Dirty Wars Nominated for Best Documentary Oscar

War is a dirty thing. It always has been and it will continue to be. The fact alone that all wars are fought because of greed or hate is inherently a terrible thing. So, to talk about covert warfare as if it were a shocking and wrong is almost silly, yet here we are.

ACLU v. Clapper Case Dismissed, NSA Continues Bulk Collection

IMAGE: Electronic Frontier Foundation

In June, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought a case against James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, questioning the legality of the NSA’s programs to spy on the American people and collect and store bulk information for future use. ACLU v. Clapper was made possible after Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA.

Amy Goodman on Independent News

I recently attended the Los Angeles Green Festival, an event showcasing eco-friendly concepts from sustainable food to hemp clothing to electric cars.

As a blogger/journalist, the highlight of the event for me was a talk by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! about her new book, The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope, a collection of  weekly column pieces co-authored with Denis Moynihan. As you may know from my Ladybud article on Pacifica Radio, I believe independent reporting is a must, and once again Goodman backed up my belief with eloquence.

Goodman began her lecture with a bang, explaining her honest belief that people who care about social issues like climate change, wealth disparity, and a broken prison system “are not a fringed minority, not even a silent majority. But a silenced majority.” According to Goodman, this silencing is coming from the corporate media, and control over media must taken back by the public.

REVIEW: Blackfish – An Inside Look At Killer Whales In Captivity At SeaWorld

When I was a kid I loved SeaWorld. Watching animal shows and hoping to get splashed was the best part, of course. The trainers would talk about the orca as if they loved to do these shows, that this behavior was normal for them in the wild. So, when I went into this film, the child in me was devastated to find out that this amazing show was a farce.

Blackfish is a documentary that takes a hard look into the reality of orca’s (a.k.a. Killer Whales) lives in captivity. The film begins with a rough looking fisherman almost breaking down in tears talking about the capture expedition he went on in 1983. In this expedition, they captured a baby orca, named Tilikum, off the coast of Iceland.

How the GOP Created Obamacare

With the next stages of the Affordable Healthcare Act being implemented and the recent GOP caused government shutdown, once again Republicans are fighting to repeal their much despised Obamacare. What is amazing about the Republican push against Obamacare is that in the 1990s, they were calling for the very system we are currently implementing.

In the 1990s, Hillary Clinton introduced a healthcare plan that sent Republican’s into a frenzy, the Health Security Act of 1993. They attacked Clinton’s proposal, claiming that their system would be better served for all Americans. But, the fight wasn’t against universal health care but how best to implement it.

Who Was Che Guevara?

Published on the 46th Anniversary of his death.

To heal life or to take life. 

What took a doctor and turned him into a revolutionary, a famous icon, and a so-called murderer? Who was this legend and why is he everywhere?

Ernesto Guevara was born in Argentina, June 14, 1928. By the age of three he had developed asthma that would haunt him for his entire life. For much of his early childhood, he was home schooled because of his asthma and spent many days in bed just trying to breathe. Ironically, he was spared from serving in the Argentinian military due to this severe health condition.

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning Found Innocent Of Aiding The Enemy, Guilty Of 19 Other Counts

After an eight-week trial, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning has been found guilty of 19 out of 22 criminal counts, including five counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917, five counts of theft, one count computer fraud and some other military infractions, but was acquitted of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy. If given the maximum sentence he could spend 136 years in prison.

Manning was responsible for hundreds of thousands of documents leaked to the news organization WikiLeaks, including the well-known “Collateral Murder” video, where a US helicopter shot down one Reuter’s journalist and two camera men, along with hitting a van who stopped to aid the wounded, injuring two children and killing the father. Eleven people were killed in total.

Edward Snowden: Why You Should Know His Name

Sunday, June 9th the Guardian posted yet another article on the ongoing exposure of the overwhelming National Security Administration’s (NSA) PRISM program. This time it was not just a piece about the NSA, but about the whistleblower behind the leak, Edward Snowden.

[Originally published in Ladybud Magazine here: Edward Snowden: Why You Should Know His Name]

Snowden is a 29-year-old infrastructure analyst who, until recently, worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a contracting company providing the NSA with intelligence. He was exposed to a multitude of information that allowed him to piece together what the NSA was doing in regards to the surveillance of the American people, claiming he could wiretap even the President with access to a personal email address, and with his accumulating knowledge began to feel uncomfortable with what he concluded to be the NSA’s abuse of power.