The huge controversy over the exchange of five prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay priosn (which should have been shut down a long time ago) for a US soldier Bowe Bergdahl captured in Afghanistan has been quite incredible. Once again, we have the spectacle of people seemingly deciding their position on one issue by their views of something else, in this case whether the swap reflects well on president Obama, and then using that to drive their message.
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The recent exploits of members of the group Open Carry Texas carrying massive guns around in public places and into restaurants and other business venues, and the reaction to it, has been a good example of how rubbing your rights into other people’s faces may not always be in your best interest. The best way to support the right of free speech may not be to stand on a street corner and talk to every person who passes by. Instead of being impressed by your commitment to upholding free speech, they are more likely to think you are a crazy person.
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There is no question that the Occupy Wall Street movement alarmed the ruling classes because of its exposure of the class war being waged in this country by wealthy against the rest of us. The Daily Show talks about how the law enforcement and justice systems are tilted so heavily in favor of the oligarchy, a reflection of the entrenched nature of the class war being waged.
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When we see these movements by Christians to insert prayer into schools and government meetings and to put up monuments to the Ten Commandments and other religious symbols in public spaces, the natural reaction has been to encourage non-Christian groups also exercise the same right to have official sanction of their religion by saying their own prayers and putting up their own monuments.
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The Idaho Republican primary may turn out to be the most notable one of this season, not because of its politics but because of the debate between its four candidates running for governor, two of whom were definitely not your usual boring old run-of-the-mill right wing politicians.

Stephen Colbert brings us some of the highlights of that debate and says that the choice is now clear as to who should be Idaho’s next governor.
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Jason Jones files his final report on the Indian elections with a look at the controversy over the new prime minister Narendra Modi’s record while he was chief minister of Gujarat state when riots resulted in the deaths of 1000 people, mostly Muslims. In the manner of Michael Moore in his Roger and Me documentary, Jones tries repeatedly to interview Modi to get answers about his role in those events.
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