Supporters of massive National Security Agency domestic and international electronic surveillance of millions of innocent civilians justify it on the grounds that it makes us safer. It does not. Edward Snowden makes the opposite point, which is that intense government surveillance harms our security. He revealed the secret warrantless monitoring of Americans (which goes beyond […]
US Drone strikes Continue in Pakistan despite PM Nawaz Sharif’s UN Protest (Serle)
Jack Serle writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism The CIA launched four attacks [on Pakistan in September] – the second most attacks in one month so far this year. At least 16 people were killed in these attacks – none of them reportedly a civilian. This was the ninth consecutive month without a confirmed […]
Ban Coal: Super Cyclone half the Size of India driven by warming Waters
India should rethink plans to build more coal plants. The warming waters of the Indian ocean have thrown up a super-cyclone half the size of the subcontinent that is advancing on the country’s east coast with winds up to 167 miles per hour. Already 200,000 people have been evacuated. While cyclones are not new in […]
If SCOTUS rules against FEC, Each Politician will represent one Billionaire (Moyers)
Bill Moyers interviews Heather Gerken on McCutcheon vs The Federal Election Commission, which he calls “Citizens United: the Sequel” the blurb: “This week the Supreme Court began its new term with a case that could further upend campaign finance laws by allowing individual donors to give millions of dollars to candidates and political parties. McCutcheon […]
It’s Getting Hot in Here: Global Warming Turning Point in only 34 Years (Germanos)
Andrea Germanos writes at Commondreams.org: The "years of climate departure" for various cities across the globe. (Image: University of Hawaii/Abby Frazier)If global warming continues its trajectory, the year average temperatures surpass historical norms is just over a few decades away, bringing huge threats to global biodiversity, a new study shows. Researchers at the University of […]
Whatever Happened to the Somali Pirates?
With the opening of Paul Greengrass’s film “Captain Phillips,” written by Billy Ray and starring Tom Hanks, the phenomenon of piracy in the waters off the Horn of Africa is back as a topic of discussion. This CNA study by Ghassan Schbley and William Rosenau says that piracy took off after 2006 after the fall […]
Sakharov Prize-winner Malala Yousafazai Calls on US Gov’t to Conduct talks with Taliban (Queally)
Malala Yousafzai has won the Sakharov Prize for free speech and human rights. Jon Queally writes at Commondreams.org: ” Malala Yousafzai, the sixteen-year-old girl shot in the head by Taliban members in her native Pakistan for speaking out for women's right to education, is calling out the U.S. government and her own for refusing to […]
Why “Fracking” should be against the Law (Giesen)
Tom Giesen writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: As our stocks of cheap and easy gas and oil diminish, we seek oil in remote places – in rock formations 10,000’ below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico; in the Arctic; and held in essentially impermeable geologic formations. Those impermeable geologic formations are […]
Libyan Prime Minister Abducted, released by Armed Group
Early morning on Thursday, today, the news came of the abduction of Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan from a hotel in the capital, Tripoli. He was released Thursday afternoon. It is not clear which armed group took him captive. On Monday, armed troops demanding back pay occupied the Prime Minister’s office. Zeidan broke with Gaddafi […]
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