US politics

By Tom Engelhardt via Tomdispatch.com The Fourth Branch The Rise to Power of the National Security State By Tom Engelhardt As every schoolchild knows, there are three check-and-balance branches of the U.S. government: the executive, Congress, and the judiciary. That’s bedrock Americanism and the most basic high school civics material. Only one problem: it’s just […]

Economy

Proposition 1: How to Swindle the Middle Class

Juan Cole

By Cathy Stripe Lester On August 5, Michigan taxpayers will be asked to vote on Proposition 1, which is being presented in commercials as a way to “help small businesses and create 15,000 new jobs … without raising taxes!” If that sounds like a conjuring trick, it is – smoke’n’mirrors, my friends. And if you […]

Bill of Rights

Do you Think your Smartphone Location Data is Private? The Police Don’t

contributors

By Hanni Fakhoury via EFF The Fourth Amendment protects us from “unreasonable” government searches of our persons, houses, papers and effects. How courts should determine what is and isn’t reasonable in our increasingly digital world is the subject of a new amicus brief we filed today in San Francisco federal court. At issue is historical […]

Barack Obama

Obama steps up to call Bush-era CIA Torture “Torture,” Despite Legal Implications

contributors

CNN points out that President Obama’s forthright condemnation of Bush administration-era CIA torture could cause legal problems for Agency employees, and that the Congressional report he was talking about avoided that diction. Obama doesn’t very often any more speak his mind, but in this case he clearly felt strongly enough about the betrayal of constitutional […]

Barack Obama

CIA Chief Shocking Admission: We spied on Senate staffers

contributors

By Jon Queally, Commondreams Yes, Admits CIA Chief, We Spied on Senate Panel Investigating Torture The findings of an internal investigation at the Central Intelligence Agency made available to the public on Thursday show that CIA agents did, in fact, spy on the Senate Intelligence Committee panel set up to investigate post-9/11 government torture under […]

Barack Obama

What is Congress Suing Obama about? Drones? Surveillance? Unauthorized War? Guess!

contributors

RT Redacted Tonight: “House Speaker John Boehner is suing President Obama. Is it for drone bombing or NSA surveillance? Of course not!” RT America: “You Won’t Believe The Latest Constitutional Crisis”

Barack Obama

Impeachment is a Cash Cow (Colbert Report)

contributors

Colbert Report: “Rising Calls for Obama’s Impeachment” The Colbert ReportGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Colbert Report on Facebook ——

Bill of Rights

America’s Dumbest Politician On Israeli–Palestinian Conflict (The Young Turks)

contributors

By Cenk Uygur “Just one day after international watchdogs said Iran was complying with demands to scale back its nuclear program, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) called for the country to be bombed because of the conflict in Gaza. “Mr. Speaker, in Israel right now, there is a battle for peace,” he said Tuesday on the […]

Barack Obama

Israel’s Gaza Campaign Endangers US Security: Why Obama & Kerry are Furious

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The United States as a great Power is facing a large number of challenges in the Muslim world, and Israel’s Gaza campaign is endangering both American diplomacy there and the very security of the US. Given the series of setbacks for the US in the Middle East, in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and […]