Let Them Hear You. Rock Their World.

Source: barackobama

citizensfortaxjustice:

Why George W. Bush was the real winner of the fiscal cliff deal.

thepoliticalnotebook:

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

• The UN death toll estimate for Syria is over 60,000 now.
• Freelance journalist James Foley has been missing in Syria since Thanksgiving Day, having been abducted by gunmen in Syria’s northwest. His family has just this week gone public with his abduction and a plea for his release.
• US troops have arrived at the Turkey-Syria border to man Patriot missile defense batteries.
• The war for neutral reporting in Syria.
• Turkey has begun discussion of disarmament with Kurdish rebel leaders.
• There were 17 US drone strikes in Yemen in 2011 and 54 in 2012.
• An excellent drone strike/Yemen interactive by Azmat Khan on PBS Frontline, freshly updated.
• Israel has completed most of its border fence with Egypt.
• Mohannad Sanir, an Egyptian activist, was shot by unknown assailants while in Tahrir Square and has been declared clinically dead.
• A dispatch from Yasmine El-Rashidi at the NYRB on Egyptian politics. 
• Satirical Egyptian television host Bassem Youssef, who has drawn comparisons to Jon Stewart, is facing investigation based on alleged insults to President Morsy. 
• Rebels in the Central African Republic have halted their advance and agreed to peace talks. 
• The M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been placed under UN sanctions.
• Two Jordanian peacekeepers who were kidnapped in Darfur four months ago have been freed.
• Large protests in western Iraq in the primarly Sunni-populated province of Anbar have blocked off a highway between Jordan and Iraq. Demonstrators are turning out against PM Nouri al-Maliki and what they say is sectarian, anti-Sunni activity.
• Iran claims to have captured two small US RQ-11 drones.
• Gen. John Allen has outlined post-2014 options for the US in Afghanistan.
• In the process of withdrawing from Afghanistan, 2014 has echoes of 1989.
• The Taliban are designing new forms of reprisal for drone strikes.
• Hakimullah Mehsud, chief of the Pakistani Taliban, has said that the group will negotiate but will not disarm.
• High-level Pakistani militant commander Maulvi Nazir, also known as Mullah Nazir, was killed along with other deputies (the number is variable by report) in a drone strike.
• Iran tested a new generation of surface-to-air missiles during naval drills.
• Myanmar admitted to having conducted air strikes against the Kachin rebels in the north.
• 13 Colombian FARC rebels were killed in a military airstrike during ongoing peace negotiations.
• Abid Naseer, accused of being the leader of an Al Qaeda plot to attack Manchester, has been extradited to the US.
• A New York district court has rejected the ACLU/NYTimes Freedom of Information Act Request for documents related to the criteria for targeted killings. The judge ruled that while she thought that the information about drone strikes ought to be public, the government had not violated FOIA in its refusal to turn over the information.
• The Washington Post reports on rendition practices under the Obama administration.
• The Senate passed a five year reauthorization of the FISA Amendments Act, which allows for warrantless wiretapping (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act).
• The $633bn defense authorization bill was signed into law by Obama Wednesday, despite the administration’s objections to a number of key components of the legislation.
• The Senate plans to probe interaction between the CIA and “Zero Dark Thirty” filmmakers.
• John Sheardown, the Canadian immigration officer who helped shelter and smuggle 6 Americans out of Iran during the hostage crisis in 1980, has died at 88.

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Photo: Aleppo, Syria. A rebel fighter mourns his dead and missing friends after a bombing. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad.

(via thepoliticalnotebook)

azspot:

And You Wonder Why We’re Broke?

OUT with Secrecy and IN with Sunshine

govtoversight:

Let’s start the New Year with changes to how the federal government thinks about transparency.

I cannot wait to see what you accomplish next!

Look at the election through several perspectives:

barackobama:

In which President Obama geeks out a little bit about early voting.

You. Must. Vote.

Hank Green gives beautiful reasons why everyone should vote.