memeorandum: NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds (Barton Gellman/Washington Post)

12:10 PM ET, August 16, 2013

Top Items:

Brett LoGiurato / Business Insider:

GOP CHIEF: Mitt Romney's ‘Self-Deportation’ Quote Was ‘Racist’ And ‘Horrific’ — BOSTON — In condemning Rep. Steve King's incendiary comments on immigration, RNC chairman Reince Priebus swept in his party's presidential nominee, saying that talk of “self-deportation” was “horrific” and even “racist.”

Discussion: Washington Monthly, msnbc.com, ThinkProgress, The Hinterland Gazette, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Hot Air, Daily Kos, Shakesville, The Right Scoop and The Raw Story

Politico:

Eve of Destruction — It is almost impossible to find an establishment Republican in town who's not downright morose about the 2013 that has been and is about to be. Most dance around it in public, but they see this year as a disaster in the making, even if most elected Republicans don't know it or admit it.

Discussion: The Plum Line

James Hohmann / Politico:

With Clinton vote, RNC pushes back on debates — BOSTON — The Republican National Committee will pass a resolution Friday to bar NBC and CNN from hosting GOP primary debates in 2016 if the networks move forward with their Hillary Clinton projects. — But the vote is not just about Clinton.

Discussion: Booman Tribune, americanthinker.com, CNN, TheBlaze.com and Post Politics

John Fund / National Review:

Taking Back the GOP Debates — The summer meetings of national political parties are usually quiet affairs, but this week's Republican National Committee meeting in Boston is full of controversy about who should moderate and run the 2016 GOP presidential-primary debates.

Discussion: Power Line, American Prospect and Washington Times

Zeke J Miller / TIME:

GOP Votes To Punish Networks Over Clinton Projects — The vote to boycott CNN and NBC as debate sponsors is expected to pass easily — Republican leaders voted Friday to centralize party control over presidential primary debates in the name of punishing two networks that are producing major films about Hillary Clinton.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mediaite and TheBlaze.com, more at Mediagazer »

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
GOP to vote Friday on banning NBC, CNN from debates

Discussion: Politico

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
The key part of the RNC resolution on NBC and CNN debates

Discussion: Pat Dollard

Peter Hamby / CNN:
Christie raps potential 2016 rivals at Republican confab

Discussion: Post Politics, Taylor Marsh, National Review, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Fix, The Hill, The Dish, Hot Air, Mediaite, The Moderate Voice, Shakesville, Washington Monthly, The Daily Caller, Weekly Standard, The Hill and Ballot Box

Barton Gellman / Washington Post:

NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds — The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.

Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:

Court: Ability to police U.S. spying program limited — The leader of the secret court that is supposed to provide critical oversight of the government's vast spying programs said that its ability do so is limited and that it must trust the government to report when it improperly spies on Americans.

Discussion: The New Republic, Hillicon Valley, ThinkProgress, Hit & Run, msnbc.com, The Verge, Gizmodo, Techdirt and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »

Andrea Peterson / The Switch:
Remember when Obama said the NSA wasn't “actually abusing” its powers? He was wrong.

Discussion: Techdirt, Weasel Zippers, Patterico's Pontifications and The PJ Tatler

Washington Post: NSA report on privacy violations in the first quarter of 2012

Jeffrey Goldberg / Bloomberg:

What Obama Misunderstands About Egypt — This morning, President Barack Obama condemned the Egyptian military's slaughter of Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers, and canceled joint military exercises scheduled for next month. He said that the violence should stop and that “a process of national reconciliation should begin.”

Discussion: Foreign Policy, Booman Tribune, Hot Air and Wonkblog

John Hinderaker / Power Line:
It's Official: Obama Has Surpassed Jimmy Carter

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Reuters, Associated Press and New York Post

CNN:
More clashes feared as protesters vow ‘Friday of anger’ in Egypt

Discussion: Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs, Global Grind and Weasel Zippers

Elizabeth Chuck / World News:
Egypt may avoid civil war — but bloody conflict could continue for years

Discussion: msnbc.com, Pat Dollard and Red Alert Politics

BBC:
Egypt crisis: Deaths as Cairo violence resumes

Discussion: americanthinker.com and Blazing Cat Fur

Stanley Kurtz / National Review:
America Looks at Egypt and Sees Itself

Discussion: Israel Matzav, Atlas Shrugs, Israpundit and New York Times

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Edward Snowden To HuffPost: Media Being Misled — NEW YORK — National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden wants to set the record straight after individuals associated with his father have, in his words, “misled” journalists into “printing false claims about my situation.”

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette, RIA Novosti, CNN, Smartypants, The Hill, Techdirt and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:
Edward Snowden Talks With His Father

Discussion: Business Insider, Little Green Footballs and RIA Novosti

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:
Snowden downloaded NSA secrets while working for Dell, sources say

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, Hot Air and The Hill

Philip Bump / The Atlantic Wire:

Defying Reagan, Obama Returns Solar Panels to the White House — Now that the tedium of the 2012 campaign is over, President Obama is making good on his 2010 pledge to put solar panels on top of the White House. The panels (American-made, of course) will be the second set the building has ever seen.

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and E2-Wire

Washington Examiner:
Examiner Editorial: The ‘Great Divider’ likes political speech only when it likes him

Discussion: Betsy's Page and Washington Post

Juliet Eilperin / Post Politics:
White House solar panels being installed this week

Discussion: PlanetSave, John Hanger's Facts of The Day, Politico, Mercury News, The Verge, ThinkProgress and The PJ Tatler

Politicker:

Anthony Weiner's Relationship With Former Staffer Raises Questions — Anthon Weiner. (Photo: Getty) — Before he married his wife, former Congressman Anthony Weiner had a previously undisclosed relationship with an on-again-off-again congressional and campaign aide nearly two decades his junior.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared and The Daily Banter

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Moment of Truthiness — We all know how democracy is supposed to work. Politicians are supposed to campaign on the issues, and an informed public is supposed to cast its votes based on those issues, with some allowance for the politicians' perceived character and competence.

Discussion: JustOneMinute

Judy Quest / CNN:

A real clown wouldn't mock Obama — Editor's note: Judy Quest is a board member and past president of Clowns of America International, an organization of clowns that promotes the craft. She has been a clown for 32 years and has trained hundreds of clowns. She writes regularly for clown journals.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler and Outside the Beltway

New York Times:

No Banker Left Behind — The Detroit bankruptcy case has been cast as a contest between bondholders and pensioners that can be resolved only by shared sacrifice. — In principle, we have no problem with that, though in practice, the pensioners' fair share will have to take into account …

Discussion: Daily Kos and Prairie Weather