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UK gathering secret intelligence via covert NSA operation — Exclusive: UK security agency GCHQ gaining information from world's biggest internet firms through US-run Prism programme — The UK's electronic eavesdropping and security agency, GCHQ, has been secretly gathering intelligence …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Daily Mail, Yahoo! News, BBC, GigaOM, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Weasel Zippers, Engadget and Boing Boing
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Anti-Surveillance Activist Is at Center of New Leak — After writing intensely, even obsessively, for years about government surveillance and the prosecution of journalists, Glenn Greenwald has suddenly put himself directly at the intersection of those two issues, and perhaps in the cross hairs of federal prosecutors.


Thank You for Data-Mining — The NSA's ‘metadata’ surveillance is legal and necessary. — Well, another day, another Washington furor. This one is over a National Security Agency phone data monitoring program, but unlike the other White House scandals there seems to be little here that is scandalous.


On whistleblowers and government threats of investigation — No healthy democracy can endure when the most consequential acts of those in power remain secret and unaccountable — We followed Wednesday's story about the NSA's bulk telephone record-gathering with one yesterday …
Discussion:
BuzzFeed and Business Insider, more at Mediagazer »


Obama Calls Surveillance Programs Legal and Limited
Discussion:
Guardian, Hit & Run, The Caucus, Yahoo! News, The Week, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, Hot Air and Lawfare

Stop Freaking Out About the NSA
Discussion:
Hit & Run, American Prospect and The PJ Tatler

DNI Statement on Recent Unauthorized Disclosures of Classified Information
Discussion:
Lawfare, protein wisdom, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Hinterland Gazette, Guardian, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, The Verge, RT and The Hill

President Obama's let's-have-a-debate defense
Discussion:
Pirate's Cove and Hot Air

U.S. intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, Hot Air, Power Line, WorldViews, Guardian, GigaOM, The Huffington Post, Weasel Zippers, The Verge, New Republic, msnbc.com, Towleroad News #gay, The Next Web, Business Insider, PoliticusUSA, Wall Street Journal, Politico, USA Today, Mediaite, Wake up America, Firedoglake, Liberal Values, Post Politics, TIME, Talking Points Memo, New York Times, The Atlantic Wire, AEIdeas, americanthinker.com, Wired, The Fix, BBC, Prairie Weather, Samizdata, The Week, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, susiemadrak.com, Shakesville, ThinkProgress, The Hill, The Moderate Voice, Betsy's Page, Daily Kos, Outside the Beltway, AMERICAblog, Crooks and Liars, Law Blog, CANNONFIRE, Gawker, The Daily Caller, Daily Mail, CBS News, CBS Denver, The PJ Tatler, The Volokh Conspiracy, ABCNEWS, Pirate's Cove and Booman Tribune, more at Mediagazer »

The Morning Plum: Revelations expose basic contradiction at heart of Obama's war on terror
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Washington Monthly, Yahoo! News, Business Insider, GigaOM and Firedoglake

DNI Statement on Activities Authorized Under Section 702 of FISA
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Wonkblog, NationalJournal.com, Outside the Beltway, Guardian, Lawfare, Law Blog, Business Insider, Mashable, The Daily Caller and The Next Web

Admit It, Rep. Sensenbrenner: You Were Wrong About the Patriot Act
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, emptywheel, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, Guardian and msnbc.com

NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others
Discussion:
Business Insider, Hit & Run, Mother Jones, News Desk, Yahoo! News, msnbc.com, The Huffington Post, Forbes, TechCrunch, The Verge, GigaOM, Reuters, The Next Web, Washington Post, The Volokh Conspiracy, Washington Monthly, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Progressive Policy Institute, Taking Note, AllThingsD, The Gateway Pundit, The Week, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Michelle Obama's Mirror, Mashable, NewsBusters, Daily Kos, Daniel W. Drezner, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, BuzzFeed, Wonkblog, Balloon Juice, Gawker, Informed Comment, Law Blog, The Dish, BBC, Weasel Zippers, Boing Boing, ThinkProgress, Pressing Issues, Firedoglake, The Raw Story, Taylor Marsh, Associated Press and The Hinterland Gazette, more at Mediagazer »

Minimization and the “Collection First” Surveillance Model
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway and Lawfare

James Clapper Clarifies Remarks Over NSA Snooping
Discussion:
emptywheel, Yahoo! News, ABCNEWS and The Daily Caller


Texas woman arrested in ricin letters to Obama, Bloomberg: Officials — A Texas woman has been arrested in connection with the mailing of three letters containing a form of the poison ricin to President Obama, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, federal authorities said.
Discussion:
Politico, CNN and The Raw Story


Misfired 2010 email alerted IRS officials in Washington of targeting — (Reuters) - A misfired email from a U.S. Internal Revenue Service employee in Cincinnati alerted a number of Washington IRS officials that extra scrutiny was being placed on conservative groups in July 2010 …

Soldier Told Not to Read Levin, Limbaugh or Hannity in Uniform — A veteran member of the U.S. Army Band said he is facing retribution and punishment from the military for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his car, reading books written by conservative authors like Mark Levin and David Limbaugh …
Discussion:
American Spectator and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

N.Y. Times changes scathing editorial — The New York Times editorial board has quietly changed the language in the most widely cited line from Thursday's scathing editorial about the Obama administration's surveillance of U.S. citizens. — The line — “The administration has now lost all credibility” …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Poynter, Washington Examiner, Mediaite, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Yahoo! News, Pressing Issues, Althouse, National Review and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »

Behind the Obamacare Derangement Syndrome — At TNR today, Noam Scheiber looks at the deep investment Republican pols and conservative scribblers and gabbers seem to have in the failure of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, and sees a concentration of the biases we have all called the Obama Derangement Syndrome on this one issue.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo and New Republic


Massive Government Spying Is The Result Of A Public Obsessed With Eliminating Terrorism — The revelations about massive National Security Agency snooping in Americans' phone records and Internet activities appear to be shocking, but they aren't. — The reason programs like these exist …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Crooks and Liars, New York Times, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Daily Caller
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Obama sponsored bill that would have made Verizon order illegal
Discussion:
Salon, Michelle Malkin, Washington Examiner, New York Times, Washington Post and Politico


‘Uhhh...Uh...Uhhh....People!’ Obama at Total Loss for Words When Staff Forgets His Speech — President Obama strolled out to the podium today in San Jose, CA and was immediately at a loss for words. Not only did the President not have teleprompter, his aides forgot his speech.
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs and The PJ Tatler


Transcript: Obama's Remarks on NSA Controversy — President Barack Obama on Friday defended his administration's vast data-collection efforts, saying the programs help prevent terrorist attacks and represent only small encroachments of people's privacy. Here is the transcript of his remarks …
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, Wall Street Journal and Hit & Run


All the Infrastructure a Tyrant Would Need, Courtesy of Bush and Obama — To an increasing degree, we're counting on having angels in office and making ourselves vulnerable to devils. — Let's assume that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, their staffers …

Why Obama Keeps Losing at the Supreme Court — In cases before the Supreme Court last year, President Barack Obama's Justice Department relied on outlandish legal theories that pushed a constitutional interpretation of extreme federal power. That posture led to unanimous losses in three …
Discussion:
Conservative Intelligence …


Clinton Slips in Poll After Benghazi Hits, Christie's Up — Hillary Clinton hasn't decided whether she'll run for president in 2016, a status that doesn't matter to the brewing class of potential Republican candidates already running against her. — And, in the pre-campaign posturing …
Discussion:
Washington Wire, CNN and ViralRead

Obama speech-less — (CNN) - President Barack Obama got off to an awkward and unusual start Friday morning as he took the stage to give a speech on health care reform. — Once he took the podium, he realized he didn't have anything to talk about. — “Good morning everybody.

Geraldo Rivera, Fox News Commentator, Will Not Run For U.S. Senate — There is a scene in The Lord of the Rings where my favorite character, the aging, battle-weary Théoden, King of Rohan is confronted with a profound dilemma. Determined to honor his ancient oath and ride to the rescue …
Discussion:
Yahoo! News and CNN
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Geraldo Rivera rules out Senate bid in New Jersey special election
Discussion:
Politico and Colorlines