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Privacy Advocates Fight Congressional Apathy On Government Surveillance

Archives for June 2013

TD Bank Gets Punked: Tar Sands Blockade Highlights Bank’s Tar Sands Support

The bank “should be held accountable” for bankrolling “the most dangerous and ecologically devastating practice on earth,” says the perpetrators.

Andrea Germanos
By Andrea Germanos

  Tar Sands Blockade pulled a prank on TD Bank on Friday in an action to highlight the bank's support for the Keystone XL pipeline and the tar sands, which the group described as "the most dangerous and ecologically devastating practice on earth." "The bank should be held accountable" Ron Seifert, a spokesperson with Tar Sands

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Will US General Be Spared Obama’s (Selective) Wrath Against Leakers?

Retired vice chairman of Joint Chiefs and credited as director of the Stuxnet attack against Iran is now the focus of a DOJ investigation.

Jon Queally
By Jon Queally

Could the latest target of President Obama's aggressive war against leakers of government secrets be a recent, and very high-level, member of the country's military power structure? Reporting by NBC News indicates that (Ret.) U.S. Marine Gen. James Cartwright, who served as vice chairman on Obama's Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been named as the

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Official: Japan Dodged Global Financial Crash Because Of Bankers’ Poor English

Aso said bankers did not speak English well enough to understand the complex financial instruments that undid other major global players.

Freya Petersen
By Freya Petersen

Japan can thank a poor grasp of English among the country's bankers for the country's weathering the 2008 global credit crisis virtually unscathed, according to Finance Minister Taro Aso. Aso said senior Japanese bankers did not speak English well enough to understand the complex financial instruments that brought the other major global players

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70,000 North Carolinians To Lose Unemployment Benefits

As of Sunday, the state will technically be disqualified from receiving aid for the long-term unemployed through a federal program.

Trisha Marczak
By Trisha Marczak

For North Carolina’s 70,000 long-term unemployed, life is about to get more depressing. As of Sunday, the state will technically be disqualified from receiving aid for the long-term unemployed through a federal program. This comes after North Carolinians saw unemployment benefits slashed by 35 percent. The disqualification stems directly from the

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Differing Polls Complicate The Picture Of Public Opinion On Abortion

Last week’s 11-hour filibuster to keep abortion clinics open in Texas comes amid a murky understanding of where Americans stand on the issue.

Frederick Reese
By Frederick Reese

In the Texas Senate on June 25, a Democratic legislator launched a desperate attempt to block the Republican supermajority from passing a bill that was advertised as a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy but that would have in all reality created a new set of requirements that would close down all but five of the state’s abortion

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That’s Rich: The One Percent’s Hypocritical Litmus Test Of ‘Violence’

Sorry, Mr. Trump, but white people commit violence, too — they just do it with wars and workplace accidents. But that’s beside the point.

Edward Rhymes
By Edward Rhymes

Donald Trump can always be counted on for a certain perspective. So when he, without context, asserted that our nation’s violent crime problem generates almost exclusively from the Black and Hispanic communities, it came as no surprise. Friday morning, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg seemed to echo Trump's remarks. What these statement

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