Dec. 8 is a day that will live in infamy.

On that date last week, both Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins joined the majority in the U.S. Senate and voted to pass the National Defense Authorization Act. As written, the NDAA authorizes any U.S. president to send the military anywhere in the world to imprison U.S. civilians without charge or trial, based on suspicion alone.

The power is so sweeping that a president would be able to direct the military to use its powers within the United States itself, to lock up anyone deemed a threat without charge or trial.

No corner of the world — not your own home, or mine — would be off-limits to the military. The law has no limitations whatsoever based on geography, duration or citizenship.

Here’s a big surprise: The bill was drafted in secret, with no hearing, and with committee voting behind closed doors. I wonder why?

Combine this with news this week that a Predator drone was used to spy on a U.S. family suspected of belonging to a militia group in North Dakota last June, and that money will come from revenue generated through downtown tax increment financing district to install surveillance cameras all over downtown Skowhegan.

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Police from U.S. cities are being trained in Israel, which is being provided with tanks and other weapons of war for “free” (i.e. your federal taxes pay for it).

Unbelievable? Get off the celebrity scandal and idiotic politician news feed and do some research — it isn’t hard to find articles detailing any of this.

Civil liberties we once cherished are evaporating like snow on a foggy day.

Lisa Savage

Solon


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