Portside

Tomgram: As Christopher Calabrese and Matthew Harwood indicate today, however, gigantic as the NSA’s intrusions on privacy might be, they are only part of an uncomfortably large story in which many U.S. agencies and outfits feel free to take possession of our lives in ever more technologically advanced and intrusive ways.

Has the younger generation lost its moral compass? No. In my view, just the opposite. Clearly, there is a moral principle at work in the actions of the leakers, whistle-blowers and hacktivists and those who support them. I would also argue that that moral principle has been clearly articulated, and it may just save us from a dystopian future.

"Wadjda" director Haifaa Al Mansour talks about her groundbreaking film and watching the Coen Brothers as a kid in Saudi Arabia.

Over 200,000 workers in Bangaldesh entered a third days of strikes, demanding the minimum wage be raised from the current 3,000 takas ($38) to 8,114 takas ($100).

"We are engaging the people of NC, unifying our voice and banding together to initiate change. We want more respect for teachers." http://ncteacherwalkout.weebly.com/get-organized.html

If you ever had any doubt that Michigan has been taken over by a group of dangerous, radical extremists, what happened in Detroit on September 11th, 2013 should be enough to wake you up. On September 12th, 2013, Bill Nowling casually stated that the city’s power outages were intentional to “send a message” to the people of Detroit. Many believe the deliberate power outage was carried out because Orr’s office has been pushing for the privatization of the city power grid.

The bill that was finally approved with virtually no debate in either the Assembly or the Senate or among the public is now a 39-page radical overhaul of the election code, rewriting, repealing or otherwise amending well over 70 sections, including doing away with the requirement that all e-voting systems be federally tested and certified before being considered for use in the state and allowing for new, uncertified e-voting systems to be used in "pilot programs."

Troy Davis was convicted and executed for the killing of the off duty police officer, Mark MacPhail. The prosecution's case rested entirely on witness testimony but seven of the nine non-police witnesses have said they were coerced by police and since recanted their testimony. Nine witnesses also implicated another man in the murder, one of the remaining witnesses who has not recanted, Sylvester "Red" Coles as the shooter.