Words supporting marriage equality are nice, and greatly appreciated. Growth from old positions is nice, and greatly appreciated.

But executive opinions don’t actually change anything. Executive orders, on the other hand . . .

When drone strikes kill people, rarely do news media bother to name those dead from the attack if they are not alleged by some official to be an al Qaeda leader. The others who are killed in addition to the al Qaeda leader that is believed to be dead are reported as “militants.” Any more information than that is unlikely.

At a press conference at Occupy Chicago’s headquarters, representatives from various groups outlined what they plan to do during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Chicago on May 20-21. They also addressed how Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the city, along with the Secret Service, have not fully respected the First Amendment rights of people planning demonstrations.

Even before President Obama announced his personal support for marriage equality, the political issue of gay marriage was going to be unavoidable this November. Gay marriage was already guaranteed to be part of the political discourse this cycle because it was already on the ballot in at least two states this November.

The Los Angeles Times, Associated Press and New York Times all in the span of twenty-four hours managed to speak with sources that confirmed an international sting operation had been unfolding. But we don’t know who leaked the story or why, and thus have no way of judging its entire credibility.

In a recent segment from Current TV‘s show “Viewpoint,” host Eliot Spitzer interviewed three National Security Agency whistleblowers: William Binney, a former technical director; Kirk Wiebe, former senior analyst; and Thomas Drake, a former senior official. Each man talked about what he saw the NSA do when they were employees. Each of these whistleblowers directly explained [...]

Five individuals accused of being involved in the September 11th attacks were arraigned and formally charged by a military commission at Guantanamo Bay over the weekend. Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam Al-Hawsawi, as required by the Constitution and the Military Commissions Act, were brought before a military judge.

What is a typically routine process turned into a twelve hour farce, which is not surprising. Those executing these proceedings are to some extent making it up as they go along. Hundreds of terror suspects have been tried in federal courts. The same cannot be said for military commissions. These supposedly reformed tribunals are an attempt to give some semblance of due process to terror suspects without granting foreign individuals access to the civilian US justice system.

Obama, are you listening?

Socialist candidate Francois Hollande has won the French Presidential election, defeating incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, yet another political victim of the Eurozone crisis.

Burning at the stake: the new science.