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Comments Posted By choicelady

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Dear Trolls: Yes, I do think Barack Obama is a Very Good President and Here is Why

Monica it was signed AFTER the civil rights protections. No less an authority than Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies vetted it – she is THE top person in America watching out for our rights in national security issues.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-martin/defense-authorization-act_b_1201668.html

Take a look at the language:

S.1867

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Engrossed in Senate [Passed Senate] – ES)

Subtitle D–Detainee Matters

SEC. 1031. AFFIRMATION OF AUTHORITY OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES TO DETAIN COVERED PERSONS PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE.

(a) In General- Congress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate force pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40) includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons (as defined in subsection (b)) pending disposition under the law of war.

(b) Covered Persons- A covered person under this section is any person as follows:

(1) A person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored those responsible for those attacks.

(2) A person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.

(c) Disposition Under Law of War- The disposition of a person under the law of war as described in subsection (a) may include the following:

(1) Detention under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force.

(2) Trial under chapter 47A of title 10, United States Code (as amended by the Military Commissions Act of 2009 (title XVIII of Public Law 111-84)).

(3) Transfer for trial by an alternative court or competent tribunal having lawful jurisdiction.

(4) Transfer to the custody or control of the person’s country of origin, any other foreign country, or any other foreign entity.

(d) Construction- Nothing in this section is intended to limit or expand the authority of the President or the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military Force.

(e) Authorities- Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities, relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.

(f) Requirement for Briefings of Congress- The Secretary of Defense shall regularly brief Congress regarding the application of the authority described in this section, including the organizations, entities, and individuals considered to be `covered persons’ for purposes of subsection (b)(2).

SEC. 1032. REQUIREMENT FOR MILITARY CUSTODY.

(a) Custody Pending Disposition Under Law of War-

(1) IN GENERAL- Except as provided in paragraph (4), the Armed Forces of the United States shall hold a person described in paragraph (2) who is captured in the course of hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40) in military custody pending disposition under the law of war.

(2) COVERED PERSONS- The requirement in paragraph (1) shall apply to any person whose detention is authorized under section 1031 who is determined–

(A) to be a member of, or part of, al-Qaeda or an associated force that acts in coordination with or pursuant to the direction of al-Qaeda; and

(B) to have participated in the course of planning or carrying out an attack or attempted attack against the United States or its coalition partners.

(3) DISPOSITION UNDER LAW OF WAR- For purposes of this subsection, the disposition of a person under the law of war has the meaning given in section 1031(c), except that no transfer otherwise described in paragraph (4) of that section shall be made unless consistent with the requirements of section 1033.

(4) WAIVER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY- The Secretary of Defense may, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence, waive the requirement of paragraph (1) if the Secretary submits to Congress a certification in writing that such a waiver is in the national security interests of the United States.

[FEINSTEIN’S AMENDMENTS]

(b) Applicability to United States Citizens and Lawful Resident Aliens-

(1) UNITED STATES CITIZENS- The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.

(2) LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS- The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to a lawful resident alien of the United States on the basis of conduct taking place within the United States, except to the extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States.

————————

House Version HR 1540 Signed by the President

SEC. 1022. MILITARY CUSTODY FOR FOREIGN AL-QAEDA TERRORISTS.
(a) CUSTODY PENDING DISPOSITION UNDER LAW OF WAR.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in paragraph (4), the
Armed Forces of the United States shall hold a person described
in paragraph (2) who is captured in the course of hostilities
authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force
(Public Law 107–40) in military custody pending disposition
under the law of war.
(2) COVERED PERSONS.—The requirement in paragraph (1)
shall apply to any person whose detention is authorized under
section 1021 who is determined—
(A) to be a member of, or part of, al-Qaeda or an
associated force that acts in coordination with or pursuant
to the direction of al-Qaeda; and
(B) to have participated in the course of planning or
carrying out an attack or attempted attack against the
United States or its coalition partners.
(3) DISPOSITION UNDER LAW OF WAR.—For purposes of this
subsection, the disposition of a person under the law of war
has the meaning given in section 1021(c), except that no
transfer otherwise described in paragraph (4) of that section
shall be made unless consistent with the requirements of section
1028.
(4) WAIVER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY.—The President may
waive the requirement of paragraph (1) if the President submits
to Congress a certification in writing that such a waiver is
in the national security interests of the United States.

[FEINSTEIN’S AMENDMENTS SURVIVE INTO THE FINAL BILL]

(b) APPLICABILITY TO UNITED STATES CITIZENS AND LAWFUL
RESIDENT ALIENS.—
(1) UNITED STATES CITIZENS.—The requirement to detain
a person in military custody under this section does not extend
to citizens of the United States.
(2) LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS.—The requirement to detain
a person in military custody under this section does not extend
to a lawful resident alien of the United States on the basis
of conduct taking place within the United States…

» Posted By choicelady On September 24, 2014 @ 1:07 pm

Tell that to the millions who are now able to get insurance for under $100 per month despite pre-existing conditions, age, and all the other factors. Payments are linked to your INCOME, not to the market. Some in CA are obtaining coverage for as little as $10 a month because they are very low income.

So you’re spewing lies, ST. It’s not accurate. Single Payer in CA was shaping up to be MORE expensive – minimally 3.7% of your income rather than 1% or less as ACA is providing – with the same coverage single payer would offer.

I read, make clear observations, pay attention. I am not impressed by untruths spewed by you in an effort to do whatever it is you wish to do.

» Posted By choicelady On September 24, 2014 @ 11:53 am

That,sorry to say, is absolutely NOT TRUE. NDAA explicitly removed US citizens and lawfully present non-citizens from any such apprehension and detention AND accorded Constitutional rights to due process to non-lawful enemy combatants, spies, etc. The assertion is based on the original wording of the law put in by Republicans, and Dianne Feinstein REMOVED it via amendments that were passed, incorporated into the House version that the president then signed.

A large part of our problem understanding this president is relying on rumors from Right and Left about things that are NOT ACCURATE. NDAA does not do any of the things you write – and that is a great tribute to several parties including the President.

» Posted By choicelady On September 24, 2014 @ 11:40 am

Since Congress just failed to pass spending for a war that was NOT REQUESTED by the president, you appear to be in error.

The issue of single payer is that it is not monolithic. ACA is the German, Dutch, and other European nations’ form of provision.

If you wish a good government, it must include a good Congress that has the sole power to pass budgets, allocate funds, pass bills. Nothing in wishful thinking about a benevolent imperial president is either good OR Constitutional however much you’d like to have it. I hope you voted in 2010 and did so with a full understanding that it is control over the houses of Congress that makes reforms within those houses possible. You cannot have what you want if you do not secure it with your wise vote.

» Posted By choicelady On September 24, 2014 @ 9:58 am

That is not a keen observation, sorry to say. It’s non-reflective of the incredible difficulties that exist on the path to find our way. Gross generalizations without nuance aren’t helping. Everyone is NOT the same, and we need to be very precise in our understandings of what is and is not humane.

» Posted By choicelady On September 23, 2014 @ 7:53 pm

That makes no sense, thank you. It’s just something vague and pointless to say. If you don’t respect the democratic process and prefer airy generalizations, then I cannot discuss this with you. Sorry we are at cross purposes.

» Posted By choicelady On September 23, 2014 @ 7:17 pm

As one who worked for single payer for over a decade, even I know that private insurance is part of every nation’s health care other than Canada. Even the Brits have a private thread to their care, and France requires 30% of their coverage be from private insurance. Medicare? 20%. ACA is setting the same standard that was achieved over years in most European nations that built their universal coverage on private regulated insurance. States – we ARE a federal system – have to step in and regulate the costs as CA is about to do on the ballot. Single payer won’t fly as it does in Canada (with a highly regressive 17% VAT to fund it) but might emulate Germany, the Netherlands, etc. The groundwork is laid. Now get a decent Congress and we can move forward instead of another 51 votes to kill “Obamacare”.

» Posted By choicelady On September 23, 2014 @ 6:58 pm

Searing Truth – it was up to Congress, NOT the president, to bring Bush and Cheney to justice. To assert otherwise is either naïve or craven – and I don’t know you well enough to know which.

I was a member of an anti-torture national organization’s board. I left because like you they insisted it was a presidential issue when legally, morally, and practically it was NOT. Congress had no will to do this – NO nation other than Guatemala has ever prosecuted its own war criminals, and that failed – so please give the respect of understanding both history and democratic process?

You cannot fault this president for obeying the laws of our land without doing violence to those laws, process, and outcomes.

» Posted By choicelady On September 23, 2014 @ 6:53 pm

I respect this president as the best of my lifetime. Thank you for making these points, Murph. I am watching him carefully work through the REAL threat of ISIL (I cannot get past the photo I saw of them killing people with a power drill) by enlisting and supporting the nations whose very existence as human beings ISIL threatens. It is NOT Bush Redux – it is a withdrawal of imperialism and a stand on behalf of human rights that we support those nations in their fight against a vicious and demented force of evil.

Trolls, right and left, are the knee jerk but thoughtless reactors of our time. Standing up to them is more important than it has ever been, and you are making a clear and unambiguous case for the transformational nature of this administration. Thank you!

» Posted By choicelady On September 23, 2014 @ 6:49 pm

Living With What You Have Done .

The flip side is that when we teach a generation – be it Vietnam or the Gulf – that murder is right, we infect the whole of that generation whether they realize it or not. I knew so many chickenhawks during Vietnam who promoted the deaths of ‘gooks’ and ‘commies’ but who themselves never let go of their long-stemmed wine glasses to do any of it in person. They were infected but never killed anyone.

It is both personal as in Nirek’s experience and impersonal as in Cheney’s and all the prowar NON enlisted people. War makes it easier not to care, and it doesn’t matter who you are when the war is on.

» Posted By choicelady On September 3, 2014 @ 2:36 pm

Try the New Vox Populi Tonight! Live Chat About the Week’s Events!

Same here. Oh, well…

» Posted By choicelady On August 22, 2014 @ 8:15 pm

I can’t either!!!

» Posted By choicelady On August 22, 2014 @ 8:14 pm

Ferguson Police Force Deployed to Iraq

Did the FPD take its training at the Ted Nugent School of Military Defense?

Very funny but kind of awful commentary, AdLib. Sorry to think it’s probably true. Sigh.

» Posted By choicelady On August 22, 2014 @ 12:28 pm

What Can We Actually Do to Stop The Conflict Between Police and Minorities?

Since this is attributed to every First Nations group, I suspect it has traveled for generations.

It is powerful, and it’s what we must learn – feed the correct wolf.

» Posted By choicelady On August 23, 2014 @ 7:37 pm

As an admirer of author William Kent Krueger who writes what ostensibly are mysteries but are deep reflections on the human condition, I borrow a theme he has used. One of his characters, Henry, is a shaman, a miden, a wise man who is Ojibwe (in English).

In crises he reminds his friends and family that there are two wolves that live in each of us. One is fear and all the angry and hateful thoughts and deeds. The other is love and all the positive and affirming thoughts and deeds.

Which one survives and wins?

The one we feed.

» Posted By choicelady On August 23, 2014 @ 12:53 pm

The Sunday Funnies to Take a Brief Hiatus

Oh Sally – of COURSE you need some time off! You’ve been giving us so much for so long, it’s time for you to focus on your health and comfort. We all wish you the very best in preparing for surgery and then having it! No need for you to suffer at all.

Thank you for all the Sundays we, as you can see from comments, revisited our youthful enthusiasm for the ‘funnies’ including all the more sophisticated versions you have offered to us now. We can almost SMELL the paper, the ink, the ‘hot type’ of our past every time we log on and see what you’ve compiled.

One part of the Sunday Funnies I especially have enjoyed is your running commentary. THAT, as much as the funnies, is a total delight.

Now it’s time for you to take care of you. Please know you are in our hearts and that as the time draws closer for the surgery, we are rooting for you coast to coast, border to border. Keep us up to date on your well being. You are a beloved part of our community, and we wish you well.

A big, virtual HUG for the enjoyment of the summer and the fortitude for what’s to come.

» Posted By choicelady On July 13, 2014 @ 8:11 pm

Coalition Of Church And State: Destroyed From Within.

monicaangela – you don’t know me yet. I do know Sue. I also have had YOUR experience and can say there is truth in it. Sue knows that through calm persistence I actually succeeded in getting a major Dominionist to understand one point I had about the separation of church and state. We traded funny stories and nice comments for over three years. It happens.

It did not and will not stop him from his mission. It let him know one person who is a progressive person within the faith community was a kind human being. That’s worth a lot just as everything YOU do is worth so much the same way. But the movement is driven by fanatics, and they are on a ‘mission from God’ (though they have no memo FROM God about that!) and therefore beyond our reach.

The single largest religious movement in America is ‘walkaways’. These are the people – maybe some whom you have touched – who are abandoning the extremist congregations. But it’s not enough because it doesn’t really matter how many followers are just so long as those who are part of the ‘reverse altar call’ (taking vows to do whatever is needed) hold some kind of political power.

We can marginalize some of this, but not all of this. We can turn hearts of individuals, but until they become sufficiently numerous to vote out Tea Party extremists, we have to deal with them.

Sue and I both know how dangerous they are as a movement (not bricks and mortar but as a political body).

That is why she has to keep writing, I have to keep working, and yes – keep touching people where we can as you are and I hope I am. But when you have Hobby Lobby morph into Wheaton College (where Billy Graham attended and where his archives lie) and then into a total violation of employee religious rights in the CRA, you have an institutional embodiment of theocracy right in the top court of our land. THAT is why they are dangerous. And no amount of humanity one-to-one can change that despicable violation of democracy and the Constitution. That’s what Sue is asserting, and while I agree with you that changing hearts and minds is critical, it is simply not enough. Not yet.

» Posted By choicelady On July 15, 2014 @ 10:34 am

Hey Sue – another outstanding presentation. You know my story. You know my feelings. I really appreciate the time you take to discuss the internal workings of this very dangerous movement.

I will get the book and read it when I have the strength to do so! I’m still getting the occasional acts of vandalism thanks to these ‘true believers’ but they are reducing in number and strength. But it is clear evidence of what you’re saying – they are devoted to their own superiority making even craven acts up to and including murder, totally justified in their own minds. Every one of the murders of abortion providers has been rationalized by the assassin AND his supporters as a ‘Biblical’ deed.

This is not something to laugh at and ignore. Thank you as always for keeping the spotlight on their movement.

» Posted By choicelady On July 15, 2014 @ 10:23 am

Thanks, Murph – so much of this is drawn by them from their favorite section of the Bible – the OLD Testament. They are grounded in the ages-old tribalism, NOT in the universal inclusion that is exactly what made Jesus so dangerous to the existing hierarchy.

I am beyond any capacity to deal with the religious right anymore. They have and will continue to ignore the directives that are the foundational principles of Christianity. We call them Dominionists for the politics they make clear that they intend to take over the world – have Dominion over it. The problem is that they are really “Old Testamentarians” for whom Jesus is just the ‘get out of jail free’ card they hope will be played at death.

» Posted By choicelady On July 15, 2014 @ 10:19 am

The Political Illiteracy of Progressives: Matthews vs. Warren

RSG – I think we’re talking different points. I’m not disputing what you say but adding a different dimension.

I’m a lobbyist for a justice oriented non profit w 1.5 million members. I do policy analysis daily including the budget and its impacts.

Of course I’d vote for Brown – did so against the execrable Meg Whitman. But I think we need not to be taken in by a bad Dem when good Dems exist. We have far better alternatives than Brown at least this time. But we’re too knee jerk about him, letting him rest on laurels from 40 years ago when he’s jettisoned those values years back.

I never accept third parties in contested elections because the system is not built to accommodate them. Local elections perhaps, and that may be the way to build strength for them, but never in state or federal level work.

What mattes to public sector wages is good union strength more than Dems who may or may not be truly supportive. Our public employees survived Arnold thanks to that. They will survive Jerry equally strongly.

But we have to stop pretending he’s ‘the one’. He’s not. And we need to lift up good Dems from lower offices so that we can have truly principled leaders now into the future. Not just shadow ones.

» Posted By choicelady On July 4, 2014 @ 10:12 am

The issue of debt is obvious. The issue of debt used as a political weapon to cut social spending is NOT so obvious. When the ‘debt maniacs’ wring their hands and rend their garments, it’s all for show to force (they think) cuts in welfare for the perilously placed folks.

We are hip to this manufactured crisis. We aren’t playing anymore.I have been ‘warned’ about the national debt since I was in 7th grade – and that was a very long time ago. And America is still here.

But that is a very different issue from poverty and the way even Jerry Brown has abandoned those in need. In the general election of course I will vote for him – I lived under Schwarzenegger and saw the cuts his handmaiden GOP made to the budget, the blue pencils he took to essential programs. But Jerry is NOT BETTER because he’s swallowed the Kool Aid.

We need to stop coronating people and ask them to live up to basic principles. Jerry is un-contested, and that, I think, is a damned shame. CA could have done LOTS better but didn’t have the vision or the nerve.

» Posted By choicelady On July 3, 2014 @ 7:00 pm

One caveat – by the new standards of measurement, it is CALIFORNIA that has the highest rate of poverty in America. Prices so outstrip income that the capacity for self sufficiency is gutted.

And progressives tolerate a governor who has become an enemy of the poor. He is a traitor to labor, to working people, to those teetering on the brink of disaster. He eliminated a funding line in our budget that was ENTIRELY PAID FOR BY THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT to enroll more people in Medi-Cal because he does not WANT more people in Medi-Cal.

Progressives will not call him out. Labor won’t call him out. He is a fraud but he has the aura of ‘progressivism’ from the past and because – LIKE HIS GOP PREDECESSOR – he supports a handful of good causes.

If we’re that lacking in serious challenge to a real fraud, and if we do nothing to underpin the man in the White House because…something, then the term ‘progressive’ becomes as meaningless as any other phony label. It makes progressives just as craven as anyone they hate.

» Posted By choicelady On July 3, 2014 @ 2:23 pm

Thank you for this thoughtful assessment, Beatriz09. I agree that understanding useful strategy is critical to success, and in this respect far too many self-styled ‘progressives’ fail. It’s heartbreaking to listen to people demand outcomes that are proffered illegally and un-Constitutionally simply because they want them.

I would argue, partly as a lobbyist myself, that policy also matters. The content of what we want is crucial as well. It serves us poorly to insist on things that are fundamentally never going to be part of a democracy or to ignore the way our economy, polity, and society are organized to proffer things that won’t work.

We lack a grounding in history – the SCOTUS decision against Harry S Truman on nationalizing the stubborn steel industry – when we demand any president ‘nationalize’ something because we’re angry. We want ‘perp walks’ for bankers and others we hate, despite the fact that most progressives slept through the Clinton policy years and ignored the legislative changes that made what we hate today perfectly legal. We insist on single payer based on one model and cannot agree among ourselves what form it should take, how it would be paid, whether the regressive 17% VAT in Canada is ethical – we don’t agree among ourselves so cannot shape a policy much less a practice that will stand the test of passage.

Policy and process matter. Sitting on the sidelines screaming does not. We have to remember as a first principle that getting what we want takes wisdom and work. Democracy is NOT a spectator sport.

» Posted By choicelady On July 3, 2014 @ 12:54 pm

What Can Be Done to Stop Children From Crossing Our Borders?

I think addressing the issues of abandoned humans is universally not good (well, maybe Scandinavia…) That said, we have fewer incidents of out and out terrorism against little kids by gangs here than has sprung up in Central America.

I would point out that there is a major disconnect today – and it is recent – between what our government is trying to do domestically and internationally and what unfettered RW PRIVATE groups are doing. The role of predatory transnational corporations and pseudo Christian ‘evangelists’ in corrupting nations overseas is appalling. Their power and influence comes from a shadow foreign policy that supplies money, arms, drugs around the world and keeps the actions of the nation as a formal diplomatic actor well at bay.

Whenever you ask yourself why a declared national policy appears not to work, think very often that perhaps someone is assuring it does not. Read “The Family” or “C Street” by Jeff Sharlet and “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins who WAS an economic hit man.

The role of private engagement in perpetuating destablization both at home and abroad is horrifying.

» Posted By choicelady On July 2, 2014 @ 2:50 pm

That’s being done, a lot by progressive faith people, who are rushing to do exactly that. The kids know it – but you’ll not be seeing that in the media. Not nearly as exciting as slavering anti-immigrant people mobbing buses of little kids, is it.

But the truth is – lots of people care and lots are pitching in.

» Posted By choicelady On July 2, 2014 @ 12:03 am

Hi- have to reply here.

There is no ‘planner’ but there sure are coyotes offering their services. However, we know that almost all the girls have been raped by the men ‘saving’ them. Planner? No. Mass exploitation – oh yeah.

Nothing in the world doesn’t generate a serious human need too often met by serious human greed.

» Posted By choicelady On July 1, 2014 @ 9:48 pm

It all erupted quite recently. I suspect it’s because we are succeeding in clamping down with the Mexican government on Mexican cartels. It then headed south, but it IS a fairly recent event. The arrival of children has been going on for two years, but the flood is increasing as gangs escalate their assaults on children – including very young ones. The parents are HERE in no small numbers which is where they children are seeking help. The parents have no way to succeed in keeping their children fed and alive, and because they’re here, many of the kids are being raised by relatives whose own kids are grown. It’s a situation made first by our multinationals that decimated the local economies, grabbed land illegally, and now shove WalMarts into areas that destroy local economics but don’t pay. We have a lot of responsibility for that plus the drugs. Least we can do is reunite these children with their parents and make sure every one of them is safe.

» Posted By choicelady On July 1, 2014 @ 9:29 pm

The loud, vile voices are always prominent. That’s true of all situations. But the data show that Americans want a decent, humane resolution to immigration, that they are NOT the Baggers who want to deport 12 million people including these children. Overwhelmingly they want to give immigrants a path to stability, maybe citizenship. That’s why the vicious voices from Murietta today are in the news – they aren’t the NORM. That makes all the difference.

» Posted By choicelady On July 1, 2014 @ 9:25 pm

The children in the Congo are getting our help along with those in Eritrea and Ethiopia – they aren’t HERE. These children are on our doorstep. I cannot comprehend how you, knowing a legacy of awfulness, hate and repression, would bar them entry.

We are working to help undo the awfulness that Reagan started – funding the Contras and allowing those murderous drug dealers to spread simply because they were ‘anti communist’. From that the drugs spread EVERYWHERE, and it’s our doing.

Yes – these children are fleeing murderous, vile gangs we helped create by that same horrific president. So I’m shocked by your rejection of them and the adults who are victims of the same forces that enslaved your family members. We can be better than Reagan. We MUST be.

» Posted By choicelady On July 1, 2014 @ 9:22 pm

What happened to ‘tear down that wall’??? We don’t do that, and certainly not against children.

Returning those children is sending them to sure and certain death. I have no problem with their being here. Immigrants are the lifeblood of this nation. Always were. Always will be. WE changed the rules in 1952, and the crisis is largely due to that. YOUR forebears, if they came before then, came with NO standards at all – they just walked in. We need to rethink this. WE destroyed Ellis and Angel islands and ports of entry. We can change that back.

» Posted By choicelady On July 1, 2014 @ 8:07 pm