Posted on 12/16/2014 9:28:59 AM PST by yoe
As of today, Bill HR4681 has passed the house and senate, and is currently undergoing arbitration before being sent to the President for his signature in to law. The law says that the intelligence community can collect, retain, and disseminate all electronic communications including voice calls [without any constitutional restrictions] on all US citizens and everyone else in the world. And they have 5 years before they are supposed to destroy the records. However, they can keep them indefinitely if they fall into several categories of interest.
It is all out in the open now. Your 1st, 4th, and 5th Amendment protections are gone. This act gives new meaning to ‘land of the free, home of the brave.’ The intelligence community isn’t doing anything in secret any more. Americans are now living in an environment much like the days of the old Stalinist Soviet Union, where the presumption was that all conversations were monitored and one takes measures to have a ‘private’ conversations.
(Excerpt) Read more at universalfreepress.com ...
By Mr. ROGERS of Michigan: H.R. 4681. Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant to the following: The intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States government are carried out to support the national security interests of the United States, to support and assist the armed forces of the United States, and to support the President in the execution of the foreign policy of the United States. Article I, section 8 of the Constitution of the United States provides, in pertinent part, that ``Congress shall have power . . . to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States''; ``. . . to raise and support armies . . .''; ``To provide and maintain a Navy''; ``To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces''; and ``To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers and all other Powers vested in this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof''
Does this mean what it says?: 12/10/2014 Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
I don't think Congressman Rogers would do what the article says was done. Can someone please explain further? Thanks.
I’d be all right with this if they were open to the public and we got to peruse the communications of all government agents and elected officials.
For future research:https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/4681
Not that I plane to guard my words; if it be treason make the most of it.
“I’d be all right with this if they were open to the public and we got to peruse the communications of all government agents and elected officials.”
I like this.
It is true - the federal government is not doing their job to protect our God-given, unalienable rights and we, the people have failed in our duty to make it politically profitable for the wrong people in office to do the right thing and THROW THE BUMS OUT who don't.
But all is not lost. If no remedy is found at the federal level, then at the state level we can and MUST NULLIFY unconstitutional federal acts and decisions.
” Americans are now living in an environment much like the days of the old Stalinist Soviet Union, “
No, it’s actually much worse, because the Soviets didn’t have much technology or money for spy equipment. Here, we buy the equipment ourselves for the government to use, and on top of that, we pay for their usage.
Gruber was right, Americans are generally stupid.
This 2015 Congess and Senate will need to get really f’en busy.They should be working on stuff now to right so many wrongs
This lame duck congress is trying to inflict as much damage on America as they can before the new Congress gets sworn in January
gruber isn’t right.
most people have no idea what the govt is doing. much of it cannot be discovered thanks to the media and laws shielding discovery.
ignorance and stupidity aren’t the same thing. if you can’t find something out and don’t know about it, you can’t be called stupid because of that.
they won’t. the rino/gop-e leadership wants this stuff in place for them.
We will find out how serious they are if they decide not to file suit to have this law struck down as unconstitutional. It is and it should be. But will those who we have elected recently do it? I’m betting ‘no’.
Intel community bump for later...
Look at what your government is doing, under the guise of "intelligence".
This is the very definition of a legal “fishing expedition.” In a normal case, with a judicial system that was actually abiding by and protecting the Constitution, every single prosecution started because of these fishing expeditions would be tossed out of court, UNLESS the prosecution could provide clear and incontrovertible evidence that Defendant X was being monitored because of prior actions or reports from credible informants, AND that the wiretapping was done AFTER a warrant for same was issued.
However, we no longer live in such a system. First of all, prior NDAAs have made the crime of terrorism - or of SUSPECTED terrorism - into a different class of crime, one that needs only an accusation, one that doesn’t afford the defendant any access to an attorney or to a real hearing, and which can toss you away in Gitmo or some similar facility FOREVER, with no right of appeal and no contact with your loved ones or any attorney. Add to that the fact that the same wiretapping technology and information is used to blackmail - or at least keep in fear - judges at all levels, and what you really have is an unaccountable and pretty-much all-powerful government. IOW, we now live in a dictatorship, but those in power deem it to be in their interest not to announce that, but rather to keep the figleaf of democracy and a working and fair judicial system in place so as to avoid an outright rebellion.
I am sickened. I never thought that I’d see this in my lifetime.
a) Cross border communications have never been subject to 4th Amendment protection (this includes letters);
b)Phone records (meaning time and call endpoints-- who called whom) have never been subject to 4th Amendment protection (the same is true for mail: the gov can record the return name and address and the recipient name and address without a warrant);
c)domestic call content is still protected;
The single most import objection to surveillance internal to the USA (and the insane clown posse known as the TSA) is that it stems from the government's resolute refusal to control the borders and the equally resolute refusal focus on Muslims as the main source of terrorism, thereby unjustly subjecting everyone else to despotism in order to claim they are "fair".
When do we start executing them? One by one, or en masse?
Recorded and cataloged for future use as needed.
Marbury v. Madison 1803, vol 5, pg 137
It is also not entirely unworthy of observation that, in declaring what shall be the supreme law of the land, the Constitution itself is first mentioned, and not the laws of the United States generally, but those only which shall be made in pursuance of the Constitution, have that rank.
Thus, the particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written Constitutions, that
a law repugnant to the Constitution is void,
and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.
Norton v. Shelby County, 118 U.S. 425 (1886)
While acts of a de facto incumbent of an office lawfully created by law and existing are often held to be binding from reasons of public policy, the acts of a person assuming to fill and perform the duties of an office which does not exist de jure can have no validity whatever in law.
An unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is in legal contemplation as inoperative as though it had never been passed.
18 USC § 2384 Seditious conspiracy
If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
For those who see the crimes but do not act, there is a provision for them!
18 USC § 2382 - Misprision of treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States and having knowledge of the commission of any treason against them, conceals and does not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President or to some judge of the United States, or to the governor or to some judge or justice of a particular State, is guilty of misprision of treason and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both.
Assuming that these stated passages are in fact true and binding under the strictest legal scrutiny. Then I present to you that our elected rulers have indeed gone beyond their constitutional authority and now stand against the people of America (a duh moment)
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