Top Items:

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls — The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.
Discussion:
Unclaimed Territory, The American Mind, AMERICAblog, JustOneMinute, RightWinged.com, Hot Air, The Washington Monthly, Balkinization, The Left Coaster, Right Wing News, The Sideshow, Booman Tribune, Eschaton, The Next Hurrah, Amygdala, QandO, Sister Toldjah, Daily Kos, TAPPED, Scrutiny Hooligans, Lifelike Pundits, News Hounds, Blue Crab Boulevard, The All Spin Zone, Shakespeare's Sister, The Carpetbagger Report, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Attytood, The Moderate Voice, Media Blog on National …, Crooks and Liars, Democrats.com, TalkLeft, Defense Tech, Brilliant at Breakfast, The Reality-Based Community, dartblog.com, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Air America Radio, Pensito Review, Just a Bump in the Beltway, Thoughts of an Average Woman, State of the Day, TheAgitator.com, Cato-at-liberty, No More Mister Nice Blog, Mia Culpa, King of Zembla, PoliBlog, Best of Both Worlds, War and Piece, The Volokh Conspiracy, Truthdig and BrothersJudd Blog
RELATED ITEMS:

Qwest: Good Corporate Behavior Should Be Rewarded — I read this post from Atrios on the big telcos cooperating with the NSA and was just about to shrug my shoulders about the latest outrage. Then I actually read the article and something jumped out - these companies have a choice in whether …
Discussion:
Confederate Yankee

With Access Denied, Justice Department Drops Spying Investigation — WASHINGTON, May 10 — An investigation by the Justice Department ethics office into the conduct of department lawyers who approved the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program has been closed because investigators …

Security issue kills domestic spying inquiry — NSA won't grant Justice Department lawyers required security clearance — WASHINGTON - The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Next Hurrah, Daily Kos, Bring it On!, QandO, TPMmuckraker, Midtopia and CorrenteWire

Questions and answers about the NSA phone record collection program — Answers to some questions about the program, as described by those sources: — Q: Does the NSA's domestic program mean that my calling records have been secretly collected? — A: In all likelihood, yes.

Another Day, Another National Security Leak — Is anyone surprised the rogue CIA and their media counterparts are leaking more information and spinning it to sound really, really bad: … Emphasis mine because there are wo things to note. First off most recordings related to a warranted search cover the innocent.

JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE FOR THE LEAKERS — There are apparently no limits to which the cadre of leakers who are working in our intelligence agencies will go to undermine legitimate national security interests in furtherance of their own, private agendas.

NSA Has Massive Database of Americans' Phone Calls
Discussion:
The American Mind

Hard-Core Republicans Are Fleeing President — Conservatives Point to Spending, Immigration — Disaffection over spending and immigration have caused conservatives to take flight from President Bush and the Republican Congress at a rapid pace in recent weeks, sending Bush's approval ratings …
RELATED ITEMS:


Rove revamps the Republican strategy — With ratings down and an election coming up, the GOP take a new tack — President Bush and his longtime confidant and adviser, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove. — WASHINGTON - This fall's election season is going to make the past three look like episodes of "Barney."
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, The Moderate Voice, Riehl World View, Blue Crab Boulevard, Booman Tribune, HolyCoast.com, Power Line and Oliver Willis


Democrats Are Fractured Over Strategy, Funds — Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and the leader of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have clashed angrily in recent days in a dispute about how the party should spend its money in advance of this fall's midterm elections.
Discussion:
TAPPED, JustOneMinute, Betsy's Page, Oliver Willis, Blue Crab Boulevard and BrothersJudd Blog
RELATED ITEMS:

Dean and Party Leaders in a Money Dispute — WASHINGTON, May 10 — Howard Dean was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee on an unusual promise: To send millions of dollars in contributions to build up state Democratic parties, even in states that vote solidly Republican.

47 nations gain seats on U.N.'s rights council — New body manages to keep worst abusers from even daring to run in the election — United Nations — U.N. members elected 47 countries to a new Human Rights Council on Tuesday, choosing several that have been criticized for their poor records …

A. M. Rosenthal Is Dead at 84; Innovative Editor of The Times — A. M. Rosenthal, a Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent who became the executive editor of The New York Times and led the paper's global news operations through 17 years of record growth, modernization and major journalistic change, died yesterday in Manhattan.
Discussion:
Gawker
RELATED ITEMS:

Lewis Surfaces in Probe of Cunningham — Federal prosecutors have begun an investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis, the Californian who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee, government officials and others said, signaling the spread of a San Diego corruption probe.


Brother Jeb would make 'great' US president: Bush — President George W. Bush praised his brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, as an "excellent" leader who would make a "great president" of the United States, according to news accounts. — "I think Jeb would be a great president.

April Tax Revenue 2nd-Highest in History — A flood of income tax payments pushed up government receipts to the second-highest level in history in April, giving the country a sizable surplus for the month. — In its monthly accounting of the government's books, the Treasury Department …


Plan to Give D.C. a Vote In Congress Advances — Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) is teaming up with U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) to introduce a bill that would for the first time give the District a full vote in Congress, a sign of bipartisan cooperation that advocates of D.C. voting rights hailed as a breakthrough.

Leaving the Wild, and Rather Liking the Change — SAN JOSÉ DEL GUAVIARE, Colombia — Since time immemorial the Nukak-Makú have lived a Stone Age life, roaming across hundreds of miles of isolated and pristine Amazon jungle, killing monkeys with blowguns and scouring the forest floor for berries.