Announcing that Britain will host the special NATO Summit in 2014 to coincide with the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Prime Minister David Cameron said on 27 September:
The summit will also be about the future of our alliance. Britain has always been at the forefront of shaping the alliance, from its start in 1949 to NATO's current operations, and the 2014 summit will be critical in ensuring NATO remains a relevant, modern, adaptable force fit for the 21st century.
Earlier today, former National Security Agency (NSA) Senior Executive Thomas Drake addressed a special Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) created by the European Parliament to investigate spying efforts by the United States and EU countries. Addressing specially-appointed Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), Drake spoke as a former NSA crypto-linguist who witnessed what he describes as a “persistent surveillance state” that was “born during the first few critical weeks and months following 9/11.”
Drake, a whistleblower, was the subject of a federal criminal leak investigation and faced a potential 35 years under a 10-felony count indictment, including five counts under the Espionage Act. In 2011, the federal government dropped all charges against Drake.
Following from Defense One, a relatively new newsletter. I'm not a political scientist, but much of what's said below seems reasonable to me. I would tell you that the current situation clearly tells us that our Constitutional republic has failed, probably irrevocably so and that we need a lawful Constitutional convention in order to rebuild the country and our Constitution from the ground up, line by line, issue by issue.
Step back. Try for a moment to extrapolate what a government shutdown and discredited U.S. currency could do to the economy and the public's faith in government. Think beyond next year's congressional elections or even the 2016 presidential race. Factor in existing demographic and social trends. I did, and this is what I concluded:
1. The Republican Party is marginalizing itself to the brink of extinction.
2. President Obama can't capitulate to GOP demands to unwind the fairly legislated and litigated Affordable Care Act. To do so would be political malpractice and a poor precedent for future presidents.
3. Despite the prior two points, Obama and his party won't escape voters' wrath. Democrats are less at fault but not blameless.
4. This may be the beginning of the end of Washington as we know it. A rising generation of pragmatic, non-ideological voters is appalled by the dysfunctional leadership of their parents and grandparents. History may consider October 2013 their breaking point. There will come a time when Millennials aren't just mad as hell; they won't take it anymore.
The first major survey of American Jews in more than 10 years finds a significant rise in those who are not religious, marry outside the faith and are not raising their children Jewish – resulting in rapid assimilation that is sweeping through every branch of Judaism except the Orthodox.
The intermarriage rate, a bellwether statistic, has reached a high of 58 percent for all Jews, and 71 percent for non-Orthodox Jews – a huge change from before 1970 when only 17 percent of Jews married outside the faith. Two-thirds of Jews do not belong to a synagogue, one-fourth do not believe in God and one-third had a Christmas tree in their home last year.
Canada is ushering in what it projects to be a $1.3 billion medical marijuana free market this week, as it replaces small and homegrown pot production with quality-controlled marijuana produced by large farms. The market could eventually serve up to 450,000 Canadians, according to government estimates.
UK NATO Summit in 2014 to ‘lock in' commitments on Afghanistan, burden-sharing and Smart Defence
