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Since the Paris terrorist attacks on November 13, various mainstream news outlets have noted that the politics of surveillance have shifted. A shift would indicate that instead of rolling back surveillance policies in favor of more privacy, more invasive policies could be enacted. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio used the attacks to accuse fellow Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Rand Paul of forcing a "weakening of our intelligence-gathering capabilities" that ultimately "leaves America vul

Democratic Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, who is set to leave office and hand over the governorship to Republican Matt Bevin next month, signed an executive order on Tuesday which will grant voting rights and the power to run for office to some non-violent felons who have completed their sentences. The Brennan Center for Justice points out that “Kentucky was one of only three states — along with Florida and Iowa — to permanently bar citizens with past convictions from voting. But its constitu

A consensus has formed around the proposition that polling, especially in multi-candidate presidential races, has become inaccurate and unreliable.This judgment, rendered by respected experts, exposes the absurdity and corruption of the recent decision by the Commission on Presidential Debates to continue using polls to determine who will be on the stage in the fall of 2016. Jill Lepore's excellent article in the Nov. 16 issue of The New Yorker is only the latest in a series of authoritative p

The terrorist attacks in Paris evoked sympathy from Americans of all stripes. Numerous politicians also used the incident to connect the Paris attacks and surveillance to score political points, including against NSA leaker Edward Snowden. ISIS immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and issued a statement. No public information about the coordination of the attacks has been released, but a theory that the attackers communicated through the Playstation 4 is circulating. Earlier this

Rand Paul Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) posted a video clip on Facebook on Thursday from a live broadcast on the Iowa-based talk radio station WHO NewsRadio 1040 in which he can be seen challenging Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) to a debate.“We’ve been saying what a fun, dramatic, and informative debate it would be if Bernie Sanders and I could have an hour-long debate. Can you imagine? Debating over what rights are versus what obligations are and debating socialism versus capitalism,” said Sen. Paul. H

Earlier this year, now-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders proposed a bill to spend $1 trillion over a five-year period in order to "rebuild America’s crumbling network of roads, bridges and transit systems." Yet his refrain about the need to repair the nation's "crumbling infrastructure" invites the basic question, just how bad is America's infrastructure? The most comprehensive and authoritative diagnosis comes from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Its 2013 report card assess

Jimmy LaSalvia has always identified himself as a conservative, but in 2014, the influential consultant and party activist officially left the Republican Party. His memoir, No Hope: Why I Left the GOP (and You Should Too) recounts his history with the party, his frustration with its outmoded cultural attitudes and reflexive partisanship, and his fateful decision to finally switch his voter registration to "No Party." In an interview for IVN, LaSalvia explained that the purpose of his book, whic

Rand Paul, once considered the GOP’s savior after two grueling presidential election losses, has fallen on some hard times. Paul was labelled by the media as a front-runner or top-tier candidate months before he officially entered the presidential race on April 7. Now nearly at the 6-month mark, the early stages of the Republican presidential primary changed the game and showed some chinks in Paul’s armor. Paul had two remarkable filibusters to blast drone use and NSA spying, stances that buck

We all know that the Bill of Rights enshrined in the Constitution contains ten amendments. However, it is less well known that the Bill of Rights sent to the states for ratification originally contained 12 amendments. What we know today as the First Amendment – the one enumerating our basic freedoms of religion, speech, and so forth – actually appeared third on this list. The current Bill of Rights contains just ten amendments because the requisite number of states – three-fourths of those in t

It was officially time to get the government out of marriage when the Defense of Marriage Act was repealed in 2013, but if our leaders can't see the writing on the wall now, it's hard to guess how much more obtuse they can be. The issue of gay marriage continues to be divisive as Americans fall largely on ideological lines either in support of Kim Davis or her incarceration for refusing to issue marriage certificates. On Sunday, CNN reported that Ms. Davis will appeal the contempt of court ruli