What's the NDAA?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Now I'm not in any way a political person so I could be, like, really wrong here but I'm pretty sure it takes away many freedoms in favor of defense. So the government can lock up people without due process of law because they could be a terrorist or something.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

About right. If someone is "suspected" of terrorist activity, they can be detained for an indefinite amount of time without trial

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Thanks :)

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Not only has the Executive Branch been extremely effective in using drone strikes that wouldn't have been allowed without the NDAA, but how is not voting the solution? Okay, you don't like either of them for Foreign Policy but there's other issues.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) gives President Obama (all future presidents) the ability to order the indefinite imprisonment of civilians captured far from any battlefield without charge or trial.Surely you've heard the Benjamin Franklin quote, “They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security”.I fear our liberties are eroding.The OP suggests that anyone who agrees with the NDAA is not a good candidate for president. I agree. We have other choices besides Obama and Romney.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

First, your liberties are obviously not eroding, what a slippery slope fallacy that is. Besides Al Aulaqi v. Obama, there are few if any cases of the NDAA being used inappropriately to detain American citizens. Second, I'm not saying that that's something that the President should be capable of, I'm just saying that that's not a big enough issue to decide that neither of the candidates are worthy of leading our nation. The purpose of it was to allow freer punitive measures by the executive branch on those accused of terrorism. In theory, that *could* end horribly, but it's been effective in fighting terrorism.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I may be wrong, be I don't think the NDAA had anything to do with drone strikes. We've been using drones long before the NDAA. It had to do with the bypass of due process

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I know that. What I'm saying is that due process protections given to those accused of terrorism is not necessary for the current procedure. That allows for more freedom by the executive branch to use drone strikes, and it's been used effectively.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

This post is not saying to not vote. It's saying to not vote for either Obama or Romney.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Was Romney actually quoted as saying that? I feel like with so many other things he said something that was taken out of context and twisted into something not even close to the original meaning

by Anonymous 12 years ago

"Yes I would have [signed the NDAA] and I do believe it’s appropriate to have the capacity to detain people who are threats to this country who are members of Al Qaeda. Look you have every right in this country to protest and to express your views on a wide range of issues but you don’t have a right to join a group that is challenged America and has threatened killing Americans, has killed Americans and has declared war against America. That’s treason. And in this country we have a right to take those people and put them in jail. And I recognize in a setting where there are enemy combatants and some of them on our own soil that could possibly be abused. There are a lot of things that I think this president does wrong – lots of them. But I don’t think he’s going to abuse this power and I know that if I were president I would not abuse this power." You can't twist those words. The thing about the law is that it allows people to be detained indefinitely without a trial even if they have not committed a crime, they only need to have been suspected of it and the things that make you a terrorist suspect are as ridiculous as buying a torch or paying for things in cash.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Oh I understand the bill. I just honestly wasn't sure if he said it or not

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I feel really bad for Obama with this. The bill (over 1000 pages long) is for the defence budget, it literally funds the military, without it being passed no soldiers would get paid, their families wouldn't be able to pay their bills, no new supplies and equipment or ammunition could be bought, no food to feed the troops, no intelligence agencies would be funded, the contractors wouldn't be paid; //all spending would be haltered//. If he didn't sign it things would have gone to shit fast. The fucked up bits about detaining citizens without a trial and indefinitely (that is frankly unconstitutional and should be able to be challenged in court if the need arises) were tacked on to the bill by republican legislators who know it would have to get passed and they get the laws they want plus at the same time piss off Obama's liberal supporters. If he vetoed the military wouldn't be funded and it would have been over ridden by congress anyway, there would have been no point. So he decided to sign it and attach a signing statement about the bits that he disagrees with and his interpretation of them http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/12/31/statement-president-hr-1540

by Anonymous 12 years ago

A few things: If we were to remove out troops from where they don't need to be, we wouldn't really need the funding. To the best of my knowledge, it doesn't seem like there's really much of a threat anymore. I have a cousin that was in the army, and a few friends from Highschool in the Marine Corps. and I could ask them exactly what they're doing over there, but it just doesn't seem like they're doing anything particularly necessary. That did put him in a shitty position, and that letter at the end was positive. I still disagree with a lot of things he does and says, but I'll still maintain my position of the country being fucked almost no matter what. It's //still// really weird that you know more about my country's politics than I do. You should just come live over here.

by Anonymous 12 years ago