Patriot Act Provisions Up for Renewal

Between health care reform and missile defense, this news kind of got buried, but it’s important. Here is the story from Threat Level, the national security blog at Wired: The Obama administration has told Congress it supports renewing three provisions of the Patriot Act due to expire at year’s end,...

Possible Terror Attack Disrupted, and Guess What?

ABC News reports on an FBI raid that disrupted a possible terror attack. I would like to draw your attention to one sentence, which I have bolded: Authorities raided properties in New York City today in an effort that was intended to disrupt the plans of a terror suspect whose travels had been tracked by the...

The Torture Investigation Mystery Show

So there’s been a lot of speculation in blogtopia about Attorney General Eric Holder’s reportedly renewed intentions of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the authorization and use of torture in the previous administration. The speculation — which revolves around the question of...

Count the Strawmen

I count five, stated in various ways (listed under video). [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaPzaYlPyP8[/youtube] 1. The Democrats still want to blame the Bush administration for the economy. 2. The Democrats want to dismantle the CIA. 3. Nancy Pelosi is looking for political cover. 4. It’s not...

The IG Warrantless Surveillance Report

Here is a roundup of commentary about the report (h/t Glenn), which came out on Friday. First, what it is — and is not: The 2008 legislation that “amended” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — which in reality simply codified all of the illegal activity that the Bush...

Massachusetts Sues Feds on DOMA

Massachusetts has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, on the basis that it violates the rights of individual states to legislate on such private matters: Massachusetts, the first state in the nation to legalize gay marriage, has become the first to...