"Supporters of same sex marriage won electoral victories in Maine, Maryland, and Washington, with a throwback Minnesota ballot initiative codifying matrimony as the sole province of heterosexual couples trailing of 1 am EST." Continue reading →
Summary: Three out of seven pro-pot initiatives passed (Washington, Colorado, Massachusetts). Washington & Colorado completely repealed marijuana prohibition. Continue reading →
"Both Obama and Romney have adopted the worst elements of the Bush agenda: perpetual and preventative wars, punitive trade sanctions, violations of traditional civil liberties, warrantless surveillance, extrajudicial detentions, regressive credit expansion, the revolving door between the White House and Wall Street, increases in domestic spending in the name of free enterprise, cronyism and national regimentation in the name of social welfare, regulatory expansion, deficit-based anti-recession measures, bailouts of banks and other major corporations, and colluding with special interests over major decisions behind closed doors." Continue reading →
"An overseas Oklahoman who hasn't been on the Sooner soil for more than a decade is now fighting to come home. Forty-three-year-old Saadiq Long lives in Qatar where he teaches English. In April, the U.S. Air Force veteran was told he was on the Department of Homeland Security's no fly list. He's been fighting to get taken off the list ever since, but now he's running out of time. Long's mother who still lives in McAlester is terminally ill. Long will try to fly back to Oklahoma this week to visit her, perhaps for the final time. Long, a U.S. citizen, hasn't been given a reason for why he's on the list." Continue reading →
"A prosecutor says criminal charges are being filed against four Milwaukee police officers accused of illegally strip searching suspects. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm says Officer Michael Vagnini faces 25 counts of violating the strip search law, misconduct in public office and sexual assault. The investigation into potentially illegal searches began in March. Police Chief Edward Flynn said at the time the department was aware the searches for drugs had possibly crossed the line to sexual assault and civil rights violations. Seven people have filed notices claiming they were illegally searched." Continue reading →
"The continent lay before the framers and Americans. Land lay before the framers and Americans. Untold riches and wealth in land beckoned. Land speculation was an American constant. Empire as a form of government was the chosen vehicle for expansion into these lands. Dreams of liberty also prevailed, and the framers thought that empire and liberty could co-exist. This illusion has never been shattered, not even by the bloodiest of all American wars. Today, we inherit the problem that empire and liberty, in the final analysis, cannot be reconciled. One or the other must prevail." Continue reading →
"It wasn’t so long ago that the following statement could only appear in a dystopian novel or movie script. The U.S. President has killed an American citizen without due process, without even charging him with a crime. His decision to do this has been challenged by members of neither party. While the media-fueled frenzy goes on about how supposedly different Romney and the conservatives are from Obama and the liberals, no one even raises an eyebrow about this terrifying political development. Not even the left, which quite correctly howled at the Bush administrations’ assaults on freedom." Continue reading →
"The executive order creates a White House Homeland Security Partnership Council and Steering Committee, aimed at fostering local partnerships between federal and private institutions 'to address homeland security challenges.' The council will be chaired by 'the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, or a designee from the National Security Staff.' The executive order comes weeks after a damning Senate report on Homeland Security’s 77 fusion centers, which the Washington Post called 'pools of ineptitude, waste and civil liberties intrusions.'" Continue reading →
"The Obama administration will not just sit by and watch as up to three states attempt to implement laws legalizing marijuana, one of the president’s former senior drug policy advisers predicted Sunday. Dr. Kevin A. Sabet, who spent three years as a senior adviser to Obama’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, warned that voters in Colorado, Washington and Oregon may just bring fire and brimstone down on their heads if they vote for ballot measures that would legalize marijuana under state law." Continue reading →
"The US military and intelligence agencies have long preferred the Blackberry due to security concerns and had worried that Apple, Android and other smart phones lacked sufficient safeguards. The Canadian firm RIM has struggled to compete against the iPhone and devices that use Google’s Android system. Questions remain as to whether companies other than Blackberry can meet the strict encryption criteria employed by intelligence services within the Defense Department, including the eavesdropping National Security Agency." Continue reading →