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At what point could a sitting President be considered a threat to national security?

Question by Robert S: At what point could a sitting President be considered a threat to national security?
Clearly, the individual would have been voted into office by the people. At least that is how it is supposed to work, no matter the levels of media bias and blind support the candidate may have had at the time. But, who would be held responsible for making a claim that the elected Presidents policies, perspectives, connections, lack of experience, lack of broad focus on national issues, or just plain direction could be considered a threat to our national security?

What a broad spectrum of damaging ramifications would result. Yet, who holds that responsibility to say, things are just plain wrong?

Best answer:

Answer by Caribou “QUIT” Barbie™
You can.

March on Washington D.C. and do it yourself and see what happens.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Is it legally permissible for the President to deny people freedom of religion?

Question by Vishal: Is it legally permissible for the President to deny people freedom of religion?
The first amendment refers specifically to Congress. I was wondering if that meant that the President could issue an executive order denying certain people freedom of religion.

Thanks in advance for any info.
I know the president must enforce the law. My question is whether the law accounts for a president who wishes to deny people basic freedoms.

It is definitely illegal for Congress to do so, but I can’t find anything in the Constitution that says that the President can’t.

Best answer:

Answer by Don Adriano
Shh, don’t give him any ideas.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Nigeria: President Must Sign New Constitution, Court Rules

Nigeria: President Must Sign New Constitution, Court Rules
Does President Goodluck Jonathan need to assent to the amendments of the 1999 Constitution to become law?

Read more on AllAfrica.com

Zimbabwe PM furious at president

Zimbabwe PM furious at president
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai accuses President Robert Mugabe of violating the constitution and unilateral decision-making.

Read more on BBC News

Mexico’S Catholic Church And President Felipe Calderon Charge U.S. With Corruption

BY MICHAEL WEBSTER: Syndicated Investigative Reporter. March 10, 2009 at 12:01 AM PDT

 

Roman Catholic Church

 

The Catholic Church in Mexico today chimed in and sided with Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon on the controversial subject of U.S. government corruption and demanded that the U.S. government have a “change of attitude” that involves a “serious anti-corruption program to eliminate the protection that – from the highest levels of power to the businessmen and public servants – is provided the traffickers, whose impunity makes possible the commerce and consumption of drugs.”[SIC]

 

Last week we reported that Mexican President Calderon said that he blames U.S. “corruption” for hampering his nation’s efforts to combat violent drug cartels.

 

“Drug trafficking in the United States is fueled by the phenomenon of corruption on the part of the American authorities,” he said.

President Calderon also told the media that the main cause of Mexico’s drug gang problems was “having the world’s biggest consumer (of drugs) next to us.”

Corruption on both sides of the U.S. Mexican border runs deep and can be found in the highest levels of both the Mexican government as well as the U.S.

 

President Calderon also told reporters that “Drug trafficking in the United States is fuelled by the phenomenon of corruption on the part of the American authorities,” he said.

“It is not an exclusively Mexican problem, it is a common problem between Mexico and the United States,” he said.

The Mexican President said, “I want to know how many American officials have been prosecuted for this [corruption].”

The Mexican Government since the Calderon administration says there have been many high ranking Federal, State and City Officials arrested and openly exposed to the world and many Mexicans agree with their President and are asking why is the U.S. not doing the same?

It is rumored that the Mexican Government is close to naming names of American officials who profit and or benefit from the huge amounts of cash generated in their country and in the U.S. by Mexican Drug Cartels.

 

There seems to be no U.S. Government Agency immune from corruption, the FBI, DEA, CIA, IRS, DOD, National Guard, Federal Air Marshals, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Customs, U.S. Marshalls, ICE, Dept of Commerce, U.S. Justice, U.S. State, and even our state and federal Judiciary and others, many of which are answerable to the top U.S. Agency “Homeland Security” This powerful organization was created during the Bush administration and its power reaches around the world.

 

After describing the US military as vain and bewildered, the hierarchy of the Church indicated in its weekly publication that Mexico has recognized the serious problem of corruption among its authorities and public servants and demanded that the U.S. do the same and initiate actions to keep watchful and clean out the public institutions that contribute to narcotraffic.  

 

The periodical characterized the attitude of the U.S. as hypocritical and having double standards for offering Mexico assistance in the drug war, but on the other hand, demonstrating that it has little ability to control the traffic of drugs and flow of money in its own country.

 

The publication, which reflects the Church’s position in Mexico, accused the U.S. of “having no intention of confronting the ‘addict culture’ in its own country or stopping the traffic of arms inside and outside its borders…”  

 

The popular Catholic weekly publication asked the question, what is the U.S. doing at home in order to put an end to their own drug distribution networks and drug addict’s (which includes Mexican Drug Cartels and both Mexican and American gangs) and what are they going to do about the protection provided for highly placed drug traffickers and those who make a lot of money directly and indirectly from the trade besides just delivering puritanical and hypocritical speeches so characteristic of the U.S.

 

Information provided to the public by this and other reporters showed following a crash of a Gulfstream jet operated by the CIA allegedly for torture flights to Guantanamo and to other countries with loose torture laws. That particular aircraft it was found by rescue workers in Mexico to have contained 4 tons of high-grade Columbian cocaine.

With the raging war on drugs and terror authorities on both sides of the border are on the take. In a war that has cost billions of American tax dollars and a business that is believed by many to profit in the hundreds of billions, it is no wonder that officials from American street cops in the borders cities to the highest levels of both governments are benefiting financially from the illegal trade of smuggling drugs, humans, and terrorist into the U.S. via Mexican drug cartel smuggling routes that don’t end at the border but continue North, East and West throughout the U.S.A.

 

More U.S. officials and cops have been caught in criminal activities then ever before.

Customs supervisor Walter Golembiowski and Officer John Ajello face narcotics, bribery and conspiracy charges after they were arrested for helping smuggle drugs and contraband through New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

According to a CNN report the investigation has led to the indictment and prosecution of more than 20 people from distributors to overseas sources of supply and the seizure of more than 600 pounds of imported hashish and other drugs from the United States and France.

Some Mexican legislators claim there is already covert action taking place in Mexico by the Americans and has taken many different forms reflecting the diverse circumstances in which it is being used.

According to Mexican authorities the U.S. military is covertly operating in Mexico and ” have boots on the ground.”  They are also accelerating training using U.S. Military, CIA, DEA, FBI and U.S. Police advisers.

According to a high-ranking Mexican official, who wants to remain anonymous, the U.S.- Mexican border is the primary focal point for military operations. There are U.S. Army Special Forces secret operation bases in Mexico.

Reports of federal agents and cops being involved in drug and other crimes like smuggling humans, drugs, guns and cash are becoming more routine.
 

Still many more believe the estimates of corruption among our own officials are much higher then are currently being reported. This situation is seriously hurting America. 

 

According to Paul Joseph Watson of Prison Planet, the corporate media will report on lesser drug smuggling scandals involving cops and customs agents, but when it comes to gargantuan sprawling U.S. Government agencies like the CIA, the silence is deafening.

Still the Florida based Gulfstream II jet aircraft # N987SA which was forced to crash land in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula after it ran out of fuel was reported to have been used in at least three CIA “rendition” trips to Guantanamo Bay between 2003 and 2005.

 

 Many Americans believe that the CIA run illegal arms to Central America and smuggled drugs back into the states during the Reagan Bush years.

Kevin Booth’s underground hit documentary “American Drug War” features footage of former DEA head Robert Bonner admitting that the CIA was involved in cocaine smuggling operations.

Former DEA agent Celle Castillo, says he personally witnessed CIA drug smuggling operations funneled through terrorists that were also involved in kidnappings and the training of death squads on behalf of the U.S. government.

Investigative reporter Gary Webb was instrumental in exposing CIA cocaine trafficking operations before his alleged suicide in 2004. In the YouTube clip below, Webb traces the history of Agency involvement in drug smuggling and its links to financing wars in Central America.

Judicial Watch reports that corruption among federal officers guarding the U.S.-Mexico border is so rampant that the U.S. Government created an internal web site devoted to recently convicted border agents and lie detector tests will be administered to ensure future applicants don’t already work for smuggling organizations.

The report further points out that the alarming growing number of agents with the Homeland Security agency in charge of protecting the U.S. from terrorists, drugs and illegal immigrants are collaborating with Mexican Drug Cartel operations allowing those same illegal immigrants, drugs, weapons and possibly terrorists into the country.

Mexican Drug Cartels use some of the same methods they use to attract Mexican officials to attract U.S. officials some of those tactics are used to also lure the American officials with women, sex and cash. In return, those hired to guard the border assure the safe passage of truckloads of illegal immigrants, drugs and other contraband into the United States. Some have even used their government-issued vehicles to shuttle illegal aliens from Mexico to safe houses north of the border.
 

Numerous low level border agents have been convicted for accepting bribes from Mexican smugglers in the last few years alone and investigations are pending against hundreds of others.  One of the things that concerns the Mexicans is why are not the higher ups in the U.S. Government are not being exposed.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oszATUJ4IRE

 

 

Sources:

 

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS (NAFBPO )

Mexico’s President Calderon

M-3 Report
Mexican
Catholic Church publication

El Universal Newspaper

The Mexican National Defense Department (Sedena)

The Mexican Federal Attorney General

Carlos Rico, Mexico’s under-secretary of foreign affairs for North America

Youtube

 

Editors Note:

Michael Webster’s Syndicated Investigative Reports are read worldwide, in 100 or more U.S. outlets and in at least 136 countries and territories. He publishes articles in association with global news agencies and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 136 countries. Many of Mr. Webster’s articles are printed in six working languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. With ten more languages planed in the near future.
Mr. Webster is America’s leading authority on Venture Capital/Equity Funding. He served as a trustee on some of the nation’s largest trade Union funds. A noted Author, Lecturer, Educator, Emergency Manager, Counter-Terrorist, War on Drugs and War on Terrorist Specialist, Business Consultant, Newspaper Publisher. Radio News caster. Labor Law generalist, Teamster Union Business Agent, General Organizer, Union Rank and File Member Grievances Representative, NLRB Union Representative, Union Contract Negotiator, Workers Compensation Appeals Board Hearing Representative. Mr. Webster represented management on that side of the table as the former Director of Federated of Nevada. Mr. Webster publishes on-line newspapers at www.lagunajournal.com and www.usborderfirereport.com and does investigative reports for print, electronic and on-line News Agencies.

President Obama, a Christian formed in the American Black church

Considered a man of faith, Barack Obama, the American President of the United States, is formed as a Christian. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, pastor Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC), Chicago, where the Obama’s worshiped for 20 years in Illinois is his Obama’s former minister. What kind of Christian was the Church? The church website proclaims: “We are a congregation which is unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian…”

Trinity United Church of Christ occupies a tan brick building on West 95th Street across railroad tracks from a public housing project, reports The Christian Science Monitor.

The President said about leaving, “Too much press harassment, people couldn’t’ worship in peace.” That wasn’t his reason for leaving, but a complaint on the news media attention. The reasons were politically controversial remarks by Trinity’s pastor, Reverend Wright.

Wright’s comments contradicted one of Obama’s central messages — that the candidate can transcend past divisions such as those involving race.

Regarding the Church, on Bill Moyers Journal, Wright says we are unashamedly Black. His philosophy embodies, “Use the culture of which we are a part.” He preaches there is hope, that life has meaning, and that God is still in control. “We can change. We can do better.” Black Liberation theology is Wright’s United Church of Christ (UCC) message. It is a UCC message he offers, since he is a UCC minister who studied under Martin Marty. Martin E. Marty, distinguished Lutheran Pastor, teacher, and writer who has been on the University of Chicago faculty since 1963.

Grounded in the history of the African-American, Black theology is powerful stuff. He is little sorry about his comments, but in Bill Moyer’s interview, Reverend Wright does appear sorry he made the comment “God damn America” in the Pulpit-if only for a few moments. But it wasn’t one remark, but a string of them that caused the significant distancing between the candidate’s spiritual advisor and then candidate.

The press in the United States spent a lot of time and space talking about President Obama’s faith during the campaign, his church, and how he is a Christian-the President said he is Christian himself, and that is also news. Religion makes news, despite separation of Church and State. Time magazine says more voters saw President Obama as a strongly religious person than they did every major presidential hopeful during the campaign but Mitt Romney, the Republican former governor of Massachusetts. Romney’s Mormonism drew extensive news coverage.

President Obama was married in Trinity church. His children were baptized in the church, and also like his wedding, Reverend Wright performed the solemnizations. The President said on leaving the church, “Trinity was where I found Jesus Christ, where we were married, where our children were baptized. We have many friends among the 8,000 members…” It is a church where he was moved many times. When Wright preached one Sunday about the sustaining power of hope in the face of poverty and despair, Obama says he found himself in tears.

He said in one speech during the Presidential campaign:

* “For one thing, I believed and still believe in the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change… Because of its past, the black church understands in an intimate way the Biblical call to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and challenge powers and principalities. And in its historical struggles for freedom and the rights of man, I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world. As a source of hope.”

It is the claim of Reverend Jeremiah Wright that Trinity is a church of Black theology. The Reverend Doctor John Cone, the Harvard Professor and African-American theologian interviewed on American Public Broadcasting System (PBS) by commentator Bill Moyers says on the PBS website:

* “As we examine what contemporary theologians are saying, we find that they are silent about the enslaved condition of black people. Evidently they see no relationship between black slavery and the Christian gospel. Consequently there has been no sharp confrontation of the gospel with white racism. There is, then, a desperate need for a black theology, a theology whose sole purpose is to apply the freeing power of the gospel to black people under white oppression.”

Cone says:

* The Cross is the same as the lynching tree for the Black American in a Harvard Speech. The Christian Reverend Cone wants to start a conversation on this subject. He offers that lynching was terrorism that “worked to a certain degree.” This includes spectacle lynchings where 5,000 would gather to watch.

Religion is one place where you have an imagination that no one can control.” Black Churches are a place of the spirit… (even though you are living under the shadow of the lynching tree).” … There were 246 years of slavery, and 100 years of segregation and lynching.   America does not see itself as “not innocent,” according to Cone. “No human being is innocent.”  

Reverend Cone is ordained in the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago. which is one of the city’s largest black churches and not far from Obama’s home in the South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park.

Apparently the President did not turning his back on Black theology yet, per se, since he spoke from the pulpit at that same mega-church in Chicago, which has 20,000 members and is also considered a Black American church. This in 2008.

It is the history of the African American church in the United States that it is a center of Black community life speaking to the needs of the church and larger community in social and political ways. But not in so partisan a manner as was recently ascribed to the theology and preaching of the Reverend Wright. So the perception became. But he still associates himself with the African American church in general.

President Obama spoke of the role of Black fathers and their responsibilities, perhaps more a campaign speech than sermon from a “religious” man whose campaign motto is “Change That Works for You.” Will he again become a member of a Black Church while serving in Washington, D.C. Time will tell. Nonetheless, there his Christian roots lie.

It is from the Black Church that President Obama learned many things about hope. Can he really take himself out of the African-American church ethos, as he has known it? Perhaps the Reverend Wright thinks not, though he is not saying. His official press release remark on then President Obama and his family’s leaving was, “…We are saddened by the news …”

 

 

Peter Menkin, an aspiring poet, lives in Mill Valley, CA USA (north of San Francisco).

My blog:
http://www.petermenkin.blogspot.com

Is national security a concern when it comes to electing a president?

It seems that a few of the Higher ups have some concern about Obama because of his lack of experience regarding national security. He actually has no experience when it comes to this. What do you think?