US politics

Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks: “”A large majority of the public (76%) and nearly all scientists (97%) say that it is appropriate for scientists to become actively involved in political debates on controversial issues such as stem cell research and nuclear power. Among the public, substantial majorities of Democrats (80%), independents (76%) and Republicans […]

American Jews

Is Zionism/ Jewish Nationalism a Political Cult? The Salaita Firing

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Liberal politics in the broad sense, in the tradition of Locke, Voltaire, Madison, Jefferson and John Stuart Mill, is rooted in a conviction that vigorous debate clarifies issues and makes for better public policy over time. This principle is often misunderstood by political partisans, who confuse analytical disagreement with simply being contrarian […]

National Security State

Hiroshima Taught us that the “National Security State” isn’t about Security for us (Noam Chomsky)

contributors

By Noam Chomsky via Tomdispatch.com If some extraterrestrial species were compiling a history of Homo sapiens, they might well break their calendar into two eras: BNW (before nuclear weapons) and NWE (the nuclear weapons era). The latter era, of course, opened on August 6, 1945, the first day of the countdown to what may be […]

Bill of Rights

Are the 17 Intel Agencies now the Fourth Branch of Government?

contributors

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”