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[Trapezohedron]

Obama is an idiot. Had to be said.

The NDAA isn't that bad, but like most things proposed by the government, it isn't that bad only in paper. There's this thing everyone already knows. It's called corruption. Soon enough, those high-ranking idiots will be indefinitely detaining their personal enemies and eventually, their naysayers, just because they can.

I can smell the scent of a civil war coming up...

[Phmcw]

What's Acta?

Sopa done b semi-sane peoples. Meaning not as bad, but "as bad as sopa" is pretty much the equivalent of "as wet as the sea"

[Heron TSG]

Anyone in the US heard of the Justice Party yet? A man by the name of Rocky Anderson is running with it, trying to get on ballots now. He used to be the mayor of Salt Lake City, but is now running in alliance with some Occupy groups, trying to get support from others.

I'm personally planning on helping put him on the Washington ballot. The Republicans are dangerously insane and I've become very disillusioned with Obama, so I might actually vote for the guy.

[dragonshardz]

Internet censorship? Check (or as good as)

Indefinite detention for loosely defined "crimes"? Check

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Oppressed States of America. Women to the left, men to the right, children in the center. You will be processed and indoctrinated.

The revolution will not be televised.

[DrKillPatient]

News worthy of double-post.

Obama has signed the NDAA.

Well, that's troubling, albeit predictable. I suspect the corporate/government synthesis has already been abducting "terrorists" (read: innocent people who look like they could be Muslim, also anyone that challenges the gov't) for no reason at all, but this makes it much easier.

I have several stacks of books, articles, etc on my desk, organized by genre. 1984 has been placed into the "current events" stack as of late... It's sort of my little joke, but I can't write it off as fiction just yet.

I'm glad I at least have an EU passport as well as a US one, so I can hypothetically leave for a marginally better place if America's descent into Orwellian-ism continues.

EDIT: was the NDAA changed at all before it was signed, or does it still allow indefinite detention with no trial, etc? I suspect the latter.
EDIT2: SOPA apparently got adjourned because its opponents' "concerns are legitimiate". Stalemate?

[dragonshardz]

Not quite. We're still in trouble.

In a last minute move on Friday afternoon, House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith scheduled an unexpected hearing at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, December 21 to continue marking up the bill...

[Trapezohedron]

Not quite. We're still in trouble.

In a last minute move on Friday afternoon, House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith scheduled an unexpected hearing at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, December 21 to continue marking up the bill...

What do the supporters really hope to gain from this?

[Euld]

More money from the companies that support SOPA, probably.  Or a vague feeling of self-satisfaction knowing they passed a law that every informed citizen is against.  While urging the media to NOT cover the story, period.  It's downright scary.

[justinlee999]

We should use this law to detain the people that passed this, get the remaining sane members to abolish the law, and then release the people that passed this.

[darkrider2]

We should use this law to detain the people that passed this, get the remaining sane members to abolish the law, and then release the people that passed this.

Anymore, citizens arrests are basically illegal.

[PTTG??]

Nope, constitution says that a congressman on the way to session cannot be apprehended by any means. They can run over a nun and can't be stopped until they leave.

It's to prevent the executive branch from detaining liberal congressmen to skew votes.

[dragonshardz]

Okay, so we arrest them as they leave.

[PTTG??]

Frankly I think it's time we stop thinking of ourselves as citizens of a corrupt country and start thinking of ourselves as citizens of an occupied country.

Sadly, the constitution does not detail how to rebuild the government from the ground up. I think we need to start with a new constitutional congress. One thing I think we need to consider is separating the country into different regions which are formally separate countries. This will allow us to pursue separate treaties and radically different policies to better fit our very different cultures. And allow the southeast go ahead and set up Christian Shari law like they'd like.

But I digress. Although the political structure of the United States will have to change, we first must handle the practical concerns of dealing with the occupying Illegitimate Government. I believe that a good deal of American soldiers will remain loyal to the United States- that is, defect to our side. I think that by returning them to their homes and having the new Constitutional Congress declare all wars over will be the best way to expedite this.

However, we still have the threat of the highly automated war machine of the IG. I think we can turn this against them. Firstly, we liberate the points of support for the IG military, particularly Air Force bases currently supporting the drones.

What's more, I think that we have great opportunities to use new technology to fight these drones- specifically, we may be able to improvise directed energy weapons by using high-voltage transformers, an array of automotive batteries, and some kind of magnetron or other microwave source to fry the onboard electronics.

[palsch]

This is the best expert summary of both the NDAA and existing law I've seen.

[Phmcw]

Nice article, but the author fail to see why the public is rightly angered by this bill : Both Bush and Obama have, until now, had those power temporarily, as he said in the article, in an unclear, and exceptional form.
Now it's here to stay, and one of the reason why Obama was elected was his promise to end the patriot act, close Guantanamo (notice how that bill forbid it's closure), and generally stop the bullshit in anti terrorism legislation (notice how all these procedure and overview by judge in the EU, without any adverse effect).
Yeah, this law did something new : it clarify and make definitive the right to arrest and to detain indefinitely without trial or civil supervision,
any civilian suspected of supporting terrorism. And that's why Obama must go down.