Samuel Knight

I, for one, have been glued to the news about NSA surveillance, and personally think Glenn Greenwald has done Americans a massive service. We deserve to know what a state of permanent asymmetrical war looks like, particularly considering how federal officials have come to view dissenting voices and journalists since the attacks of September 11, […]

*Another minor occurrence in the NSA surveillance scandal: Facebook, Microsoft, and Google were given permission last night to publish information about how many national security letters they receive under FISA and the PATRIOT Act, and vague details about the justification behind the secretive subpoenas. Facebook said it received 9,000-10,000 NSL requests from federal, state, and […]

*Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble said in today’s Financial Times that an E.U. wide bailout agency and emergency fund isn’t workable under current European law because the supranational organization lacks “coercive means to enforce decisions.” Good luck getting the British to agree to that. Two ministers in David Cameron’s cabinet recently said that they would […]

Another day, another shooting; this one in New Orleans. Here’s part of the report from the AP: Gunmen opened fire as dozens of people marched in a Mother’s Day second-line parade in New Orleans on Sunday, wounding at least 12 people, police said. Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas told reporters that a 10-year-old girl grazed by […]

The New Yorker published what seems like a very solid piece on Pakistan’s election yesterday. I choose my words carefully here, because I am no Pakistan expert. But journalist Basharat Peer imparts upon the reader the significance of the vote and how it represents real progress in an often chaotic nation, while choosing not to […]

What’s particularly irritating about Republicans’ recent rage parade is not that the Obama administration is necessarily without fault in both the Benghazi affair and the recent revelations about IRS investigations of “tea party” and “patriot” groups. It’s that Republicans are comporting themselves as if a cursory knowledge of recent history and elementary Googling couldn’t prove […]

*Happy Mothers’ Day, maybe — the U.S. is one of the worst places in the industrialized world to be a mother. That is, at least, according to a report published earlier this week by Save The Children. The NGO based its index on “the lifetime risk of maternal death, the under-five mortality rate, years of […]

*Nicolas Maduro, Hugo Chavez’s former deputy, is expect to win today’s snap presidential election in Venezuela. *The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute is reporting that world military spending fell in 2012 – the first time it has dropped since 1998. Sadly, the decline doesn’t appear the case of nations deciding to beat swords into plowshares. […]

Over the past few days, House Republicans have been queuing up to take the stage at the Institute of Derp to grandstand about the alleged media cover-up of the gruesome details of the Kermit Gosnell trial. In an interview with The Hill published this afternoon, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said “the fact [this case] has […]

Worried about the heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula? Well, worry no more. It was announced yesterday that we’ll soon have a Worm in North Korea. Kind of. NBA legend Dennis Rodman is going back to North Korea! The Worm materialized at a charity gala tonight in Miami Beach, and announced he is heading back […]