "abridging the freedom of...the People...to petition the Government for redress of grievances"
Petitioning the Government for redress of grievances is law: which means that Congress is in breach of the 1st Amendment when attempting to pass legislation meant to hinder the people from petitioning their government - NDAA allows indefinite detention of anyone (citizen or non-citizen) within the United States. By this law the United States Government reserves the "right" to determine who is a terrorist (Occupy movement - ???), in essence, the U.S. Government can decide that peaceful protest to petition the government is a terrorist action.

In addition to the numerous ways NDAA shreds the 1st Amendment, citizens will also lose their Constitutional Rights guaranteed by the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 14th, 15th, 19th, and 26th Amendments with the "indefinite" detention clause. The 15th, 19th, and 26th are arguable since they each deal with voting rights, but I strongly believe that a person being held indefinitely, is indefinitely denied the right to vote.

So, now that you know the many ways that Congress is using NDAA FY2012 to fuck citizens out of their Constitution Rights, why don't you take a minute and sign the damn Petition to OBAMA to VETO the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (S. 1867).

Please share this petition with as many people as you can.

And, remember, the only way to protect our right to free speech is to use our voices to speak our minds. Stay strong through this winter Occupiers you're doing your country a great service! Stay safe, stay peaceful! Stay loud and proud!