Are We Living in a Post-Constitutional America?
By Peter Van Buren
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Through what seems to have been an Obama administration leak to the Associated Press, we recently learned that the president and his top officials believe a US citizen—name unknown to us out here—probably somewhere in the tribal backlands of Pakistan, is reputedly planning attacks against Americans abroad. As a result, the White House has, for the last several months, been considering whether or not to assassinate him by drone without trial or due process.
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Last May, Obama gave a speech on the subject. It was, in part, a response to growing anger in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere over the CIA's ongoing drone assassination campaigns with all their "collateral damage," and to the White House's reported "kill list." In it, he insisted that any target of the drones must pose "a continuing and imminent threat to the American people." At the time, the White House also issued a fact sheet that stated: "Lethal force must only be used to prevent or stop attacks against US persons, and even then, only when capture is not feasible and no other reasonable alternatives exist to address the threat effectively." While that sounds like a pretty imposing set of hurdles to leap, all of the "legal" criteria are determined in secret by the White House with advice from the Justice Department, but with no oversight or accountability.
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Attorney General Eric Holder publicly rewrote the Fifth Amendment in 2012, declaring, in a veiled reference to al-Awlaki, "that a careful and thorough executive branch review of the facts in a case amounts to 'due process' and that the Constitution's Fifth Amendment protection against depriving a citizen of his or her life without due process of law does not mandate a 'judicial process.'" In other words, in a pinch, skip the courts. In this way, Holder gave us a peak behind the White House curtain, making clear that the president's personal and secret decision to kill an American, perhaps made over morning coffee, was, in his opinion, good enough to make everything legal.
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The judge's position was revealing of our moment. The extrajudicial killing of an American citizen seemed to him to be nothing but a political question to be argued out in Congress and the White House, not something intimately woven into the founding documents of our nation. The judge was not alone in his characterization of the problem. Mike Rogers, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, complained that the killing of more terror suspects in a similar manner has been held back by "self-imposed red tape."
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NextGen Climate Action plans $100 million spending in 2014 elections
By (UPI)
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Retired investor Tom Steyer's political organization, NextGen Climate Action, is preparing to spend more than $100 million during the 2014 election, he said.
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Targets include the Florida gubernatorial race, where incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott has claimed he is not convinced science has established climate change is man-made, and the Iowa senatorial race, where a Democratic candidate, Rep. Bruce Braley, is an outspoken proponent of measures to limit climate change.
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To that end, Steyer, a billionaire, gathered leading liberal donors and philanthropists to his Pescadero, Calif., ranch in August to ask them to join in his efforts. People involved in the discussions said Steyer sought $50 million in donations to match $50 million of his own contribution.
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G8 New Alliance condemned as new wave of colonialism in Africa
By Claire Provost, Liz Ford and Mark Tran
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A landmark G8 initiative to boost agriculture and relieve poverty has been damned as a new form of colonialism after African governments agreed to change seed, land and tax laws to favour private investors over small farmers.
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Olivier de Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said governments had been making promises to investors "completely behind the screen", with "no long-term view about the future of smallholder farmers" and without their participation.
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"By introducing this market, farmers will have to depend on imported seeds. This will definitely affect small farmers. It will also kill innovation at the local level. We have seen this with manufacturing," he said.
"It will be like colonialism. Farmers will not be able to farm until they import, linking farmers to [the] vulnerability of international prices. Big companies will benefit. We should not allow that."
Tanzania's tax commitments would also benefit companies rather than small farmers, he said, adding that the changes proposed would have to go through parliament. "The executive cannot just commit to these changes. These are sensitive issues. There has to be enough debate," he said.
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Actavis to buy Forest Labs for $25bn
By (BBC)
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The world's second-largest generic drugmaker Actavis is buying Forest Laboratories for about $25bn (£15bn) in its biggest-ever acquisition.
Shares of Forest surged by nearly 30%, while Actavis stock rose by 5% after the equity and cash deal was revealed.
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"With this strategic combination, we create an innovative new model in specialty pharmaceuticals leadership, with size and scale, a balanced offering of strong brands and generics, a focus on strategic, lower-risk drug development, and - most important - the ability to drive sustainable organic growth," he said in a statement.
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Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn is the company's second-largest shareholder.
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