Top Items:
Richard A. Falkenrath / Washington Post:
The Right Call on Phone Records — The NSA's Program Safeguards Security — and Civil Liberties — On Thursday, USA Today reported that three U.S. telecommunications companies have been voluntarily providing the National Security Agency with anonymized domestic telephone records …
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David Jefferson / Newsweek:
Newsweek Poll: Americans Wary of NSA Spying — Bush's approval ratings hit new lows as controversy rages. — May 13, 2006 - Has the Bush administration gone too far in expanding the powers of the President to fight terrorism? Yes, say a majority of Americans, following this week's revelation …
Discussion:
Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Macsmind, In Search Of Utopia, Bark Bark Woof Woof, The Washington Monthly and Wizbang
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Democrats See an Opening to Debate Security Issues — WASHINGTON, May 12 — Senate Democrats intend to use next week's confirmation hearings for a new C.I.A. director to press the Bush administration on its broad surveillance programs, engaging Republicans on national security grounds …
John Markoff / New York Times:
Questions Raised for Phone Giants in Spy Data Furor — The former chief executive of Qwest, the nation's fourth-largest phone company, rebuffed government requests for the company's calling records after 9/11 because of "a disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process," his lawyer said yesterday.
New York Times:
Cheney Pushed U.S. to Widen Eavesdropping — WASHINGTON, May 13 — In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Vice President Dick Cheney and his top legal adviser argued that the National Security Agency should intercept purely domestic telephone calls and e-mail messages without warrants …
Beth DeFalco / Associated Press:
Verizon Sued for Giving NSA Phone Records — TRENTON, N.J. - Two New Jersey public interest lawyers sued Verizon Communications Inc. for $5 billion Friday, claiming the phone carrier violated privacy laws by turning over phone records to the National Security Agency for a secret government surveillance program.
Washington Post:
Bush May Widen National Guard Patrols at Border — President Bush will push next week for a broad overhaul of the nation's immigration laws and plans to tighten security on the borders, possibly with a wider deployment of the National Guard, White House officials said yesterday.
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James Joyner / Outside The Beltway:
Military May Augment Border Patrol
Military May Augment Border Patrol
Discussion:
Riehl World View, Diggers Realm, Blue Crab Boulevard, Daily Pundit, Hot Air, The Sandbox, RightWinged.com and OPFOR
New York Times:
C.I.A. Aide's House and Office Searched — WASHINGTON, May 12 — Federal agents conducted searches on Friday at the office and home of Kyle Foggo, who stepped down this week as the Central Intelligence Agency's third-ranking official. — The searches were part of a widening criminal investigation …
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Katherine Shrader / Associated Press:
Spy Agency Watching Americans From Space — WASHINGTON (AP) - A little-known spy agency that analyzes imagery taken from the skies has been spending significantly more time watching U.S. soil. — In an era when other intelligence agencies try to hide those operations …
Matt Stoller / MyDD:
Mike McCurry: More on Us Being Internet Rabble — There is a blogad buy from the Telecom companies on their new negative attack piece on net neutrality. I encourage bloggers who received the ad to link this to this blog post. — That's it. Burn DC to the ground.
Heather Mac Donald / Weekly Standard:
Information Please — Oh, sorry, it's not 1942. It's 2006, and these three phone giants are about to be excoriated for cooperating with the war on terror. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter has demanded that ATT, Verizon, and BellSouth testify under oath about their assistance …
New York Times:
Corrections: For the Record — An article on Monday about the state-owned energy company of Bolivia misstated the position held at the company from 1969 to 1979 by Carlos d'Arlach, now an opposition senator, who expressed opposition to the government's recent nationalization of its oil and gas reserves.
Discussion:
COUNTERCOLUMN
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Jay Reeves / Associated Press:
Alabama candidate for AG disputes Holocaust, is coming to NJ — BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A Democratic candidate for Alabama attorney general denies the Holocaust occurred and said Friday he will speak this weekend in New Jersey to a "pro-white" organization that is widely viewed as being racist.
New York Times:
A Bitter Game: Beijing Battles With Vatican — SHENYANG, China, May 9 — From the moment in 1978 when China reopened itself, conditionally, to the outside world, the Roman Catholic Church has been painstakingly working to get back in. Hopes have been raised, then dashed …
Billmon:
Leviathan … If someone would just translate The Leviathan into modern colloquial English - or even better, turn it into a comic book - I think Shrub might discover a new favorite philosopher. Maybe not on same plane as Jesus Christ (and certainly not as politically advantageous) …
Discussion:
the talking dog
Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Court Asks if Residency Follows Inmates Up the River — For years, New York Republicans have propped up their slim majority in the State Senate partly by seizing on a quirk in the federal census: counting prisoners as residents of the rural districts where they are incarcerated …
Discussion:
TalkLeft
William J. Broad / New York Times:
U.N. Finds New Uranium Traces in Iran — Atomic inspectors have found traces of highly enriched uranium on equipment linked to an Iranian military base, raising new questions about whether Iran harbors a clandestine program to make nuclear bombs, diplomats said yesterday.