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There's a new statement from Edward Snowden, below.
Also, Janet Napolitano has stepped
down as Head of Homeland Security. I wonder what horrible choice Obama
will make to replace her. Maybe Eric Prince, founder of Blackwater?
I'll be amazed if it isn't someone who progressives will be disgusted
by.
Tomorrow, there will be a protest at an event where Nancy Pelosi, who has said Snowden broke the law, will be.
If you're in the Bay area, consider
showing up to send Pelosi a message that you don't support her backing
up Obama and NSA on this.
best,
rob kall
  Daily Headlines
By Edward Snowden
Statement by Edward Snowden to human rights groups at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport 
dward
Joseph Snowden delivered a statement to human rights organizations and
individuals at Sheremetyevo airport at 5pm Moscow time today, Friday
12th July. The meeting lasted 45 minutes. The human rights organizations
included Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and were given
the opportunity afterwards to ask Mr Snowden questions.
Microsoft
has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users'
communications to be intercepted, including helping the National
Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to
top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian.
Janet
Napolitano, who has overseen an expansive portfolio as President
Obama's secretary of homeland security, plans to become president of the
University of California system. Napolitano had her eye on becoming the
next attorney general, but with this move is taking herself out of the
Washington political arena.
Snowden
has reportedly accepted Russia's offer of asylum, but important
questions remain about his future and about future revelations about NSA
activities from his leaked files, reports TCBH! journalist Dave
Lindorff
Here
in the United States, we have congressional elections every two years
but the dominant parties that alternate in power have rigged and
gerrymandered the process in such a way that only candidates acceptable
to the corporate/military/political status quo can rise to the surface.
The
revelation that telephone and Internet communications in numerous Latin
American countries have been exposed to constant surveillance by the
NSA has given the lie to US officials who have defended the agency's
wholesale spying on the populations of both the US itself and other
countries as a necessary weapon in the so-called war on terror.
By
official measurement, the water coming out of Fukushima is currently
90,000 times more radioactive than officially "safe" drinking water.
Here's
a message from your government: Congratulations to you the people of
America for your acquiescence, passiveness, and continued silence; your
submissive behavior has been exemplary, it shows that the true spirit of
America is still alive and well. And, in closing, remember this; watch
what you say and what you do for we are listening.
By Salvatore Babones
Inequality and the Rich The top 0.5% of Americans are about 1.5 million people. And by definition they're the 1.5 million richest and most powerful people in the country.
Chomsky
makes the point that our planet is our common possession. It does not
belong to Monsanto, or to the military/security complex, or to Wall
Street, or to the oil, mining, and timber industries. It belongs to
life. If we don't defend it, short-term profit greed will destroy it.
Unbridled capitalism means the destruction of the Earth.
A
new "pink Viagra" has surfaced, starring on the cover of the New York
Times magazine in June and anchoring a heavily promoted book called What
Do Women Want? by Times writer Daniel Bergner.
Numerous
street lights are on when it isn't dark outside. Numerous businesses
and people have outdoor lighting on when it isn't dark outside. Energy
conservation is of extreme importance to the future of our world.
The
United States is conducting a diplomatic full-court press to try to
block Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive American intelligence contractor,
from finding refuge in Latin America, where three left-leaning
governments that make defying Washington a hallmark of their foreign
policies have publicly vowed to take him in.
The
world could see as many as 20 additional hurricanes and tropical storms
each year by the end of the century because of climate change,
according to a study written by top climate researcher Kerry Emanuel of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of the biggest debates in
the climate change research community in recent years has been the
projected impact of global warming on hurricanes. Will it make them
stronger? More frequent? Longer lasting? Emanuel's study used six newly
upgraded global climate computer models to simulate future hurricane
activity around the world. His study found that these killer storms will
not only increase in intensity during the 21st century, as many
previous studies had predicted, but will also increase in frequency in
most locations.
For
several years, maybe even centuries, we've had a few in power. Many of
these have been business people be they the landowners of Feudal times,
or the corporations of modern. At any rate, the general population has
been dis-empowered. How much longer do we tolerate this?
House
Republicans successfully passed a Farm Bill Thursday by splitting apart
funding for food stamps from federal agricultural policy, a move that
infuriated the White House and congressional Democrats who spent most of
the day trying to delay a final vote.
The
first thing to know about the danger from the radioactive mass
remaining on site in the three reactors that melted down at Fukushima is
that nobody knows how much radioactive material there is, nobody knows
how much uranium and plutonium it contains, and nobody knows how to make
it safe -- so no one knows how great the continuing danger is.
By Nozomi Hayase
NSA Spying; An Open Air Prism We are now in an open air prism; a high tech prison where every move is monitored and creativity is smothered. Within this watchful eye, insidious control extends indiscriminately to everyone. When national security and heightened terror alerts becomes the new norm, we are not aware of how far our civil liberties are being eroded. Yet, with voices of conscience shining light on this deception and unconstitutional abuse of powe
Spies are everywhere
Prisoners
from Pelican Bay State Prison SHU Short Corridor have resumed their
"hunger strike/work stoppage of indefinite duration until CDCR signs a
legally binding agreement meeting our demands" Carol Strickman is a
staff attorney at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, a member
of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition, and part of the
litigation team in a case challenging solitary confinement in
California.
A
sobering assessment of the cognitive environment of the 'intelligence'
community. Provides context for Edward Snowden's remarkably courageous
decision to stand up and speak out.
These
are tough times for members of the conservative intelligentsia. And
their latest idea for regaining power is bunk. when Republicans engineer
sharp cuts in unemployment benefits, block the expansion of Medicaid
and seek deep cuts in food stamp funding -- all of which they have, in
fact, done -- they may be disproportionately hurting Those People; but
they are also inflicting a lot of harm on the struggling Northern white
families they are supposedly going to mobilize.
Saudi
Arabia and Israel quietly aligned on the end of Saddam Hussein and the
harassment of Iran's nuclear program. But now, Saudi Arabia is trying
to buy the Egyptian Army to serve as a shield against unpredictable
democratic states in the Middle East. The last thing Israel needs is a
well funded, large Army on it's borders. Brian Downing was first out of
the gate with this story a few days ago and takes his analysis further.
The corporate media's long relationship with the spook world may help explain why it doesn't like Snowden
Progressive Review's 'Undernews' blogsite shines light on some historical connections between the media and the intelligence community.
By
the time Obama accepted his Nobel Peace Prize 11 months into his
presidency, he'd already ordered more drone strikes than George W. Bush
had in his entire presidency. By the end of 2012, he'd ordered six times
as many strikes in Pakistan as Bush had. Missiles from drones might be
exploding in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Yemen, but the fallout will
impact us here at home for years to come.
Religion should connect not separate, yet in instance after instance the opposite is true in America.
By Bob Burnett
Whatever Happened to the Women's Movement? Hillary Clinton will likely be the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and the odds-on favorite to become the 45 th President. Nonetheless, while over the last sixty years there's been a lot of civil-rights progress in the US, women remain second-class citizens. Whatever happened to the women's movement?
Where
are we living, when individual rights are so superseded by the
decisions of our government? Is it fair to call it fascism when
whistle-blowers who seek to expose the actions our government is taking
against us are hunted like criminals? Why are the truth-tellers forced
to flee the land of the free in order to speak the truth?
The
problem is Washington has absolutely nothing to offer the Taliban. The
Taliban, on the other hand, will keep their summer offensive schedule,
knowing full well they will be free to do whatever they please after
President Hamid Karzai slides into oblivion.
Latest Articles
Bill
Moyers' Frontline feature "Two American Families" hit a little too
close to home: I grew up in one of the neighborhoods features. What was
the bedrock of American middle class life has been destroyed
intentionally by policies and politicians of both parties. Where is the
moral outrage from "We The People?"
When
the city council in a city of just 18,000 people reverses a vote it
took a year earlier, it's not usually off national significance, but if
the South Burlington City Council votes as expected on July 8, in
support of basing the F-35 strike fighter in Vermont, it will illustrate
how deep the tentacles of national power reach into local government in
this country
Federal Prosecution of Zimmerman Compelling, But Unlikely
The instant that Trayvon Martin's family, their attorneys, and civil rights leaders honed media attention on his slaying and made it a national flashpoint issue, the cry rose for a Justice Department probe and possible prosecution of George Zimmerman on civil rights charges  Best News Links from the Web
Abusing Nomination Votes to Change Policy - NYTimes.com
The nominee for chairman of the Export-Import Bank is the latest casualty of a right-wing effort to derail agencies by refusing to confirm appointees. President Obama's nominee for chairman of the Export-Import Bank, a provider of export financing, could become the latest casualty of a right-wing effort to derail agencies by refusing to confirm appointees to run them. Congress will have an opportunity to debate the bank's mission next year when its charter is up for reauthorization. But holding up Mr. Hochberg's nomination to make it impossible for the bank to function is wrong. Republicans have already used similar tactics to prevent the president from making permanent appointments to agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Some lawmakers are threatening to block Mr. Hochberg's nomination to prove they are anti-corporate welfare." while the public is distracted. |
