NDAA Battle Ends in Defeat for ‘Indefinite Detention’ Opponents

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In less than a month, critics of the National Defense Authorization Act’s (NDAA) treatment of American citizens accused of terrorism went from a lopsided victory to an equally lopsided defeat, as Congress easily passed the bill without critics’ preferred language on indefinite detention.

Some lawmakers believed that the NDAA allowed the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without trial if they faced terror accusations, though supporters of the bill contested that reading. In November, the Senate voted 67 to 29 to adopt a bipartisan amendment that made clear that Americans could not be held indefinitely.

The amendment declared, “An authorization to use military force, a declaration of war, or any similar authority shall not authorize the detention without charge or trial of a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States apprehended in the United States, unless an Act of Congress expressly authorizes such detention.”

Even that amendment didn’t go far enough for some, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash. They argued that the phrase “unless an Act of Congress expressly authorizes such detention” suggests there is no constitutional barrier to indefinite detention.

The amendment, introduced by California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, was nevertheless viewed as a solid compromise. It even won the vote of South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who had opposed similar amendments in 2011.

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Electors Doubt Obama’s Eligibility

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Some of the electors assigned by their states to cast the official votes for president of the United States are expressing doubts about Barack Obama’s eligibility.

Capitol Media Services reported that three of Arizona’s 11 Republican Electoral College electors who cast their ballots for Mitt Romney expressed concern that Obama didn’t meet the Constitution’s “natural born citizen” requirement.

“I’m not satisfied with what I’ve seen,” Tom Morrissey, chairman of the Arizona GOP said. “I think for somebody in the president’s position to not have produced a document looks more legitimate, I have a problem with that.”

The actual vote for president is not the popular vote that was held Nov. 6, but the Electoral College vote in state capitals. States are given one Electoral College vote for each member of Congress, and they vote, depending on varying state laws, for the candidates their state residents choose by popular vote.

The doubt about Obama’s eligibility arose before his first election. His father never was a U.S. citizen, and many contend that alone makes him ineligible. At the time of the nation’s founding, a “natural born citizen” likely was considered to be the offspring of two U.S. citizens.

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House Republicans Circulate Plan to Oust Boehner from Speakership

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Several conservative House Republican members are contemplating a plan to unseat Speaker John Boehner from his position on January 3, Breitbart News has exclusively learned. Staffers have compiled a detailed action plan that, if executed, could make this a reality.

The Republicans, both conservatives and more establishment members alike, are emboldened after the failure of Boehner’s fiscal cliff “Plan B” on Thursday evening. Dissatisfaction with Boehner is growing in the House Republican conference, but until now there hasn’t been a clear path forward.

Those members and staffers requested anonymity from Breitbart News at this time to prevent retaliation from Boehner similar to what happened to those four members who were purged from their powerful committee assignments a few weeks ago. Their expressed concern is that if Boehner knew who they were, his adverse reaction toward them would be much more brutal than losing committee assignments, such as a primary challenge in 2014 by a leadership-sponsored candidate.

The circulated plan is a comprehensive multi-step process.

According to the plan as drafted, the first step is to re-establish the election of the Speaker of the House by secret ballot, rather than by a public roll call vote. That’s because the members who would oppose Boehner, if there ended up not being enough votes to achieve their desired result or if Boehner scared via threat or coaxed via prize some of the opposition into voting for him, would be sitting ducks for retaliation in the near future.

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Herman Cain: The New York Times is Racist

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Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain came out swinging Friday against a New York Times op-ed that claims Republicans strategically use black politicians to “undermine black interests.” The Wednesday op-ed specifically dismisses South Carolina Republican Rep. Tim Scott, who will soon join the Senate, as one of the Republicans’ “cynical tokens.”

Cain declared the New York Times a “racist newspaper” for running the column, which was penned by University of Pennsylvania political science professor Adolph Reed Jr. and titled “The Puzzle of Black Republicans.”

“Any newspaper that would publish a piece denigrating blacks as needing the benevolence of big government in order to serve their interests is obviously racist and deserves widespread censure for making such an insensitive and racially biased editorial decision,” Cain wrote at his website, CainTV.

In the op-ed, Reed argues black Republicans are “tokens” meant primarily not to attract blacks to the GOP, but to allow whites to vote Republican without feeling racist. He further claims that politicians like Scott — with “little that connects these men to mainstream black politics or to the country’s first two black senators” — are used to actually “undermine black interests.”

“The trope of the black conservative has retained a man-bites-dog newsworthiness that is long past its shelf life. Clichés about fallen barriers are increasingly meaningless; symbols don’t make for coherent policies,” Reed added. “Republicans will not gain significant black support unless they take policy positions that advance black interests. No number of Tim Scotts — or other cynical tokens — will change that.”

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Barney Frank on Balancing the Budget: ‘I Don’t Think Balance is Logical’

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(CNSNews.com) — Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) does not think it is “logical” to achieve a balanced federal budget “from the standpoint of a whole economy” because the relationship between budget and government is different from that of budget and individual.

At the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, CNSNews.com asked Frank about the “fiscal cliff” talks between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio): “During these ongoing negotiations would you like to see an attempt to balance the federal budget? And if so,in what year?”

Frank said, “I don’t think balance is logical from the standpoint of a whole economy. One of the problems with balancing the budget, if you’re talking about a private individual you get credit for the things you report and that you own, your assets. The federal government has enormous assets. We have buildings and roads and ships.”

“So I think that you ought to be able to get to a point, 7 or 8 years from now, where in a good economic year you can hit a balance,” he said. “It’s important to reduce the deficit but the analogy between an individual entity and the federal government makes no sense.”

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Texas Town Allows Teachers to Carry Concealed Guns

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HARROLD, Texas (AP) — In this tiny Texas town, children and their parents don’t give much thought to safety at the community’s lone school — mostly because some of the teachers are carrying concealed weapons.

In remote Harrold, the nearest sheriff’s office is 30 minutes away, and people tend to know — and trust — one another. So the school board voted to let teachers bring guns to school.

“We don’t have money for a security guard, but this is a better solution,” Superintendent David Thweatt said. “A shooter could take out a guard or officer with a visible, holstered weapon, but our teachers have master’s degrees, are older and have had extensive training. And their guns are hidden. We can protect our children.”

In the awful aftermath of last week’s Connecticut elementary school shooting, lawmakers in a growing number of states — including Oklahoma, Missouri, Minnesota, South Dakota and Oregon — have said they will consider laws allowing teachers and school administrators to carry firearms at school.

Texas law bans guns in schools unless the school has given written authorization. Arizona and six other states have similar laws with exceptions for people who have licenses to carry concealed weapons.

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Ex-Muslim to Spill Truth at Ravi Zacharias Conference

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Raised in California by devout followers of a Muslim sect, Nabeel Qureshi says his life took a radical turn when his mind and heart were confronted by a series of prophetic dreams along with a friend’s presentation of the rational claims of Christianity.

“I loved Islam. I loved the practice of Islam. My parents were raising me to be a Muslim leader, as a Muslim apologist to invite people to Islam,” he explained to WND in an interview.

His conversion to Christianity is one of the largely untold stories amid America’s abrupt introduction to Islam following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks carried out by 19 Muslim men.

Over the past decade, the federal government, establishment media, academia and mainline Protestant churches have portrayed Islam as an apolitical “religion of peace,” often labeling anyone who believes otherwise as a bigoted “Islamophobe.”

Qureshi wants to set the record straight about Islam, pointing to its sacred texts and the words of Muslims themselves to argue that while diversely practiced around the world, it is fundamentally a supremacist, political religion that threatens Western civilization.

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Harry Reid: ‘We Are Not Going to Do Anything’ On Fiscal Cliff

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Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, made his “fiscal cliff” position clear in a press conference today. “We are not going to do anything,” said Reid.

Reid added, “We are not taking up anything they are working on over there.”

The top Democrat in the Senate was explaining his inaction on the House plan, the proposal put forward by Republican John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives. Boehner’s plan is being referred to as ‘Plan B.’

“Boehner described his Plan B as a fallback option to prevent a sweeping tax hike when tax cuts from the administration of President George W. Bush expire at the end of the year. Sources said the Boehner measure also would include extending the current estate tax and alternative minimum tax, two steps sought by Republicans,” reports CNN.

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Former Postal Employees Plead Guilty to Stealing Millions in Treasury Checks

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While billions of pieces of mail safely reached their destinations this year, postal employees in Georgia pocketed over 1,300 federal checks, pleading this month to stealing nearly $3 million in Treasury checks — including veterans checks, Social Security checks, and tax refunds.

Gerald Easton of Stockbridge, Georgia plead guilty to the theft in early December, which occurred while he was working as a supervisor at an Atlanta mail distribution center and to conspiring with another employee at the facility. Four other non-postal workers have plead guilty to their roles in the conspiracy.

Paul Bowman, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Postal Service in the Office of Inspector General, noted that Easton and his co-conspirator Deborah Fambro-Echols (who plead guilty in late November) are a few bad eggs among a group that is largely committed to fulfilling their mission.

“We take these cases very serious and investigate them to the fullest extent of the law. The majority of Postal Service employees are honest, hardworking, and committed to providing the timely and reliable service that customers expect and deserve,” Bowman said in a statement.

The Washington Guardian which first reported the theft Wednesday, added that between April and September 2012, 171 Postal Service employees were arrested for “theft, willful delay or destruction of mail.” Last year the service delivered 167.9 billion pieces of mail. The service employs 546,000 employees, The Guardian added.

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Boehner Abruptly Scraps Fiscal Cliff ‘Plan B’ Vote After GOP Defections

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Facing a rank-and-file GOP revolt, House Speaker John Boehner abruptly canceled a vote Thursday night on a plan to raise taxes for the wealthy, bringing the country closer to a plunge down the “fiscal cliff.”

The House then recessed until after Christmas. The development raises questions about whether Boehner could muster support among Tea Partyers in the GOP-controlled House for a broader deal to avert the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts on Jan.1.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the sudden development showed that Boehner must now work with Democrats to try to avoid the cliff.

“Speaker Boehner’s partisan approach wasted an entire week and pushed middle-class families closer to the edge,” Reid said. “The only way to avoid the cliff altogether is for Speaker Boehner to return to negotiations, and work with President Obama and the Senate to forge a bipartisan deal.”

According to a GOP source familiar with the vote coun, “the veto threat and opposition from the White House and the Senate Majority Leader made some members feel like they were taking a risky vote for no reason, even though the bill did not actually include a tax hike. Now, the President and Senate Majority Leader must find a solution to this crisis.”

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