The American political class and corporate press professed itself shocked, shocked, when Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to order the arrest Edward Snowden, marooned in a transit lounge at the Moscow airport, or his return to the United States. Among Putin’s major projects has been making Russia a Great Power, recovering some of the stature […]
Archives for June 2013
Critics: Obama’s Climate Plan a Day Late and a Penny Short (Lazare)
President should renounce “all of the above” energy strategy and nation's reliance on dirty fossil fuels, say environmentalists – Sarah Lazare, staff writer, Commondreams Environmentalists warn that President Obama's 'climate plan'—announced Tuesday in a speech at Georgetown University—does not contain the urgency required by the fast-spiraling crisis of global warming and climate change and that […]
NSA says they can’t reveal if they Spied on You because it would ‘Help Our Enemies’ (Larson)
Jeff Larson writes at ProPublica Shortly after the Guardian and Washington Post published their Verizon and PRISM stories, I filed a freedom of information request with the NSA seeking any personal data the agency has about me. I didn’t expect an answer, but yesterday I received a letter signed by Pamela Phillips, the Chief FOIA […]
Egypt’s ‘Rebellion’ Movement Plans Protests as Generals Warn they’ll Intervene
Egypt is facing its severest crisis since the January-February 2011 revolution against dictator Hosni Mubarak as the country moves toward nation-wide protests on June 30. The elected president, Muhammad Morsi, has been extremely destabilizing for Egypt. His high-handed and erratic policies have polarized the country. Even many supporters of political Islam have been put off […]
Millennials take over Qatar, but Real Change has Yet to be Accomplished
The quirky Emir of Qatar since the mid-1990s, Sheikh Hamad b. Issa al-Thani, stepped down in favor of his fourth son, Tamim, 33, this morning. It is a historical step and insofar as it might form a precedent in the Gulf Cooperation Council of 6 Gulf sheikhdoms heretofore mainly ruled by old men, it is […]
The Syrian War comes to Lebanon as Sidon Explodes into Violence
The Syrian civil war spilled over onto Lebanon dramatically on Sunday and again on Monday morning when violent clashes broke out between the Salafi militia of Sheikh Ahmad Asir in Sidon and the Lebanese army and Shiite Hizbullah fighters. The army maintains that the Salafis (hard line Sunni Muslims influenced by Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabism) attacked […]
Top Ten Ways US TV News are Screwing us Again on NSA Surveillance Story (Iraq Redux)
US television news is a danger to the security of the United States. First, it is so oriented to ratings that it cannot afford to do unpopular reports (thus, it ignored al-Qaeda and the Taliban for the most part before 9/11). Second, it is so oriented toward the halls of power inside the Beltway that […]
Why Correa might give Snowden Asylum: All the Horrible things the US has done to Ecuador
Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who won a third term this year, has significantly improved the lives of his people, reducing poverty rates and building out infrastructure. Correa, an economist trained at the University of Illinois, has a nuanced view of the US, but he has had significant frictions with the behemoth of the North, which […]
Top Ten American Steps toward a Police State
The police state, a term first coined in the mid-19th century in German (Polizeistaat), is characterized by a standing political police, by intense domestic surveillance and by restrictions on the movements of citizens. Police states are on a spectrum, and unfortunately in the past decade the Unite States has moved toward police-stateness in small but […]
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