Here is a UNESCO documentary on Gorée, the Slave Island off Senegal,: which President Obama and his family are visiting during their visit to that country. Although the island was itself a relatively minor point of departure for slaves, who were more often sent off from St. Louis to the north, it stands as a […]
Germans Vigorously Protest Massive British/ NSA Spying on Email, Telephone Calls
The German government has demanded answers from the British state with regard to revelations by Edward Snowden that the British spy agency GCHQ has a program called Tempora that allows it to capture massive amounts of telephone calls and email from transatlantic fiber optic cables that land first in the UK before they extend to […]
Under European Pressure, Tunisia suspends Sentence of 3 Protesters who Bared Breasts
A Tunisian court has given suspended sentences to three European members of Femen (2 French, 1 German) who had bared their breasts in public to protest the jailing of a Tunisian woman who had made her statement in the same way. They had been found guilty of public indecency and sentenced to four months in […]
Egypt: Morsi Fails to Appease Critics as Violence breaks out in Provinces
Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi gave a major speech on Wednesday, commemorating his first year in office and attempting to mollify his political opposition, which is planning to try to unseat him with massive street demonstrations on June 30. A defiant Morsi criticized the opposition and the judges and asked that criminal investigation be launched into […]
Correa on Smearing of Snowden: “The World Order is not only unjust, it is immoral”
The USG Open Source Center gives highlights from the Ecuadorean press on the issue of asylum for Edward Snowden. It includes a translation of President Rafael Correa’s tweet slamming the Washington Post and other US media for making Snowden the issue rather than reporting on the NSA abuses he revealed Ecuador Media Watch: USG Making […]
Did the Supreme Court strike down DOMA because it was Theocratic?
The Supreme Court decision authored by Justice Kennedy spends a lot of time arguing that marriage is a matter for the states to regulate, and that the Federal intervention to punish a class of people (married gays) that the states wish to protect is too wide-ranging to survive. The decision also invokes the 5th Amendment, […]
Texas Near-Ban on Abortion foiled by People’s ‘Gallery Filibuster’
This is the “gallery filibuster” — shouting by pro-choice advocates in the Senate halls after Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis’s filibuster was shut down– that so delayed the vote on a proposed law virtually banning abortion in Texas that it took place too late to be valid. Video of the ‘Gallery filibuster: After a marathon filibuster […]
Snowden: Top Ten Signs that Putin might not be on Washington’s Side
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 […]
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 […]