American Civil Liberties Under Attack: National Defense Authorization Act bill Update; Hernandez: Bloggers Not Media

Two Quick Items in This Edition:

- National Defense Authorization Act Bill Update

- Hernandez: Bloggers Aren't Media?
[Edited 12/9/11]
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National Defense Authorization Act Bill Update

Jon Stewart Pokes Congress and the National Defense Authorization Act on the Daily Show
December 07, 2011

The Senate passes a bill that jeopardizes Americans' civil rights, the CIA loses a stealth drone in Iran, and Ralph Fiennes enjoys Shakespeare.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/wed-december-7-2011-ralph-fiennes
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MONDAY, DEC 5, 2011 6:27 AM PST
PolitiFact and the scam of neutral expertise
BY GLENN GREENWALD

PolitiFact rated as “mostly false” Paul’s argument that the new explicit standards in Levin/McCain defining the scope of the War on Terror are so vague and broad that they allow virtually anyone to be targeted by the President with force or detention; to support his claim, Paul cited the fact that, under this new language, the President is explicitly authorized to use force not only against members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban (as the original 2001 AUMF provided), but also against anyone who “substantially supports” those groups or “associated forces.” As Paul put it in his supposedly false statement: “It’s (now) anybody associated with (those) organizations, which means almost anybody can be loosely associated — so that makes all Americans vulnerable.”

Paul is far from the only person making this argument. The ACLU . . . . (see link for rest)

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Who needs a trial?

Written by Baker City Herald Editorial Board December 09, 2011 09:21 am

Imagine that a U.S. citizen is arrested as a suspected terrorist, on U.S. soil, and then placed in military custody for as long as officials deem necessary.

Oh, and this citizen doesn’t get a trial, so the mere suspicion of complicity in promoting terrorism is sufficient grounds for an open-ended detention.

. . . .

When it comes to our constitutional rights and the government’s protection of them, we consider the word “optional” inappropriate.

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Hernandez: Bloggers Aren't Media?

Dec 7, 8:39 PM EST

Federal judge: Montana blogger is not journalist
By JEFF BARNARD 
Associated Press

U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez found last week that as a blogger, Cox was not a journalist and cannot claim the protections afforded to mainstream reporters and news outlets. . . . .

"My advice to bloggers operating in the state of Oregon is lobby to get your shield law improved so bloggers are covered," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "But do not expect the shield law to provide you a defense in a libel case where you want to rely on an anonymous source for that information."

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The Real Danger in That Bloggers-Aren't-Journalists Ruling
Dan KennedyAssistant Professor, School of Journalism at Northeastern University
HuffPosted: 12/ 8/11

You may have heard that a Montana blogger must pay a $2.5 million libel judgment because a federal judge ruled she was not a journalist, and was thus not entitled to protect her anonymous sources.

In fact, that's not quite what happened. The case actually had little to do with whether bloggers have the same right to protect their sources as traditional journalists. But U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez's opinion nevertheless threatens to weaken long-standing protections against libel suits, and to widen the already-gaping divide between the media and the rest of society. . . . .

But if Judge Hernandez's ruling on the shield law is nothing to be all that alarmed about, the same cannot be said for what he wrote elsewhere in his opinion. In a passage that I find astonishing, Hernandez found that Cox could not be considered a "media defendant," and that therefore Obsidian and Padrick would not have to prove she acted negligently. . . . .(See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kennedy/the-real-danger-in-that-b_b_1136844.html)

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The Meteoric Rise of Marco Hernandez
Nine years from law degree to judge: Affirmative action and the diversity decades had absolutely nothing to do with it!

Marco A. Hernandez
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marco Antonio Hernandez (born 1957) is an American attorney and judge in the state of Oregon. A native of Arizona, he served as a Circuit Court judge in Washington County from 1995 until 2011, including as presiding judge for three years. . . . .

Hernandez then moved on to a four-year school and received a B.A. degree from Western Oregon State College (now known as Western Oregon University) in 1983.[5][4] He then attended the University of Washington School of Law and earned his J.D. in 1986.[5] . . . .

After law school he returned to Oregon where he spent three years working for Legal Aid Services of Oregon where he often represented farm workers.[2][6] Hernandez himself had picked crops in the field in his youth.[2] Following his time with legal aid, Hernandez the[n] joined the Washington County District Attorney's office as a deputy prosecutor in 1989.[7]

Shortly before leaving office in January 1995, Governor Barbara Roberts appointed Hernandez to be a Circuit Court judge in Washington County, Oregon.

In January 2008, Hernandez was one of three candidates recommended by a six-member judicial selection committee to replace Garr King on the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.[11] President George W. Bush selected Hernandez to fill the vacancy on the District Court of Oregon and submitted his nomination on July 23, 2008.[2] Senators Gordon H. Smith and Ron Wyden supported the nomination, but it was made with less than six months remaining in the Bush Presidency.[2][12] The nomination was not acted upon by the 110th Congress and was thus returned.[13]

Republican Gordon Smith was defeated for re-election in 2008, and newly-elected President Barack Obama restarted the judicial selection process for the District of Oregon.[3] Democrat Ron Wyden recommended Hernandez in addition to five other candidates selected by a thirteen-member judicial selection committee.[12] On July 14, 2010, Obama renominated Hernandez to replace Garr King.[14] He is one of few people to be nominated to the federal bench by presidents from two different political parties.[7] The Senate failed to act on Obama's nomination, and President Obama nominated Hernandez again in January 2011.[4] On February 7, 2011, the Senate unanimously confirmed Hernandez as the newest judge for the District of Oregon,[4] and he received his commission on February 9.[10]

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See Judge says blogger can be sued for defamation for photo.
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OBSIDIAN FINANCE GROUP, LLC, and KEVIN D. PADRICK,
VS
CRYSTAL COX
http://www.scribd.com/doc/74870113/Crystal-Cox-Opinion
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Obsidian V. Cox - I was Denied the Right To Show Jury my Source Documents that I Provided Judge Marco Hernandez.

Judge Marco Hernandez Says that Oregon Retraction Statutes Do Not Apply To Blogs