Privacy Disappears in the Prism

Alfredo Lopez Portside
In an example of "things getting worse quickly", the stunning Prism revelations actually eclipsed a story released Wednesday about the NSA collecting the phone records of tens of millions of Americans. Progressive movements have also been reluctant to take this privacy issue on as a priority. It's not clear what we've been waiting for but it's clear we can wait no longer. We need to take back what we've lost, before it becomes impossible to do so.

Friday Nite Videos -- June 7, 2013

Portside
Springsteen, Fogarty: Fortunate Son. Landfill Harmonic Orchestra. Movie: We Steal Secrets. Michele Bachmann's Last Term. Ice Age Art. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Hear Ye, Future Deep Throats: This Is How to Leak to the Press

Nicholas Weaver Wired
We now live in a world where public servants informing the public about government behavior or wrongdoing must practice the tradecraft of drug dealers and spies. Otherwise, these informants could get caught in the web of administrations that view George Orwell’s 1984 as an operations manual.

The End of the Solid South?

Chris Kromm The Institute for Southern Studies
Chris Kromm and Sue Sturgis at the Institute for Southern Studies argue in the latest issue of The American Prospect that a state can become both more progressive and more conservative at the same time, and that is actually happening in North Carolina -- creating an especially turbulent moment in the state's political history.

The Landfill Harmonic Orchestra

True, amazing and inspirational story of a group of children from a Paraguayan slum who play instruments made entirely of garbage.

Movie: We Steal Secrets

Academy Award-winning documentary filmaker Alex Gibney details the creation of Julian Assange's controversial website WikiLeaks, which facilitated the largest security breach in U.S. history.