Bold and Daring: The Way Progressive News Should Be
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Nicco Mele's new book, The End of Big, includes a chapter on the end of big journalism and how we're losing a lot of the investigative journalists as news operations size down or go bust. I've made a decision to build some tools to facilitate investigative journalism.
My hope is to take the great community of citizen journalists we have at Opednews and to provide tools to help assemble and coordinate teams focusing on specific investigative targets. Read the rest here.
It is an extraordinary miracle-- enabled by YOU-- that Opednews does what it does on so little funding. But we do need donations from-- not much, about $160 a day. That's tiny compared to what most progressive and liberal media sites look to raise. Your $5, $25, $50 or $100 donation makes a huge difference, let alone the extremely rare $200 or higher donations. So, please, make a donation to help us do our work, today. Click here to donate now.
thanks,
rob kall
Support Opednews. Make a tax deductible donation to make OEN Strong.  Daily Headlines
By Max Blumenthal
Obama and His Allies Say the Govt Doesn't Listen to Your Phone Calls -- But the FBI Begs to Differ 
Given open FBI acknowledgment that it monitors American phone calls on a massive scale, and that it almost certainly relies on the NSA to do so, it is hard to understand the denials by the White House and its allies. Perhaps, like Groucho Marx, they hope we will believe them instead of our own two lying eyes.
As the Russian government made clear, Washington's accusation is not believable. No informed person could possibly believe it. No doubt, many Americans wearing patriotism on their sleeves will fall for Washington's latest lie, but no one else in the world will. Even Washington's NATO puppets calling for attacking Syria know that the justification for the attack is a lie.
Talk Radio giants are claiming their propaganda is legally the same as 'bonafide news.' It will be, if the FCC says so. We must not allow that to happen.
While fixated on sports, singing contests and network news, we're being lowered into our degradation. NSA, FBI, Homeland Security and CIA spooks shadow us for evidence of rebellion and espy nada. After inconsequential Occupy and Tea Party twitches, all is quiet. Those sign waving assemblies merely served a carthatic function, and even wore us out, without threatening the status quo at all.
By Steven Jonas
The Permanence of Permanent War, Part 1: Setting the Stage So what is the "War on Terror" (described some time ago by a retired Army general as the equivalent in terminology to a "War on Flanking Maneuvers") really about? Well it and the response to it are really about creating a state of Permanent War for the United States. This column is part 1 of my consideration of this subject.
British authorities are scrambling to justify how they --- while hosting a global economic summit in 2009 --- spied on their guests with help from America's National Security Agency. Some UK media outlets seem a little spooked themselves in getting commentary on the incident.
Clinton, whose wife is almost certain to run for president in 2016, shoved Obama out of his previous cautious stance on military action in Syria. In a rare act of disloyalty as a member of the club of former presidents, Clinton joined the chorus of war drum-beaters to persuade Obama to supply small arms to the rebel side of the Syrian civil war.
We are losing the foundation of innocence until proven guilty. The assumption of innocence no longer exists in a surveillance state. Neither does a Constitution with a Fourth Amendment. Neither does habeas corpus or due process. All of those are things of value in the world of democratic men and women.
The best Israel can hope for is that Assad holds on but only just. That would keep the regime in place, or boxed into its heartland, but sapped of the energy to concern itself with anything other than immediate matters of survival. It would be unable to offer help to Hizbullah, isolating the militia in Lebanon and cutting off its supply line to Iran.
Annual report suggests law enforcement agencies accessed citizens' 'metadata' 293,501 times in last year
Buzz had been hiding from the world for so long, he'd nearly forgotten his name. But then the highway he lived under collapsed, and he witnessed 6 deaths that the media wanted to bury. This series of stories began with the People's Mike, and any other concerted action, being declared illegal. The ripples from their reaction triggered a drive to change representational government from the bottom up, and that cannot be allowed.
This article introduces and explains the Great March for Climate Action. Starting next year, 1000 people will march across the nation, from Los Angeles to Washington DC, to inspire society to address climate change.
January 1, 2014 can't come fast enough for anyone with a pre-existing health condition and/or a high deductible health insurance policy that really provides nothing more than protection from bankruptcy.
To give or not to give. Tampa Bay Times listed the 50 worst charities in the country. The names and financials will astound you.
I consider myself reasonably well informed, and at least somewhat aware of how the world is going, which of course is not too great. But the one book I am gradually digesting makes it feel as if my eyes were closed tight and are now popping out of my head. Brief glimpse into Howard Zinn's "A Real People's History of the United States."
By Sam Kephart
Freedom on the Rocks: Tyranny versus Terrorism The REAL inside story on what the NSA is up to with its domestic spying agenda.
Schooling Ourselves in an Unequal America - REBECCA STRAUSSNYTimes.com
"Averages can be misleading. The familiar, one-dimensional story told about American education is that it was once the best system in the world but that now it's headed down the drain, with piles of money thrown down after it. The truth is that there are two very different education stories in America. The children of the wealthiest 10 percent or so do receive some of the best education in the world, and the quality keeps getting better. For most everyone else, this is not the case. America's average standing in global education rankings has tumbled not because everyone is falling, but because of the country's deep, still-widening achievement gap between socioeconomic groups. And while America does spend plenty on education, it funnels a disproportionate share into educating wealthier students, worsening that gap. The majority of other advanced countries do things differently, at least"
The position of the Republican leaders does not bode well for a broad shift in the approach of Congress to questions about military adventures abroad. That's especially unfortunate at a time when the Obama administration is ramping up US support for Syrian rebels -- a move that should be checked and balanced by Congress.
When President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law in 1963, women earned 59 cents for every dollar earned by a man. While the wage gap has narrowed somewhat since then, women today still earn only 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.
National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden answered questions from ordinary folks Monday on a Guardian newspaper online chat. It was a technical first of sorts -- a virtual public news conference by someone who's in a lot of trouble and does not wish to make public their precise location. So did he reveal anything new? Yes -- among other things, he charged that US lawmakers are themselves shielded against NSA snooping. He also was harshly critical of former VP Dick Cheney, who has called Snowden a "traitor" for his disclosure of NSA secrets. He said Cheney had supported the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping as well as the Iraq War. "Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American," said Snowden.
Washington's decision to arm Syria's Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East, entering a struggle that now dwarfs the Arab revolutions which overthrew dictatorships across the region. A military decision has been taken in Iran -- even before last week's presidential election -- to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad's forces against the largely Sunni rebellion that has cost almost 100,000 lives in just over two years. Iran is now fully committed to preserving Assad's regime
My traditional end-of-June article. Thia is the summer of Edward Snowden.
By Tom Engelhardt
Nick Turse, Blowback Central The other day, Hamid Karzai, the U.S.-supported Afghan president who was once sardonically nicknamed "the mayor of Kabul," had a few curious things to say about American policy in the Muslim world. Karzai, of course, is a man whose opinions -- whether on U.S. special operations forces and their (out of control) militias, U.S. night raids on Afghan homes, or U.S. air strikes on Afghan villages -- Washington loves to ignore.
Exactly so. Regardless of your personal opinion about gay marriage and whether or not a person is "born this way," it is impossible to maintain that this group is less deserving of equal treatment under the law than their heterosexual counterparts. Yet, the vocal minority in the Rapture Right will argue just that, and will add that the Bible supports their bigotry. God loves everybody ... except homosexuals.
By Dave Lefcourt
Snowden to The Guardian, NSA and British Secretly Intercepted World Leaders Communications at 2009 Conference 
The latest treasure trove of NSA surveillance activities passed on to The Guardian by Ed Snowden has British Intelligence working directly w/ the NSA to eavesdrop on world leaders @ 2009 London conferences. They secretly tapped diplomat communications before Group of 8 industrial conferences and intercepted the communications of then Russian President Dmitri Medvedev; all approved by the FISA Court & shared w/ Congress.
Latest Articles
For our purposes, the precise nature of the self is not the main concern. What really matters is our experience of being that self. Is the experience pleasant or unpleasant? To what degree does that experience help us in regulating our emotions and behaviors? As we connect more with this self, we feel more pleasure in the simple fact of our existence.
Lessons I've learned about life have shaped my thinking in my retirement years.
Tom Engelhardt, You Are Our Secret
As happens with so much news these days, the Edward Snowden revelations about National Security Agency (NSA) spying and just how far we've come in the building of a surveillance state have swept over us 24/7 -- waves of leaks, videos, charges, claims, counterclaims, skullduggery, and government threats. When a flood sweeps you away, it's always hard to find a little dry land to survey the extent and nature of the damage.  Best News Links from the Web
Introducing Reverend Bruce Wright, on the Green Shadow Cabinet representing General Welfare, Executive Committee Member of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and now Shadow Sheriff of Pinellas County. As being poor becomes more criminalized every day, Reverend Wright has become the champion of the poor. Working with Greens and others state wide he promotes peace, social justice and equal and fair treatment of the homeless, hungry and poor everywhere.
Iran's outgoing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been summoned to a criminal court in Tehran to answer unspecified charges following the victory of the moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani in Friday's presidential election. The news, initially announced by the government website dolat.ir, was the latest in a series of bruising setbacks for Ahmadinejad, who has fallen foul of his erstwhile patrons and lost a great deal of influence in Iranian politics.
In a live Q&A with Guardian readers from a secret location in Hong Kong, Snowden did not directly answer a question about whether he had more unpublished material. But he said: "All I can say right now is the US government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped." Snowden, who is in hiding at a safe house, spent nearly two hours taking questions on the Guardian website. His answered questions ranging from why he chose Hong Kong to his specific concerns about the Obama administration.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states cannot on their own require would-be voters to prove they are U.S. citizens before using a federal registration system designed to make signing up easier. The court was considering the legality of Arizona's requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form produced under the federal "motor voter" registration law.
Dave Lindorff and two other guests talk about the burgeoning US national security state on the RT-TV program "Crosstalk," which aired earlier in the day Monday.
One of the best explanations of how the criminogenic environment causes repeated bank failures and economic collapses, and how current prescriptions will make things worse, not better, by super-regulator, Bill Black. "This is the fourth installment of my exploration of the work of Roger Myerson, Nobel Laureate in economics in 2007. It is part of what will be a broader series of articles exploring why economics is unique among the sciences in awarding the Prize to scholars whose predictive work proves profoundly wrong and leads to public policies that cause great harm. The first installment used Myerson's Prize lecture to explore his paean to plutocracy as the purported unique advantage of capitalism."
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