NDAA Protest Day

Good things are going on. It would have been nice to have had a little more advance notice of this, but today's the day Americans of all political stripes are letting our congressional representatives know what we think of the National Defense Authorization Act.

On this blog, N.D.A.A. posts can be found under the label "U.S. Constitution," which the N.D.A.A. rather flagrantly violates. The broad purpose of this long, complicated Act of Congress was to authorize our armed forces to go after terrorists, and even some members of Congress who saw problems in the N.D.A.A. ended up voting for it "because it helps our troops," but unfortunately the Act still contains paragraphs that illegally authorize the use of our troops to arrest and detain U.S. citizens without a trial.

For Virginians, this is an occasion of pride, since our own Senator Webb tried to fix the unconstitutional parts of N.D.A.A. before it was enacted, and our (currently on hold) House Bill #1160 is a resolution that our state will not participate in unconstitutional acts that may be committed in the name of N.D.A.A. (Governor McDonnell is, for reasons unclear, on the wrong side of HB1160 and may need your guidance.) Full text of HB1160 is here:

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+ful+HB1160

If you're going to Washington today, you can use this link to find which side your Representative is on:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2011-932

If you need to do something other than thank your elected officials, you can use the Govtrack link to find their office addresses and phone numbers. Leaving a tactful phone message to the effect that you support bringing N.D.A.A. into line with the Constitution is recommended. No hysterics, no theatrics, no offensive remarks about any part of Michigan; I'd recommend just mentioning that you appreciated the Udall Amendment to N.D.A.A., wanted it kept, and would like to see the existing N.D.A.A. repealed and replaced with something in line with the Udall Amendment. More about the Udall Amendment is further back in this blog, linked to the label "U.S. Constitution," and is also available online from downsizedc.org (you can sign their current letter here) and from Senator Udall's blog (here).

More about the protest in Washington on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/events/335643799778967/

If you click on "more" at this Facebook page, you'll find more than a dozen valuable links to background information, contacts, and unfolding stories. Suzanne Noel has done an excellent job of building a page for this  event. Five stars!