10/30/13 Assignment

-Pinocchio Obama and Angela Merkel Cartoon:
Did Obama lie to Merkel about bugging her phone?  -- What did the President know, and when did he know it? It seems the NSA has been bugging Angela Merkel's telephone (including her current model, a Nokia 6260 Slide) since 2002, when she was opposition leader. 
-Woman Driver in Saudi Arabia:
Women in Saudi Arabia that now have the right to drive cars, along with gaining other rights. 
-Casino Tax Revenue Addiction:
The extent of Britain’s addiction to controversial casino-style gambling machines is revealed today with the disclosure by two bookmaker giants that more than £12 billion was wagered on their machines in the first half of this year.
-On to the Next Debt Limit:
The first thing to clarify is that a government shutdown due to failure to pass a budget and a shutdown due to failure to raise the debt ceiling are different things with different implications. In America many government functions—such as defense and the national parks—must be funded by annual acts of Congress called appropriations. If Congress fails to appropriate funds, the activity must cease, with exceptions for essential services.
-Spy vs. Allies:
Israelis spying on Americans is in the news again: leaders of the Jewish state just petitioned for Jonathan Pollard's release and the Associated Press reported with alarm that U.S. national security officials at times consider Israel to be "a genuine counterintelligence threat." Its tone of breathless outrage suggests: How dare they! Who do they think they are?