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So, McConnell has caved under Harry Reid's pressure. Amazing. Somehow, Reid grew a pair and, voila, some gridlock is broken. Imagine if ALL the democrats, including Obama found their courage.
An authorized nominator has nominated Ed Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize.
This issue of the e-zine includes the transcript of my interview with Bernie Sanders. At the end of the interview, I asked him about Opednews. Here's what he said:
" I think you guys do a great job. One of the issues we didn't touch upon is a situation which is becoming worse, and that is Corporate control over the media: fewer and fewer large conglomerates controlling what we see here or read. So if ordinary people are going to get a different point of view, a point of view which reflects the needs of the Middle Class and working families, to an increasing degree that we are going to have to go the Progressive media. You guys do a great job, and I appreciate what you do."
If you agree with Bernie, and appreciate the work of Opednews, please help us. Make a donation today. Click here.
thanks,
rob kall
Support Opednews. Make a tax deductible donation to make OEN Strong.  Daily Headlines
The Senate began stepping back from the "nuclear" brink Tuesday as leaders were said to be close to cutting a deal to approve seven of President Barack Obama's long-blocked nominees.
The rear-guard effort by a handful of activists to protect our rights to be heard and peaceably assemble is perhaps the most crucial, though unseen, struggle we currently are engaged in with the corporate state. It is a struggle to salvage what is left of our civil society and our right to nonviolent resistance against corporate tyranny.
Thanks so much for being on the show. I really appreciate it. Oh, I've got a long list of stuff I want to talk to you about. I wanted to start with your Progressive campaign.
We must ask ourselves: In this global crime spree called "our way of life," will I be an accomplice or will be a monkey-wrencher?
An opening salvo from conservatives scores low on honesty. This week, Americans for Prosperity, a group that espouses small government and is funded by the Koch Brothers, aimed directly at something near and dear to many Americans: the ability to choose their own doctors. The commercial fails. It is clever. It does contain a kernel of truth but overall it's misleading and deceptive.
By Linn Washington, Jr.
Same Old "Same Old': Acquittal of Zimmerman Reminds (Again) that Racism Persists 
The Zimmerman aquittal was awful, but not unexpected, says TCBH! journalist Linn Washington, Jr., who points out it is just more of the same racist 'justice' he's covered for years in Philadelphia.
A Swedish professor has nominated Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying that awarding the former NSA employee would correct Nobel Committee's mistake in giving the award to President Barack Obama in 2009. According to a translation of the letter published by the Daily Mail and RT.com, Umea Univ. sociology prof Stefan Svallfors wrote the committee that Snowden has made the world safer in releasing information about United States surveillance.
The NSA is constantly seeking to expand its capabilities without limits. They're currently storing so much, and preparing to store so much more, that they have to build a massive, sprawling new facility in Utah just to hold all the communications from inside the US and around the world that they are collecting -- communications they then have the physical ability to invade any time they want.
By Dave Lefcourt
U.S. Bullying Latin American Countries Offering Asylum to Snowden with "Lasting Consequences" that "Won't Go Away" 
Hardly unexpected, the U.S. is putting on a full court press on countries in Latin America that have offered asylum to Edward Snowden pressuring them not to grant it. According to a State Dep't official letting Snowden into Latin America would have "lasting consequences". What they would be weren't made specific yet it seems clear reprisals would be forthcoming if any gov't defied the U.S. in granting asylum to Snowden.
Political realists who follow the shenanigans of Israel's right-wing government suggest that Livni may be involved in a strategy to jump-start the negotiations. She may also be playing the "good cop" to signal potential European boycotters that Israel does have a few reasonable leaders. That, however, is an unrealistic rejection of hope in a time of darkness.
According to ABC News, the juror who remains anonymous, known by her court designation of Juror B37, approached Sharlene Martin, president of Martin Literary Management on July 14 about the possibility of writing a book about the trial and final acquittal of Zimmerman. It's now being reported that the B37 book deal is dead. In wake of all the media attention, Sharlene Martin of Martin Literary Management LLC announced that B-37 will no longer pursue a book deal.
Is the faith that can emerge from doubt be the cure for the modern perverted form of Christian teachings?
Edward Snowden's revelations revealed how far we have drifted into a corrupt surveillance state. It also exposed what was concealed in the cynically packaged Obama campaign ads of 'hope and change', the hollow promise that now represents the ultimate in political hypocrisy. This article argues how Snowden's act of courage is bringing true hope to the people by reminding us of our own significance.
A comprehensive review of journalist Joseph McBride's Kennedy assassination book Into My Nightmare.
By Suzana Megles
I Miss Dennis Kucinich I sign a lot of online petitions each day -for the environment, for humane treatment of people and animals. I believe they serve a useful purpose. This time I decided to e-mail my legislators re the SAFE ACT. It was an exercise in futility. I hope you have more success than I in this regard.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said he shares the concerns of many over the recent acquittal of George Zimmerman, who faced second-degree murder charges for the death of Trayvon Martin. Holder, who spoke at the Delta Sigma Theta sorority's social action luncheon on Monday, decried the "tragic, unnecessary shooting death of Trayvon Martin."
CorpWatch : GlaxoSmithKline Alleged to Pay Bribes in China
As the longest serving Independent in the history of the U.S. Congress I want to take this opportunity to tell you about some of the issues I've been focusing on since my re-election. I also want to discuss with you my plans for the future and how we can best work together to address the huge policy and political crises our nation faces.
The White House's colossal data-mining operation has now been exposed by Edward Snowden, and the American people have discovered that they have been scrutinized by Washington far beyond any level that they would have imagined possible. Many foreign nations have also now realized that the scope of U.S. spying exceeds any reasonable standard of behavior.
Putin said that Russia has no desire to assist Snowden as long as he refuses to cease "political" activity.
But McConnell has so exaggerated the filibuster power that it has effectively allowed him to thwart not just Senate votes but the operations of federal agencies such as the National Labor Relations Board. He and his allies have gone so far as to block the confirmation of nominees for cabinet posts, such as Department of Labor nominee Tom Perez.
It was a typical day in the life of mainstream U.S. journalism, a profession which purports to be "objective" -- meaning it should treat all parties to a dispute equally -- but, of course, isn't. Netanyahu also was allowed to denounce Iran as "apocalyptic" without any question about Netanyahu's own frequent references to Israel facing "existential" threats.
When the computer spies forget that they, too, are American citizens and also suffer from any erosion of individual privacy along with the rest of us, the slippery slope to total control of the citizenry has begun. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness lose their meaning.
By Tom Engelhardt
Tom Engelhardt, Can Edward Snowden Be Deterred? It's hard even to know how to take it in. I mean, what's really happening? An employee of a private contractor working for the National Security Agency makes off with unknown numbers of files about America's developing global security state on a thumb drive and four laptop computers, and jumps the nearest plane to Hong Kong.
Having concluded that the NSA's real and potential secret access to the communications of almost every American, and a growing number of non-citizens, was criminal in nature (perhaps totalitarianism in the making), Snowden leaked the classified information that would bring the NSA's activities into public view. It was the right thing to do and he says he has no regrets.
Latest Articles
Tongue in cheek
Many people consume Omega 3 Fish Oil every day to prevent heart disease. However, a recent article reported that fish oil increases risk for prostate cancer. Is this true?
A society of the increasingly overworked and involuntarily idle is not a stable or happy one. Pressure is building along multiple fault lines beneath the supposedly expanding American economy. What's really expanding are stress, ill health, chronic depression, financial insecurity and the frustrations of the powerless.
Florida was a vital part of my upbringing, and race was always a big deal. The absurdities and shortcomings of the Zimmerman trial dredged it all up for me. Florida may be the most bizarre and confused state kin the nation.
Edward Snowden is a modern-day 'Man Without a Country,' writes TCBH! journalist Dave Lindorff, but with a difference: he isn't exiled for betraying his country, but for trying to save it.
Alfred W. McCoy, Obama's Expanding Surveillance Universe
On the website of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services there is a list of rights belonging to all Americans. Chief among them: Freedom to express yourself. Abdiwali Warsame must have taken them literally. Two days after he became a U.S. citizen, he created a rollicking news and opinion website covering his native Somalia.
Is Pat Robertson relevant? After his latest bout with reality and gays, it would seem not, but this author says yes - for reasons with which Mr. Robertson would definitely not agree - if he grasped what the author was talking about.
 Best News Links from the Web
Twenty-nine prominent former government officials, diplomats, military officers, and national security experts are calling on the White House to pursue direct negotiations with Iran once the country's new president, Hassan Rouhani, is inaugurated. In a letter to President Obama today, the group called the election of Iran's new president "a major potential opportunity to reinvigorate diplomatic efforts to resolve the standoff over Iran's nuclear program."
Senators reached a tentative deal Tuesday on averting a constitutional showdown over confirming President Obama's agency nominations. The Senate's reported readiness to take unprecedented steps to change the chamber's rules governing presidential appointees came after nearly all 100 senators spent more than three hours late Monday huddled in a rare bipartisan, closed-door caucus.
What You May Not Know About the Zimmerman Verdict: The Evolution of a Jury Instruction
Criminal Law professor and former prosecutor Alafair Burke provides a devastating analysis of the jury instructions in the Zimmerman trial, suggesting that the jury received only instructions regarding the "Stand Your Ground" law in Florida that were favorable to the defendant: 'Had the jury been instructed about the initial aggressor exception, it might have concluded that Zimmerman's following of Martin, though itself not criminal, was reasonably apprehended by Martin as a "threat of force." Put another way, the jury might have concluded that Martin was the one acting in self-defense during the physical confrontation that preceded the gunshot, making Zimmerman the aggressor.'
The City of Richmond was hit hard when the housing bubble burst -- about 12,000 homeowners there are underwater. That's roughly half of all mortgage holders in the city...
A juror in the George Zimmerman trial made her first public appearances since the trial reached its verdict on Saturday, saying race did not play a role in the jury's decision but admitted she believes Zimmerman went "above and beyond" his role as a neighborhood watch member. Juror B37, who asked to remain her anonymity, said she did not find the prosecution's witnesses to be credible and that race did not play a role in the jury's decision.
One of the jurors who decided that George Zimmerman was not guilty on charges of manslaughter and second-degree murder for killing Trayvon Martin is now trying to cash in on her experience. Media Bistro reports that Juror B37 and her husband (who is an attorney) has signed with a literary agent. The intent is to write a book on the Zimmerman case.
Secretary of State John Kerry is heading to the Middle East for the sixth time in five months for talks in Jordan with Arab League officials, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington. While he's in Amman, Kerry also is expected to meet with officials from Egypt's interim government, according to a State Department official who wasn't authorized to speak for attribution.
Juror B37 in the George Zimmerman trial has signed (along with her attorney husband) with literary agent and Martin Literary Management president Sharlene Martin. Along with the other jurors, Juror B37 found Zimmerman not guilty in the controversial trial. Literary agent Martin had this statement: My hope is that people will read Juror B37's book, written with her attorney husband, and understand the commitment it takes to serve and be sequestered on a jury in a highly publicized murder trial and how important, despite one's personal viewpoints, it is to follow the letter of the law. It could open a whole new dialogue about laws that may need to be revised and revamped to suit a 21st century way of life. The reader will also learn why the jurors had no option but to find Zimmerman Not Guilty due to the manner in which he was charged and the content of the jury instructions.
WHY the NSA is Spying on us - Potential for Blackmail
Years before Snowden, NSA agent Russell Tice came forward with accounts of the vast extent of government surveillance of all Americans. It's part of a silent coup, the control of our elected officials by threat of blackmail. This is a game that J Edgar Hoover and LBJ once played on a smaller scale. Today, our government's foreign and domestic agendas are controlled by a group of rogue operatives within the intelligence organizations. They have "dirt" on every political leader in America, and they are using it to keep them in line. "Snowden's leaks are barely scratching the surface." Take a look at this video as well, from another NSA whistleblower named William Binney:http://bit.ly/Qyd9xx "NSA's charter was to do foreign intelligence. I was with that all the way and I did the best I could. Unfortunately, they took the program I helped to build and they turned it against you. |
