"After nearly two years of rocky relations, Secretary of State John Kerry went to Pakistan to begin to repair ties between the US and its ally. Pakistani officials were outraged over the impunity of US drone strikes in the Muslim nation and RT's Erin Ade has more Kerry's comments regarding the matter." Continue reading →
"Ellsberg, then an analyst with the RAND Corporation, leaked a study of U.S.-Vietnam relations from 1945-1967, known colloquially as the Pentagon Papers, handing over the document to newspapers. The release of the Pentagon Papers proved politically embarrassing for President Richard Nixon and the Watergate break-in, which eventually led to Nixon's resignation, was part of a broader White House effort to identify the source of such leaks. Ellsberg was eventually charged with espionage, theft and conspiracy, but the charges were later dismissed, unlike the case of Army Private Bradley Manning." Continue reading →
"The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald has been reporting on Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA's secret surveillance program. He joins Andrea Mitchell to talk about Snowden's new life in Russia." Continue reading →
"I never thought I would have a special category about bureaucrats vs. Bambi. 1. Bureaucrats in Virginia filed three misdemeanor charges against a man for the horrible crime of rescuing a deer that was hit by a car. 2. Bureaucrats in Maryland fined two men $90 each for not having life jackets when they had the gall to rescue a deer that fell through some ice. 3. Bureaucrats in Indiana are threatening prison time for a family that rescued a baby deer from coyotes. The paper pushers of the world seem to harbor a special grudge against these harmless ruminants, since we now have another story about a baby deer. But this time, Bambi was the victim." Continue reading →
"Brian Hudkins was disputing with hotel staff over the fact that unauthorized people had entered his hotel room. He was upset but not in any way aggressive. He even clasped his hands behind his back. That's when 'Officer of the Year' T. Michael Wilson and Brian Hudkins began interacting. Video shows that in only 16 seconds of talking to Hudkins, he inexplicably grabs him by the shoulders and tackles him violently to the ground. Hudkins had his hands behind his back during the entire body-slam maneuver. Hudkins suffered cuts and bruises, an injured shoulder, was denied medication, and has had his business and reputation suffer." Continue reading →
"A little girl was confiscated from her loving parents because they smoked marijuana, and given away to a foster mother who put her into a coma and killed her. Alexandria Hill, age 2, succumbed to her injuries after being 'thrown to the ground.' 'We never hurt our daughter. She was never sick, she was never in the hospital, and she never had any issues until she went into state care,' said Joshua Hill, the girl's natural father. Hill says that his daughter was put in to more than one dangerous foster home." Continue reading →
"Scotty Boman, a candidate for Detroit clerk, was assaulted by police and left alone in handcuffs and without water in a closet-sized room for more than three hours for trying to take photos of what he considered unethical signs posted by incumbent Clerk Janice Winfrey. The math and physics professor at Wayne County Community College also was trying to hand out campaign literature. Boman said the officers laughed at him while he was stuck in handcuffs. By the time his camera was returned, incriminating video he took of the police was deleted. The officers, he said, threatened to arrest him if he brought the camera back to the campus." Continue reading →
"A veterans group is alleging in a federal lawsuit that the city violated its free-speech rights and the state’s Open Meetings Law. The lawsuit, filed July 26 in federal court in White Plains, seeks a court order permitting the association to fly the Gadsden flag and 'nominal and compensatory damages.' The yellow flag, featuring a coiled rattlesnake, was hoisted below the Stars and Stripes at the former city armory March 21. But the Democratic council majority decided to take it down about a week later, suggesting it was a Tea Party symbol." Continue reading →
"Tyler Cowen and Scott Sumner are debating over the significance of the sharp decline in the employment ratio (which looks at what percentage of the working-age population is employed, and is a different indicator from the labor force which considers the percentage of those actively seeking employment). Although someone brought it up in his comments, Scott didn’t deal with what is clearly one of the huge drivers of the total ratio over the last 50 years: women entering the work force. When you decompose it by sex (red=women, green=men, blue=total), it sure does look like the economy is broken." Continue reading →
"This was actually an attempt by publishers to regain control over their e-book pricing from retailers, and ended when publishers signed consent decrees with the government. This should be the end of the story but instead the government now wants to appoint a monitor who will review all Apple pricing for the next ten years. No economy can thrive without an honest and unmanipulated price system, as the Soviet Union demonstrated so vividly by collapsing. Yet we are at a moment in which our government wants to control more and more prices throughout the economy, now even wanting to control a leading technology company’s prices for a decade." Continue reading →