Regulators from the European Union have requested that Google to hold off on rolling out its new privacy policy. In a letter to Google chief executive Larry Page, privacy regulator Jacob Kohnstamm said that European data protection officials would like to examine how the changes to Google’s privacy policy may affect European citizens. He also called for a “pause in the interests of ensuring that there can be no misunderstanding about Google’s commitments to information rights of their users and EU citizens” until the analysis is done. Read full article > >

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EU regulators ask Google to delay new privacy policy

“Be careful what you wish for,” goes the saying. More than a few Republicans are undoubtedly discovering the truth in it. Evil Knievel discovered this in 1974, when he tried to jump across the Snake River Canyon, making him the most famous motorcyclist ever. But back to the Republicans who, like Knievel, made elaborate plans for their daring feat. First, they demanded “conservative” judges who would cut back on government regulations allowing “free” citizens to do what they want. So, President Ronald Reagan and George H. Bush, and then W. nominated five “conservative” Supreme Court judges – Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito and Roberts. Culminating in the ultimate Republican and Neo-Con cout d’etat that equated corporations with people, those judges came together in their Citizens United decision, which opened the floodgates for unlimited, often anonymous cash into the political process by way of super PAC contributions. Then, by weakening or shutting down unions with fervor since 2010 in states including Wisconsin and Florida, Indiana and Ohio, Republican governors and legislators also sought to neutralize their Democratic counterweights. And by restricting voters in over a dozen states via laws mandating photo IDs, shortening early voting, and by threatening, in the name of fighting voter fraud, civic organizations such as the League of Women Voters with fines of $5,000 for registrars who got their paperwork wrong, Republicans sought to further narrow the voting pool. With this three-pronged strategy finally in place, and with the biggest Daddy Warbucks businessman soon to head the Republican ticket, what could go wrong? But this is where the story takes a sad, sad turn. Their plan was that the new money flooding into the political system was supposed to be aimed at Democrats. Instead, it has been spent to attack loyal Republicans. Republicans loaded their guns for Democratic bear – then shot themselves. How could this happen? One of the gazillionaires who was supposed to help fund the coming Republican tsunami decided he did not like a fellow gazillionaire, and instead funded an insurgency to the tune of $10 million in South Carolina and Florida. Even those $10 million, however, were no match for the front-running gazillionaire, who outspent his insurgent rival by 10 to 1 in Iowa. In South Carolina, that same gazillionaire outspent the insurgent by a mere 2 to 1 – and lost. So in Florida, the gazillionaire went all out, spending $15 million for a 4 to 1 advantage, burying his competitor.

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The Coming Republican Civil War

Tells Hispanic crowd the citizenship law is too costly.

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Paul Loves Immigrants, Hates DREAM Act

Tells Hispanic crowd the citizenship law is too costly.

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Paul Loves Immigrants, Hates DREAM Act

A group of four Islamic militants, all of them British citizens, admitted on Wednesday to a conspiracy to place a bomb in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange.

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Militants Admit Plan to Bomb London Stock Exchange

Where improv and stand-up rule, troupes like Harvard Sailing Team and teams from the Upright Citizens Brigade bring new life to sketch comedy.

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Critic’s Notebook: Harvard Sailing Team Breathes New Life Into Sketch Comedy

Among the throngs of inmates in downtown Kabul’s prison trying to prove they are not thieves or insurgents is a soft-spoken Sikh man with piercing black eyes. He is being held on a highly unusual charge: falsely claiming Afghan citizenship. Read full article > >

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Sikh’s detention reveals flaws in Afghan justice, nation’s religious intolerance

Sometimes earmarking government money pays off for U.S. lawmakers — even after they’ve left office. A new report has found seven former lawmakers who have lobbied Congress on behalf of organizations that they funded while in office. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington found that former lawmakers have received $1.9 million in revenue from lobbying clients that they funded with taxpayer dollars when sitting in Congress. Read full article > >

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Report: 7 ex-lawmakers now lobby for groups that got earmarks

The families of four US citizens violently killed in Iraq in 2004 settle a long-running lawsuit with Blackwater, the US security firm that hired them.

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Blackwater families settle case

The families of four US citizens violently killed in Iraq in 2004 settle a long-running lawsuit with Blackwater, the US security firm that hired them.

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Blackwater families settle case

Will affect citizens with relatives in the country illegally.

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Obama to Tweak Immigration Laws

The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services is proposing to correct a bureaucratic Catch-22 that separated families for as long as a decade.

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Path to Green Card for Illegal Immigrant Family Members of Americans

Battle over identity documents for sex-change citizens

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Transgender Americans take on New York

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has become architect, historian, interior decorator and custodian to manage the project, which he called a symbol that government can make citizens proud.

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Managed by Cuomo, Capitol Restoration Is Unveiled

This article, written by Summer Nasser, appeared on Comment Middle East on December 30,2011 As the Arab Spring sweeps throughout the Middle East, it proves the strength of each country’s citizens. However, many do not show women in the frontlines of mass marches, with one notable exception: Yemen.

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The Women of Yemen: Breaking Barriers