Here is some stuff in the news today!
The Spanish government has asked for the US ambassador to Spain to account for reports that the NSA spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain. What a fucking embarrassment.
Juan Cole: "Among the founding principles of the United States was 'no taxation without representation.' But the NSA appears to be a secret kingdom that appropriates our money with no oversight or accountability. We didn't elect it, and if it doesn't let our chosen representatives know what it is up to, then it is taxing us without giving us any representation. It is a tyrant. It is an ominous homunculus within the body politic. Secrecy is anathema to a democratic republic. If we ever had one, it is long gone."
Meanwhile, the trial of Rebekah Brooks and her colleagues employed by conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch, resulting from the phone hacking scandal at the now defunct British tabloid News of the World, begins this week. Seems kind of horrifyingly quaint post-Snowden.
Republican Senator Lindsay Graham is "threatening to block every single nomination from the Obama administration until he gets what he wants on Benghazi." I don't have enough sighs in my lifetime for this guy.
[CN: Misogyny] Whenever some d-bag like Richard Dawkins asserts that feminism and Islam are incompatible, I think of Saudi women's driving campaign: "Saudi women demanding the right to drive said they would keep up their campaign a day after government warnings and a heavy police presence thwarted their call for many women to get behind the wheel." Brave, brave women.
Surprise: The US pays more for broadband because of corporate monopolies. Thanks for busting those antitrust laws, President Reagan!
There were two digital shorts on SNL this weekend that were pretty darn funny.
RIP Lou Reed.
RIP Marcia Wallace.
This is your regularly scheduled reminder that not everyone wants to get married. The neat thing about opening up choice is that the spectrum of choices becomes ever more evident.
I mean, once cats and dogs start teaming up, it's all over for humans.
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