German parliament confirms NSA inquiry, to start in April

No parliamentarian voted against the establishment of a special Bundestag committee investigating the global spying activities of the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US and counterparts like the GCHQ in the UK. Another key question for the committee will likely be whether the German intelligence agencies were either aware of, or complicit in, the gathering of people's data.

The four major German parties will all provide parliamentarians for the eight-person committee.

"A society in which everything is monitored is not free," committee chairman Clemens Binninger, a member of Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats, said in parliament. "We do not want to live in such a society."

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The Mittelbayerische Zeitung on Thursday reported, citing government sources, that the committee was considering ways to involve former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in the process. The paper reported that Snowden might speak to the committee via the Internet telephone service Skype. The European Parliament had invited Snowden to do so earlier this year; he subsequently issued a written statement instead.

Kerry: Not even my wife knows Keystone opinion

Secretary of State John Kerry is so tight-lipped about the Keystone XL pipeline, he told college students Tuesday, that even his wife doesn't know his opinion.

Speaking on the myriad takes on Keystone that he has to consider from government agencies, the public and others, Kerry said he would not tell anyone whether or not he plans to recommend the pipeline’s construction to President Obama

“My job is to stay down-the-middle, neutral,” he said.

“There’s a massive job of information sifting and accumulation here … I'm not commenting in any other way on it to anybody, including my wife and others, all of whom have opinions,” Kerry said, eliciting chuckles from the crowd.

Invading Ukraine Will Be Quick and Painless
By Bill Kristol

As I write this, the United States is facing the greatest foreign crisis in our entire history: a showdown between pro-America Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s pro-evil Russia.

It’s a greater crisis than Syria, Libya, Iran, North Korea, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Pakistan, China, Georgia, Somalia, Burma, Venezuela, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine. Well, maybe not all those places, but pretty damn close.

While President Obama sits on his hands and waits for diplomats to take care of things, Putin plays chess with the world as an arrogant, belligerent bully, interfering in other countries and demanding their leaders and people act however he wants them to act. Where does he get the nerve?

That’s why we as Americans need to stand united together and send a message that we’re not going to allow Putin’s aggression, and if necessary we will intervene in Ukraine with the military or otherwise -- but preferably with the military.