I can’t hide my disappointment with Canada of late. A week ago they seemed to be on the brink of bringing scandal action on a scale I’ve seldom seen. But by Monday they had become like the Bill Buckner of nations, choking at the key moment, when glory was just within reach. But today, there seems to be maybe some life back in the scandal.
Here’s the latest. Read More
[Jonathan Alter, author of the new book “The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies”, is joining us as a guest blogger this week in the Editor’s Blog highlighting and discussing some key findings and revelations in his new book. – jmm]
DAY FOUR
As with my last book, I became intrigued by the character and operating style of President Obama. I spoke to a lot of people who shed light on what he’s like behind closed doors. Here’s a taste of what I found. Read More
4 year old Texan accidentally shoots himself with granddad’s gun.
A Texas man, Ezekiel Gilbert, has been acquitted of murder after shooting and killing a 23 year old escort he found on craigslist because she would not have sex with him even after paying her $150 fee. Read More
From The Guardian: “The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.”
From the Washington Post:
The highly classified program, code-named PRISM, has not been disclosed publicly before. Its establishment in 2007 and six years of exponential growth took place beneath the surface of a roiling debate over the boundaries of surveillance and privacy. Even late last year, when critics of the foreign intelligence statute argued for changes, the only members of Congress who know about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues.
I want to stress this is a reader email, not TPM reporting. But I’m sharing it because after reading it through and doing some googling of my own there’s little doubt that Palantir is doing stuff like what the government is doing with those tech companies, even if they’re not part of ‘prism’ itself. Give this a read.
From an anonymous reader …
I don’t see anyone out there with this theory, and TPM is my favorite news source, so here goes:
“PRISM” is the government’s name for a program that uses technology from Palantir. Palantir is a Silicon Valley start-up that’s now valued at well over $1B, that focuses on data analysis for the government. Here’s how Palantir describes themselves:
Amazingly we seem to have a second case of someone allegedly sending ricin-tainted letters and trying to frame somebody else as the culprit.
[Jonathan Alter, author of the new book “The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies”, is joining us as a guest blogger this week in the Editor’s Blog highlighting and discussing some key findings and revelations in his new book. – jmm]
DAY FIVE
It’s always tricky predicting how historians of the future will react, but my guess is that they will be surprised by how a small group of rightwing extremists were able to wield so much power in a political system where the vast majority of the public didn’t share their views. Grover Norquist and Roger Ailes are among the Obama enemies I profile. Read More
I hope this will be helpful to some of you. If you are having a personal feud with your spouse or professional rival or just somebody who you’re in some weird spy v spy type feud with, I need to tell you something. If you try to frame them for sending a ricin letter to the President, you’re going to get caught. Read More