Yesterday, New Year's Eve, on the same day that most Americans were busy with celebrations, and the news media was out of the office, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into statute. As I described in a video last week, the NDAA authorizes this or any future president to declare anyone -- even U.S. citizens on U.S. soil -- a terrorist subject to indefinite detention, without trial. This is the kind of unlimited power granted to government leaders in dictatorships, not democracies.

Our civil liberties are the foundation of American liberty. They are also essential for restoring economic justice in this age of unprecedented inequality -- where nearly half of Americans  are now in the ranks of the poor or near poor, while the richest 400 individuals own as much wealth as the less fortunate half of all Americans combined. To correct such profound disparities, we must be able to speak out, assemble and petition our government for redress -- and do so without fear of police violence and the threat of arbitrary imprisonment.

As we look forward to the New Year we deserve, this latest violation of our democratic rights by the President and Congress underscores why we must stand up and reclaim our political voice. We can achieve a peaceful, just, green future if we insist on it, as so many of us are already doing in our communities. We can also start doing that right now in the 2012 presidential election. 

Click here and here to learn more about the personal role of President Obama in pushing for the anti-civil liberties provisions that he just signed in to law.

Visit http://www.JillStein.org to get involved in this campaign that voices our right to the secure green future we all deserve.

Thanks for all you're doing.

  Jill Stein