FDL’ers: Usually I cross-post from my Newsvandal blog, but my last two stories were written as original pieces, one for BuzzFlash and one for Robert Parry’s Consortiumnews. Both are on the subtle partnerships behind the scenes of U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Russia. The visible maneuvering over Crimea and the

Austin, Texas is preparing to host a rock star. The ACLU’s Blog of Rights announced today that Edward Snowden is going to appear at Austin’s famous festival via live video at SXSW Interactive. SXSW is heavily attended by music and film industries, but Austin is also a fast-growing tech hub, a

We like Edward Snowden and his broadside against the NSA’s Secret Squirrel State. We are glad that DNI James “the Clapper” Clapper is moaning that the NSA can’t stop another Snowden from blowing their cover. And we really like Glenn Greenwald for speaking truth to power, and for leveraging those

What happens when a war ends and an army comes home? It’s been a vexing problem for centuries. After completing the long Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th Century, a newly-united Spain turned its attention and its Conquistadors toward the New World. At the end of the Civil

Last year, government contracting behemoth Boeing paid an effective tax rate of -1.4%. Yes, you read that correctly—negative 1.4%. According to a new report from the Center for Effective Government, one of America’s biggest corporations, with profits ranging from $1.6 to $5.9 billion over the last five years, found ways

Secretary of State John Kerry declared climate change “a threat to national security”and likened it to a “weapon of mass destruction, perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.” His declaration during a speech in Jakarta, Indonesia came on the heels of President Obama’s visit to drought-stricken California to

It’s official—America has finally forgiven France. This is big news, particularly after such a messy break-up over America’s infatuation with remaking the Middle East. That fixation on Iraq turned into an international affair when France spurned America’s proposition and then-President Jacques Chirac refused to get sucked into a morally and

What exactly is al-Qaeda? Is it a group of committed jihadists previously led by Osama bin Laden? Or is it a “brand?” Is the enemy just the so-called “core” al-Qaeda, or is it now an amorphous conglomerate of affiliates, franchisees and enthusiasts? If “core al-Qaeda” is, as Director of National

Americans don’t know much about geography. In 2006, three years into the bloody War on Iraq, 63% of Americans aged 18-24 couldn’t find the “target-rich” nation on a map. To be fair, only half could find New York State on a map, so it is unsurprising that, in spite of

In the interconnected, instantaneous and byte-sized world of internet journalism, both cyber-space and real-time often bend and warp into a self-referential wormhole. And one of those fascinating wormholes just opened on Twitter as super neo-journalist Glenn Greenwald and 9/11 whistleblower Sibel Edmonds exchanged a series of increasingly vitriolic and accusatory