Grateful Dead

Anna, please tell me this is a joke. Do you have a link to an article or something I can read regarding this nonsense?

let this be a lesson to all, stay off of Facebook, Twitter and especially Dead.net! Make sure all your "gardening supplies" and GD tickets are paid for in cash only and if you drive a 19 yr. old piece of shit like I do that's lucky to make it out of the driveway, much less to my destination, you don't have to worry about car computer surveillance.On second thought, they can have my car - their loss, not mine. I'll just hop a ride on an Amish buggy since I get stuck behind them quite often anyway. With all of these new and exciting revelations of big brother electronic shenanigans, the Amish simply don't know what they're missin'. :))))

* But you get the awards for not having quite turned into sheeple yet! Bahhh-ahhh. Maaaaaa-aaahhhhhh. Naaaahaaahhhhhh!

creative piece of writing, Anna. Thank you. Honestly, what concerns me more than anything on a daily basis is hacking and identity thieves. I'm waiting for the day that I really need to use a credit card and it won't go through. Months of phone calls, written letters and forms to fill out because some college kid with time on his hands and a hacker's program wiped out my credit history and my bank account. If the NSA wants to spy on my emails and phone conversations - let 'em. They'll need a handful of No Doze and a strong pot of coffee because my daily life is a total snoozer. The most exciting thing I look forward to is my son's baseball games and checking out dead.net. And with the inevitable advent of drones it just seems like there's no privacy anymore.....anywhere, indoors or out. I like what Gustavo said to Walt on Breaking Bad, "I hide in plain sight, just like you." It's pretty much the only option left.

lol! I, too, am waiting for that other shoe to fall. I do think people are way too much asleep on the government end but the private hackers are frightening. Even if compromising your private data is just a way to make points in the business world as when Heartland Payment (a credit processor) got it's servers hacked to the tune of 150,000,000 identities. Just to make a point to it's blowhard CEO. Bob Carr. (The point was: Banks rule the credit processing business, not a processing company). In the end we're screwed every way we turn, even by sweatshop Chinese hackers who just want to sell driver's licenses! Bad news stats.? I It'll cost you about a million dollars to get your identity back unless you have well-crafted big-cap ID theft insurance.

Pulling for the Blackhawks next! Congratulations Miami!

But only in special situations, so, you know, don't worry, be happy! (This after Obama & his AG said "NO"

But they can't find him. Public opinion is almost split about prosecution. Would love to have a poll among deadheads to know if they would have moved to prosecute. My gut tells me no, but there is reactionary bulge in the demographic that is hard to predict. One thing is clear. Obama and the rest of our rulers believe in: INFORMATION! From drones, mechanical insects and anywhere else they can get it.

Ed Snowden took off over the unbelieving eyes of the US government ambassador and intelliegence officials after they had made an official request for his extradition back to the US on espionage charges. Thinking they had all the i's dotted and t's crossed the Hong Kong Chinese requested more clarification as the plane was literally wheels up from Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok (No, it's not a new Hong Kong lap dance) Airport on it's way to Moscow. Snowden was flanked by a Wikki Leaks legal team who plan to accompany him to his final place of political asylum, the democracy of Ecuador, or perhaps Venezuela (as opposed to the Republic of the US.) The Mozilla Firefox start page now has a statement to remind us all: "Security and privacy are not optional. Stand with a broad coalition to demand that the NSA stop watching us: (go to) stopwatching.us" Ed Snowden is a true patriot because he brought the light of day to these NSA programs that allow spying on US citizens for any purpose with a rubber stamp court. As a result, these government programs must face a debate in the light of day. As a result, also, it has been released that the FBI is indeed spying on US citizens with it's own drones, something Obama and the AG have blatantly denied. The Obama Administration and it's predecessors (Mostly W. Bush) have sold us all down the river in the name of profitable corporate stability, saying it is keeping us all safe from terrorism. There are no liberal or independent senators and representatives (Pelosi, Feinstein, Sanders) who feel any differently. Rand Paul, the conservative Libertarian heir of father Sen. Ron Paul is the new champion of freedom. We have the lost the war on terrorism at the cost all that is dear to us: OUR LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF OUR HAPPINESS! And a narrow majority of Americans agree. How pathetic!!! Oh sure, nothing really changes until it changes, but how would you like to wake up one day and find out that Stewart and Colbert had been canceled because they were traitors and Fox News was the new orthodoxy? "First they came for the Jewish comedians, and I did nothing..."

First we get video of him stealing Robert Kraft's super bowl ring when the two met in Moscow (Putin reportedly said something like "You could really kill a man with a ring like this!") Then he put it in his pocket and walked away, cloaked by his Praetorian Guard. Then he apparently throws Snowden to the lions after pulling this little insect's wings off. But wait, Putin has shown that he can do anything he wants to. Who knows what the hell he is doing? The national news is practically doing a victory lap! Supposition? Perhaps he is having the new version of the KGB do a debrief on Snowden's carcass after copying the memory sticks from the four government computers he supposedly downloaded to the bone. Then, depending on Putin's hangover, he could either let him fly on or turn him over for the bonus points. Ugghhh Ed, you could have done this a better way. I'm not sure the rice & beans taste any better in Ecuador than they do in a super-max, which is where you are most assuredly heading if Putin really tied one on -- with booze or some other device...

Would have been nice for Beantown's moral recovery but no mob scene with the Duckboats and the trophy this year (It's a Boston thing). Maybe just as well. Congrats. to the Blackhawks. You guys earned it.

"Sources claiming to have had minimal, erratic contact with Edward Snowden have said that he’s considering turning himself in after Sarah Palin came to his defense, taking his side on many of the same issues. They’re reporting that not only is he contemplating turning himself in, but he’s also having a change of heart about leaking classified information concerning the NSA’s secret surveillance programs. Apparently, he thinks that Sarah Palin taking his side on these issues clearly means that he must have been out of his mind to have leaked any of this information to begin with." From a blog called Forward Progressives. This blog needs more checking out. I smell a rat here. Of course, then again, this could be what passes for middle-of-the-road progressive thinking these days. Everybody I talk to says the same thing, in private. The government is full of shit and trying to scare us to death. In public there is nothing but a deathly silence, for the most part. It is OK to speak up and say something. Mozilla Firefox did and they haven't jailed the entire corporation. Maybe I can express this in a Big Bang Theory equation: Created Enemy=Dominant foreign & domestic policy=Armed Forces larger than necessary for defense=Economic hegemony=Concentration of wealth=Minute inflated lifestyle for the middle-class (trickldown)=unquestioning obedience to authority for crumbs. Divide by Climate change & Monsanto pesticides and you get? What? Every once in a while somebody will come along, even for a second, like Ed Snowden and say "Fuck You" to those fat-kid bullies you used to know who go around bellowing "You will ruhh-specc my a-thaw-ity!" (Unbelievable!)

Lets be clear. Roberts removed restrictions against the "Famous 15" states who have been racially profiled by the Fed's Voting Rights Act. Section 5 is the clause at the heart of the Act and the Court said more up-to-date evidence is needed. I would have to agree that the 15 states in question are still heavily guilty. I would say that the states who bear the burden of proof haven't changed. But I still think the liberals have gone slightly hysterical over the matter. There are more important issues out there. If the blacks want to dust it up then from Tuscon to Lubbock to Wichita Falls to Houston to Tupelo to Birmingham to Mobile to Tallahassee, to the heart of rebel evil - Charleston, SC where the legions of Darth Vaders are assembled, all they need to do is utter the word "Reparations". In the more important, shorter term, the Supreme Court just lit the fuse for a long, hot summer in the wake of the Treyvon Martin trial and verdict in Florida, if Jorge gets acquitted.

President Vladimir Putin has said that the US whistleblower Edward Snowden was still in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, and was free to leave. Apparently the story about Putin stealing Bob Kraft's Patriots Super Bowl ring, while true, was part of a blackmailing smear campaign orchestrated by the US government and the now compromised US press. If they thought Putin could have cared even a teensy amount about his image on the planet they were wrong. His position among the oligarchs (heads of criminal enterprises and Russia's vast oil empire), is well-entrenched. Snowden is traveling on an arc of evil, no doubt. With the exception of Venezuela and Ecuador he is dealing with some pretty unsavory regimes. All of this in an effort to get to a country that honors freedom and privacy more than this one does. On the lighter side, Putin is complaining about the amount of high grade herb Ed is blowing through in his huge five foot hookah he and his supporters are using in the smoking section of the transit lounge. Putin has refused to pipe in anymore Bob Dylan or Rodiriguez for their enjoyment and is threatening to bill Wikki-Leaks for the air-freshening that will be required when they depart.

Today the news is about DOMA but it is a smokescreen for the huge ruling handed down last Monday: The Right To Remain Silent -- Otherwise known as the 5th Amendment, has been gutted by Alito and Roberts. First in 2010 the court held that a suspect did not sufficiently invoke the right to remain silent when he stubbornly refused to talk, after receiving his Miranda warnings, during two hours of questioning. This meant that since that time (which I majorly underlined in this thread without one comment) you have to indicate to a police officer that you are specifically invoking your right to remain silent, not just remain silent. In this newest ruling last Monday the case involved a man who owned a shotgun that was used in a murder. They did not arrest him or read him his Miranda warnings. Salinas agreed to give the police his shotgun for testing. Then the cops asked whether the gun would match the shells from the scene of the murder. According to the police, Salinas stopped talking, shuffled his feet, bit his lip, and started to tighten up. At trial, Salinas did not testify, but prosecutors described his reportedly uncomfortable reaction to the question about his shotgun. Salinas argued this violated his Fifth Amendment rights: He had remained silent, and the Supreme Court had previously made clear that prosecutors can’t bring up a defendant’s refusal to answer the state’s questions. This time around, however, Justice Samuel Alito blithely responded that Salinas was “free to leave” and did not assert his right to remain silent. He was silent. But somehow, without a lawyer, and without being told his rights, he should have affirmatively “invoked” his right to not answer questions. There are now special dangers that police may, intentionally or not, coax false confessions from innocent suspects. A large group of those innocent people falsely confessed, and many supposedly admitted their guilt, even before any formal interrogation. The Supreme Court has now officially gutted the 5th Amendment. YOU HAVE TO ASSERT YOUR RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT EVEN IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN READ YOUR MIRANDA RIGHTS. The scales are tipping in a big way towards fascism these days.

In Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport international transit lounge. We've been desperately looking for Snowden who seems to have dropped off the face of the earth after arriving from Hong Kong several days ago. Apparently he never made the flight to Cuba that had been reserved for him. Then we noticed several swarthy men with mustaches and cheap suits hurry through, forming a cordon for what appeared to be a youngish caucasian with glasses. One of them gave the young man a fine Cuban cigar as he awkwardly took the five foot hookah from him. Could it be Ed "The Red Panda" Snowden? Yes, it was, our facial recognition app. quickly gave us a 97% match. We followed as far as we could until airport security blocked us from following the party through the security door. We followed with a small set of binoculars as a dark-colored SUV scooped up the men. The license plate read "Raoul". The SUV traveled a few hundred yards to a Gulfstream 500 where the men quickly hustled aboard, their tail fin sporting the logo of the Cuban state. Quickly the plane gunned away down a pre-cleared taxi route to a runway where it received immediate clearance for takeoff. The Red Panda had a play date with Raoul Castro in about 12 hours. We'd been the only press with boots on the ground to catch the fast-moving party. Next: Ed parties like a rock-star with revolutionary Cuban hookers in the People's Palace in Havana. Keep it tuned here for the latest on the commie traitor's movements to elude the intelligence omnivores.

WTF is Anthony Bennett!? Good luck Cleveland! (take a break from all the Annarexia posts)

We have the right to vote and staying informed is key to having an informed opinion on which way to vote. Put a humurous, interesting twist on any important news story and, however much you might disagree, you are a bit more informed. Take, for instance, the Suprmeme Court's striking down of the heart of the Voting Rights Act. This has highly pissed off black people, organized black people. It has disenfranchised tens of thousands in Texas alone, already, with the new requirement of a voter ID card. If you've seen the movie of the anatomy of the LA riots in the early 90s you can see how tensions mounted leading up to the outcome of the Rodney King trial. Those people who were gathered at LA City Hall were there because they heard the news, they were informed. It's important to be informed, Ted. Then, when George Zimmerman is acquitted on charges of 2nd degree murder in about three weeks (most likely) and there may be large rioting breaking out in Sanford, Orlando, Overtown, Tampa and Jacksonville in which more blacks will be inevitably slaughtered, you won't walk around with a look that says "I don't have a clue why this happened in this great country of ours where we all share the same freedoms". On another tack, it was my spouse's birthday and we had a delightful couple of days picking strawberries, watching the movie Before Midnight, eating out at an Indian Restaurant, giving a nice gift inside a golden Dancing Bear birthday card and looking forward to seeing Furthur in a few weeks in a lovely venue. You see Ted, it takes me about 20 minutes to write my posts on this site in the morning and the rest of the day is spent in lovely splendor, most of the time. It's an easy balance to strike and one that keeps me happy. I choose not to talk about the darker aspects of the Grateful Dead, though that would be totally appropriate to do on this website. On the current events thread, I stick to current events. I'm so sorry they are not the same current events you would choose to speak about.

Let's see, how many bands have parted ways so far this year? I think I remember hearing that Wilco has called it quits, Stone Temple Pilots fired Scott Weiland, Kim Deal left the Pixies to--most likely--focus her attention on the Breeders...did I miss anything? I feel like I've left at least one band off this list but, for the life of me, can't remember who. And it's not even July!

Anna, I think Ted is merely referring to your recent dominance of this thread. I don't think anyone here on Dead.net has anywhere close to your keen eye for what's lurking in the shadows, and I'm pretty sure we all greatly appreciate you reminding us all of what's out there. In no way am I attempting to tread any toes here, but I think his comment was a harmless one and an attempt at a joke; he meant no offense, I believe. Just my $0.02.

Whatever, I don't tell people not to read other people's posts, however much they post.

Right out of the box, Snowden made a complete statement to the press about his intentions and motives. He just wants to expose the illegal spying on all US citizens so the public can decide what should be done, because after all, this is still a democracy. Snowden says he doesn’t want praise. He’s not a hero. He just wants transparency. And the NSA is breaking the law over and over. Snowden looks the part. Young, bright. A self-effacing yet steadfast nerd. Perfect. Nothing nasty about him. He doesn’t have that Julian Assange edge. He’s just a boy. Look at him. He obviously means well. Honorable hero? CIA operative? Either way, the US government is in a pickle. It’s not going to be a slam-dunk with this guy. In a related issue, it’s astonishing (to anyone who is awake) that the Congress hasn’t come down on NSA like a ton of bricks. We should be hearing a grilling like this, directed at NSA head, Keith Alexander: “Let me get this straight, General Alexander. Snowden captured and stole your most secret data. Anyone of his rank at NSA could have done the same, because you have no security protection against it. And now, with the most sophisticated spying system in the world, you can’t find Snowden. This makes the NSA the most bumbling stumbling trillion-dollar organization in the history of mankind. Can you give me a good reason why we shouldn’t move to de-fund NSA completely and start over from scratch? This is outrageous.” And that would just be the beginning of the assault. Yet, that’s not what we’re getting. Instead, so far, we’re hearing a few modest criticisms. Why? The most obvious answer is, Congress is afraid of the NSA. This bunch of legislators, these crooks and con men and perverts and felonious scum are scared that they’ve been under the NSA spying lens for a long time. And what could come crawling out of NSA files is terrifying to them. So they hold still. They take a deep breath. They pray for safety. They go on the attack against Snowden. They fall all over themselves calling Snowden a vile traitor who must be brought to justice. Which tells you something about who’s running things in Washington. It also tells you something about the level of resentment that’s built up over the years against the NSA. Not just in the Congress. In certain quarters of the CIA and the elite media, because NSA has been spying on reporters and editors and taking huge chunks of federal budget $$ away from the CIA. Lots of important people have been hoping for a way to take down NSA a peg or two. So this is the kind of Congressional-NSA conversation that’s going on right now, behind closed doors in Washington: “Here’s the thing, General Alexander. We spoken about this before. Your NSA has been invading our lives with your snooping for far too long. Now we have a trump card. Ed Snowden. We’re playing it. I’m not admitting he’s our creature, I’m just saying he’s doing the kind of work we ourselves should have done years ago. So we want some give and take here.” “What kind of give and take?” “Get off our backs. We’ll go easy on you. We won’t turn all our guns on you. We’ll call Snowden a traitor. We’ll focus all the public attention on him. But give us our privacy back. Now.” “Well, I suppose we might do that.” “But we have to know you’re setting us free to do whatever the hell we want to do, without fear of being seen doing it. We need guarantees.” “How might that work?” “We need people we appoint to have oversight on NSA. Real oversight.”

scoffing at that penny on the ground? If it's a 1943 copper wheat penny or a 1944 steel wheat penny, you would've just passed up $100,000! (courtesy of cointrackers.com)Adjusting for inflation, just "my two cents" in 1926 - the earliest noted US use of the phrase from the Olean Evening Times in an article from Allene Sumner titled "My two cents worth" - had the same buying power as $0.26 now. just my $0.26....currently, that kind of buying power gets you 1.2 cups of gasoline or 5 rolling papers.....your choice :))))

Thought about the history of SF that led up to this weekend. It is quite the story of a group of people struggling to overcome bigotry and hatred to obtain their rights, a story that is not finished yet. SF always seems to outdo themselves on this weekend. Just so over-the-top!

Obama has appointed Senator Schumer (presumably in his capacity of being on the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Home Security) as point man against Ed Snowden. What a spectacle he was today as he stood up, a powerful United States Senator of 15 years, and bullied the small, insignificant country of Ecuador. He said that their package of economic aid was up for review this year and that the US would significantly make them hurt if they end up sheltering Snowden. This is unbelievable. The US taxpayer is going to underfund aid to 15 million people who have the cojones to stand up to the US? What a sick joke! Do you feel good Charles? Do you really think Ed Snowden is a traitor to his country for succumbing to his own conscious and saying "I can't do this anymore and furthermore people ought to be aware of what is actually going on." No, he is not a traitor. The latest news is that the NSA has been bugging the offices of our allies in Bonn and Brussells. It is now apparent that Snowden has a lot of information and that he is going to painfully leak it out till it is gone. He knows full well that he could be rendered to a third country like Poland and tortured. Actually, with intelligence agencies within the US at war with one another nobody is clear on anything. Who is Ed Snowden a pawn for? The CIA? Naval Intelligence? Is he really secreted in a flat down a quiet side-street near the Naval War College on Aquidneck Island, commuting to Raytheon, toiling away in nurdery paying his penance for the sins he has committed before God, flag and uh, whatever the third one is? C'mon President Obama. You said you'd been looking for an excuse to bring this up for a "conversation" with the American people. You can also now get that whopper off your chest about drones not plying the the friendly sky's of Hometown USA for the FBI. I suggest that now is a teachable moment for Schumer, Feinstein, Pelosi, Boehner, Cantor, Reid and McCarthy (whoops,I meant McCain) and the rest of the 535 Electoral College Members. A really good teachable moment, just like having a Sam Adams with that Cambridge cop!

Can we also address the fact that the media is clearly in cahoots with whatever is the gov't's public agenda? The day the Ed Snowden story broke, there seemed to be some hesitancy to immediately brand him a traitor, but now it seems like every news station from New York to south Texas all want his head on a pike. And there aren't too many people in America who realize that the "news" is more about shaping what They want you to think and less about keeping the people informed. I guess this is what happens when corporations are allowed to run a country....

As Newmann said on Seinfeld: "He who controls the mail controls the world -- Information!" Herbert Hoover was a cross-dressing gay freak (Not that there is anything wrong with that, if thats what you're into ) that controlled a vast government apparatus, the FBI, that collected secret files on everybody. Consequently, everybody was afraid of the guy and even though they knew about his vices that in the 60s would have resulted in a jail sentence, they were afraid of his files and said nothing. Similarly, people in the Congress and especially people in the Press (who just had the FISA court make a ruling for the NSA to bug their phones) are scared to death of the NSA outing them because of the vast storage of information in the mega-zeta-byte facility at the Utah Data Center. They will shut up and keep their jobs and vices and obediently spout the party line, inglorious bastards! What happened with the press and the Boston Bombings was disgraceful. The country went into a mass interlude of denial in which the third explosion was covered up as well as the deaths of first responders. This happened when the Feds stepped in and called it a terrorist incident. Up to that point there was all kinds of coverage from the first press briefing to footage of the 3rd explosion at the JFK Library all over the the three local news channels. Reporters who tried to ask questions were stared down and ignored by grim-faced FBI spokespersons. The reporter was dragged from the room Nazi goon style, yelling that he had the right to ask questions. Well, to that point, he used to. Even the national news (CBS) had to continually deny the third explosion because everybody in a three-state area all saw the third explosion on local channels 4, 5 and 7 and the repeated views of the blackened facade of the JFK Library. After Snowden did his thing with the press conference in Hong Kong there was an immediate move to spin it. Morning Joe Scarborough and sidekick Mica B. said that only 14 people agreed with Snowden and everybody else thought he was a traitor. Then the polls came out and showed that Americans by a 5 point margin do not want the fucking NSA spying on every aspect of their life, though they do want the NSA spying on every aspect of a terrorist's life (read dark, swarthy complexioned Arab/Muslim people.) Then Feinstein, liberal Senator from California sitting on the select committee of the Senate Intelligence Committee went on TV requesting Snowden's head which started a cascade of government officials all wanting Snowden for theft of government documents. Admittedly, that he is guilty of and he will pay a price. How big a price? He is himself writing the pre-sentencing report by releasing all this highly embarrassing information of the US spying on it's allies, never mind the Chinese and Russians. And then Obama and other officials are just outraged that extradition laws are not being followed. The distinction in the press seems to be that if he was a whistle-blower and credible he would be doing this from an arrest/awaiting trial pose rather than the "Traitor who kept the memory sticks for leverage." Forget about the press. There are a few mavericks out there but they are being muzzled if they have an audience of any size at all. Acid-addled freaks like us aren't intelligent enough or have enough audience to be concerned about... moving to Make no mistake, with the recent Supreme Court rulings, since Dubya's appointments, this country is moving in a big way toward fascism. This is not an exaggerated overstatement.

My error. Thank you for the correction Mary E. I was off on a gallop there...

Just came in off the press wires. Putin is paraphrased as saying that Russia has never extradited anybody and that Snowden is welcome to live out his glory years with Putin himself, the old KGB Colonel wanting to poke his finger in the eye of Uncle Sam. Uhh, Ed? I'd rather take my chances with a layover in Havanna making small talk with Raoul over pretty latinas, cigars and cognac -- on to your next stop in Caracas. Check the Lima itinerary there in Venezuela with Nick Maduro. The Galapagos Islands might start looking awfully tempting at that point. No more computers. Just rice & beans and okra and plaintains. Just saying -- Uncle Vladimir has been known to have a mean streak when he starts on the rails and Stoli shots. He might take a punch at you with Bob's superbowl ring. Just keeping it real, Ed.

"Make no mistake, with the recent Supreme Court rulings, since Dubya's appointments, this country is moving in a big way toward fascism. This is not an exaggerated overstatement." No, it's not an exaggerated statement; it's one I've been saying since before the end of W's first term.

In less than a week, Kim Deal has left the Pixies and been replaced by Kim Shattuck, and the band's released a new song--"Bagboy"--and are going on a tour of Europe beginning in late September. 2013 is apparently not the death of the Pixies but instead their rebirth. The buzz on the internet is that the band has been and is continuing to work on new material. Whether this is a handful of new songs or the long-awaited new album remains to be seen, but this band is producing again for the first time since 1991 (2004's "Bam Thwok" doesn't count). Is anyone else here a Pixies fan? Y'know, besides me...?

A supernatural being in folklore and children's stories, typically portrayed as small and human-like in form, with pointed ears, part of the Mr. Spock strain I predume,

In my neighborhood: Has anyone seen my Constitutional rights? My, my. Hey hey. Live Free Or Die is here to stay,

Condemned to play the character in that movie who lives the rest of his life, identity- less, in the transit lounge of an airport. Why? Because Putin, while allowing Snowden the room to claim asylum in Russia, has warned him that he can't release any damaging documents regarding the US. Crooks of a (the US & Russia) feather bed down together... The US, meanwhile, is tightening the screws on Snowden. As he is identity-less, and unable to move on from Moscow's airport, his list of 20 countries from which he will ask to be given asylum have all stipulated that he must be on their soil for them to entertain his request. Quite a Catch 22. But what about all the copies Snowden has given out? Not important, the Texas Rangers always get their man. What this has resulted in is a US NSA op. to make sure that he does not leave that airport, after they came to some kind of understanding with Putin about what he could and could not do on Russian soil. What Putin got for this is not clear. Perhaps immunity for stealing Bob Kraft's Patriots Superbowl ring? (Bob, this a truly patriotic thing you are doing for your country, giving up that ring!). The NSA op. has already produced blowback. Eva Morales, President of Bolivia, en route to Le Paz from Moscow, had his private plane diverted to an Austrian airport and searched for the fugitive. Mr. Morales went bananas. A sovereign head of state subject to an NSA shakedown? I wonder which judge from the FISA Court signed that order?? Obama said that he wouldn't scramble two jets to go after a 29 year-old hacker. In reality he has given wide-sweeping powers to the NSA to spend billions to apprehend this whistle-blower and any person's human right anywhere in the world can be trampled without consequence. Has Obama officially taken on the mantle of Darth Vader, speaking with that heavy, nasal voice similar Dick Cheney's? The US has now become the #1 human rights violator in the entire world. All heads of state are our vassals and must bow before us. All this for a 29 year-old whistle-blower who started the conversation Obama wanted to have in the first place... OMG!!! Has Obama completely lost it? Come on dude, take your "teachable moment" medicine like a man. You sure could dish it out when it was your friend who was having his rights trampled...

I'm going to chill on this story. Anybody can follow on the Beeb if they want. It is just so out there... Obama is losing it, now on Morsi's removal from office in Egypt.

I'm surprised no one has commented yet on the outcome of the latest Floridian travesty of justice. At least no one listened to Jamie Foxx's advice....

Parkas4Kids, I read in another thread that Anna rRxia is traveling, so I think that's why we haven't seen much action in this discussion lately. As for mice elf, I've been teaching a couple of short term summer classes and only get a chance to stop in here to read a few posts when I'm not busy grading papers. I will note here your mention of the "Martin/Zimmerman Trial", which I think accurately represents what went down in The People of the State of Florida versus George Zimmerman. In my observation, it was not just George Zimmerman who was put on trial here; the jury seems to have rendered their judgment on the matter of Trayvon Martin as well.

a long time ago I decided it would be a very good idea to educate myself about state and federal laws regarding various fun activities . I read a lot. A lot. The one common theme that was repeated over and over is that a jury - any jury - anywhere in this country - has more power than any judge. A judge usually instructs the jury at the start of a trial to obey his/her directions to the letter. What most sheeple citizens don't realize is that they have full power and authority as jurors to say to the judge, "fuck you, we'll think the way we want and vote the way we want". One needs to look no further than the original OJ trial. Critical thinking for the average citizen in this country has gone straight into the shitter. Obey, obey, obey. Zimmerman went looking for a fight, armed with a loaded pistol, period. All he had to do was call the police if he was that worried. Sweet dreams, George. Your memory will be your jury for the remainder of your life. Anyway, that brings me to the state of Oregon where critical thinking is taking the lead. The legislature of Oregon is actually working together to pass a bill to be the first state in the nation where, by 2015, as a trial, all colleges in the state will suspend the cost of tuition for the entire time a student is enrolled in college. Students are charged room and board and books. It does not matter for how long or what the major is. When, and only when, the student finds a job will the cost of tuition be reimbursed as a 3 - 4% deduction from their paycheck for up to 20 yrs. or until the loan is paid. I believe that, currently, repayment of the loan begins 6 months after students graduate, regardless of employment. The entire point of this legislation is to get students into college who might not otherwise be able to afford it and to have a significantly larger percentage of the public who are college educated. (This shit sounds highly liberal and who's gonna supply bodies for the military?!!!!) Apparently this is modeled after Australia's higher education policies. And we're the leader of the free world? (in bullets and money and milk and honey).

Martyrs Trayvonn. There should be riots. Florida is so beyond the pale. Stand Your Ground, What a concept! Only in this violent land forsaken by God! I live in a strong "Stand Your Ground State" Where everybody can buy a gun and carry concealed without a permit. Taking a pointer from this, I should carry my loaded glock with the safety off and a bullet in the chamber at all times so if anybody impertinently insults me by looking too Republican in their Jaguar, I get to whip it out and empty the clip at them. Republicans are definitely a threat to my safety and well-being and no working-class jury in my state would disagree!!! Hey, this is America. Stand Your Ground! (This is very thinly veiled satire)

Ed Snowden roams the transit lounge at the Moscow Airport like a ghost. Wikki-Leaks and The Guradian have his blueprint of the NSA so in case he is violently taken out the whole thing becomes public. Against international law, the Head Gangster nation USA is violating all kinds of international laws by not allowing safe passage to one of three nations that have offered him asylum. Therefore he has been put in the position of begging Putin for temporary asylum until such time as safe transit can be arranged. Our country is the Mafia Godfather of the world and the rest of the Anglo nations are the Capos. Just thought you might want to know... Are you one of those silly people who are scared shitless of the perceived Muslim threat? If you are, read up and get a life. Nobody else in the rest of the world is buying this crap.

It doesn't matter from which angle I look at the case, I can find no defense for George Zimmerman's actions. He was told by his neighborhood watch group to not carry a firearm; he chose to anyway. On the night of the shooting, he contacted the police about Trayvon and was told to not pursue; he chose to anyway. Maybe Florida really is as backwards as it appears, but, where I come from, when you don't do what the police tells you to do, YOU GO TO JAIL. So how he can be acquitted of not only disregarding neighborhood watch directives but the orders of the police is so far beyond my grasp I'm seeing stars. What kills me the most, though, is all the right-wing gun nuts pumping their fists in the air over the verdict. They keep saying, "This case isn't a race issue!" and ignore the fact that an unarmed 17 year old kid was shot and killed by an adult. An adult who was studying mixed martial arts and was getting his rear end handed to him by a kid almost half his age. If the trial isn't about race, why does no one care that Trayvon's dead? Oh, wait, because he's black! Stand your ground? More like save your ass....

Obama had his show trial. The prosecutor reached too high (should have been a lesser charge, at least to convict, certainly not for real justice.) The judge gave impossible instructions for the jury to convict on manslaughter or, more correctly, 2nd degree murder. That is justice in Florida and America. If I was a juror I would have hung that jury even if the judge deprived me of food until a verdict. Civil damages are not enough! Martin's family deserves justice!

Take the British Open. You can do it, think I'll sit the monsoon out today and watch the open from hotel room here in Kathmandu.

Headline from USA Today: "Pressure builds on Weiner to quit NYC mayor's race"

You may have a differing view than others about whether Manning and Snowden were traitors to their country. You may believe they deserve long jail sentences for their acts of what some consider to be civil disobedience. I guess it depends on whether you believe we have a moral imperative to act in the face of of governmental "over-stepping" their responsibility to protect out rights to privacy (Snowden) and our right to know when our government acts in a way they may offend our morals and and religious beliefs during a time of war (Manning). What cannot be disputed is the chill being sent out but the Obama Administration to silence any of it's critics by vigorous prosecution of even whistle-blowers. I don't remember the exact number but the espionage act of 1910(?) had something like 7 prosecutions before Obama and now there have been something like nine more under his administration. The government will always find another enemy for us to be afraid of. The current effort to silence anybody who disagrees with their methods is odious. The Bill Of Rights is being torn asunder. What does the bumper sticker say? If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention? Shut up, be silent, consume without question