Obama Feeling Pressure From The People About The NSA?

So the New York Times reports that President Obama apparently is finally taking a serious look into the NSA's spy and bulk collection program and end it! Whoa! This is huge news. 

Two Thousand and Thirteen or Nineteen Eighty-Four?

A few months ago I had the urge to once again read George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. I was shocked at the staunch parallels with today’s society that I found within. While my head was buried in my book, Edward Snowden began leaking the NSA files he gathered while working as a contractor. The timing was surreal. If you haven't read Nineteen Eighty-Four, or like me, you haven't read it in a long time, let me refresh your memory. You’ve likely heard the concept of Big Brother, the watchful eye of an oppressive government, but that is just a portion of this amazing novel by the author of Animal Farm.

George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1949 and used Stalin controlled Soviet Russia and wartime London as inspiration for a dysfunctional future setting. While his main objective may have been to discredit Communism through metaphor, the similarities to U.S. modern society are still striking.

The book begins with protagonist Winston Smith returning home from work. He describes his stark surroundings and mundane routine. In a state of constant war, all material items are rationed and simple things like coffee and chocolate are luxuries of the past. Buildings with “their sides shored up with balks of timber, their windows patched with cardboard and their roofs with corrugated iron” line the streets of London. The description of London reminds me of the terrible photos of bankrupt Detroit, decrepit and run down.

More Revelations From Edward Snowden

PHOTO: Mad Magazine

Almost four months ago, I wrote an article explaining why it was important to understand who Edward Snowden was and what he had done. At the time, I thought his exposure of NSA secrets would fade in the minds of the general public, much like Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, has seemed to do.

While Glenn Greenwald and the Guardian continue to expose more and more astounding disregard for the 1st and 4th Amendment, I thought it was only right to expand on my earlier article and include the new revelations that have since been revealed.

When Snowden’s name first popped up in the news, there was much speculation about whether what he was saying was true, and if so, if it was deemed acceptable by the American public or a gross violation of our basic rights as Americans.

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.