As part of an amnesty program enacted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, members of the protest punk band Pussy Riot were freed overnight. But, as I agree with, the activists maintain that it is a PR stunt by Putin in an effort to impress the world before the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Games.
Anyhow, this is good news for Russia.
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Yesterday Pres. Obama conducted a press conference from the White House that included indicators that he may rollback some NSA programs that violate privacy domestic and abroad. He also made some interesting comments on the future for Edward Snowden, too.
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A good article in The Post about how “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson’s controversial remarks are leading to conservatives rallying around him in an effort to appeal to the GOP base. Interesting read.
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A good article in The Post on the recent events that may lead to the collapse of the current NSA data-collection programs.
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The American Studies Association (ASA), which has more than 5,000 members, has joined a growing movement to boycott Israel in protest at its treatment of Palestinians. Good news.
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An article in The Post reports that the NSA document-leaker Edward Snowden has offered the Brazilian government access to his collection of secret documents in return for asylum.
Brazil has been the most vocal critic of NSA collection of their electronic communications for the most part.
But this, in my opinion, is beginning to smack of espionage by Snowden when he is just offering his collected materials to various other governments for asylum. His idealism is turning into pragmatism.
What’s your opinion?
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An excellent piece in The Atlantic by Conor Friedersdorf on a recent drone strike that attacked a wedding party convoy in Yemen killing 17 and critically wounding 9. Friedersdorf explains that if that happened in America all drone strikes in the U.S. would stop. He also goes on to make many other good points regarding the killing of innocents through drone strikes and how the government does not care.
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The Washington Post’s Fact Checker has put out it’s list of “The Biggest Pinocchios of 2013.” The column rates untrue statements by politicians and other officials/institutions rating them on a scale of 1-5 Pinocchios. This is their yearly round up of the most absurd.
I have made no secret here that I fully support the liberation groups in Syria courageously trying to overthrow both pro-Assad forces and Hezbollah. But according to this article in The Guardian, Islamic-fundamentalist groups are on the rise and they cannot be funded by outside groups when they have links to Al-Quaida and other terrorist-affiliated groups.
A great piece in The Atlantic by Jonathan Merritt rebukes FOX’s Megyn Kelly’s forceful statement that Jesus was white. (Note: Depictions of Jesus in Chinese art portray him as Asian)
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Sparking The Left 