Eric Cantor says undocumented children should be offered citizenship

By Liz Goodwin, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 14 hrs ago

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said on Tuesday that the children of illegal immigrants should be granted a path to citizenship, providing a clue about how the GOP-controlled House may tackle immigration reform this year.

"A good place to start is with the kids," Cantor said during his speech at the American Enterprise Institute. "One of the great founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents. It is time to provide an opportunity for legal residence and citizenship for those who were brought to this country as children and who know no other home."

Earlier on Tuesday, Cantor declined to endorse a bipartisan immigration reform blueprint in the Senate, which calls for a gradual path to citizenship for most of the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants. Whether to legalize most of that group is likely to be a sticking point between Democrats and Republicans as they hash out a reform plan.

Congress considers putting limits on drone strikes

FILE - This Oct. 2008 file photo by Muhammad ud-Deen shows Imam Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. A Justice Department document says it is legal for the government to kill U.S. citizens abroad if it believes they are senior al-Qaida leaders continually engaged in operations aimed at killing Americans. (AP Photo/Muhammad ud-Deen, File) ** MANDATORY CREDIT NO SALES **

WASHINGTON (AP) — Uncomfortable with the Obama administration's use of deadly drones, a growing number inCongress is looking to limit America's authority to kill suspected terrorists, even U.S. citizens. The Democratic-led outcry was emboldened by the revelation in a newly surfacedJustice Department memo that shows drones can strike against a wider range of threats, with less evidence, than previously believed.

The drone program, which has been used from Pakistan across the Middle East and into North Africa to find and kill an unknown number of suspected terrorists, is expected to be a top topic of debate when the Senate Intelligence Committee grills John Brennan, the White House's pick for CIA chief, at a hearing Thursday.

The White House on Tuesday defended its lethal drone program by citing the very laws that some in Congress once believed were appropriate in the years immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks but now think may be too broad.

"It has to be in the agenda of this Congress to reconsider the scope of action of drones and use of deadly force by the United States around the world because the original authorization of use of force, I think, is being strained to its limits," Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in a recent interview.

Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, said Tuesday that "it deserves a serious look at how we make the decisions in government to take out, kill, eliminate, whatever word you want to use, not just American citizens but other citizens as well."

Hoyer added: "We ought to carefully review our policies as a country."

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee likely will hold hearings on U.S. drone policy, an aide said Tuesday, and Chairman Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and the panel's top Republican, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, both have quietly expressed concerns about the deadly operations. And earlier this week, a group of 11 Democratic and Republican senators urged President Barack Obama to release a classified Justice Department legal opinion justifying when U.S. counterterror missions, including drone strikes, can be used to kill American citizens abroad.

Without those documents, it's impossible for Congress and the public to decide "whether this authority has been properly defined, and whether the president's power to deliberately kill Americans is subject to appropriate limitations and safeguards," the senators wrote.

It was a repeated request after receiving last June an unclassified Justice Departmentmemo, which fell short of giving the senators all the information they requested.

First detailed publicly by NBC News late Monday, the memo for the first time outlines the Obama administration's decision to kill al-Qaida terror suspects without any evidence that specific and imminent plots are being planned against the United States.

"The threat posed by al-Qaida and its associated forces demands a broader concept of imminence in judging when a person continually planning terror attacks presents an imminent threat," concluded the document.

The memo was immediately decried by civil liberties groups as "flawed" and "profoundly disturbing" — especially in light of 2011 U.S. drone strikes in Yemen that killed three American citizens: Anwar al-Awlaki, his 16-year-old-son and Samir Khan. Al-Awlaki was linked to the planning and execution of several attacks targeting U.S. and Western interests, including the attempt to down a Detroit-bound airliner in 2009 and the plot to bomb cargo planes in 2010. His son was killed in a separate strike on a suspected al-Qaida den. Khan was an al-Qaida propagandist.

White House spokesman Jay Carney, echoing comments Brennan made in a speech last April, called the strikes legal, ethical and wise and said they are covered by a law thatCongress approved allowing the use of military force against al-Qaida.

"And certainly, under that authority, the president acts in the United States' interest to protect the United States and its citizens from al-Qaida," Carney said Tuesday.

"It is a matter of fact that Congress authorized the use of military force against al-Qaida," Carney said. "It is a matter of fact that al-Qaida is in a state of war against us and that senior leaders, operational leaders of al-Qaida are continually plotting to attack the United States, plotting to kill American citizens as they did most horrifically on September 11th of 2001."

Three days after 9/11, Congress approved a law authorizing the military to use "all necessary and appropriate force" against al-Qaida and other groups believed to be helping or harboring the global terror network, including the use of drone strikes. In the decade since the attacks, U.S. intelligence officials say, al-Qaida has splintered into a number of affiliates and allied sympathizers. That means the current laws could allow military force against thousands of extremists across the Mideast and North Africa who have limited or no ability to strike the United States.

Currently, both the CIA and the U.S. military are authorized to remotely pilot unmanned, missile-carrying drones against terror suspects. It's unknown exactly how many strikes have been carried out, but experts say that drone attacks in Pakistan are conducted by the CIA, while those in Yemen and Somalia, for example, are by military forces.

The drones have strained diplomacy between the U.S. and the nations where the strikes are carried out, as civilians have been killed alongside the targeted terrorists, even though most nations have given Washington at least tacit agreement to carry out the attacks.

A Middle Eastern diplomat said that in Yemen, for example, an uptick of U.S. drone strikes last month have killed dozens of people and upset the local public, leading some leaders in Sanaa to reconsider how often they should be used. The diplomat spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to avoid political retribution from the Obama administration.

The Pentagon is also considering basing surveillance drones in Niger to monitor on burgeoning extremist violence in North Africa, but it's not clear if they will be armed. Scaling back the use of drones also would hamper war plans in Afghanistan after combat troops are scheduled to withdraw in 2014. Drones represent a major thrust of the post-troops campaign to help the limited number of special forces units that remain there keep the Taliban from regrouping.

Brennan, who currently serves as the White House counterterrorism czar, has signaled he is prepared to turn the CIA from carrying out lethal drone strikes and hand over those missions to the U.S. military. Sen. Ron Wyden, a senior Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence panel, declared himself unsatisfied Tuesday with the Justice memo and said he will press Brennan at the confirmation hearing about the administration's current policy.

The drone debate puts Obama — himself a former civil rights lawyer — in the awkward position of carrying out lethal attacks in secret and bucking his political allies in the Democratic Party. Democratic lawmakers were incensed by the refusal of the Republican administration of President George W. Bush to hand over classified Justice Department opinions justifying the use of waterboarding, the harsh interrogation tactic that critics call a form of torture. Obama repudiated those methods — and released those opinions — when he took office in 2009. The use of drones proved to have no political cost to Obama in his re-election campaign.

House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., defended the use of deadly drones, calling it "a lawful act of national self-defense."

"When an individual has joined al-Qaida — the organization responsible for the murder of thousands of Americans — and actively plots future attacks against U.S. citizens, soldiers, and interests around the world, the U.S. government has both the authority and the obligation to defend the country against that threat," Rogers said in a statement.

But Rep. Keith Ellison, said the new Justice memo could spur lawmakers into taking a fresh look at deadly drones, and what he called an outdated policy guiding them.

"We are sort of running on the steam that we acquired right after our country was attacked in the most horrific act of terror in U.S. history," said Ellison, D-Minn. "We have learned much since 9/11, and now it's time to take a more sober look at where we should be with use of force."

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Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP

Channeled by Goldenlight, February 04, 2013

http://thegoldenlightchannel.com

Greetings we are The Council of Angels, Archangel Michael and St. Germain.

We wish to speak to you this evening about the In Between Times. Your societies on earth are in between the end of an old era and the beginning of a new one.

The old era represents governmental and financial control by the elite powers that be, as well as extreme inequities in your world, along with the pollution and contamination of your Dearest Mother Earth/Gaia. The Old World also represents a Lower Consciousness vibration. The energy which was holding up this Old World is being withdrawn from it, and this is why you are seeing the collapse of governments, financial systems, and an end to the male-dominated world of inequality which has existed for eons on your planet.

Humanity is now rising up from a deep slumber of unawareness towards an enlightened awareness and higher consciousness. Without the Great Shift that is now happening, your world would have crumbled and died. The Creator would not allow this to happen. The many Ascended Masters, Angels, Archangels, and Higher Dimensional Beings who care about and assist your world would also not, as emanations from Source Creator, allow this to happen. Yes there are many great beings who are entrusted with the care of, and concern for, your world. They exist invisibly to many of you, and are assisting your planet and humanity in many great ways.

One of the ways they are assisting you is in sending you great packets of Love, Enlightened Higher Thoughts, and Higher Dimensional energies to your planet and all of humanity. Many who are sensitive, such as your Lightworkers, Crystal Children, and more, can pick up on these heavenly-sent vibrations. Your world is changing slowly but surely.

We want to speak to you today of things you can do in what we call “The In Between Times” so that you may gracefully bridge the gap between the two worlds and move ever-higher into the higher vibrational New Earth World being brought into creation by All of the Light.

(St. Germain steps forward to speak.)

I AM St. Germain and I have been on earth during many lifetimes and instrumental in the forming of, and participation in, many of your governments on earth. I am one of the overseers of this In Between Time for the Ascension of Humanity and the Freedom of all enslaved on planet earth at this time. As I will enunciate below, you all hold the key to the freedom from your enslavement. Yes, I was there when the United States was formed and was part of the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, both of which have been entirely overlooked of late.

The basic rights and principles outlined in the document of the Constitution have been slowly eroded for the US People over time, to the point where many elements outlined in this document are now almost completely disregarded. Familiarize yourself with this document! You may read it here. Those in this country now find themselves (and many are unaware of it) right back into the same situation of government domination and control from whence they originally tried to secede, or get away from. This is no longer a country OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, AND FOR THE PEOPLE. It has become, indeed, a far cry from that.

I wish to elucidate today many of the most important things that need to come into the Mass Awareness of All People on Earth. This Awareness is the key to your release from inequality, suffering, and governmental/financial/corporate domination. As with all problems, Awareness by All is the first key to eradication of it.

One of the first important things anyone on your Earth can do is to withdraw from any Cabal/Dark/Governmental-controlled components in your societies; these government-controlled systems are what has been called by many “The Matrix”. The most important component being used for control is the dissemination of disinformation and the proliferation of violence in your Mass Media, through television, movies, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, or any kind of mass media. These bombard most people constantly on a worldwide, daily basis. 95% of your television is controlled and run by the Dark, the Government, and those who wish to remain in control. It is imperative to disconnect from this Mass Media at this time to assist in the collapsing of the old paradigm.

Public television stations are better, but we would say to you to totally turn off your TV. Watching light-inspired movies or movies with a message for pure entertainment is relatively harmless. But many of the mainstream movies are also dominated by the Old World, lower vibrational mentality of violence, murder, fear, and all things negative. Just take a look at the latest top ten movies releases; 80-90% of them are in this category. So we say to all who still participate in the Mass Media paradigm, that it is of extreme importance to turn off your TV and watch inspirational movies and read inspirational, uplifting material only. Television and news programs are the #1 way the Dark and Government controls the population.

There are many other ways they are still attempting to control the population, including giving vaccinations which are actually causing the sicknesses they are purporting to prevent; control of the food industry and genetically modified food (GMO) which is causing sickness and disease, and the list goes on and on.

Many technologies which allow for the free use of energy, telecommunications, transportation, and more, have been in existence for decades, but this technology has been killed by the government, banking families, and petroleum corporations all over the world. It is time for the people of the Earth to come into awareness of these facts. There is much available now to you as far as New Earth media, such as the movie Thrive, and many websites, alternative media, organizations that is bringing forth the truth, equality, awareness, and a general raising of consciousness. It is imperative at this time that the people of the world break out of their slumber and come into the awareness of the truth of what is really going on in the world, and how they are being controlled and dominated by the emissions of the Dark (governments, corporations, banking families, and what is generally referred to as the “Cabal”) lower energy vibrations of violence, disharmony, inequality, and all of the lower vibrations.

We bring forth the awareness of this information today not to encourage you to focus on the negativity, but to become AWARE of the TRUTH and to then to break free of it by TURNING AWAY FROM IT, REMOVING YOUR FOCUS ON IT, and turning TOWARDS THE LIGHT AND HIGHER VIBRATIONAL ENERGIES. You must all break free of “The Matrix” and follow the path of what is becoming THE PATH OF MANY TOWARDS THE LIGHT, higher dimensional living, and towards a NEW EARTH. To get away from a world of darkness, TURN ON THE LIGHT.

This New Earth is such a beautiful, abundant, harmonious, and glorious place. It will be coming into existence by THE MILLIONS WHO WILL BEGIN NOW TO FOCUS UPON IT. This New Earth has FREE ENERGY, wherein the multitudes are no longer slaves to the energy corporations or the oil corporations for their heat, electricity, fuel, telecommunications, and basic utility costs. This is part of what is keeping 90% of the world’s population enslaved. This FREE ENERGY also runs the modes of delivery and transportation; not only are these transportation methods free but they do not generate any pollution at all.

And we are speaking of transportation of people and of goods worldwide. So the three basic methods that the world corporations and government were once using to dominate and control the people are removed: oil company domination, utility company domination, corporate monopolies of control, and mass media brainwashing. Oil extraction and production no longer exists as there is no longer a need for it. The oil that is currently being extracted from Mother Earth/Gaia’s body is actually the essential lubrication that is needed to keep her tectonic plates moving easily and freely in her body. The removal of this essential part of her earthen body, and yes it is her body, has caused great harm to her and will STOP.

There will be a new form of energy developed to run things that are now run by electricity, a new energy that is similar to electricity but not created using any fossil fuels or running electrical poles with wires all over the earth, which also harms Mother Earth’s own energetic field. The use of these electrical lines has suffocated her and will eventually be removed and replace with a clean form of energy that does not use wires. All we can say now is that it does involve the use of extremely large crystals, crystals similar to those used in Atlantis which generate massive amounts of energy and that will be regrown to create a similar type of energy that was once used in Atlantis. Your new Cities of Light which have been visited and “seen” by many upon your earth, will be the centers for much of this type of energy.

Each city of Light will have large free energy centers that are drawing upon this new form of clean, non-polluting, and totally free energy. Just try to envision and imagine this! We are sending a visual image of this to the Channel and it is a most beautiful image indeed! Please pause for a moment and tune in, if you will. Your Lightworker Genii Townsend has written books on the cities of Light, including Sedona Arizona which will be one of the first Cities of Light to manifest into the 5th-dimensional reality that is quickly replacing the old 3D reality, which is caving in and sinking as we speak.

What a glorious new world this will be! This New Earth is to be organized and maintained by those who are now termed Lightworkers; they are visionaries who are of pure heart and who care about the Whole as opposed to self-serving corporations, banking families and governments which now run your world. Yet each of you is also creating this world. Each time you pull away from the old paradigm and imagine the new, you are creating the new and helping to deflate the old. You can begin to spend time daydreaming or in meditation to imagine what this new world, the New Earth is like. Those running this New Earth will be organized into Councils, for this is how things in the higher dimensions are managed. We arrange ourselves into egalitarian councils who work for the Good of the Whole and the Good of All; the members on these councils in your New Earth will also rotate periodically so as to give all a chance to help. There will be no “political parties” or corrupt politicians. These will be a thing of the past.

All foods produced and consumed in this New Earth society are life-giving and life-sustaining food, rich in phytonutrients, and free of pesticides. The cruel treatment of farm animals for mass production and slaughter will be a thing of the past. Your governments control much of the production of world food outputs, and much of it contains deadly, cancer and disease-causing pesticides. Organic farming is actually less expensive than this type of farming! There are very inexpensive ways of maintaining organic farming. Yes, organic food has made a headway into your society, but it needs to be 100% of the total food being consumed. Unhealthy, processed foods created by large food conglomerates and corporations will be a thing of the past in the New Earth. Again, AWARENESS is key here. Buy organic whenever you can.

Do whatever you can to assist your New Earth in the production of organic food, but things will change mostly through AWARENESS, a withdrawal of energy from the old systems, and an influx of energy into the new. If you work for one of these corporations, raise your awareness and start your own organic farm! Do whatever it takes to convert your world to organic produce, fruits and vegetables. Eventually, as your earth society continues to evolve, you will eat only small amounts of fruits and vegetables, and eventually your light bodies will become so prevalent that you will find that you do not have a need for this type of food at all. You eventually will not have the carbon-based bodies you have now; they will evolve into crystalline bodies and further along the path, light bodies, with less and less need for physical food to sustain you. Your energy will come directly from Source light and love. You have the ability to tune into this energy now as well, it is just that many of you are not aware of it.

Yes, self-serving corporations and governments will also be a thing of the past, especially those run by the same people who run your current governments and banks. Trade will be more local; or for international trade, it will be done by smaller companies who honor the people creating the goods being traded. There is currently a severe situation going on in your country called China, a situation that is actually slavery of millions of families (including children); people creating extremely low-cost goods for sale mostly to the US but also all over the world. There are millions of Chinese who are living in forced labor camps, working 7 days a week, 365 days a year, 12 hour days, with no rest or breaks. They are beaten and yelled at when they start to fall asleep inside the factories.

This is a most dire and pressing situation for a large group of humanity on your earth. This is yet another part of your planet that needs to come into the AWARENESS of all. Boycott any and all mass-produced Chinese products (which are 95% of all Chinese products exported for trade), for it is the perpetual buying of these goods that creates the further need for them. But most of all, become aware of this situation and do what you feel drawn to do to assist in the total cessation of this situation, including most of all the withdrawal of your financial support of it.

Do whatever you can to encourage and participate in your local economies. Indeed, the channel realized tonight that many people in China are blocked access to the internet by their government. Case in point: out of the 75,000 views on this multi-lingual website (every page being translated by Google Translate) since it’s inception in November 2012, only 10 have been from China. Their government, and many governments around the world, blocks access to the internet for a large percentage of its population, and restricts freedom of information sharing in order to control their population.

Mass media is not anywhere to be found in your New Earth society. The type of communication and dissemination of information in the New Earth is an entire topic for another day but suffice it to say that those in New Earth become so aware of the destructive and negative effects of mass media controlled by the government, advertising, and corporations, that it is done away with altogether. All information that is disseminated in the New Earth is information of the Truth and for The Highest Good of All.I

Instead of tuning into the news or reading the newspaper, turn to spiritually-inspiring and uplifting books, movies, or information found on spiritually-uplifting sites run by Lightworkers on the internet. Above all, trust your instinct when reading or listening to any and all information. If you follow your inner voice, you will always be guided to your highest good when coming across any information. Watching or listening to the mass media news not only keeps you hooked into the old paradigm, it lowers your vibration, cuts you off from your higher self and inner voice, and keeps you in a fear-based, negative, violence-is-ok mentality.

So you see, that you have the key to your own freedom, and the key to your fellow human beings’ freedom, wellness, well-being, and enlightenment. When ALL begin to practice the principles of CARING FOR FOR THE ALL, it is then that you will enter in your new higher dimensional New Earth society. It is then that you will breathe it into creation.

All in the New Earth will begin to function as ONE SOCIETY, ONE PLANET, existing and doing for THE GOOD OF ALL. From a higher perspective, you are ALL what we term “Emanations from the Source”, that is, you are Source Knowing Source. Everything in creation is an Aspect of Source. Each being living in your New Earth Society is AWARE of this fact. It is, in fact, an undisputed fact. Religion, which is man’s creation caused partially to understand source and partially to control and inspire fear in the population, does not need to exist in the New Earth because ALL are aware that they are Emanations from The Source. All have a strong connection with Source. All humans have a strong awareness of, and connection with, their Higher Selves, which is a higher dimensional aspect of yourself and of the Creator Source.

When you come into human form, a portion of your “self” stays in the higher dimensions to guide you, and this is your Higher Self. It is extremely important for the development and growth of all in humanity to begin to reconnect with this part of yourselves. This can be done by many techniques and by awareness and meditation. Awareness is so important, it is 80% of the puzzle! The channel also has many good communications on this site on this topic of connecting with the Higher Self, and we encourage you to read, be aware of, and practice these techniques. When all humans are connected to their higher selves, they begin to form a Unity Consciousness which is a Group Higher Self, and it is this Group Higher Self which will assist in the guidance of your New Earth Society.

Each person’s Higher Self, and this Group Higher Self, knows and is ever aware that it is directly connected with Source, and therefore ALWAYS acts in the interest of the greatest good for ALL. Do you see how this New Earth society is coming into creation? Awareness, and each person connecting to their highest selves, Group Higher Self, and Source; these are the components involved in creating this New Earth Society, a society where ALL CARE ABOUT AND LOVE ALL. Do you see, from a higher perspective, again, it is SOURCE KNOWING SOURCE, and Source sending out love to all its beings, and these beings sending it back to each other and to Source. It is a circular pattern of energy that is loving, connected, aware, and Of the Light. This, then, is the spiritual basis of your New Earth Society.

We will check back in with you soon for more guidance and assistance. For now, during these In Between Times, there is much clearing out of the old, including detaching from the old world paradigm of control, releasing old emotional patterns, and reconnecting with each of your higher aspects of yourselves and each other, forming eventually this Unity Consciousness which is coming into being for The Good of All. AWARENESS IS KEY, as is the clearing out of the old, detaching from the old control matrix or paradigm, and connecting with your higher selves and group higher self, which always leads back to connecting with source.

All leads back to Source in the End.

Each of you came to Earth at this time in the history of your earthen society to be of assistance to the Earth. Now is the time to trust your inner guidance, be true to yourselves and others, and assist in the creation of this beautiful New Earth society by reconnecting with your higher selves, higher aspects, and back to Source.

We are grateful to be of assistance to you today in your journey back to yourselves, back to loving yourselves and each other, and back to Source.

Call on us, on any of the Ascended Masters including myself St. Germain, as well as on the Archangels and your personal angels for assistance and guidance at any time. We are ever near and ever loving.

We send you our soft light and love. With many blessings to you and Namasté* from St. Germain, Archangel Michael, The Council of Angels, and Goldenlight on this cold February eve of 2013.

*Namasté
I honor the place in you
in which the entire universe dwells.
I honor the place in you
which is of love, of truth,
of light, and of peace.
When you are in that place in you
and I am in that place in me,
WE ARE ONE.

Note from Goldenlight: I believe we are in the midst of an AWARENESS REVOLUTION. Kind of like the late 60′s without all the drugs.