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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

News Nuggets 1248


DAYLEE PICTURE: The Sanduki region in the Khakassia Republic in Russia.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Inside the NSA's Ultra-Secret China Hacking Group (Matthew Aid) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Deep within the National Security Agency, an elite, rarely discussed team of hackers and spies is targeting America's enemies abroad."

PRISM Program: Obama Administration Held 22 Briefings For Congress On Key FISA Law from the Huffington Post
"Obama administration officials held 22 separate briefings or meetings for members of Congress on the law that has been used to justify the National Security Agency's controversial email monitoring program, according to data provided by a senior administration official."

Snowden and the Right (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"Conservatives may lionize Edward Snowden now, says Michael Tomasky, but ultimately his actions are going to tear apart the GOP."
Concerning the NSA leaker, rarely have I seen so much misguided media hype!!  So many now seem to be hailing Snowden as one of the great "whistle-blowers" of all time!  He says he became "disenchanted" with the scale and depth of NSA data-gathering.  Am I missing something?  The man just did a massive data dump and fled to ... Hong Kong!?  Not Switzerland.  Not Paris or some other established haven for civil libertarians.  Why Hong Kong?  You have to ask yourself: why would the Chinese grant protection to an intelligence leaking martyr?  Answer: they wouldn't.  The LAST thing Chinese authorities would want is for anyone on their side to do what Snowden has done.  However, they WOULD grant protection to one of their own spies.  I do not know if Snowden is a spy -- but I find it interesting that virtually no one seems to be bringing more skepticism to Snowden's story!

I am in error.  There are a few looking deeper:
NSA Bombshell Story Falling Apart Under Scrutiny; Key Facts Turning Out to Be Inaccurate (Bob Cesca) from the Daily Banter
"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. But the reporting from Glenn Greenwald and the Washington Post has been shoddy and misleading."

Inside the ‘Q Group,’ the Directorate Hunting Down Edward Snowden (Eli Lake) from the Daily Beast
"The top-secret ‘Q Group’ has been chasing Edward Snowden since he disappeared in May. Eli Lake on the intel community’s internal police—and why the agency is in ‘complete freakout mode.’"

Edward Snowden’s Employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, Has a Huge PR Problem (Daniel Gross) from the Daily Beast
"The NSA leaker might have been a rogue Booz Allen Hamilton employee. But he made the company’s biggest client, the U.S. government, look terrible—and that can’t be good for business, says Daniel Gross."

The Big Shrug (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"while insiders no longer seem determined to worry about the wrong things, that’s not enough; they also need to start worrying about the right things — namely, the plight of the jobless and the immense continuing waste from a depressed economy. And that’s not happening."

Once Strident, College Republicans Now Seek Moderate Tone For the GOP (Alex Rogers) from Time Magazine 
"The once-activist arm of the Republican party, a breeding ground for the next generation of conservative consultants and politicians, has joined the long-term effort to distance itself from the grassroots’ occasionally controversial rhetoric. TIME spoke this week with Alex Smith, the National Chair of the CRNC, to discuss the study’s findings."

Elijah Cummings Outplays Darrell Issa (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"The unidentified man told investigators that workers in that office instigated the reviews on their own, that he was unaware of a political motivation behind the extra scrutiny to conservative groups’ applying for tax-exempt status, and that there was no evidence of any White House involvement."

Christie, Paul Offer Models for How GOP Can Compete in Blue States (Dan Balz) from the Washington Post 
"In the six elections beginning with 1992, the Republicans’ Electoral College base has shrunk by nearly half, while Democrats have built an even bigger bulwark than the GOP enjoyed in its presidential heyday."

GRATITUDE NUGGET!!


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