The Constitution specifically allows for Congressional secrecy and military contractors
Article I, Section 5:
Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.
Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.
Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.
Doesn't seem to be any limit on the secrecy power in the Constitution.
Also, military contractors are specifically allowed in Article I, Section 8:
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
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Last edited Tue Jul 9, 2013, 12:49 PM - Edit history (2)
Would the founding fathers want a group of investors like The Carlyle Group,
who owns Booz Allen, to be privately in charge of some of America's most important military functions.
Wouldn't this seem utterly insane in light of the fact that The Carlyle Group was required to pay a $20 million dollar fine for allegedly bribing a public employee with millions of dollars?
So those that keep blaming Obama should focus on the real problem here. The private contractors and the NSA.
The NSA private contractor entanglement is the two headed monster that continues to violate the laws of the land while the private contractors take none of the blame for the transgressions that have transpired....
The entanglement by private contractors needs to end! Donald Rumsfeld was a huge fan of privatizing the military and many of his supporters are part of the Carlyle Group! George Herbert Walker Bush, ex head of the CIA, use to be on the Carlyle board!
And now in 2009 the Carlyle Group gets busted colluding with former Goldmann Sachs employees allegedly bribing a public official for millions of dollars yet they still get to own Booz Allen and make billions in profits.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023197900
That is the real scandal!
As one who has protested wars for many years I take civil rights for all people very seriously.
I am as staunch on this issue as I am in my support for universal healthcare. No person should be denied quality health care based on income inequality.
However, I do support the right for free enterprise to compete with universal health care if it is transparent and regulated fairly. There is nothing wrong with honest profits, competition, and incentive for innovation if it improves the health and/or everyday lives of Americans
Looking at the numbers though universal healthcare is statistically kicking American insurance based health care's ass.
Though no system is perfect I believe universal health care has been shown to be more humane and cost effective based on consistent study findings.
To be fair part of America's poor health findings according to a the recent report by the National Research Council are social factors.
The research council found that social factors like traffic fatalities & guns also affected the data:
by Richard Knox January 09, 2013 5:47 PM
It's no news that the U.S. has lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than most high-income countries. But a magisterial new says Americans are actually less healthy across their entire life spans than citizens of 16 other wealthy nations.
And the gap is steadily widening.
"What struck us — and it was quite sobering — was the recurring trend in which the U.S. seems to be slipping behind other high-income countries," the lead author of the report, Dr. , tells Shots.
~Snip~
The panel concludes that part of the nation's poor ranking can be attributed to problems with its $2.6 trillion-a-year health care system (the world's most expensive by far). Those problems include the 50 million Americans without health insurance, fewer doctors per capita, less access to primary care and fragmented management of complex chronic diseases.
But the new report places more stress on nonmedical shortcomings.
~Snip~
Guns have a lot to do with the homicide and accidental deaths. The report notes that murder rates involving guns are 20 times higher in the U.S. than in 22 other rich countries.
"Clearly we need to do something about violence and firearm-related homicides if we're going to close the gap," Woolf says. "It's a major contributor to the loss of years of life in our country among young people."
~Snip~
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/01/09/168976602/u-s-ranks-below-16-other-rich-countries-in-health-report
Two of my pet issues I guess. Sorry for the rant connected to my reply.
I wish we had Medicare for all, but I just don't blame Obama for settling for what we could get. After Ted Kennedy died, any chance of a public option died with him, IMHO.
In any case, I don't mind rants -- just mud throwing and insults, which I don't associate with you, think.
of the law in their interpretation of it.
In light of John Yoo's famous constitutional interpretations I am confident my govt will make the right decision in complete secrecy....
With the separation of powers, Yoo has argued that each branch of government has the authority to interpret the Constitution for itself, which provides the justification for judicial review by the federal courts. In international law, Yoo has written that the rules governing the use of force must be understood to allow nations to engage in armed intervention to end humanitarian disasters, rebuild failed states, and stop terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.[26][27][28][29][30]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo#Publications
Hopefully the interpretation is nothing like John Yoo's. I am using it to make a point that other admins have made some egregious decisions. and making these decisions in secret whether legally and ethically made it is unknown and that is not a good precedent considering the precedent already set by john Yoo and the Bush administration.
Just send out Dog the Bounty Hunter and his ilk against all of our enemies. 
I gave up trying to understand Ron Paul a while ago.
...because with Congress there is a dispersion of power through its representational design that acts as a natural check against excess (look at what the Tea Baggers alone have done to Congress). And in the end, it can do nothing without the signature and the power of the Executive office to carry things out which also puts a check on their power.
However, what I don't recall ever seeing a provision for in the Constitution was one that allowed for the ''fast-tracking of Due Process'' through just one branch of the government with which to judge and sentence our citizens, as we're now doing. Particularly when the sentence being reached in some cases, is death.
Letters of Marque were issued as an aid in stopping the Barbary Pirates from commandeering American ships. Many being paid for by England. All the western European nations, to one extent or another, used Privateers (pirates who worked for governments) because no one had a standing army and/or navy large enough back then to threaten the whole world. Not like we do now.
And finally, if you look at the rosters of the NSA you'll see that a large number come from the MIC. This is a great way for them to appear a lot smaller than what they truly are, by simply contracting their work of surveilling the proles and the outer party members, out to the private sector. After a while you can't tell where the private sector ends and the public sector begins. Once you reach this point, you're already in fascism.
But I'm glad all this has ''conflict'' of opinion has spurned an interest into the letter of the law. Maybe if one reads long and hard enough, they'll also understand the spirit of those laws as well.
- Oh, and one of those founding fathers had this to say about men with power. I take his advice, literally:
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