I don´t want to start new thread so post following here.
http://www.globalwealthprotection.com/name-just-one-freedom-lost/ said:
Dishonesty from politicians is nothing new for Americans.
The real question is whether we are lying to ourselves when we call this country the land of the free.
Washington Post 15January2012 Summarized from link above:
10 constitutional rights cancelled by recent U.S. government actions (since 9/11):
Indefinite detention: … the president has the authority to indefinitely detain citizens accused of terrorism. … the Senate specifically rejected an amendment that would exempt citizens and the Administration has opposed efforts to challenge such authority in federal court.
Arbitrary justice: The president now decides whether a person will receive a trial in the federal courts or in a military tribunal, ... Bush claimed this authority in 2001, and Obama has continued the practice.
Warrantless searches: Bush acquired this sweeping power under the Patriot Act in 2001, and in 2011, Obama extended the power, to searches of everything from business documents to library records. The government can demand, without probable cause, that organizations turn over information on citizens — and order them not to reveal the disclosure to the affected party.
Secret evidence: The government now routinely uses secret evidence to detain individuals and employs secret evidence in federal and military courts. It also forces the dismissal of cases against the United States with declarations that the cases would reveal classified information.
War crimes: The world clamored for prosecutions of those responsible for water boarding terrorism suspects during the Bush administration, but in 2009 the Obama administration said that it would not allow CIA employees to be investigated or prosecuted. This gutted not just treaty obligations but the Nuremberg principles of international law.
Secret court: The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, issues secret warrants on individuals deemed to be aiding or abetting hostile foreign governments or organizations. In 2011, Obama renewed these powers, including allowing secret searches of individuals who are not part of an identifiable terrorist group. The govenment ignores congressional limits on such surveillance.
Immunity from judicial review: Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has successfully pushed for immunity for companies that assist in warrantless surveillance of citizens, blocking the ability of citizens to challenge the violation of privacy.
Continual monitoring of citizens: The Obama administration has successfully defended its claim that it can use GPS devices to monitor every move of targeted citizens without securing any court order or review. It is not defending the power before the Supreme Court — a power described by Justice Anthony Kennedy as “Orwellian.”
More discussion of each is given at the link above.
Strangely, the most serious constitutional violation was not even mentioned in the link:
Now any "high official" can order the execution of US citizens with zero "due process" in the courts. That was recently done to very innocent 17 year old boy - a good student, but a Muslim, who went outside the US looking for his anti- American father. AFAIK, no US citizen has been killed by high official´s order within the US, yet.
Just after the Constitution was signed, Mrs. Powel confronted Benjamin Franklin and asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” His response was: “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”
We have lost much of it already and when economic chaos comes it will be Marshall Law or Military Government in the USA. Ben also said:
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”-quoted as published in Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin, but several other wording are used. An earlier variant by Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanack (1738):
"Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."