Tom Hayden's Blog, page 29

Big Brother with Big Data

In a development that threatens to haunt the Obama presidency and smother democracy itself, a new surveillance program employing “Big Data” has been exposed by a 29-year old whistleblower, Edward Snowden, hidden for now in Hong Kong. The New York Times has editorialized that President Barack Obama “has lost all credibility on this issue.” Obama himself says he “welcomes” a conversation on the crisis, as he previously has called on Congress to “rein in” his own administration, both signs that the tiger may be riding the president instead of the way he may have intended. 

Can Public Opinion Stop U.S. War in Syria?

We are edging closer to the neo-conservative dream of total conflagration in the Muslim Middle East. Despite only 11 percent public support for US military intervention in Syria, a reluctant President Barack Obama is being pushed into escalation. 

House Overwhelmingly Votes to Speed Afghan Withdrawal

By a 305-121 margin, the House of Representatives voted Thursday to end US troop combat operations in Afghanistan in six months, and require that any post-2014 US military presence be authorized by Congress no later than one year from now, or June 2014. All US forces are currently scheduled to depart by December 31, 2014. 

Jeremy Scahill Deserves Academy Award, Pulitzer

After watching Jeremy Scahill’s film, Dirty Wars, and reading his book of the same name, my considered opinion is that he should be nominated for an Academy Award and considered for a Pulitzer Prize. 

California the Focal Point of Green Revolution

California, under Governor Jerry Brown’s leadership, is playing a pivotal role in the struggle to transform the global economy toward energy conservation and renewables.

Cuban Five's Rene Gonzalez Home in Cuba

Rene Gonzalez, one of the Cuban 5 serving long prison terms for their surveillance of violent anti-Castro exiles in Miami, is home in Havana after 13 years in American prisons and 18 months probation in Miami. On the recommendation of the White House and Justice Department, Gonzalez was released in Havana to serve 18 months of further probation and remain there permanently. A Chicago native, Gonzalez was required to renounce his US citizenship as part of the settlement. 

Can Obama ‘Rein In’ His Presidency?

President Barack Obama’s important speech at the National Defense University on de-escalating his drone war should be seen as a window into the state of play among competing forces in the national security state.

Jerry Brown's Energy Diplomacy

Governor Jerry Brown is accelerating his California energy diplomacy with China as President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping begin private discussions in California this week on managing the two powers’ growing geo-strategic tensions.

For Chandra: A Maid (Made) in Bangladesh

A poem by Charles Pasternack.

Honduran Gangs Launch Truce

The 18th Street and Mara Salvatrucha gangs in Honduras have launched a truce effort modeled on the one-year truce in El Salvador. The gangs, known as “las frutas de las guerras” for their origin in the bloody Central American civil wars during the Reagan era, left a gash across Central America for decades, one caused at first by the US military interventions and later by thousands of deportations of tattooed and traumatized Central American youth back to their countries of origin.