As people await rulings on the two same sex marriage cases before the US Supreme Court that are due to be released any day now, it is useful to see what the state of play is. It seems unlikely that the court will issue sweeping rulings affirming the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry, though that would be a welcome surprise. Failing that, what lies ahead? [Read more…]

I have written before of president Obama’s skillful use of words to convince people that he represents their interests even when he doesn’t. I saw this statement by president Obama today on the controversy over the recent leaks that provides another excellent example. [Read more…]

As promised, Glenn Greenwald has received more leaks from whistleblowers. The latest is that president Obama has issued a directive ordering his agencies to draw up a list of targets for cyberattacks all over the globe. You can see the leaked presidential directive here. [Read more…]

He says that in the case of the Bradley Manning trial the government as usual has been successful in getting the media to chase squirrels and obsess over the wrong questions. The government has long figured that out that this tactic works well and uses it quite skillfully. [Read more…]

One catch for most people in dealing with the two major stories of the government’s sweeping capturing of telephone records and internet activity is trying to understand its significance. If you are like me and not particularly tech-savvy, the question we cannot really answer is what were they actually doing and how bad it was. We have seen many supporters of the national security state trying to pooh-pooh the revelations as no big deal and some may be persuaded by those arguments. [Read more…]

A new Pew survey confirms what observers have long intuited, that most people (72%) now see the legalization of same sex marriage a inevitable, up from 59% in 2004. What is significant is that 59% of opponents see it as inevitable too. Even though they seem resigned to it, it is still a divisive issue with just 51% favoring same-sex marriage and older, religious, Republicans, blacks, and those with less education showing the most opposition. [Read more…]

Glenn Greenwald says that the recent leaks by whistleblowers are precursors and more ae to come soon. This is excellent news.

Candidate Barack Obama in 2008 praised whistleblowers as providing a valuable service to the country but after being elected has not only not mentioned favorably even a single whisteblower, he has been one of the most vicious presidents on record in persecuting them. [Read more…]

The back-to-back revelations this week that the government has been working with internet and telecommunications companies to sweep up everyone’s phone records and also to tap into the servers of internet providers, has provided startling confirmation of long-held suspicions that we now have an out-of-control national security state that does not give a damn about the constitution or individual right but will use, under the guise of the bogus war on terror, any of the extremely powerful weapons at its disposal to achieve whatever it thinks it wants or needs. We have allowed the creation of a national security behemoth and that behemoth is turning on us, as such behemoths always do. Both political parties are complicit in this, as are members of congress, the judiciary, the military, and major corporations. [Read more…]

[Update: Jesselyn Radack, who has vigorously defended the cause of whistleblowers, pans this documentary as shallow and biased.]

[Update2: Danny Schecter also blasts the film and provides important information on the unusual government-corporate backing that it got that may explain its apparent negatives of Assange, Manning, and WikiLeaks. (Thanks to Pierce R. Butler in the comments.)]

Academy award winning documentarian Alex Gibney has released a new one We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks. The film’s website is here and here’s the trailer. [Read more…]