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  Daily Headlines
In our decline, hatred becomes our primary lust, our highest form of patriotism and a form of eroticism. We are made supine by hatred and fear. We deploy vast resources to hunt down jihadists and terrorists, real and phantom. We destroy our civil society in the name of a war on terror. We persecute those, from Julian Assange to Bradley Manning to Edward Snowden, who expose the dark machinations of power.
By Rob Kall
Meet the Judge Who, With the Help of John Roberts, Makes The FISA Court A Mockery of Justice 
The FISA court is a mockery of justice because of John Roberts and the man he appointed to run it, Judge Reggie Walton.
Mos Def knows he can shut it down, that this is a one up experience for him, yet is still horrific. Obama could stop this in a heartbeat. He doesn't.
In an interview conducted before he left Hawaii, using encrypted e-mails, whistleblower Edward Snowden discusses the power of the NSA, how it is "in bed together" with dozens of countries.
Was the forced landing of the Bolivian plane of Evo Morales skyjacking? Is there nothing the Obama administration won't do to capture Edward Snowden?
When the Fed creates reserves at the banks (QE) it adds to base money, but that money does not trickle down to the real economy until the worker bees (you and me) take out loans or run up our VISAs. When credit is not expanding (which it isn't except for student loans and sub-prime auto loans), activity flags and the economy shifts into low gear. That's where we are now.
By Burcu Cekmece
Islamic Religious Teacher Slams ElBaradei's Alleged Call for Western Help in Ousting Morsi 
Adnan Oktar, a well-known Islamic religious teacher, on July 6 slammed alleged efforts by Muhammad ElBaradei to garner Western help to overthrow the Morsi government. According to Oktar, this act of savagery was made possible by Western connivance years before in conferring the Nobel Peace Prize on ElBaradei. With that cover of respectability, his call for a bloody coup in his own country could be viewed as reasonable.
If we want less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, we should tax carbon polluters. On the other hand, if we want more students from lower-income families to be able to afford college, we shouldn't put a tax on student loans. Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? Unfortunately, congressional Republicans are intent on doing exactly the opposite.
By Daily kos
Here's what happens when someone wants to use your "public" info to intimidate you. (Updated) 
Daily Kos: Here's what happens when someone wants to use your "public" info to intimidate you. (Updated)
My shortest but perhaps most incisive OEN article, this one points out the real harm resulting from Obamaheads' Orwellian usurpation of the word "progressive." Not only are many voters deceived but, what's worse, genuine progressives--the pro-democracy left--have others steal their own most effective rallying banner and are thereby crowded out and marginalized. I offer "centrist Democrats" as an honest alternative for Obamans.
I think we need religion regardless of of the naysayers. But it's a different kind of religion that I write about.
Our world is falling apart. How is it the poisoning of our planet mirrors our minds? This article explores this issue by discussing the work of Shaman Home in relationship to the work of Deep Ecology and ancient Wisdom seekers such as Lao Tzu who wrote the "Tao Te Ching." This article speaks to the idea that if we are going to change from a polluting and warring species, we have to do so by reclaiming relationship to Nature.
Asiana Airlines Flight 214 stalled when the pilot gunned his engines in a futile effort to abort the landing. The investigation into the crash of the Boeing 777 came to focus more sharply on possible pilot error Sunday as the president of Asiana Airlines ruled out a mechanical failure and federal investigators sought to interview the cockpit crew.
How do ideas spread? What messages will go viral on social media, and can that be predicted? Psychologists report for the first time which brain regions are associated with the successful spread of ideas, often called "buzz." The research has a broad range of implications, and could lead to more effective public health campaigns.
20 More Hysterical Misspelled Tea Party Signs! (Image Gallery) - Americans Against the Tea Party
By Thomas Farrell
What's Wrong with Pope Francis's Encyclical Letter? On July 5th, Pope Francis issued his first encyclical letter: "Lumen Fidei" (Light of Faith). It is about the Roman Catholic faith, and it is addressed to Roman Catholics, not to non-Catholic. But non-Catholic Americans should be alerted to a certain passage about supposed certainty. This claim to supposed certainty can inspire the Roman Catholic bishops in the U.S. to be even more combative about the church's moral teachings.
Article focused upon a full-time workingman's scary plight to make financial ends meet.
With Obama in power, MSNBC talking heads reacted to the Snowden disclosures like Fox News hosts did when they were in hysterical damage control mode for Bush--with ridiculously fact-free claims and national chauvinism that we've come to expect from the "fair and balanced" channel. We need strong, independent media not enmeshed with the corporate/political power structure and not allied with one of the two corporate parties.
The secularists are back in power in Egypt. But do they have the vision and popular backing needed for constructive leadership?
This article explores the nationwide Fourth of July protests aimed at restoring the Constitutional liberties of the Fourth Amendment. It examines how Edward Snowden's disclosures of NSA spying, as well as the US international manhunt for him, reveal the true imperial face of US foreign policy. Yet, people around the world are now looking to their own power to gain the very freedoms demanded in the Declaration of Independence.
I just finished watching the neighborhood firework show in celebration of the myth that our nation became free and independent from the rule of the monarchy.
A solemn procession of 19 white hearses carrying the remains of firefighters killed battling an Arizona wildfire traveled to the crew's hometown of Prescott from Phoenix on Sunday, accompanied by police motorcycle outriders as onlookers lined the route, saluting and waving American flags in honor of the fallen men. The deaths marked the greatest loss of life from a U.S. wildland blaze since at least 25 men died battling the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles.
In an interview, Edward Snowden accuses the National Security Agency of partnering with Germany and other governments in its spying activities. New information also indicates close working ties between the German foreign intelligence agency and the American authority.
Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York five years ago amid a prostitution scandal, is re-entering political life, with a run for the citywide office of comptroller and a wager that voters are ready to look past his previous misconduct. Spitzer, who built a national reputation as a zealous watchdog of Wall Street while attorney general, imagines transforming the comptroller's office into a robust agency that would not merely monitor and account for city spending, as it does now, but also conduct regular inquiries into the effectiveness of government policies in areas like high school graduation rates.
First generation American citizens created a new union which, like all nations, remains a work in progress. In the same manner, new Islamic-led governments will be forced to find their way forward in a new modern environment in the 21st century. They must be judged not by the religion to which they adhere, but by the way they treat their own citizens and how they relate to neighboring states.
It looks like Edward Snowden and the series of articles Glenn Greenwald and colleagues have published at the Guardian have flushed out and or exposed some un-desirables.
It's been hard to issue a firm opinion on the coup in Egypt, as principles (democracy) have clashed with real grievances from a very large number of the populace (including many "liberals" and "secularists" and young people and the poor).
Over the 4th of July weekend, private military contractors begin patrolling the Penokee Hills of Northern Wisconsin. Gogebic Taconite and Scott Walker's economic development is taking off. First new jobs since Scott Walker's budget deal passed go to out of state military mercenaries.
By Dave Lindorff
Snowden Affair exposed more than NSA spying: US Corporate Media shown to be Rank Propaganda Arms 
Snowden didn't just expose massive NSA spying on Americans and the rest of the globe. He exposed the US media as little more than propaganda organs, says TCHH! journalist Dave Lindorff.
By Tom Engelhardt
Nick Turse, The Snags, Snares, and Snafus of Covering the U.S. Military The 30-year-old history of U.S. foreign policy: now, there's a dynamite issue! Explosive, in fact. Far too dangerous, it turns out, for Americans to be informed about or have access to basic documents about -- so you might conclude from a recent report at Steven Aftergood's website Secrecy News. Latest Articles
In New York we have the Stop and Frisk law, which is used to harass mainly black and Hispanic males anytime the police feel like it without probable cause. This has resulted in racial profiling, illegal stops, and ignoring of privacy rights. And guess what? It's only a matter of time before this draconian practice moves out into the rest of the population.
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I hope Snowden's revelations will spark a movement to rescue our democracy, but he could not be part of that movement had he stayed here. There is zero chance that he would be allowed out on bail if he returned now and close to no chance that, had he not left the country, he would have been granted bail. Instead, he would be in a prison cell like Bradley Manning, incommunicado. Snowden believes that he has done nothing wrong. I agree wholeheartedly. More than 40 years after my unauthorized disclosure of the Pentagon Papers, such leaks remain the lifeblood of a free press and our republic. One lesson of the Pentagon Papers and Snowden's leaks is simple: secrecy corrupts, just as power corrupts.
Given how depressed our economy remains, we really should be adding more than 300,000 jobs a month, not fewer than 200,000. As the Economic Policy Institute points out, we would need more than five years of job growth at this rate to get back to the level of unemployment that prevailed before the Great Recession. Full recovery still looks a very long way off. And I'm beginning to worry that it may never happen.
A polarised Egypt entered a second week of political crisis, as opponents and supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi held rival demonstrations in Cairo and cities across the country. The rallies on Sunday came as a coalition that backed Morsi's removal wavered over the choice of Mohamed ElBaradei as interim prime minister. This also comes two days after 30 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded in demonstrations by tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters and opponents.
John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, was taken by ambulance to a hospital on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket on Sunday with an unspecified medical condition. A spokesman for the hospital, Noah Brown, said 74-year-old Heinz Kerry came to the facility in critical condition, and remains that way, although she has been stabilized. The source close to the family said: "She was stricken around 4pm and taken away by ambulance to the local hospital. He (Kerry) is with her."
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