Hot Policy Wonks For The Democrats: The New Realists Michèle Flournoy hardly seems like a renegade. As president of the Center for a New American Security, she and her colleagues have assigned themselves the modest-sounding mission of coming up with a pragmatic foreign policy platform for the next president. But within the progressive foreign policy establishment, this makes them revolutionaries. “Part of what we’re saying is, let’s have some clear-eyed analysis based on the facts,” said Ms. Ms. It’s a genuine clash of worldviews, and it’s just beginning. “The biggest cleavage in the Democratic Party is over America’s role in the world,” said Kenneth Baer, a co-founder of the quarterly publication Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, and a former speechwriter for Al Gore’s presidential campaign. For years, top Democratic advisers on foreign policy have been drawn from the neoliberal or “Wilsonian” school. Ms. As Ms.
Senti-meter - Data Desk - The Envelope Check out the vox pop on your favorite (and least favorite) stars and films ahead of the 84th Academy Awards. Is Tinseltown in tune with, or out of touch with, movie fans? Credits: Armand Emamdjomeh, Stephanie Ferrell, Julie Makinen, Paul Olund, Anthony Pesce, Ken Schwencke and Ben Welsh. Interactive graphic by Thomas Suh Lauder Demián Bichir 848 tweets Sample tweets: RT @altfilmguide: "you gave a voice to the voiceless" Natalie Portman on Demian Bichir/A BETTER LIFE. My highlights were Octavia spencer winning, circus de sole act, and Demian Bichir being nominated... Demian Bichir got snubbed! George Clooney 2,474 tweets The Descendants and George Clooney are still the best in my mind. Not impressed at the fact George Clooney didn't win Best Actor Nothing against George Clooney - except his fame, wealth and good looks - but glad the Oscars showed you can't buy a statue with ads in NYT. Matt Damon 172 tweets Leonardo DiCaprio 176 tweets Jean Dujardin 9,708 tweets Michael Fassbender 106 tweets 78 tweets Hugo
On State Secrets, Why Didn't The Administration Seek A Continuance? - The Atlantic Politics Channel Of all the responses to the administration's endorsement of the state secrets privilege in Mohamed et. al. v. Jeppesen, one question pops out: why, if the administration were simply overwhelmed with information, didn't they just ask the court of appeals to give them some more time? Even if denied, it would signal their intention to review the government's strategy and the facts of the case. Wouldn't it be a costless legal move? It's a valid question. Read on. The answer, I take it, is not going to satisfy critics, but here it is, based on discussions with administration officials and outside experts: Mohamed v. Clearly, the Obama Administration does not believe that the state secrets privilege ought to be taken out of the government's tool box when facing civil suits. A further objection: why do my sources claim that the reason they invoked the privilege was to give them more time to figure everything out? Three responses. So where does this leave the policy itself?
Fighting Facebook, a Campaign for a People’s Terms of Service Reuters Facebook is on the defensive again. Members of the social networking site sued the company for co-opting their identities in online ads, and Facebook agreed to revise its “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities” and offer a $20 million settlement. The case has drawn less attention than the dorm disputes portrayed in The Social Network, but the impact is far wider. While a few of the particulars here are new—filtered photos or copyrightable tweets—the legal dilemma is actually very old. In return for driving the profits of social media companies, users get free software. This is a classic example of form contract abuse—when a single, powerful party pushes a contract onto a disparate group of other parties. Think of that cellphone contract you didn’t read, or the waiver you must sign to go river-rafting. The problem, however, extends beyond the ruthless profitability imperative. The impact of boilerplate is especially acute for minors. So, what is the best way forward?
What's your perfect fitting top, skirt and dress on the highstreet? | News Last month, I was browsing the LK Bennett sales, and picked up an indigo pleated skirt in what I vaguely hoped would be the right size. But as I headed for the changing room, I had a feeling it would be too small. And as I struggled with the zip, I raged for the millionth time that a size 10 should be a size 10. As everyone who's ever bought clothes knows, high-street sizing is completely mad. I collected the official size data published by many different stores - LK Bennett, like many others, publishes its sizes online. My app lets you put in your measurements (bust, waist and hips) in inches and cm and see your most perfect fit in tops, skirts and dresses at shops from ASOS to Zara. I tested the app with friends, and while some felt that fit also depends on fabric and cut, we were all interested to see the variation between shops - "I knew M&S sizes were large!" The data I collected confirms that sizing is indeed madness. Data summary Download the data More data World government data
Charges Against the N.S.A.’s Thomas Drake On June 13th, a fifty-four-year-old former government employee named Thomas Drake is scheduled to appear in a courtroom in Baltimore, where he will face some of the gravest charges that can be brought against an American citizen. A former senior executive at the National Security Agency, the government’s electronic-espionage service, he is accused, in essence, of being an enemy of the state. According to a ten-count indictment delivered against him in April, 2010, Drake violated the Espionage Act—the 1917 statute that was used to convict Aldrich Ames, the C.I.A. officer who, in the eighties and nineties, sold U.S. intelligence to the K.G.B., enabling the Kremlin to assassinate informants. In 2007, the indictment says, Drake willfully retained top-secret defense documents that he had sworn an oath to protect, sneaking them out of the intelligence agency’s headquarters, at Fort Meade, Maryland, and taking them home, for the purpose of “unauthorized disclosure.”
Declassified CIA Docs: Cheney is a Flagrant Liar The National Security Archive has obtained through a FOIA request newly released CIA documents pertaining to 9/11 . There do not appear to be any great revelations in the release, although one of them further illustrates what a liar former Vice President Dick Cheney is. The fact that the Bush administration, and Dick Cheney in particular, actively promoted the falsehood that Saddam Hussein was somehow tied to al-Qaeda and the attacks of September 11th is at this point uncontroversial. Two months after the 9/11 attacks, on December 9, 2001, Dick Cheney went on Meet the Press and, when asked by Tim Russert whether “Iraq was involved in September 11,” mentioned a “report that’s been pretty well confirmed , that [9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta] did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack.” MR.
Which drug do you take? US and the UK compared by the global drug survey | Society Which drugs do people take? The Guardian/Mixmag survey is one attempt to explain the facts behind this controversial issue - which sees users claim that more of them use cannabis than energy drinks. Conducted by Global Drug Survey, we wanted to know which drugs people take, how often and why. The survey of 15,500 people studied a wide range of illict and legal substances, from alcohol and cannabis to cocaine and MDMA - as well as newer drugs such as mephedrone and synthetic cannabis. The answers came from countries around the world, mostly the UK and US. • fifth of young drug users admit to taking "mystery white powders" without any idea what they contain - 15% of overall respondents say they have taken a unknown white powder in the last 12 months, a third admitting its was supplied by someone they didn't trust. This is how we animated the results: Compare drug use - and drugs - by country About the survey The survey was promoted online by the Guardian and Mixmag and via social media.