To the people in control of the Executive Branch, violating our civil liberties is an essential government service. So – to ensure total fulfillment of Big Brother’s vast responsibilities – the National Security Agency is insulated from any fiscal disruption. The NSA’s surveillance programs are exempt from a government shutdown. With typical understatement, an unnamed …
Continue reading “The NSA Deserves a Permanent Shutdown”
Like clockwork, we’ve ticked back to the annual government shutdown scare. It’s always an entertaining show, with both Republicans and Democrats doing their best to one-up each other with heartbreaking anecdotes about the millions who will suffer in the event of a government shutdown and showy bravado over the need for greater fiscal stewardship, while …
Continue reading “Police State Programs Not Affected by a Government Shutdown”
People say the dopiest things after a terrorist attack. The horrific shooting and hostage taking at the Westgate Mall in Kenya is just one case in point. According to Fox News, Rep. Mike Rogers, Republican from Michigan and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was apparently leading a chorus of "top Republicans" last week who …
Continue reading “Kenya Attacks Tickle Rightwing Agendas”
A series of bombings took place in mostly Shi’ite neighborhoods of Baghdad, including Sadr City. Due to the effectiveness of the many bombings, different sources have been giving highly conflicting casualty figures, but at least 65 were killed and 203 more were wounded.
Among the curious spectacles of our moment, the strangeness of the Obama presidency hasn’t gotten its full due. After decades in which "the imperial presidency" was increasingly in the spotlight, after two terms of George W. Bush in which a literal cult of executive power – or to use the term of that moment, "the …
Continue reading “The Mystery of Washington’s Waning Global Power”
Thanks to Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, and Laura Poitras, we know the National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting a huge amount of information about American citizens. But what are they doing with it? Government officials have been quick to deny any "misuse" of this huge data bank – beyond the to-be-expected eavesdropping on spouses, and …
Continue reading “We Live in a Police State”
The demonization of Russia is permitting the US to hide its own role in the conflict and may yet, provide the cover necessary for Washington to violate the wishes of the Syrian people, the American people and the international community to intervene into the Syrian conflict directly in an attempt to oust Assad. The media …
Continue reading “Demonizing Russia and Hiding US Duplicity”
At least 83 people were killed and 162 more were wounded in attacks that took place across Iraq, even into Kurdistan. The Islamic State in Iraq staged a complicated attack against security forces there. Meanwhile, to the south of Baghdad, a suicide bomber compounded the misery of mourners by attacking a funeral. More attacks took place across northern and eastern Iraq.
Bomb explosions once again reverberated across the greater Baghdad area, but today’s attacks were spread far and wide to the east and north of the capital. At least 23 people were killed today and 65 more were wounded in them.
As a result of over thirty years of intense propaganda against Iran, many are used to a cartoonish image of Iran and its people as extremist fanatics, an image drawn by the War Party and Israel’s lobby in the United States. The Party and the Lobby are interested only in a war with Iran. Thus, …
Continue reading “Help Rouhani – Iran Has Hardliners Too” 
