North Africa (Maghreb) is blowing up

Tunisia

• 2010-2011 Tunisian Protests
• Al-Jazeera's Tunisia Protests coverage
  

Algeria

• Protests in Algeria
• Al-Jazeera's Algeria Protests coverage
  

Libya

• Early reports of unrest in Libya
  

Mauritania

• Mauritanian man sets himself on fire
  

Egypt

• Egyptian man sets himself on fire
• Protests in Egypt
• Three dead in Egypt protests
  

Yemen

• Self-immolation protest spreads to Yemen
• Anti-government rallies hit Yemen
  

Elsewhere

• Syria, Jordan and Algeria respond to protest threat
• Self-immolation "infection" spreads to Syria
• Thousands protest in Jordan
• Sudan police clash with protesters
  

Obama doesn't actually favor net neutrality

Yet another broken promise and giveaway to business lobbies.

Wikileaks Diplomatic Cables

Good resources

• The Guardian's daily summary of headlines
• wlcentral
• Cablegate site (and mirrors)
  
• Wikipedia page on the United States diplomatic cables leak (gives a good breakdown of leaks by region)
• Democracy Now's coverage
  

Interesting points

• All of the documents that have been published on Wikileaks so far have also been published by the NYT, etc. with the same redactions. There are around 250,000 cables total but less than 1% has been released.
  
• The documents were offered to the WSJ and CNN, but both refused them. The NYT got them from the Guardian, not Wikileaks.
• Julian Assange's personal philosophy is very pro-capitalist.
• Allegedly, a fake Lady Gaga recording was involved in the disclosure.
• The NYT, as expected, took the most jingoistic angle possible
• Other Wikileaks-like sites are planned for launch
• Assange's old blog is here
• The smear campaign directed at Assange is farcical
• A previous, similar leak in 1982 from the Tehran embassy has been all but forgotten
• Good discussion here on the legality of Wikileaks (synopsis: there is no clear illegality on the part of Wikileaks)
• Casualties: sacking of German minister's aide, former Croatian PM flees the country
• Companies refusing to do business with Wikileaks: Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Bank of America, PostFinance, Apple
• The government of Tunisia was overthrown partially because of Wikileaks
  

Significant revelations

• Obama and GOP worked together to kill torture probe
• US is using U2 spy planes flying from Cyprus to spy on Hezbollah
• The CIA directed a biometric-information gathering program conducted by US diplomats
• Pharmaceutical firm Pfizer conducted fatal experimental drug tests on children in Nigera without parental consent, and then tried to dig up dirt on the Nigerian attorney general in order to pressure him to drop a lawsuit against Pfizer
• Private security contractor DynCorp "Helped Pimp Little Boys to Stoned Afghan Cops"
• The ICRC told US diplomats of widespread torture by the Indian police in Kashmir
  

They're getting nervous

"WikiLeaks could be transformed from a handful of volunteers to a global movement of politicised geeks clamouring for revenge. Today’s WikiLeaks talks the language of transparency, but it could quickly develop a new code of explicit anti-Americanism, anti-imperialism and anti-globalisation.[...] An aggressive attempt to go after WikiLeaks – by blocking its web access, for instance, or by harassing its members – could install Mr Assange (or whoever succeeds him) at the helm of a powerful new global movement able to paralyse the work of governments and corporations around the world."

BP oil spill -- links and info

BP's oil spill is the largest oil spill in US history. A disaster was bound to happen given the exemptions the government gave BP from an environmental review and the fact that the MMS allowed BP to fill out its own inspection forms. About a year ago, internal documents show that BP was concerned about the safety of the rig. And so on.

BP's response has been (as expected) to put profits ahead of all other considerations. BP has prevented conscripted cleanup crews from wearing respirators since that would open the company to liability suits; some workers have summarily been hospitalized. BP attempted to have Louisiana fishermen sign promises not to sue the company immediately after the disaster. BP has been rather successful in suppressing information about the spill and they have underreported the amount of oil that is likely leaking. Additionally, the Coast Guard appears to have been tapped in service of the company. But nothing can beat the sheer novelty of BP busing in workers for Obama's visit to make the cleanup effort appear more substantial (and then busing the workers out after Obama and the press left).

As far as personal stories go, this is just heartbreaking. Rolling Stone also has a comprehensive article about the government's reaction to the spill. Apparently there is a Twitter feed mocking BP that some find funny.

Greenwald has some more coverage here.

Obama doesn't mind engorging the military industrial complex

The next way that the US defense industry is going to pillage public funds is via a Israeli missile-defense shield. I wonder how far the proposed $205 million would actually go in the region if it were used for actually helpful items like schools, hospitals, food (for the Palestinians, that is, who need them)...

Obama doesn't actually like Miranda rights

Following the failed Times Square Bombing, Obama's administration didn't delay in considering to withdraw yet another civil liberty protection: Miranda rights.

Obama doesn't much mind oil spills

From Jonathan Turley's blog about Obama's involvement in the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico:

Yet, the criticism of Obama in the aftermath of this tragedy has been quite modest. One can only imagine the outcry if President Bush opened up the East Coast to drilling, said that rigs do not cause spills (here), disregarded warnings about such spills from his own agency (here), and waived an environmental impact study based on the industry’s assurance. On top of that, Obama has been the largest recipient of BP campaign money (here). No one expects the President to follow waivers of impact studies — that is Salazar’s job. However, once again, the muted criticism from liberals is striking.