- R.I.P FREE SPEECH: Protesters can now be charged $750 or 2 years gaol for attending protests in Victoria
- Editor of independent Russian news site replaced with pro-Kremlin figure—"Ousting of Galina Timchenko at Lenta.ru is latest move in what critics fear is a crackdown on left-of-centre media outlets."
- Russia blocks internet sites of Putin critics
- Beijing threatens Hong Kong, saying democracy will only bring disaster
- Turkey: Berkin Elvan, a 15-year old victim of police violence dies after 270 days of coma—Two have died after the funeral.
- Student leader killed in west Venezuela crackdown—One month and counting.
- Thai political protests spread outside Bangkok
- An online Magna Carta: Berners-Lee calls for bill of rights for web—"Web's inventor warns neutrality under sustained attack from governments and corporations."
- Google is encrypting search globally. That's bad for the NSA and China's censors. WaPo
- YouTube to be monitored by British security—"Google has given British security officials special access to its YouTube video site, allowing them to have content instantly reviewed if they think that it threatens national security."
- TYT: This Is Why We NEED Independent Media—ThinkProgress blogger reveals White House pressure to tone down Obama criticism.
- 'Obama administration is far worse than the Bush administration' on transparency: Claim WaPo
- Expert: U.S. near 'crisis' of secrecy—"U.S. government agencies are coming up with more sophisticated ways to deny, delay and derail requests for information from journalists and the public, a University of Arizona professor told a Senate panel Tuesday."
- The White House Has Been Covering Up the Presidency's Role in Torture for Years
- Despite vows of help, White House withholds thousands of documents from Senate CIA probe
- Why CIA, senators still feuding over 9/11 secrets WaPo
- Sen. Feinstein: The CIA Scandal Began Because the Agency Misled Congress About Torture
- CIA Director Tries To Release His Side Of The Senate Spying Scandal; Actually Confirms Feinstein's Accusations
- CIA-Senate Spat Raises Murky Legal, Policy Issues
- Jon Stewart Roasts Dianne 'So The NSA Is Looking At Your Data' Feinstein'
- How the NSA Plans to Infect 'Millions' of Computers with Malware
- Foreign Officials In the Dark About Their Own Spy Agencies' Cooperation with NSA—"A new NSA document sheds new light on what foreign officials know (and don't know) about spying operations in their own countries."
- US NSA: stop mass surveillance now or face consequences, MEPs say
- FISA Court Reverses Order to Destroy NSA Phone Data—"The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has temporarily reversed its earlier order that call records collected by the National Security Agency should be destroyed after the current five-year limit."
- Mark Zuckerberg calls Obama to complain about NSA—"Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg called President Obama on Wednesday night to express frustration about the government's spying and hacking programs."
- US politics: A crying shame—"Congress's collapse into partisanship has forced it to the margins of political debate, with its role reduced to spoiler." FT
- Nuclear Revenge: GOP Now Obstructs Judges With Unanimous Support
- There have been 69 days in 2014 so far. Congress has worked 28 of them. WaPo
- Ready for a surprise? Money DOES equal access in Washington—There's a surprising lack of scientific evidence to bolster that assumption, which two political science graduate students are now seeking to provide." WaPo
- See Bridgeport man arrested for violating time limit at township meeting
- Millennial generation less religious, more liberal than older ones
- George Bush Lost an Entire Generation for the Republican Party
- Sarah Palin CPAC 2014 - CPAC Bonus Saturday -- The Princess In Excelsis
- Republicans Keep Lying to Their Base, and It's Preventing Them From Governing
- GOPer Who Celebrated Low Minority Turnout Now Has Advice On How To Talk To Women
- Convservatieves' backward view of liberty: Why they're so stubborn about discrimination—"The right sees threats to religious freedom because they want to preserve the past. But we don't live there anymore." Salon
- Why the GOP Can't Take a Joke—"Conservatives' inability to offer up a little LOL proves they're still the same rigid right they've always been— and they're afraid at being laughed at themselves."
- Zach Galifianakis is now HealthCare.gov's biggest traffic driver—Guess Obama's pretty happy. WaPo
- Watch an expert teach a smug U.S. senator about Canadian healthcare
- GOP Plots New Round Of Hostage-Taking To Stop Obamacare—Throwing everything including the kitchen sink.
- Georgia's Deal: Tighten ER access—"Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) has a problem: rural hospitals keep closing, overwhelmed by financial troubles they can't solve on their own. The obvious solution – accepting Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act – is the one thing Deal refuses to even consider."
- GOP's Anti-Obamacare Bill Would Hike Premiums, Uninsure 13 Million
- Dexter cancer patient who called health care 'unaffordable' will save more than $1K—"When advised of the details of her Blues’ plan, Boonstra said the idea that it would be cheaper 'can't be true.' 'I personally do not believe that,' Boonstra said." Brainwashed by Koch.
- GOP Leaders: Downplaying Abortion Isn't The Answer
- Front-Runner in GOP Senate Primary Says Planned Parenthood Wants to Kill Newborns
- Louisiana State Representative Proposes State Database Of Women Who Take The Morning-After Pill—With the full support and blessing of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, State Representative Katrina Jackson (D- Monroe) recently filed HB 388, which she titles, "The Unsafe Abortion Protection Act."
- Here's Why Hobby Lobby Thinks IUDs Are Like Abortions—"Before, we argued over whether life begins at conception, but now some employers are arguing over the definition of conception itself."
- 'Daily Show' Exposes $172 Million in Federal Penis Pump Spending—"Critics of Obamacare don't want women's contraceptives covered – but hey, hands off the penis pumps."
- Shutdown Cost National Parks at Least $414M—"The government shutdown last fall resulted in nearly 8 million fewer visitors to national parks, costing the parks and surrounding communities an estimated $414 million in lost visitor spending, the Interior Department said Monday." NYT
- Recession's over: Why aren't public services coming back?
- Economic Inequality: Why Isn't There More Outrage?
- Obama to Republicans: You're Right, Let's Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit
- Why Republicans abandoned tax revamp pledge Politico
- Rand Paul in cross hairs of tax evasion war—"Paul for years has single-handedly blocked an obscure U.S.-Swiss tax treaty that lawmakers, prosecutors, diplomats and banks say makes the difference between U.S. law enforcement rooting out the names of a few hundred fat-cat tax evaders — and many thousands more." Politico
- How Corporations are the Biggest Tax Dodgers
- How corporate America is losing the debate on taxes WaPo
- The Real Welfare Queens—"A new report shows corporations like Koch Industries have gotten billions in government subsidies."
- Obama administration told to stop expanding "corporate rights" in trade agreements
- Gray knew of 'shadow campaign,' Thompson prosecutors say; mayor says it's all a lie WaPo
- Fake Websites Draw Ethics Complaint For House Republican Campaign Head Greg Walden
- Ohio's law against untruth: Is it wise to criminalise lies?—"Politicians never lie. So you should not be allowed to lie about them. That seems to be the logic behind an Ohio election law that makes it a crime, punishable by six months in prison and a $5,000 fine, to disseminate a falsehood about a candidate if it is 'designed to promote' his election or defeat."
- Rep. Lee: Ryan's Comments On Inner City Culture Are A 'Racial Attack'
- Easy to be 'Misunderstood' When You Cite 'Experts' Who Say Blacks Are Inferior to Whites
- Immigration Activists Get Nazi Salute: 'Go Back To Mexico'
- Kentucky pastor feels 'hurt' by people who didn't like his 'inspiring' blackface skit
- College group cancels diversity 'happy hour' after excluding white staffers
