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 […]
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 […]
© 2025 All Rights Reserved