Sen. Tester all but supporting Snowden leak. “First of all, Snowden probably shouldn’t have done what he did. But the fact of the matter is is I don’t see how that compromises the security of this country whatsoever. And quite frankly, it helps people like me become aware of a situation that I wasn’t aware of before because I don’t sit on that Intelligence Committee.” Read.
GOP Rep. returns to always successful efforts to discuss pros and cons of rape.
I’m late to this. But I hadn’t heard the plans to build a new Central American canal – through Nicaragua and funded by a Chinese consortium – are so far advanced. Amazing mix of issues of engineering, geography, faltering US economic clout and political initiative, China’s economic rise and the long memory of Daniel Ortega.
We’ve got a lot going on at the moment in this country. And with our small staff, there’s always only a limited number of stories we can focus on in any depth. With that said, I’ve been watching the situation in Turkey very closely and with mounting concern. We’re going to try to give the situation at least somewhat more attention today, even with these other stories unfolding. But we are watching and I’m very curious to get reader tips, comment and pointers on how the story is unfolding.
What the extradition procedures look like in Hong Kong and how the US might actually be able to get around them.
Like the OJ Simpson trial almost twenty years ago, there are some public events which not only divide people but divide you against people you didn’t expect to be divided against. As a Republican you may be used to disagreeing with Democrats and vice versa. But with these other kinds of public events you have the shock of realizing you had very different sets of assumptions or even values than people you were used to agreeing with. I’m not sure of how TPM Readers in general feel about the Snowden story. But there’s no question that a lot of readers are surprised and in many cases angry about what I’ve written on the subject. Read More
Not totally surprising but worth noting. The GOP antis on the immigration bill appear to be writing off the Senate as a place to stop or significantly change the bill. They’ll try to kill it in the House.
Sen. Franken defends NSA program, says “This is not about spying on the American people.”
Google is asking the federal government for permission to reveal how much information they’re compelled to release to the NSA and other US intelligence agencies.