memeorandum: Vermont decriminalizes marijuana (Associated Press)

12:50 PM ET, June 9, 2013

Top Items:

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:

Paul weighs Supreme Court challenge to NSA surveillance programs — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Sunday said he would examine ways to block the National Security Agency's surveillance programs before the Supreme Court. — “I'm going to be seeing if I can challenge this at the Supreme Court level,” vowed Paul on “Fox News Sunday.”

Discussion: CNN, Politico and The PJ Tatler

Kevin Liptak / CNN:

Senators should have known about snooping, says McCain — (CNN) - Lawmakers who are now expressing outrage over the government's surveillance of phone records and Internet activity should have paid closer attention when they were voting to reauthorize provisions in the Patriot Act, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said Sunday.

Discussion: National Review

Politico:
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper condemns ‘rush to publish’

Discussion: TIME and Little Green Footballs, more at Mediagazer »

James Hohmann / Politico:
Voters give government leeway to snoop

Discussion: Hot Air and The PJ Tatler

ODNI Newsroom Feed:
DNI Statement on the Collection of Intelligence Pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

Discussion: The Verge, The Moderate Voice, The Hinterland Gazette, Business Insider, Engadget, Mediaite, The Hill, Guardian, The Next Web and Mashable

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Details of secret Internet data collection program declassified

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Business Insider

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

IRS Staff Undermine GOP Claims That White House Directed Targeting Of Conservative Groups, Top Democrat Says — Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) — the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee — pledged to release transcripts of interviews with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Raw Story

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:

Cummings vows to release full IRS transcripts by week's end — The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Sunday threatened to release full transcripts of testimony from Internal Revenue Service employees related to the agency's targeting scandal by week's end if Chairman Darrell Issa does not.

Discussion: CNN

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Peeping Barry — WASHINGTON — THE acid that corroded George W. Bush's presidency was fear — spreading it and succumbing to it. — You could see the fear in his eyes, the fear that froze him in place, after Andy Card whispered to W. in that Florida classroom that a second plane had crashed into the twin towers.

Discussion: Guardian

Bob Cesca / The Daily Banter:

NSA Bombshell Story Falling Apart Under Scrutiny; Key Facts Turning Out to Be Inaccurate — It turns out, the NSA PRISM story isn't quite the bombshell that everyone said it was. Yes, there continues to be a serious cause for concern when it comes to government spying and overreach with its counter-terrorism efforts.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Outside the Beltway, ZDNet, emptywheel, Little Green Footballs and Balloon Juice, more at Mediagazer »

Guardian:
Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data

Discussion: Business Insider, Activist Post, American Power, Pirate's Cove, Liberal Values, Engadget, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Mashable, TechCrunch, ViralRead, The Raw Story, The Verge, American Spectator and Electronic Frontier Foundation

Kelly Ayotte:

Op-ed: Why I'm backing legislation to fix our broken immigration system — Everybody agrees that America's immigration system is broken, threatening our security and holding back our economy. The combination of porous borders and lax enforcement has made us a magnet for illegal immigration.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, First Read and Outside the Beltway

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:

Dem senator skeptical call tracking needed to thwart terror threats — Democratic Sen. Mark Udall (Colo.) on Sunday expressed skepticism that the National Security Agency's massive phone tracking program was really necessary to help the government thwart possible terrorist attacks.

Discussion: CNN and Politico

Washington Post:

After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the lonely quiet — In NEWTOWN, Conn. — They had promised to try everything, so Mark Barden went down into the basement to begin another project in memory of Daniel. The families of Sandy Hook Elementary were collaborating on a Mother's Day card …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Alan M. Dershowitz / Jerusalem Post:

Analysis: Syria crisis shows why Israel must remain strong — Whether Syrian death toll is 80,000 or 100,000, this figure is more than all people killed in nearly a century of conflict between Israel and its enemies, including several wars and thousands of acts of terrorism.

Discussion: Israel Matzav

Washington Examiner:

Fed study: Tax hikes, not spending cuts, are slowing the recovery … Why is the Obama recovery the weakest recovery since the Great Depression? According to a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, it is not because the federal government failed to borrow and spend …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and americanthinker.com

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:

On the Sunday Morning Talk Shows, a Rather Familiar Cast of Characters — WASHINGTON — In mid-February, Senator John McCain went on the NBC program “Meet the Press” to explain his unhappiness with President Obama's nominee for defense secretary. A week later, he took to “State of the Union” …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Justin Stanfield Thomas / The Huffington Post:

Justin Stanfield Thomas Shot, Killed Accidentally By 4-Year-Old Son In Arizona — PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. — Authorities in northern Arizona say a 4-year-old boy has accidentally shot and killed his father at a Prescott Valley home. — Prescott Valley police say the shooting occurred just after noon Friday.

Discussion: Mediaite