Montanans Launch Recall Of State's Congressional Delegation Over Votes On NDAA, Indefinite Detention

A group of Montanans has launched an effort to recall the state's U.S. congressional delegation over recent votes on a controversial defense bill that explicitly authorized the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects, including American citizens.

Montana -- along with 8 other states -- has language that extends its "right of recall" to members of its federal congressional delegation "on the grounds of physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of certain felony offenses," the group notes in a press release. The petition, drafted by Montana residents William Crain and Stewart Rhodes, then calls for recall elections for Senators Max S. Baucus (D) and Jonathan Tester (D), as well as Rep. Denny Rehberg (R) on charges that they have violated their oaths of office by not protecting and defending the United States Constitution in voting for the National Defense Authorization Act.

In their press release, Rhodes, the national president of the libertarian Oath Keepers organization and former staffer for Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), explained the recall campaign:

"These politicians from both parties betrayed our trust, and violated the oath they took to defend the Constitution. It's not about the left or right, it's about our Bill of Rights," Rhodes said. "Without the Bill of Rights, there is no America. It is the Crown Jewel of our Constitution, and the high-water mark of Western Civilization."

The Oath Keepers is an organization made up of current and former U.S. military and law enforcement personnel committed to upholding the U.S. Constitution. They have been criticized in the past for adopting extremist views and language, and for their supposed ties to white supremacist and militia groups. The movement was characterized in a 2009 Southern Poverty Law Center as "a particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival."

Ire over the implications of the indefinite detention provision has been widespread across the political spectrum. All things considered, the rhetoric of the fledgling recall campaign is reserved. Earlier this month, a failed Tea Party candidate from California raged against the measure, writing in a Facebook post that Obama's signing of the bill was grounds to "assassinate the f----- n----- and his monkey children."

Comments

[Moose Luck 99]

11:48 AM on 02/10/2012

Obama's Christmas gift to Americans: Complete nullification of the Bill of Rights
Under the NDAA:

• You may be arrested and indefinitely detained merely for being "suspected" of any involvement whatsoever with "terrorism" -- a term that can be twisted to mean almost anything, including protesting against animal testing laboratories or chaining yourself to a tree as an environmental protester.

• You no longer have a right to legal representation.

• You can be held for life without ever being charged for any crime.

• You no longer have a right to a trial by a jury of your peers.

• You can be murdered by the government -- legally! -- without ever being charged with a crime.

• The government does not have to present ANY evidence against you to take all these actions. The government merely has to assert that you are "suspected" of being involved in "terrorism." Such suspicion, of course, could be dreamed up against anyone! Political opponents, Free Speech proponents, protesters, dissenters... anyone at all.

283 traitorous, criminal members of the House voted YES
the traitorous, criminal members arrested and prosecuted under the laws of the U.S. Constitution --available here:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll932.xml

Read these names well, because they will go down in history as the seditious elitists who betrayed the American people in their most desperate hour, unleashing total police state tyranny against the innocent.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/034414_NDAA_military_detention_Bill_of_Rights.html#ixzz1lzxNUSjv

[charlig68]

11:24 AM on 01/02/2012

my god....

[Tootie Welker]

01:45 PM on 12/31/2011

Although peeps should do a little reading re:the oath keepers group. I don't support the NDAA but as a Montanan I also won't get behind this group. Mother Jones has a good story on Oath Keepers I suggest peeps read

[Hershie]

11:46 AM on 02/02/2012

I live in montana also I fully support a recall for these criminals. and oath keepers i support them also.. i have listened to them talk and nothing he says isnt true..... GO RECALL

[rexoid]

07:44 PM on 02/06/2012

The Mother Jones article was a deliberate ambush..with no facts..and it is not that she did not have them, the author had access to all of the facts..she chose to do the fiction thing to please a publisher. Like some if the comments above in ths article: totally off base and a deliberate framing by suggestion...marginalization by irrelevant comments as an aside. Oath Keepers are not linked to militias or any "supremacist" groups..I think I would know: I am the East Coast VP of Oath Keepers, and the lead moderator for 80 some odd message boards for the organization..and sheesh..I am not even a Republican.

[inland northwest]

08:01 PM on 12/30/2011

Did you know that Idaho was the only state that voted unanimously against the NDAA?
http://www.survivalblogs.com/freedom-and-liberty/only-two-states-had-both-senators-vote-against-the-ndaa/

[stloon2]

07:54 PM on 12/30/2011

Goooo Montana. Take them out!

[stloon2]

07:53 PM on 12/30/2011

We need to do the same thing here in MA. As much as I don't want that woman taking over Brown seat, there's no way I'm voting for him now. Brown and Kerry need to go. And McCain and Lindsey ("no lawyer for you") Graham need to go.

[leeb1too]

09:19 PM on 12/29/2011

I saw someone on here say some of these senators felt obligated to pass it bc it contained soldiers funding. I'd like to hear what soldiers would say if they knew that the government was using their pay as a hostage to approve a bill that contains what essentially destroys the very thing the soldiers swear to uphold with their lives.

[leeb1too]

09:12 PM on 12/29/2011

I knew I liked Montana. Real Americans up there. It is of course, reprehensible that any elected official that swears to uphold the Constitution could approve such a thing with their vote. They deserve to be recalled. Its time to draw a line in the sand.

[Eric Echevarria]

01:41 PM on 12/29/2011

Gotta love this... just when I thought America had fallen permanently into a terminal mass media induced coma... GO MONTANA!!!

[newfrontier46]

02:35 PM on 12/29/2011

Let the TSA Gestapo come to Montana and see what kind of reception they get.

[Eric Echevarria]

03:55 PM on 12/30/2011

You guys and gals in Montana aren't alone and you never will be if the Lone Star State has anything to say about it. The American people are waking up from what seems to be a decades long slumber. I just hope it isn't too little too late.

[truth lover]

01:17 PM on 12/29/2011

Be politically proactive & sign the petition asking Obama to veto NDAA:
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/veto-national-defense-authorization-act-2012-several-provisions-bill-pose-threat-civil-liberties/GLfhBn6D

[Charles Broam]

10:55 AM on 12/29/2011

Please help me impeach the two senators from my home state of Oklahoma who both passed the NDAA for 2012, too. Here is my petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/unites-states-of-america-house-of-representatives-impeach-senators-tom-coburn-and-jim-inhofe?share_id=AVTITXCUCW&

[TylerE]

09:52 AM on 12/29/2011

I don't understand the recall. Both Baucus & Tester voted against indefinite detention when there was an amendment to get rid of it. But after that vote failed 45-55, they both did the responsible thing, accepting the fact that the majority of the Senate wanted the provision and voting to continue funding the troops in the big bill

[Nathan Teegarden]

04:05 PM on 01/10/2012

That's not the responsible thing, it's a violation of their oath of office. They should be recalled for violating their oath, just as every senator and representative who voted for it should (including my senators, Klobuchar and Franken, who I normally support), and the president should be impeached for signing it.

[l78lancer]

04:21 AM on 12/29/2011

It seems that the recall puts the cart before the horse. No matter how insensed they are about how the congressional delegation voted, it seems that they have much less of a chance for success if the NDAA has not been fully challenged in court and deemed unconstitutional. Otherwise, what is the real basis of the recall other than individuals being upset because congress voted against their preference?

Anger and action without any logic will allow this to go nowhere.

[leeb1too]

09:13 PM on 12/29/2011

They voted against their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution.

[l78lancer]

10:36 PM on 12/29/2011

And exactly who made that determination and how was it made?

[vidian6]

12:14 AM on 12/29/2011

This is a clear violation of the 4th Amendment and should never be allowed in our free country. How do you stop someone from misuing something like this to remove their political enemies. This is what the founding fathers intended to prevent with the 4th Amendment.

[TomsFriendKake]

10:02 PM on 12/28/2011

What how many dummies will vote for them for re-election. If Montanan's want to slove their problem for good, they should ch@rge them with Tr3@s0n and then lyn(# them in publ!(.