Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Nevada Democrats pick ‘None of these candidates’ for governor in Primary/ WaPo

In light of the Eric Cantor defeat in Virginia's Republican primary, that fact that more Nevada voters cast votes for a "None of the Above" option than for a candidate is interesting.  Voters are fed up in both the east and west.  From the Washington Post blog:
"And the winner is -- no one.
More Democratic primary voters cast ballots for "None of these candidates" than for any actual ones in Tuesday's nominating contest for governor in Nevada, a testament to a weak field looking to challenge popular Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) and a unique Nevada election law that allows voters the none-of-the-above option.
With all precincts reporting, "None" led the way with 30 percent of the vote, according to an unofficial tally from the Associated Press. Finishing second was former state economic development director Robert Goodman, who won 25 percent of the vote..."

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Vodaphone issues report on requests for data by many countries

A WaPo Saturday article, based on a detailed report by the company Vodaphone, details how many other countries do exactly what the US government does with digital data, including the content of phone calls: scoop up everything they want:

...In the Czech Republic, for example, the government compelled Vodafone to turn over the content of conversations 7,677 times during the 12-month reporting period, from April 2013 to March 2014. Hungary collected metadata 75,938 times. Italy, with its government investigations into organized crime, led the Vodafone list with 605,601 demands for metadata...
Verizon listed 320,000 requests in the United States in 2013 and several thousand collectively in 11 other nations. AT&T listed more than 300,000 requests...