Both Houses of Congress overwhelmingly passed a Department of Defense Authorization Bill that could strip any Americans of their legal rights. Many people think this is just the first step to total Fascism.
http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/The only bright spot to Obama signing the bill is that he attached a "Signing Statement" that said he disagreed with the intent of Congress to take away all civil rights of Americans who could be held indefinitely without any legal defense or attorneys to be tried in Military courts.
"I reject any approach that would mandate military custody where law enforcement provides the best method of incapacitating a terrorist threat," Obama said.
Regarding a section on the executive branch's authority to detain suspected terrorists, including U.S. citizens captured on the battlefield, Obama said he wanted to clarify that his administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens.
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http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/ob...Of Course Obama should have just vetoed the entire bill and sent it back to have the unconstitutional parts taken out, but apparently in the middle of a war people think the troops should be supported.
So far Obama has made 18 "Signing Statements" Bush signed 161. Of course "Signing statements" probably are not Constitutionally valid, because they bypass the intent of congress thereby bypassing the separation of powers.
Still is nice to know that Obama is at least publicly stating that he is on our side.
The other silver lining to the act is that it was $27 billion less than Obama sought, and $43 billion less than fiscal 2011
Because of the failure of the so called "Super Committee" another $60 billion a year in additional military cuts will automatically happen. One easy way to cut this amount would be the useless missile defense program and all of the expensive weapons systems designed to fight wars against other super powers.
In fact a good New Years Resolution that the President and Congress should make is to end the war in Afghanistan, bring all of the troops home (including all of the mercenaries) end about half of the 1000 foreign bases we have and use all of that money to rebuild our own country.