Congress Readies Cybersecurity Bill ‘Gutted’ Of Privacy Safeguards

Groups Cry Foul as Congress Readies ‘Super Bill of Pure Terribleness’.

Nadia Prupis
By Nadia Prupis
Homeland Security logo

Close to 20 civil liberties organizations on Wednesday issued a letter urging U.S. lawmakers to oppose a controversial surveillance bill after the release of its final text revealed any previous privacy protections from prior drafts had been "gutted." "The final version of this bill is an insult to the public and puts all of us in greater danger

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Congress Seeks To Privatize Space With ‘Off-Planet’ Mining Bill

Extraterrestrial ‘Finders Keepers’ law allows US citizens and companies to legally claim ‘abiotic’ natural resources including water and minerals.

Deirdre Fulton
By Deirdre Fulton
Asteroid Ida and its moon. (Photo: NASA APPEL/flickr/cc)

In a bipartisan bid to encourage commercial exploitation of outer space, the U.S. Senate this week unanimously passed the Space Act of 2015, which grants U.S. citizens or corporations the right to legally claim non-living natural resources—including water and minerals—mined in the final frontier. The legislation—described by IGN's Jenna Pitcher

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Big Ag Is Big Money For Congress: Monsanto Spends $2.5M Lobbying In 2015

Monsanto hired notorious lobbying firm WilliamHale, featured in the film “A Civil Action” for defending the right of a corporation to pollute the water supply of a Massachusetts town.

Kit O'Connell
By Kit O'Connell
Hugh Grant, right, Monsanto chairman and chief executive officer, speaks with Mo. Gov. Jay Nixon next to a 3D agricultural chalk art piece at Monsanto's Chesterfield Village Research Center expansion groundbreaking on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013 in Chesterfield, Mo. The event commemorated the $400 million expansion which is expected to create 675 new jobs in St. Louis over the next three years. (Whitney Curtis / AP Images for Monsanto Co.)

WASHINGTON --- Monsanto spends millions of its billions of dollars in annual revenue on lobbying and hiring some of Washington’s most notorious firms to ensure that laws continue to favor the agribusiness giant’s profits. OpenSecrets.org, a project of the Center For Responsive Politics, reported that, as of July 21, Monsanto had already spent

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Don’t Be Fooled By The Political Game: The Illusion Of Freedom In America

“Being a citizen in the American corporate state is much like playing against a stacked deck: you’re always going to lose.”

John Whitehead
By John Whitehead
Americans Don’t Think for Themselves

“The shaping of the will of Congress and the choosing of the American president has become a privilege reserved to the country’s equestrian classes, a.k.a. the 20% of the population that holds 93% of the wealth, the happy few who run the corporations and the banks, own and operate the news and entertainment media, compose the laws and govern the

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Obama Gives Iran Hawks The Smackdown: ‘They Bungled Iraq, and They’ve Learned Nothing

President Obama argues for diplomacy with Iran by reminding everyone of his detractors’ biggest failure.

Salon
By Salon

President Obama has not exactly been patient with Congress when it comes to the multilateral diplomatic framework with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. After the agreement was announced last week, Obama called a press conference and used the event to methodically rip apart each argument critics have deployed against the deal. Time and again he

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Mailman Faces Felony Charges For Delivering Protest Letters Via Gyrocopter To Congress

The pilot, Doug Hughes, turned down a plea deal at a recent hearing, saying he wouldn’t accept jail time for an act of civil disobedience designed to highlight corporate corruption.

Kit O'Connell
By Kit O'Connell
Carrying an umbrella that says "shame" on it, Douglas Hughes of Florida arrives at federal court in Washington

WASHINGTON --- Doug Hughes made international headlines in April, when he landed a gyrocopter, a miniature personal helicopter he’s described as barely larger than a “flying bicycle,” on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol. Government officials considered the action a threat to national security, but Hughes argues he was simply trying to deliver the

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