The U.S. Senate has passed the 2013 version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The previous version of the NDAA was an extremely controversial bill in that provisions essentially allowed the permanent detainment of American citizens.
While the 2013 version of the NDAA has an amendment that is supposed to guarantee a jury trial for Americans, it still permits the president to detain Americans. In fact, the amendment may be worse in the fact that it is more explicit in its permission. In addition, the amendment applies to Americans. I guess non-Americans have no rights and the politicians can play with them like they are little toys.
The Senate passed this bill unanimously. It was 98 to 0, with two senators not voting (Kirk and Rockefeller). Whenever the media or politicians talk about bipartisan support for legislation, you should cringe. And this bill is no exception. Legislation that is passed unanimously, or close to it, are usually the most anti-liberty bills out there.
There are 100 senators who are supposed to represent their state and people, and yet not one could vote against this atrocity. This should be a message to all Americans that the government is not on their side. The senate is loaded with a bunch of thugs.
Rand Paul, son of the great libertarian Ron Paul, has shown his true colors again. Based on this vote alone, I will absolutely never support one of his campaigns, whether it is for senate or president. He has just shown that he has very little in the way of principles and he should be ashamed of what he is doing, especially since his father has been such a great example.
Not only is this legislation atrocious in its violation of basic human rights, it is also a massive boondoggle in spending. Its spends $631 billion on the Pentagon. And Rand Paul claims to favor a balanced budget? Just based on the massive spending alone, this would be a "no" vote for anyone who favors liberty.
A spokesman for Rand Paul admitted that the amendment did not do enough to preserve due process, but said it was a step in the right direction. If this is the right direction, then I want to be wrong. I don't want to go in that direction at all.
This whole thing is disgusting and any American that values liberty should be disgusted. These people are thugs, pure and simple. This is not a free country. It is up to the American people to put a stop to this. We must withdraw our consent. If we let the government provide us our healthcare, our retirement, and education for our children, then we are going to end up with things like the NDAA. When you give the government power, the politicians will continually try to build on it. We must not permit this power. These people in the senate are evil and they must be stopped. I encourage everyone to withdraw any support or consent.