Top Items:
National Review:
Clinton Claimed Authority to Order No-Warrant Searches — In a little-remembered debate from 1994, the Clinton administration argued that the president has "inherent authority" to order physical searches — including break-ins at the homes of U.S. citizens — for foreign intelligence purposes without …
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Charles Lane / Washington Post:
White House Elaborates on Authority for Eavesdropping — Facing mounting criticism over use of the National Security Agency to listen to phone calls of suspected al Qaeda contacts in the United States without court approval, the Bush administration went public yesterday with its most detailed legal defense yet of the program.
Washington Post:
Vital Presidential Power — A U.S. president has just received word that American counterterrorist operatives have captured a senior al Qaeda operative in Pakistan. Among his possessions are a couple of cell phones — phones that contain several American phone numbers.
Bruce Fein / Washington Times:. . . unlimited? — According to President George W. Bush …
Discussion:
The Corner on National …
Michael McGough / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:Specter will question Alito on legality of NSA spying
Discussion:
IntoxiNation-News …
George F. Will / Washington Post:Why Didn't He Ask Congress?
Discussion:
The Mahablog, Donklephant, Think Progress, The Corner on National …, AMERICAblog and TAPPED
New York Times:
Judge Bars 'Intelligent Design' From Pa. Classes — HARRISBURG, Pa. — "Intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.
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MSNBC:
Judge rules against 'intelligent design' — 'Religious alternative' to evolution barred from public-school science classes — HARRISBURG, Pa. - In one of the biggest courtroom clashes between faith and evolution since the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, a federal judge barred …
Discussion:
Pharyngula
Martha Raffaele / Associated Press:
Judge Rules Against Pa. Biology Curriculum — HARRISBURG, Pa. - "Intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.
Jonathan Allen / The Hill:
Civil liberties don't matter much 'after you're dead,' Cornyn says on spy case — Senators launched new salvos in the battle over national security and civil liberties yesterday as recent revelations of domestic spying continued to color the chamber's stalemate on an extension of the anti-terrorism law known as the Patriot Act.
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Bull Moose:
Big Brother W.? — The Moose doesn't think it's 1984. — The latest imbroglio over the revelation that the government eavesdropped into the international phone calls of U.S. citizens does not set the Moose's antlers on fire. The Administration is going to have to offer a better explanation …
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Jeff Goldstein / protein wisdom:NSA kerfuffle: redux
Discussion:
Instapundit.com, Concurring Opinions, Unclaimed Territory, Begging to Differ, The Right Coast and INDC Journal
Noahmax / Defense Tech:
WIRETAP MYSTERY: SPOOKS REACT — A few current and former signals intelligence guys have been checking in since this NSA domestic spying story broke. Their reactions range between midly creeped out and completely pissed off. — All of the sigint specialists emphasized repeatedly …
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Right Wing Nut House:
JONATHAN ALTER IS A PIG — Comrades, do you know who is responsible for this? Do you know the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill? SNOWBALL! (The pig Napoleon in Orwell's Animal Farm) — Newsweek's Jonathan Alter is a pig. But not just any pig.
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sldn.org:
Pentagon Labels Gay Kiss-In a 'Credible Threat' — WASHINGTON, DC - According to recent press reports, Pentagon officials have been spying on what they call "suspicious" meetings by civilian groups, including student groups opposed to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual military personnel.
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Hullabaloo:
Stocking Stuffer Request — While everybody has their credit cards out buying a "secret Santa" moustache mug for their most hated colleague at the office, I wonder if some of you might want to throw a little cash my way while you're at it? For reasons I haven't figured out, this blog is doing miserably at selling blog-ads.
Washington Post:
Senator Sounded Alarm in '03 — Rockefeller Wrote Cheney to Voice Concerns on Spying — John D. Rockefeller IV, a wealthy man representing a poor state, had been the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee for six months when he sat down to a secret briefing on July 17, 2003.
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Larry McShane / Associated Press:
Court Fines NYC Transit Union $1M a Day — NEW YORK - Commuters trudged through the freezing cold, rode bicycles and shared cabs Tuesday as New York's bus and subway workers went on strike for the first time in more than 25 years and stranded millions of riders at the height of the Christmas rush.
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James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:
Critics Question Timing of Surveillance Story — The New York Times, which knew about the secret wiretaps for more than a year, published because of a reporter's new book, sources say. — The New York Times first debated publishing a story about secret eavesdropping on Americans as early as last fall …
Scotsman:
Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors — THE Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents. — Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s Russia's top animal breeding scientist …
