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REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons

NSA, Syria, Iran, Occupy, surveillance and more ...

REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons

SUNDAY

Quote of the Day
June 9, 2013

'I wouldn't rely on Congress to keep things under control. It's really up to the president. As a candidate, Obama looked as if he would be great at riding herd on the N.S.A.'s excesses. But if he has ever seriously pushed back on the spy set, it's been kept a secret. Meanwhile, the administration scarfs up reporters' e-mails and phone records in its obsessive war against leaks.'

Columnist Gail Collins
New York Times
June 8, 2013

Toon of the Day

http://www.alternet.org/files/tmw2013-06-12colorlarge.jpg
Outraged
Stuart Carlson


MONDAY

Quote of the Day

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'But really what the people of Syria and the world want and many have demanded, is for the U.S. and its Western allies - the minority who make up 10% of the world but pretend to be the world - to intervene into their own societies who are experiencing their own humanitarian crisis brought on by a moribund capitalism and leave the rest of the world alone.'
 

Ajamu Baraka,founding Director
of the US Human Rights Network,
currently an Associate Fellow
at the Institute for Policy
Studies.

Foreign Policy in Focus
June 10, 2013Toon of the Day

Toon of the Day

http://media.cagle.com/46/2013/06/06/132824_600.jpg
Cyberspies
Jimmy Margulies


TUESDAY

Quote of the Day

'This not only about data protection, this is about democracy and the rule of law, which cannot be in line with mass surveillance of citizens around the world. I would like to agree on standards with the US but we need legislative changes on the other side of the Atlantic too.'
 

Philipp Albrecht, German member
of the Green group in the European
Parliament

EU News
June 11, 2013

Toon of the Day

http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/properties/signe/art_images/cg51b694908b9ff.jpg
Open and Closed
Signe Wilkinson


WEDNESDAY

Quote of the Day

' Perhaps the lack of a broader sense of alarm is not all that surprising when President Obama, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, and intelligence officials insist that such surveillance is crucial to the nation's antiterrorism efforts.

'But Americans should not be fooled by political leaders putting forward a false choice. The issue is not whether the government should vigorously pursue terrorists. The question is whether the security goals can be achieved by less-intrusive or sweeping means, without trampling on democratic freedoms and basic rights. Far too little has been said on this question by the White House or Congress in their defense of the N.S.A.'s dragnet. '

Editorial
New York Times
June 12, 2013

Toon of the Day

http://media.cagle.com/89/2013/06/10/132953_600.jpg
Google or Not
David Fitzsimmons


THURSDAY

Quote of the Day

' In the post-war economic boom years, prosperity and the giving hand of social welfare went a long way to closing the gap between rich and poor in Western democracies. But since the 1970s - or the 1980s at the latest - the gulf has been widening again. That doesn't mean the societies in question are home to rampant poverty, but that many people - those with minimum qualifications and training, and who often work in the service industry with no job security - are running on the spot. And as they run, others, such as academics and the self- employed are striding ahead, and incomes and fortunes at the very top of society reach unimaginable proportions.

'If one were to imagine the social structure of a society as a pyramid, it would be like watching the tip grow ever higher. The Occupy movement fights against this small minority at the very pinnacle of society; against the 1 percent that has cut free from the other 99 percent, yet which still rules over its fortunes.

'It is not only a matter of social inequality and justice, but of power and political dominance. That the Occupy movement bangs its drum in the name of democracy is no coincidence, for democracy means equality, equal rights and influence. An elite leadership will undermine the credibility of democratic institutions, including elections and parliament, if the global dominance of the very capital that politicians push about at will has not already done so.'

Paul Nolte, professor of history at
the Free University of Berlin
Deutsche Welle
June 13, 2013

Toon of the Day

http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ucomics.com/tt130613.gif
Out of Control
Tom Toles - Washington Post


FRIDAY

Quote of the Day

'Iran's presidential election on June 14 will be neither free nor fair. The candidates on the ballot have been preselected in a politically motivated vetting process that has little purpose other than ensuring the election of a compliant president who will be loyal to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Regardless of the outcome of the vote, the most urgent challenge for both the next president and Ayatollah Khamenei will be to confront a rising tide of discontent resulting from a rapidly deteriorating economic situation.'

Mansour Osanloo, former president
of the Tehran Bus Drivers Union,
imprisoned by the Iranian
government from 2006 to 2011

New York Times
June 14, 2013

Toon of the Day

http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ucomics.com/po130614.gif
Booz and Allen
Pat Oliphant


SATURDAY

Quote of the Day

' Mr. Obama has also come under increasing attack from a small number of American politicians, including former President Bill Clinton, who this week said Mr. Obama risks looking "lame" for not doing more to help the rebels. It was a cheap shot leveled at an event hosted by Sen. John McCain, Republican of Arizona, a leading advocate of aggressive action in Syria. It is irresponsible for critics like Mr. McCain and Mr. Clinton to fault Mr. Obama without explaining how the United States can change the course of that brutal civil war without being dragged too far into it.

'Like most Americans, we are deeply uneasy about getting pulled into yet another war in the Middle East. Those urging stronger action seemed to have learned nothing from the past decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which has sapped the United States and has produced results that are ambiguous at best. '

Editorial
New York Times
June 15, 2013

Toon of the Day

http://www.alternet.org/files/tmw2013-06-12colorlarge.jpg

NRA - Five Stages
Tom Tomorrow