You Need To Listen

At a December 11, 2011 town hall meeting with voters in Hudson, NH, Mitt Romney was asked about the National Defense Authorization Act. Mitt Romney had this to say in response to the question, “Let me look at the particular authorization, um and and and, I’ll make sure on our website we describe reaction to that particular amendment.”

It has now been over a month since the question was presented to him. Where is his reaction? I searched his website, searched Google for his reaction and nothing was found. I suspect that the issue is being avoided however, if you state you are going to do something in a public forum, it should be expected that you will follow through with what you state you will do.

As I sit here, poolside at our annual family weekend getaway, I can’t help but look at the multitude of people swimming and playing and think to myself, they have no idea. The NDAA is by far the most controversial bill in my lifetime. I have been following the discussions on the bill since just before its passage. There is good discussion out there but I have yet to see any real action on it.

Don’t get me wrong, the first step is in educating people about the bill. That step is proving to be the hardest. It is hard because the mainstream media is failing to provide Americans the coverage it deserves. Nearly every person I talk to knows nothing about the NDAA.

The Occupy movement has added the NDAA to its agenda with Occupy Congress. They have scheduled a rally on January 17, 2011 in Washington DC at the Capitol Building and you can follow it on Twitter with the hash tag #J17. Previously there was another event scheduled for January 3, 2011. I was not aware of this effort until the date passed and I am unable to find any results of the rally. I continue to follow #J17 but fear it may not be significant enough to draw any attention.

As I am writing this blog entry there are 9,054 people that like the Occupy Congress January 17th, 2012 Facebook Page. Of those individuals only 10% have RSVP to the event. Just over 950 people is not a significant crowd. I would imagine there will be more than 950 in attendance but even if there were 9,054. Will that be enough to change anything? Will that be enough to grab the media’s attention? I doubt it but hope I am wrong.

The point of this blog entry is not meant to discourage anyone. I am of the opinion any action is good action if it is directed toward repealing the NDAA. We must continue to educate the unaware public but we need to do more. We need an action plan that will be recognized. We need a call to action that will grab the attention of the media and the public and inform all.

Have any ideas? We would love to hear them.

The blogosphere is ramped with discussion about the newly passed National Defense Authorization Act. The hash tag #NDAA is alive with action on Twitter and was long before it was signed into law. Individuals are pleading with their peers to spread the word by using Facebook, Twitter and their email contacts.

This is much needed as the NDAA is a threat to our very rights as citizens of these United States. However, here is the issue as I see it. The people that are aware of the NDAA use unconventional means to obtain information. When I say unconventional what I mean is they aren’t getting the information from the mainstream media like CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX and the like. They are getting their reports from sources such as bloggers, RT, The Huffington Post, Infowars.com and by following other informed people on Twitter.

Before I go any farther, I now get my news from these sources as well. In this day and age you need to. There is too much political corruption happening in the mainstream media. These alternative sources reveal the real news not what some corporate fat cats wants you to see. Sure you need to take an objective look at the news that is being reported. Just because it is written doesn’t make it truth but you have to start somewhere. You can’t possibly be objective of something you know nothing about. Use these sources as a feed to look farther.

Here in lies the problem. The unfortunate fact is most people are still being led by the mainstream media. Most people still trust the CNNs or the FOXs of the world. What is even worse is too many people trust their government. I know I did until a few months ago, until I learned about the National Defense Authorization Act, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act.

I have been telling people to Google NDAA. When I first began to tell them to do this I didn’t elaborate other than it is important and I wanted them to do a little research and come to your own conclusions. I received little response, little response from family and friends that I would typically engage in an intellectual conversation with.

I feel the lack of response is because they feel the same that I did. They trust their news sources and they trust their government to do the right thing. When you Google NDAA you don’t get results from the mainstream media because they are simply not covering it. I think this is turning the average person off.

What we as enlightened individuals must do is keep up the education. There have never been issues of this much importance in our lifetimes. If there was ever a time that people needed to be educated the time is now. Don’t stop the fight.

As I was watching the Iowa Caucus tonight on C-Span President Obama did an interview. In his closing he stated, “You guys inspire me every single day. And I want us to remind ourselves, and to remind each other, that as much work as there may be out there before us, there is nothing we can’t accomplish when determined citizens come together and decide they want to make a difference.” Let’s prove him right. Together we can make a difference. Together we can fight the NDAA, SOPA and PIPA.

I continually read blog post after blog post about the National Defense Authorization Act, Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act. These three items are top news stories in other countries. Yet, there is very little information being provided by the United States news outlets.

One would think that a bill that allows for indefinite detention of United States citizens would be headline news. One would think that two bills that have the ability to censor the internet would be headline news. Why aren’t they?

I can somewhat understand why the news outlets aren’t covering SOPA and PIPA. Most news outlets have a corporate entity that will benefit from the provisions of SOPA and PIPA. They don’t care about the repercussions of the bills. They only look at the power to prevent their copyrighted material from being pirated. This situation is motivated by self-interests. I don’t by any stretch of the imagination agree with this. The internet is alive with protest activity on these two bills and the media continues to ignore them.

The NDAA on the other hand, I can’t figure out what the motivation is to keep this action quiet. One person that I follow via Twitter stated they are probably avoiding covering the NDAA because it would create a revolution. I think that may be an overstatement but even so, are they not there to educate us on news? There is no bigger news than the government taking away our constitutional rights is there?

In my browsing of the internet I have not found one source of information that explains why the media isn’t covering this. Doesn’t the news thrive on controversy? There is no more controversial news story than the NDAA. Wouldn’t you think the news ratings would go through the roof if this was being covered?

Unfortunately this blog post has more questions than it does answers. It is time to get some answers to these questions. We must stand up and fight for our constitutional rights and demand that the media covers these stories and demand an answer as to why they have not been covering these horrific bills. There must be a reason and the only reason I can think of is censorship. I encourage you to submit your thoughts below.