Ambiguous but alarming new wording, which is tucked into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and was just passed by the Senate, is reminiscent of the “extraordinary measures” introduced by the Nazis after they took power in 1933.

And the relative lack of reaction so far calls to mind the oddly calm indifference with which most Germans watched the erosion of the rights that had been guaranteed by their own Constitution. As one German writer observed, “With sheepish submissiveness we watched it unfold, as if from a box at the theater.”

The writer was Sebastian Haffner (real name Raimond Pretzel), a young German lawyer worried at what he saw in 1933 in Berlin, but helpless to stop it since, as he put it, the German people “collectively and limply collapsed, yielded and capitulated.”

“The result of this millionfold nervous breakdown,” wrote Haffner at the time, “is the unified nation, ready for anything, that is today the nightmare of the rest of the world.” Not a happy analogy.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The government's first apparent attempt to win an amnesty for former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is a convicted international fugitive, failed after it was condemned as inappropriate to include him among 26,000 criminals eligible for a possible royal pardon.

Mr. Thaksin's sister is Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her government reportedly included his name last week among a list to be presented to King Bhumibol Adulyadej for him to consider endorsing to mark his 84th birthday on Dec. 5.

The Justice Ministry's royal group pardon list is an annual tradition, but usually does not include fugitives.

Convicted individuals can also apply on their own through the ministry.

"Thaksin will not receive any benefit from the [royal] decree, and his name will not be included on the list of convicts eligible for a royal pardon," Justice Minister Pracha Promnok said on Sunday (Nov. 21), indicating the list would be rewritten by the government to delete Mr. Thaksin's name.

"Convicts on the run will not be eligible," Mr. Pracha said, according to the Nation newspaper.

Jason Box is an associate professor of geography and atmospheric sciences at the Ohio State University. He was part of a protest on Nov.21 in front of the Columbus offices of Senator Rob Portman, one of six Republicans on the now defunct Super Committee. “We stand here…calling for a reduction in oil subsidies. That connects with this issue of increasing reliance on fossil fuels at a time when that needs to decrease.”

Box said environmental issues are appropriately part of Occupy.

“The Occupy Movement and environmentalism go together because these are both justice movements. It’s economic justice and environmental justice.”

While the prosecution of President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair for the crime of aggression, crimes against the peace, took two days to present because the docket was so full of important evidence, including their own books written after the Iraq War, the Defense (by way of Amicus Curiae) sought to conclude its proceedings by invoking the emotionalism of the tragedy that took place on 11 September 2001. (That's why we need an independent investigation of 9/11) Amid multiple rebukes by the Chief Justice of the Tribunal to avoid emotionalism, the Defense team could not help itself.

Lead Defense Counsel continued, "Had George W. Bush said 'we know who you are, we know what you did, and we forgive you,' the world could have been a much different place. But, instead, Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo happened. We are fallible human beings. We make mistakes." And the Defense stated that the defense of Bush and Blair defense is that the accused "are human."

Whistleblowing in our federal government may soon be a thing of the past, not because whistleblowers face more vicious retribution than ever before -- although that is true; and not because important acts of whistleblowing now result in fewer reforms and less accountability than they used to -- although that is also true and is getting closer; but fundamentally because the actions against which we need whistles blown are publicly acknowledged.

How would one expose war or indefinite imprisonment or assassinations or drone attacks or wiretapping or profiteering or bribery or massive money transfers to Wall Street? I understand how, even a few years ago, such things could be exposed by courageous whistleblowers. I understand how retired officials who missed their chance at being timely whistleblowers can now expose the steps through which these crimes have been normalized. But I have a hard time understanding how one would leak to the media or reveal on one's blog what has been openly acknowledged, legalized, formalized, and normalized.