Obama announces proposals to reform NSA surveillance  —  President Obama announced plans Friday to pursue reforms that would open the legal proceedings surrounding the National Security Agency's surveillance programs to greater scrutiny, the administration's most concerted response yet to a series of national security disclosures.

Rand Paul on Republicans' Voter Appeal and the Federal Reserve  —  How seriously are you thinking about the White House?  —  At this point we're thinking about ways to grow the Republican Party and won't make any decision about whether that involves me running or not for about a year.

Reid raises race in discussing GOP opposition to Obama's agenda  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Friday said he hoped GOP opposition to President Obama was not based on his race.  —  Reid made the comments in response to a question during a radio interview.

The Bourne Hypocrisy: Matt Damon's Peculiar School Choice  —  The movie star's explanation for sending his four daughters to private school is disingenuous.  —  Oscar winner Matt Damon has earned millions successfully playing a super spy, tortured genius, rugby icon, and poker player.

Weiner mocks reporter, scolds staff as cameras roll at campaign event  —  “I just have a feeling I like stepped into a Monty Python bit,” Anthony Weiner said as a British journalist questioned him about his campaign to become New York City mayor.  He then offered to present an impromptu weather forecast.

Boxer Sends Open Letter to San Diego Mayor Bob Filner  —  Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today sent an open letter to San Diego Mayor Bob Filner.  The text of the letter follows:  —  Dear Bob,  —  We've known each other for a long time, and have worked together …

How Dumb Is Immigration Debate?  This Dumb.  —  Everything you know about immigration, particularly unauthorized immigration, is wrong.  —  So says Princeton University's Doug Massey, anyway.  Massey is one of the nation's preeminent immigration scholars.

Apple's Tim Cook, tech execs meet with Barack Obama to talk surveillance  —  President Barack Obama hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Google computer scientist Vint Cerf and other tech executives and civil liberties leaders on Thursday for a closed-door meeting about government surveillance, sources tell POLITICO.

Lavabit's brave stand: email service shuts down  —  Edward Snowden: 'Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, and the rest of our internet titans must ask themselves why they aren't fighting for our interests the same way'  —  A Texas-based encrypted email service recently revealed …

TOP 10 QUESTIONS JOURNALISTS WON'T ASK PRESIDENT OBAMA AT PRESS CONFERENCE  —  President Barack Obama rarely makes himself available to the mainstream media.  They adore him anyway.  At rare press conferences, such as the one scheduled for noon Friday at the White House …

Scott Brown's Younger Brother Arrested Heavily Armed, Impersonating Police … Bruce Brown, the brother of former senator Scott Brown, is shown in this NECN.com video.  —  NECN.com  —  Bruce W. Brown, the younger brother of former Mass. Senator Scott Brown, was arrested last night heavily armed …

Why can't we talk about IQ?  —  “IQ is a metric of such dubiousness that almost no serious educational researcher uses it anymore,” the Guardian's Ana Marie Cox wrote back in May.  It was a breathtakingly ignorant statement.  Psychologist Jelte Wicherts noted in response that a search for …

EXCLUSIVE: Oklahoma Congressman Comes Out As A Birther  —  AFTON, Oklahoma — Although Freshman Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) believes President Obama may secretly be a Kenyan who forged his birth certificate, he thinks it's too late to do anything about it.  —  During a town hall meeting …

Patch staffers will be laid off and sites closed over next 7 days as Tim Armstrong takes charge  —  Patch employees listened in on this morning's conference call expecting to hear that hundreds are losing their jobs today.  But AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong told the listeners that the layoffs …

EXCLUSIVE: Alec Baldwin Set To Host New MSNBC Primetime Show (UPDATED)  —  Mediaite has learned from a senior source in the cable news industry with knowledge of MSNBC's programming that actor Alec Baldwin is getting his own weekly show in MSNBC's primetime lineup.

Obama: “We Are Not Going To Completely Eliminate Terrorism”  —  The President said we can weaken terror threats by working with our partners overseas.  —  President Obama said Friday that “we are not going to completely eliminate terrorism.”  The President was speaking at a White House press conference …

Durbin's enemies list  —  Rather than accusing political enemies of flouting federal law, Sen. Dick Durbin is suggesting that he may publicly expose them to public outrage over the killing of Trayvon Martin. … “It is absolutely unacceptable to single out any political group — right …

‘Muslims peaked in the Dark Ages.  But since then?’:  Richard Dawkins embroiled in Twitter row over controversial comments  — The author of The God Delusion tweeted that the world's Muslims had won fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge  — His comments sparked anger among …

Candy Crowley on Clinton documentary: ‘Life more difficult’  —  In the wake of news that NBC plans a four-part drama about the life of Hillary Clinton and that CNN has commissioned a documentary on her, both television networks have had to deflect criticism that these are designed to bolster a potential Clinton presidential run.

Seniors Leaving The GOP And It's About Time  —  Why, it seems like just yesterday that the GOP could count on the seniors!  —  I'm sure you've heard about this, but if you haven't this is really big news.  I've openly wondered for years why seniors were backing the tea party and GOP since …