The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU, among other important civil society organizations, are suing the Federal government over the National Security Agency’s unconstitutional domestic surveillance. The administration is also facing House hearings on the issue. By the way, the argument made by Homeland Security and other such officials that the NSA’s domestic spying could […]
Guna People of Panama’s islands Flee rising Seas
The indigenous community of the Guna (Kuna) live on islands off Panama and along a narrow strip of its coast, in the province of Guna Yala (Kuna Yala). But global warming and sea level rise are threatening their lives on those islands, and those of Carti Sugdup (Gardi Sugdup) have decided that they have to […]
New Egyptian gov’t on being sworn in, Complains of Turkish Interference in Egyptian Affairs
Egypt’s appointed interim President Adly Mansour swore in a cabinet of 33 ministers on Tuesday, including 3 women, 7 members of the National Salvation Front, and 5 members of the previous, Hisham Qandil, government who agreed to stay on. The cabinet contains some of Egypt’s best economists, raising hopes that the country’s deep economic doldrums […]
How America has Failed African-American Youth, by the Numbers
At age 25, 7.5 percent of whites are high school dropouts. At age 25, 14.4 percent of African-Americans are high school dropouts By age 25, 30% of whites have earned a college Bachelor of Arts degree. About 14% of African-Americans have: Some 22 percent of American children under 18 live in households below the poverty […]
Pussy Riot Protests Russian Oil Oligarchs and Putin
The Russian Punk Rock band “Pussy Riot” has released a new video, Rolling Stone reports, entitled “Like a Red Prison,” in which they attack Russia’s oil magnates and their ties to President Vladimir Putin. The song likens Putin to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because of his favoritism toward the Russian Orthodox Church, and complains that […]
The End of Dissidents: The National Security State wants a World without Thoreaus (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com It’s hard even to know how to take it in. I mean, what’s really happening? An employee of a private contractor working for the National Security Agency makes off with unknown numbers of files about America’s developing global security state on a thumb drive and four laptop computers, and jumps the nearest plane to Hong […]
Top 10 Reasons Americans should Dismiss Israel’s Netanyahu on Attacking Iran
The Iranian electorate did about the most cruel thing possible to uber-hawk Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It replaced former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with an eminently reasonable and personable successor, Hasan Rouhani. The Israeli and American politicians who desperately want to fall on Iran the way a hungry lion does on a lamb had […]
“Mull”: Twitter word of the Day (Short Words for 140-Character Messages)
Twitter imposes a 140-character limit on messages, requiring that authors make every word count. To “consider” or to “contemplate” are long words, and character-hogs. The Middle English word “mull” gets the same work done. The Oxford English Dictionary lists the verb “mull” as of unknown origin. It could be from the noun, “mull,” which in […]
Kenya: Solar Power on a Pay as you Go Plan gives Light, rechargers to Villagers
“Small solar home systems bring good quality light and phone-charging to off-grid households and save them money. Yet their upfront costs render them out of reach for the people who would benefit most from them. UK-based startup Azuri has developed a pay-as-you-go interface which allows households [in Kenya and East Africa] to pay for solar […]
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