Jul
18
2013
Uprising’s Thursday guest expert Arun Gupta, Independent journalist and regular contributor to AlterNet, Truthout and The Guardian, and co-founder of the Occupied Wall Street Journal and The Indypendent, analyzes today’s news headlines:
The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on government spying yesterday, grilling staff from the Justice Department, the NSA, and the FBI. Members of both major parties were highly critical of the Obama administration over the vast data collection program. Republican House member Jim Sensenbrenner brought up the fact that in 2015 there may not be enough votes in the House to reauthorize Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, which has been invoked to justify the data collection.
Rolling Stone is under fire for featuring on its cover, a flattering photo of the suspected Boston bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev this month. Some retailers are threatening not to carry the issue and many readers have canceled their subscriptions. The cover story is entitled: “A riveting and heartbreaking account of how a charming kid with a bright future became a monster.”
In the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict, Trayvon Martin’s parents have begun speaking out, saying they were “stunned” and “disgust[ed]” with the verdict. Protests continue in California where more than a dozen people were arrested yesterday. Meanwhile a 76 year old white man in Wisconsin was found guilty of first degree murder for the shooting death of an unarmed 13 year old African American boy named Darius Simmons. The jury deliberated for only one hour before announcing their verdict.
And, today is Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday. The elder statesmen is still in hospital while thousands of people in South Africa and around the world celebrate his legacy.
