Reports have suggested that Edward Snowden’s ultimate destination is Ecuador although that country seems to be cooling on the idea recently. But despite that, Ecuador has gone out of its way to tell the US that it will not be bullied by them to hand over Snowden. Juan Cole lists all the awful things that the US has done to Ecuador in the past as the reasons why that country is taking this stance. [Read more…]
(Thanks to reader smhll)
One of the frequently recurring arguments offered by those supporting the widespread NSA surveillance programs is that this should not bother anyone who has nothing to hide. While this is a spurious argument at the best of times, it has a sinister corollary in that people who do take steps to protect their privacy may be assumed by the government to be up to no good, even though there are many reasons for guarding one’s personal information that have nothing to do with any form of criminality, let alone terrorism. [Read more…]
You may recall that I wrote about a recent report put out by young Republicans that surveyed the views of young people in general and what they found was that the Republican party was viewed very unfavorably, being described with words like closed-minded, racist, rigid, and old-fashioned. The young Republicans think that the party only cares about protecting those who have already made it rich and does not care about those who are still struggling to find their feet. Since almost all people, but especially the young, fall into the latter category, this has to hurt. [Read more…]
Tom Goldstein, who runs the excellent SCOTUSblog which is the site to go to for reliable information on Supreme Court decisions, talks with Jon Oliver on The Daily Show about the same-sex marriage and the Voting Rights Act decisions. [Read more…]
I wrote about the attempt to smear Glenn Greenwald by digging into his personal life. Justin Raimondo looks into the people behind the campaign. [Read more…]
The last couple of years have been quite turbulent in terms of public agitation and protests. Apart from the uprisings of the Arab Spring, more recently we have had the massive protests in Turkey over plans to develop a public park that have escalated into larger protests against the governments attempts to chip away at that country’s secular framework. Then we have the huge protests in Brazil that started in opposition to hikes in the cost of public transit but have also escalated into criticisms of corruption and of government policies that seem to emphasize spending on showy projects like hosting the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 while money is needed for basic social services and infrastructure. [Read more…]
The ever-reliable SCOTUSblog reports:
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court on Friday afternoon lifted a year-old order blocking same-sex marriages in California, apparently clearing the way for county clerks across the state to start issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. The one-sentence order immediately nullified a stay order issued last June by the Circuit Court in the “Proposition 8″ case — Hollingsworth v. Perry.
Almost immediately state officials issued statements that same-sex marriage ‘”is now legal in California and that marriage licenses must be issued to same-sex couples immediately.”
There is no going back. Californian becomes the 13th state to legalize same-sex marriage and since this is the most populous state, it add a huge demographic weight to the movement for equality.
The Daily Show had a segment dealing with the events in the Texas legislature on the bill that would severely restrict the access to abortion services for women in that state. [Read more…]
Tom Gjelten is an honored member of the courtier journalist class who seems to see his role as to be a press conduit for the US government. I was curious to see how he would report on the Snowden case and he did not disappoint, fully living up to my expectations of him and dutifully playing his role of government propaganda distributor by smearing Snowden. [Read more…]