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Source: http://fabiusmaximus.files.wordpress.com The surveillance war rages on. Last week, the NSA apologized for lying to the American people about its surveillance tactics. Now, the agency won't reveal whose information they harbor, even if a citizen asks for their own information. It would seem government transparency doesn't apply to the NSA. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) gives Americans the right to request information previously unreleased from the federal government. Enacted in

credit: thv11.com The 2014 midterm election is more than a year away. Nevertheless, congressional incumbents have been busy gearing up for the ever-longer campaign season. The fundraising deadline for Q2 was June 30 and fundraising powerhouses like Paul Ryan and Lindsey Grahm have continued to post seven figures. Paul Ryan - Wisconsin According to Federal Elections Commission filings, Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) was able to raise $1.1 million in the span of three months. Ryan's camp n

credit: Votecitizens.org Gerrymandering has become a prevalent hurdle to meaningful political participation across the country (with few exceptions, including California*). The duopoly at their finest: if you can’t win by playing fair—CHEAT. The third most important electoral reform—thy name is gerrymandering. Attention Democrats and Republicans these are Independents exhibiting open derision to your sleazy ways. Before we go on let’s review the first two important electoral reforms. The first

Credit: Planned Parenthood Advocates of WI Americans remain divided over their views on abortion. The Gallup survey recently reported that about 45 percent of Americans identify as pro-choice and 48 percent regard themselves as pro-life. States across the country reflect this polarization depending on who holds control of the governorship and the state legislature. Wisconsin is the most recent state to enter these debates and moved this past week towards further restrictions on abortion rights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdcHBifH5fg&feature=youtu.be Speaking on the floor of the Senate Tuesday, Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) offered his view on warrantless wiretapping: "It turns out that what the Obama administration was doing to the AP is nothing unusual. This appears to be exactly what the government has the capability to do to every single American. Furthermore, we have also recently learned that the government has the capability to monitor every website that we visit, every video

The list of government waste, scandal, and secrecy seems to be mounting, with news this week of a recent governmental order requiring Verizon to provide the National Security Agency with classified information on calls made through the service. What's more, trust in the media is at an all time low, with 60 percent of independent voters reporting to have little or no trust in the mass media. Recognizing the need for honest, investigative reporting, some organizations are turning to technology to

Credit: CHRIS KNIGHT, The Patriot-News In reaction to the many restrictive laws passed in 2012, there has been an influx of new laws to enhance voter participation in 2013. However, in Wisconsin, the voter ID law battle is back. In 2011, the Wisconsin Legislature passed a law requiring voters to show "acceptable government-sanctioned photo identification either at the polls or to election officials" to be allowed to vote. This law, which requires specific types of photo ID, including a state-i

Credit: courantblogs.com "In recent days, it has become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate," Facebook wrote in an open letter earlier this week. This proclamation comes just one week after an online campaign organized by Women, Action and The Media and The Everyday Sexism Project rocked the Internet, calling on Facebook advertisers to pull their ads from pages trivializin

In modern American politics, the word “socialist” has lost a great deal of its true meaning, robbed of its shock value by frequent overuse and naïve misapplication. Many a conservative pundit has warned President Obama and the national Democratic leadership seek to steer the United States towards a socialistic, or even worse, Marxist state, far from anything the Founders envisioned when they penned the Constitution. Rightwing shock jocks, still waging the early 1990s “culture wars,” have railed

Earlier this month, a prominent and award-winning political watchdog group in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, had its budget cut in half after losing funding from one of its biggest donors. Since 1995, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC) has provided the Badger State with increased transparency and an easy-to-follow paper trail for money in state politics. The organization offers the state's only searchable online database of contributors to state campaigns, a service that curre