Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. relaxes at home in May 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Howard Manly, The Conversation
Left out of GOP...
The Declaration of Independence declares the nation’s credo, that ‘all men are created equal.’ Tetra Images/Getty Images
by Graeme Mack, University of Richmond
The Declaration of...
ICE’s surveillance gaze is likely to sweep across millions of people’s social media posts. Westend61/Westend61 via Getty Images
by Nicole M. Bennett, Indiana University
When most...
Surveillance cameras are getting cheaper, more powerful and more ubiquitous. Denniro/iStock via Getty Images Plus
by Albert Fox Cahn, New York University
The Philadelphia Inquirer recently...
The city of Chicago will end its relationship with ShotSpotter after the summer ends, announced Mayor Brandon Johnson.
On Tuesday morning, the mayor released a...
A new type of spyware means those online ads could go from annoying to menacing.
AP Photo/Julio Cortez
by Claire Seungeun Lee, UMass Lowell
Each day, you...
BARACK OBAMA (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) by Calvin Woodard WASHINGTON (AP) — It's as if the United States has two governments, one open and one very much not. President Barack Obama leads both, trying not to butt heads with himself. Since becoming president, Obama has churned out an impressive stream of directives flowing from his promise to deliver "the most transparent administration in history." He established a center devoted to declassifying records and making them public. He announced an open government initiative. Dizzying quantities of information poured into public databases. New ways were devised to show taxpayers how their money is spent. Allegiance was pledged to the rule of law. Then there's the other government. It prosecutes leakers like no administration before it. It exercises state-secrets privileges to quash court cases against it. It hides a vast array of directives and legal opinions underpinning government actions — not just intelligence and not all of it about national security. Now it's known to conduct sweeping phone-records and Internet surveillance of ordinary people in programs kept on the lowdown until an employee of a National Security Agency contractor revealed them. Dick Cheney said this would happen.
