|
Bold and Daring: The Way Progressive News Should Be
|
| If you have a problem reading this email, please click here to see the web page version You received this email because you signed up for it at OpEdNews. Unsubscribe instructions are at the bottom of this email.
In these times of darkness, there are signs of hope. Our two top headlines raise hope. But for hope to rise, to float and become substance, WE must get involved.
I'll be attending and covering the Socialism Conference, in Chicago, parts of this weekend. Check it out.
It takes courage-- courage to be
happy, courage to love, and courage to make a difference in this world.
Find your courage-- a little each day-- and break out of your routines
and do something that could change the world. All it takes is a small act. The way our world is connected today, a simple, small act can produce effects all around the world.
Opednews.com is unique in this
world, giving voice to everyday people who are taking those risks,
finding courage, sharing their truths. We do it on a tiny budget, but
it's hard to make that budget each month. Will you help us this month?
We know that probably 30%-40% of our readers are living on budgets that
make them struggle to get by. We don't expect donations from you if you
fall into that category. But We also have a lot of readers over 50%, who
can afford. We only need one half of one percent of our readers, each
month, to donate $25, to meet our budget. Please give what you can to
help. Click here to donate today.
Thanks, so much,
rob kall
Support Opednews. Make a tax deductible donation to make OEN Strong.  Daily Headlines
This
article follows Edward Snowden's fight for asylum and looks at its
significance in relationship to a trend of global uprising happening in
countries like Turkey and Brazil. It examines how his battle is a call
for solidarity for universal human rights and a citizen led
globalization.
At
a time when everything coming out of Texas is suck, Davis has brought
back some of that good ol' progressive fire for which Texas used to be
known.
We
are living in a fantasy world carefully crafted to resemble a
representative democracy, while in reality we are little more than
slaves in thrall to an authoritarian regime, with its constant
surveillance, manufactured media spectacles, secret courts, inverted
justice, and violent repression of dissent.
This
is an expose of the private spy contractors that at at least as big a
problem as the NSA and other official spooks. We focus on "Endgame" in
Atlanta GA, which was being looked at by Barrett Brown before his arrest
and Michael Hastings before his death.
By
a 5-4 majority, the Supreme Court has effectively abrogated one of the
most important pieces of civil rights legislation in US history. The
Voting Rights Act remains on the books, but its enforcement mechanism
has been declared unconstitutional and struck down.
Glenn
Greenwald: Distractions about my past and personal life have emerged --
an inevitable side effect for those who challenge the US government.
The recent journalist-led "debate" about whether I should be prosecuted
for my reporting on these stories was precisely the sort of thing I knew
was coming.
Obama
is right -- we can't trust him, Congress or the courts, and yes, we do
have a serious problem, writes Dan DeWalt, a Vermont activist and
contributor to TCBH!
By Jeff Cohen
Snowden Coverage: If U.S. Mass Media Were State-Controlled, Would They Look Any Different? 
The
Edward Snowden leaks have revealed a U.S. corporate media system at war
with independent journalism. Many of the same outlets -- especially TV
news -- that missed the Wall Street meltdown and cheer-led the Iraq
invasion have come to resemble state-controlled media outlets in their
near-total identification with the government as it pursues the now
30-year-old whistleblower.
By Rev. Dan Vojir
The Rants You Hear Are Not God's: Christian Right Enraged That SCOTUS Acquiesced To The Creator, Allowing Gays To Marry. 
DOMA Down! Prop 8 Pooped-on! Religious Right Raving! That's progress!
Which
countries leaders have been more forthcoming regarding Ed Snowden's
whistleblowing saga; the U.S. making threats to Russia & China for
refusing to extradite him back to the U.S. to face charges of espionage
& theft or Russian Pres. Putin saying Snowden is a human rights
activist fighting for the spread of information & the Chinese
Peoples Daily saying Snowden's fearlessness tore off Washington's
sanctimonious mask?
Baltasar
Garzón, the celebrated -- and controversial -- Spanish human rights
investigator who, as the legal head of anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, is
considering a request for help from US whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Snowden is thought to be trying to get to a country -- possibly in Latin
America -- that would not deport him to the US to face espionage
charges. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has already been given asylum
by Ecuador, and is sheltering in its London embassy. Garzón could act as
a go-between.
The
Supreme Court made history Wednesday with two victories for marriage
equality, in California and nationwide. In a pair of highly anticipated
decisions, the divided court effectively undercut California’s
Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage. Separately, the court
struck down a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which
denies same-sex married couples federal benefits. Together, the rulings
provide an emphatic, if incomplete, win for advocates of same-sex
marriage.
By Elayne Clift
Notes from the Field: A Development Project That Actually Works An international education program that supports social justice work around the world. What could be better than that?
The article announces the 2013 Whistleblower Week Conference being held in Washington, DC July 29-31, 2013.
Article
focused on my actual workingman experience, struggles, lottery-playing,
social breakdown, planned-starvation, and an attempt to get a grip.
More
than 10,000 asteroids and comets that can pass near Earth have now been
discovered. The 10,000th near-Earth object, asteroid 2013 MZ5, was
first detected on the night of June 18, 2013.
New lines of engineered bacteria can tailor-make key precursors of high-octane biofuels that could one day replace gasoline.
The information era and the duality of polarity as it concerns institutions and individuals.
Edward
Snowden, a former U.S. spy agency contractor sought by Washington on
espionage charges appeared on Wednesday still to be in hiding at
Sheremetyevo Airport, and Russia's national airline said he was not
booked on any of its flights over the next three days.
Regardless
of which scenario unfolds, Egypt will be facing difficult times. But
for wisdom and rationality to carry the day, Egyptians of all stripes
must come to their senses and realize that no group can ignore or
marginalize the others. The MB-dominated government must realize that it
must be inclusive and transparent, while the opposition must respect
the democratic rules of the political game.
Our
democracy was under siege even before the Supreme Court's ruling on the
Voting Rights Act. This decision caps the Court's clean sweep on behalf
of the United States Chamber of Commerce and is part of a concerted
effort to seize democracy on behalf of moneyed interests. It's a mistake
to view this decision in isolation. It's part of an ongoing,
corporate-backed constitutional coup.
Justice
Roberts has been opposed to the Voting Rights Act for three decades,
ever since he was a young lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department. His
sweeping and radical decision yesterday was more about ideology than the
law, constitutional principles or congressional deference be damned.
Those
two decisions today seemed to restore just a bit of sanity to a Court
that is owned and operated by the same insanity that determined
corporations are "people" with the same rights (and none of the
obligations) enjoyed by real people -- citizens; people; warm-blooded
mammals who walk upright.
By Hank Kalet
Judicial activists attack the vote Today's decision on the Voting Rights Act demonstrates that the court's conservative wing are the activists of which conservative court critics have warned.
What
is a poor National Security State to do? Well, they might consider
behaving themselves. Stop doing all the terrible things that grieve
people like me and Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning and so many
others. Stop the bombings, invasions, endless wars, torture, sanctions,
overthrows, support of dictatorships, the unmitigated support of Israel.
Stop all the things that make the United States so hated.
The
Court has not gone so rogue as might immediately seem to be the case in
a nation that our civics teachers tell us is committed to democratic
values. Rather, the Court's conservative majority has taken advantage of
a gap in the Constitution that must be addressed.
Disaster
Porn is all the rage now. Slick videos - and some not so slick -
purport to show the inevitable collapse of the economy, even the world
from economic/political/environmental debt & mismanagement. Such
porn provides palliatives to those who would do nothing anyway, but they
are wrong and dangerous. Here's how to combat them.
Everybody
wants to go to Qatar. The population has doubled in six years -- now at
1.9 million and growing. Life expectancy is 78 years -- on a par with
the US. It boasts the highest GDP per capita in the world, at over
US$102,000 (2012 figure, and growing). There's no income tax. Democracy?
No; the end of history 2.0. If only the whole planet was an immense
Qatar.
By Kevin Gosztola
Shamai Leibowitz, Once Jailed Victim of Obama's War on Whistleblowers: Snowden a "Man of Conscience' 
Shamai
Leibowitz, a former FBI translator who uncovered documents showing
illegal and unconstitutional acts, went to the press and pled guilty to
violating
Latest Articles
Saving an Animal Life
I believe saving a life - be that of a human or animal is one of the most beautiful experiences in life. Most of us will have to be satisfied with reading about this, but that too can also be rewarding.
Murder Made Sexy
The military is a perverse environment.
Former Rep. Bob Inglis lost his seat to a Tea Party candidate when he refused to deny climate change.
HBCUs Form Partnership to Address Climate Change in Vulnerable Communities
On Tuesday the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University (TSU), the nation's third largest public Historically Black Colleges and Universities ( HBCUs )launched its Climate Education Community University Partnership (CECUP), a consortium of public and private universities and vulnerable communities located on the Gulf Coast and South Atlantic Region of the United States.
Many
of our wealthiest citizens are hurting. Did you know, for example, that
the inventory of million-dollar homes in Carmel, California, dwindled
to only four properties at one point in late May?
About Queen Vashti and the Female Guerrillas of Kurdistan"
The world-wide feminist movement would do well to cast its mind back to the era of the ancient Medes and Persians in which the first battle for women's rights was fought by the Median Queen Vashti.
"Just One More Detail": American Surveillance And The Unanswered Question of Israel
Israeli companies at the heart of surveillance of Americans for at least the last twelve years? Israeli equipment at the heart of surveillance of Americans within America's most secret spy agency now? An NSA operative passing to Israel the agency's most powerful secret software? The strong possibility that Israel gets to read your emails, too? Media reporting about this ignored and suppressed?  Best News Links from the Web
As
the world reacts to the news that the Supreme Court has completely
struck down the Defense Of Marriage Act, perhaps no two reactions
encapsulate the direction in which the debate on marriage equality is
headed. "No man, not even a Supreme Court, can undo what a holy God has
instituted," Michelle Bachmann said in a statement. Asked to react to
Bachmann's statement, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi summed up what
increasing majorities of Americans feel about such strident opposition
with a dismissive "Who cares?"
Oil
was supposed to flow freely from the frozen north of this Canadian
province, along with expectations that the US market could consume all
of the crude that companies here produced. Much of it was to be moved by
the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring bitumen from the Alberta
oil sands to refineries on the US Gulf Coast. The pipeline project's
legal limbo is causing frustration in the Canadian province of Alberta.
The
Texas governor, Rick Perry, called a second special session of the
state legislature to pass controversial abortion restrictions, after the
first attempt by Republicans died overnight thanks to a marathon
one-woman filibuster. On Wednesday, Perry ordered lawmakers to meet
again on 1 July to act on the abortion proposals, as well as separate
bills that would boost highway funding and deal with a juvenile justice
issue. The sweeping abortion rules would close nearly all abortion
clinics and impose other widespread restrictions on the procedure across
the nation's second-largest state.
|
