http://dailyme-com-1118544767.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/Most recent articles.en-ushttp://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000322The Democrat, Edward J. Markey, accuses the Republican, Gabriel Gomez, of shading the truth about his discussions with Senator John McCain and term limits.    Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:47:39 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000322http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000481Some Boehner allies have quietly been gathering intelligence on the insurgent push.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:45:23 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000481http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000499Without concessions on security, reform may be a non-starter.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:37:09 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000499http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000488GOP senators voice strong opposition to the Senate Democrats' threat of filibuster reform'Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:32:48 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000488http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000539"I was so unbelievably, profoundly nervous that I had no appetite whatsoever," she says.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:42:11 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000539http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000540Opinion: If Congress doesn't act, U.S. science and technology will suffer irreparable damage.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:00:48 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000540http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000528Opinion: Stopping a handful of corporate dodgers will cover the cost of increasing food aid.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:45:42 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000528http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000514Opinion: There's no reason seniors should have to worry where their next meal is coming from.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:44:51 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000514http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000507The candidates go back and forth.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:28:27 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000507http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005450Roughly half of all Americans now think the White House was behind the Internal Revenue Service decision to target conservative political groups -- a growing belief at odds with information recently provided to CNN by congressional investigators.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:16:29 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005450http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000531It's one of the most talked-about films set to debut at this week's AFI Docs Festival.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:05:39 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000531http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000226This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website.The Gulf of Guinea. He said it without a hint of irony or embarrassment. This was one of US Africa Command's big success stories. The Gulf... of Guinea.Never mind that most Americans couldn't find it on a map and haven't heard of the nations on its shores like Gabon, Benin, and Togo. Never mind that just five days before I talked with AFRICOM's chief spokesman, the Economist had asked if the Gulf of Guinea was on the verge of becoming "another Somalia," because piracy there had jumped 41% from 2011 to 2012 and was on track to be even worse in 2013.The Gulf of Guinea was one of the primary areas in Africa where "stability," the command spokesman assured me, had "improved significantly," and the US military had played a major role in bringing it about. But what did that say about so many other areas of the continent that, since AFRICOM was set up, had been wracked by coups, insurgencies, violence, and volatility?A careful examination of the security situation in Africa suggests that it is in the process of becoming Ground Zero for a veritable terror diaspora set in motion in the wake of 9/11 that has only accelerated in the Obama years. Recent history indicates that as US "stability" operations in Africa have increased, militancy has spread, insurgent groups have proliferated, allies have faltered or committed abuses, terrorism has increased, the number of failed states has risen, and the continent has become more unsettled.Continue Reading »Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:28:39 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000226http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005785Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that he will adhere to the “Hastert Rule” on immigration reform.Read more...Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:16:00 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005785http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000518The shift upset top members of the committee, fearful of leaving the bill exposed over the weekend.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:04:57 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000518http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000167    Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:37:00 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000167http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004947The reporter died in a car accident on Tuesday in Los Angeles, the news outlet reports.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:30:49 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004947http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005795The plots included a previously undisclosed plan to blow up the New York Stock Exchange, Gen. Keith Alexander said. Read more...Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:10:00 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005795http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005041With the shuttle program gone and the space station nearing retirement, what next?Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:04:43 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005041http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000216The House debated and passed a bill on Tuesday that would ban all abortions after 20 weeks across the country. The bill, passed by a nearly party-line vote of 228 to 196, replicates laws passed in a dozen states in the past three years limiting the time period during which women can obtain a legal abortion.HR 1797, sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks , is not expected to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, and President Barack Obama has already threatened to veto it. But it does contain a provision that redefines rape exemptions, significantly limiting the number of women who would qualify. In order to obtain an abortion after 20 weeks under this law, a woman who was raped must be able to prove that she reported the rape to authorities—a requirement not present in other rape exceptions to federal abortion laws.Republicans added this provision to the bill, which originally included no exceptions for rape or incest, after the House Judiciary committee approved it last week. But the alternative language Republicans inserted creates its own problems. It is more restrictive than the Hyde Amendment, the law barring federal funds from being used to pay for abortions. Hyde specifically exempts cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake—with no requirement that women have documentation from police that they reported the crime.Continue Reading »Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:02:05 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000216http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004979"I'm more concerned, I can say that," Rep. Buck McKeon says.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:54:05 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004979http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004919The White House's public silence over the last two months has essentially ceded the issue to these outside groups.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:44:06 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004919http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005470The Pentagon unveiled plans Tuesday for fully integrating women into front-line and special combat roles, including elite forces such as Army Rangers and Navy SEALs.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:39:52 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005470http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005459As his popularity has dropped to 45%, the lowest in a year and a half, President Barack Obama talked with PBS' Charlie Rose.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:27:22 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005459http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004937The bill is the most far-reaching abortion legislation in the House in a decade.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:18:20 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004937http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004966He says young people see Obama as a "hypocrite."Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:17:43 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004966http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005007The rally may alter the Ways and Means Committee's bipartisan approach to the IRS probe.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:13:14 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005007http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004928Proponents of the immigration bill claim the cost savings as major victory.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:45:11 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004928http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004958Gomez is down 47 percent to 40 percent, one week from the special Senate election.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:41:05 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004958http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005031Opinion: Feingold's appointment signals support.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:39:26 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005031http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005799Legislation before the Judiciary Committee to beef up immigration enforcement triggered heated debate among Republicans and Democrats. Read more...Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:36:00 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005799http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005077The Republican calls the Democrats' food-stamp challenge a publicity stunt.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:33:08 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005077http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800003875General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, appears before the House Select Intelligence Committee in Washington D.C. | Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT WASHINGTON - The director of the National Security Agency testified Tuesday that the government’s massive surveillance program helped thwart more than 50 terrorist “events” worldwide since Sept. 11, 2001, including a planned bombing of the New York Stock Exchange that involved a Kansas City man. Army Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA’s director, made the revelation during a rare open session of the House of Representatives’ Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, called by panel members to defend and explain government cyber-snooping they support and which they contend has been misunderstood since it was revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.Alexander, along with representatives of the FBI, the Office of National Intelligence and the Justice Department, tried to quell public angst over the size and scope of the government’s telephone and Internet surveillance activities following reports in Britain’s Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post based on Snowden’s leaks. “This is not a program that’s off the books, that’s been hidden away,” Deputy Attorney General James Cole told lawmakers. “It’s been overseen by three branches of our government, the legislature, the judiciary and the executive branch.”Alexander told the committee that the programs were instrumental in preventing about 50 terrorist “events” in more than 20 countries. At least “10 of these events included homeland-based threats,” he added.The NSA director said he would provide House and Senate lawmakers detailed information on the 50 events in a classified setting. However, Sean Joyce, deputy director of the FBI, divulged some recently declassified information about two foiled domestic plots.Without going into great detail, Joyce said authorities were able to crush a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange before it fully hatched because federal authorities, through the surveillance programs, were monitoring “an extremist in Yemen” who was “talking with an individual located in the United States in Kansas City, Missouri.”The individual was later identified as Khalid Ouazzani. McClatchy’s Kansas City Star reported in June that Ouazzani, a local businessman, was part of a small terror cell with two New York men. In May 2010 he pleaded guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization. He admitted sending more than $23,000 to al Qaida and performing “other tasks” for the group, The Star reported.Starting in 2007, Ouazzani gave money to al Qaida through Sabirhan Hasanoff of Brooklyn. Another man, Wesam El-Hanafi, accepted Ouazzani’s oath of allegiance to al Qaida, according to federal court records that identified Ouazzani only as “CC-1,” according to The Star.Court records showed that the three men met in Brooklyn in May 2008 to discuss al Qaida membership. According to the court records, Hasanoff advised Ouazzani not to let his U.S. passport become filled with immigration stamps in order to retain its value to al Qaida. Ouazzani also contacted a consulate in New York after speaking with the other men, The Star reported. In announcing charges against Hasanoff and El-Hanafi in April 2010, federal prosecutors said the pair had conspired to modernize al Qaida by updating its computer systems, which included buying a software program that helped “communicate securely with others over the Internet,” The Star reported.When Ouazzani was first identified, Joyce told the intelligence committee members Tuesday, “We went up on electronic surveillance and identified his co-conspirators.“And this was the plot that was in the very initial stages of plotting to bomb the New York Stock Exchange,” he said. “We were able to disrupt the plot, we were able to lure some individuals to the United States, and we were able to effect their arrest. And they were convicted for this terrorist activity.”In the second newly declassified plot, Joyce said federal authorities were able to identify a San Diego man who intended to financially support a terrorism group in Somalia. Joyce said the FBI investigated the man shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks but didn’t find any connection to terrorist activity.“Several years later . . . the NSA provided us a telephone number only in San Diego that had indirect contact with an extremist outside the United States,” Joyce said. With further electronic surveillance, approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Joyce said the FBI was able to identify the man’s co-conspirators “and we were able to disrupt this terrorist activity.” Tuesday’s witnesses testified to a largely sympathetic committee. Prior to the hearing, lawmakers who support the surveillance programs implored the NSA to declassify materials and provide examples to the public showing how they were keeping the nation safe.Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the committee chair, described the unusual open hearing as a “cleanup on aisle nine” in the aftermath of Snowden’s leaks. President Barack Obama also engaged in NSA damage control in a Monday night PBS interview with Charlie Rose.“What I can say unequivocally is that if you are a U.S. person, the NSA cannot listen to your phone calls, and the NSA cannot target your emails,” he told Rose. “. . . And have not.”Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:27:46 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800003875http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004559President Obama will argue Wednesday that the Western world needs to summon the same spirit that led to victory in the Cold War as itRead more...Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:09:00 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004559http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005070She says his actions were "highly dangerous."Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:08:30 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005070http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005020"Greater transparency is needed," the company says in a statement requesting permission.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:55:32 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005020http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005476Remember that scene at the end of that Facebook Movie when Mark Zuckerberg's character sits alone at a computer screen hitting the refresh button over and over again -- stuck in a loop of anxiety and longing?Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:51:03 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005476http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005035The bill would cut $1.3 billion from the popular Community Development Block Grants program.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:49:59 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005035http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004514WASHINGTON — Recently disclosed National Security Agency surveillance programs have helped disrupt more than 50 “potential terrorist events” around the world over the last 12 years, according to U.S. intelligence officials, who described the spying operations as tightly regulated and extremely useful.    Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:38:00 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004514http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004994The House Speaker is hunting for cash on America's last frontier.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:32:51 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004994http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800003884Tea Party supporters rally in front of the IRS building May 21, 2013 in Washington, D.C., to protest the abuse of power from the IRS in targeting tea party and grassroots organizations for harassment. | Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT By David Lightman and Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON - Transcripts of an interview with a key Internal Revenue Service employee confirm that the agency put tea party organizations on a special track for extra scrutiny but still don’t make clear how that process was established. The transcript of an interview with a senior manager in the screening department of the IRS division in charge of tax-exempt designations was shared with reporters by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. Several congressional committees have been interviewing employees in the Cincinnati-based IRS office that handles applications for Exempt Organization status. The manager’s name is redacted in the transcript, though he called himself a conservative Republican. The document shows how applications that met criteria that the IRS has since called inappropriate were selectively screened. The criteria included buzzwords such as constitution, Bill of Rights and other tea party themes referring to founding fathers. These words caused applications to be pulled aside and sent to what’s called Group 7822. The screener interviewed by investigators professed no knowledge of what happened to the applications once they were sent to Group 7822, or which employees worked in that group. The group handled applications with greater detail than the initial screening.The IRS has acknowledged using inappropriate criteria to ensure that new political players were in fact educational groups performing a social welfare purpose as required by law. Republicans charge they were targeted and their applications delayed under after the 2012 elections.The transcript provides no concrete evidence of any Obama administration involvement.It shows that in early 2010, the agent recalled, he had concerns about media attention concerning a tea party case. The agent "had concerns about this being a high profile case." It was "normal business" to be concerned with a case that could be described as high profile, the witness said. If cases appeared similar, it was important they be reviewed by the same agent or group. If there were four different applications, for instance, "we don’t want four different determinations. It’s just not good business. It’s not good customer service." The witness described how agents would review about 20 to 25 cases daily, and drop them into one of four buckets. "So as the agent is reviewing these cases, first they’re seeing if the application is complete," the witness said. "Second, they’re seeing if it’s procedurally up to snuff." Next, the IRS would look at the organization’s activities. "And we want to make sure, like a c3, are their activities exclusively religious, charitable, educational or scientific?" the witness explained."And that’s pretty easy to see in most cases." If that determination can’t be made, "it’s moved to someone who has additional time to look at a case." At some point, cases would be dropped into one of the buckets. Much of the questioning from congressional staffers focused on Lois Lerner, who headed the Exempt Organizations division and refused to testify before Congress. She has been placed on administrative leave while Congressional, Justice Department and Treasury Department probes play out.Correction: This story originally misspelled the name of Rep. Elijah Cummings.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:31:21 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800003884http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800003883WASHINGTON - California dairy processors are still trying to squeeze a better deal from a big farm bill up for House debate this week. They aren’t the only ones. The Obama administration is threatening a veto. California liberals complain it cuts nutrition programs too much. The state’s conservatives say it’s still too generous. Everyone agrees the 1,200-page House bill is a work in progress. “There’s a lot of things I like, and there’s some things I have some difficulty with,” Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, said Tuesday, “but I think it can be worked out in conference.”Costa is one of six California members of the House Agriculture Committee, which approved the measure by a 36-10 margin last month. The full House vote is expected to be much closer on Thursday, following consideration of dozens of amendments.Last Congress, stymied by the many political cross-currents, the Republican-controlled House failed to bring a farm bill to the floor. That meant a Senate-passed measure died and lawmakers had to temporarily extend provisions of the 2008 farm bill.This year’s bill is potentially important for California’s $43 billion-a-year agricultural industry, as well as for the roughly 4.1 million California residents who currently receive the supplemental nutrition assistance, formerly called food stamps. The House bill ends the crop subsidies known as direct payments, which primarily benefit cotton, rice, wheat and corn growers, and also cuts nutrition programs.The House measure offers funding for fruit and vegetable growers, including $375 million over five years for a Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. Last year, for instance, the program funded efforts like cantaloupe safety research at the University of California at Davis and “new product research” with pistachios.The bill also includes $275 million over five years for a continued Specialty Crop Research Initiative, which last year funded U.C. Davis work on almonds, grapes and walnuts, among other crops.Still, the House bill has triggered opposition from several quarters.Broadly speaking, the Obama administration this week proclaimed that it “strongly opposes” the House farm bill, citing the cuts in supplemental nutrition programs and increases in crop insurance subsidies.More narrowly, the bill pits dairy producers, many of whom favor a new voluntary supply management program, against dairy processors, who contend they’ll be hurt by artificially curtailed supplies. The supply management provision does not set a production quota, but does tie dairy payments for program participants to certain market conditions.“We see it as a significant threat to our ability to provide a product, if we have this scheme that would throttle supplies,” David Ahlem, vice president of Hilmar Cheese, said in an interview Tuesday. “Any manipulation of supply and demand like this will distort the market.”The opposition by Hilmar Cheese and other members of the International Dairy Foods Association to the farm bill’s dairy supply management program will come to a head in a closely watched vote on an amendment to strike the provision. Beyond the high-profile dairy issue and the big-ticket subsidies and nutrition programs, the House bill includes myriad provisions that matter to different sectors of the California farm economy.The bill, for instance, adds canned, frozen and dried products to the fresh fruits and vegetables offered through the existing federal school lunch program. In a victory for some California olive oil producers, among others, the bill also adds imported olive oil to the list of imported commodities that must meet domestic quality standards, if the industry ever sets up a marketing order that establishes quality standards.The olive oil provision is targeted for elimination by an amendment, one of 228 that have been proposed.Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., has an amendment that would replace a farm bill provision that undermines California’s cage standards for egg-laying hens, adopted by the state’s voters through Proposition 2 in 2008. The House Agriculture Committee rejected Denham’s earlier effort during mark-up of the bill.“I have a number of concerns that still need to be addressed,” Denham said.Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., has an amendment to eliminate the $20 million Farmers Market Promotion Program. A conservative whose redrawn congressional district includes several central Sierra Nevada counties, McClintock calls the program “duplicative” and unnecessary. Last year, records show that it helped fund expansion of the West Modesto Farmers Market, as well as markets in rural Siskiyou, Plumas and Shasta counties, among other locations.Other amendments resurrect farm bill debates going back decades.Several lawmakers have amendments, once again, to eliminate the $200 million-a-year Market Access Program, which funds overseas advertising and marketing. The program regularly funds California organizations representing the state’s wine, almond, strawberry, walnut and raisin producers, among many others, and it just as regularly fends off congressional skeptics who try to cut off funding.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:16:57 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800003883http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005043The law would require that Internet sales be subject to the same state taxes as other retailers.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:16:50 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005043http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004938Defenders of contracting say the practice still saves the government money over the long run.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:00:18 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004938http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004661Today's least self-aware punditry, courtesy of the former Weather Underground ringleader    Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:33:52 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004661http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005052Duncan, Sperling to meet with senators to prevent student loan rates from doubling.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:29:58 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005052http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005103Second Amendment supporters will march for their rights armed with toy water pistols.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:24:18 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005103http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004985The release is bound to intensify tension between Cummings and Issa.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:18:46 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004985http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005086The majority leader says the bill could pass "as is," and calls the Cornyn amendment "a poison pill."Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:11:42 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005086http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005094The New Jersey governor rejects the favorites of both ends of his state.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:00:40 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005094http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004666The Texas lawmaker's comments are really just another way to talk about the doggedly debated topic of whether fetuses feel pain.    Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:51:12 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004666http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800003977The Democratic whip predicted that those with their eyes on the White House would pressure leaders to swallow comprehensive reforms.Read more...Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:43:00 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800003977http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004970Says Snowden got classifed order during orientation.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:40:52 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004970http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005099The bill would require the NSA to have a specific target if it is seeking phone records.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:39:56 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005099http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005058The treasury secretary's first signature was mocked by politicians, the media and the president.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:17:34 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005058http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800003985Boehner said he wouldn't bring a bill to the floor that "doesn't have a majority support of Republicans."Read more...Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:17:00 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800003985http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004569"You will pay a price, a political price for not getting engaged and dealing with gun safety," Biden warned senators.Read more...Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:06:00 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004569http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004545WASHINGTON — A coalition of presidential campaign veterans, healthcare companies and community activists will kick off a months-long push on Sunday to prepare millions of Americans to sign up for insurance this fall under President Obama’s healthcare law.    Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:03:00 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004545http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000887Partisan debate about pregnancy and rape re-emerged last week with a bill that would ban abortion 20 weeks after fertilization, when some researchers say fetuses are capable of feeling pain. H.R. 1797 heads to the House floor today with narrow exceptions — added by House leaders — for incest and for rape. A woman would need to report her rape to the "appropriate enforcement authorities" to be allowed an abortion at 20 weeks or more after fertilization — commonly known as 22 weeks of pregnancy — with a jail sentence for providers who violate the ban. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. ... >>MoreTue, 18 Jun 2013 12:35:02 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000887http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800003993Demonstrators interrupted and briefly delayed the start of the House Judiciary Committee’s first markup of immigration legislation, a bill backed byRead more...Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:24:00 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800003993http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005080Officials will hold their first formal political meeting with the group to kickstart peace talks.Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:00:00 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800005080http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000245Members of the Florida state Legislature rarely agree on anything. It's unusual for a bill to get unanimous support from the body. But as it turns out, there is one thing that both Republicans and Democrats really love: wildflowers. Florida lawmakers in both houses of the Legislature voted a collective 157 to 0 this spring to increase the fee for a special Florida wildflower license plate from $15 to $25 starting in July. The proceeds would have gone to the Florida Wildflower Foundation, which for 13 years has been using license plate fees to dole out $2.5 million in grants to schools, garden clubs, and other green-thumb groups to plant native Florida flowers. The only problem is that on Friday afternoon, Republican Gov. Rick Scott vetoed the bill.The move seems to have left even Republicans somewhat mystified. The only people who paid the fee were those who wanted to chip in for the pretty roadside flowers, and it brought the cost of the license plate in line with another one Scott approved for the Freemasons. But Scott apparently saw it otherwise, insisting that the wildflower license plate fee is apparently just another manifestation of big government. He wrote:The bill increases the annual use fee for a specialty license plate; an expense in addition to the standard fees paid when registering a motor vehicle. Although buying a specialty license plate is voluntary, Floridians wishing to demonstrate their support for our State's natural beauty would be subjected to the cost increases sought by this bill.The veto might be in keeping with Scott's image as a strict small-government tea partier, though it's unclear that even the tea partiers are part of the anti-wildflower lobby. What's really odd about the veto is that Scott has spent the past few months running away from the tea party, which has made him one of the nation's most unpopular governors. He's been transforming himself into a more traditional tax-and-spend politician, even coming out in support of expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, as he tries to hang on to his job in next year's election. But the flower veto suggests that the tea partier in him is refusing to go quietly. Or maybe he just really hates flowers. Either explanation probably isn't going to help him win any votes. As the Legislature has shown, in Florida, just about everyone loves wildflowers. Tue, 18 Jun 2013 06:30:32 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000245http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000248Mike, an MQ-9 Reaper pilot, sips coffee on his 20-minute morning commute to Holloman Air Force Base outside Alamogordo, New Mexico. Drones: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know But Were Always Afraid to AskHolder: Obama Can Use Lethal Force Against Americans on US SoilSenators Will Get to Know When Obama Can Kill Americans—But You Won't8 Drones That Aren't Out to Kill You Can Police Be Trusted With Drones?Google-Funded Drones To Hunt Rhino Poachers Obama Targeted Killing Document: If We Do It, It's Not IllegalDrones Could Help Conserve Endangered Wildlife Mike's morning commute to the battlefield begins with his usual Egg McMuffin and black coffee from a McDonald's drive-through window in Alamogordo, New Mexico. After driving out of town in his Ford pickup, clearing a security checkpoint, and attending a daily briefing, he will be remote-controlling an MQ-9 Reaper drone 10,000 feet above Afghanistan.But don't call Mike—an Air Force major based at Holloman Air Force Base—a drone pilot. The preferred nomenclature inside the military for unmanned planes is RPA, for Remotely Piloted Aircraft. "Drone" conjures images of brainless bots on autopilot, an implication not appreciated by the three-person crew typically tasked with operating the military's high-tech workhorses.The word drone also evokes monotony, which is what fills much of the pilots' daily routines. Though strikes on suspected terrorists and the resulting civilian casualties get the headlines, the lion's share of remote piloting consists of quieter, more shadowy work: hour after hour of ISR—intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Sitting in ergonomic chairs in ground control stations—essentially souped-up shipping containers—RPA operators coordinate with ground intel to identify human targets, then track them with high-powered zoom lenses and sophisticated sensors. "It might be little things like a group of kids throwing rocks at goats, or at each other, or an old man startled by a barking dog," says Mike. "You get a sense of daily life. I've been on the same shift for a month and you learn the patterns. Like, I'll know at 5 a.m. this guy is gonna go outside and take a shit. I've seen a lot of dudes take shits."An Air Force veteran, who asked not to be named, says drones "save lives so I don't know what the criticism is." He adds: "But I'm not sure about the pilots wearing the same uniforms and getting the same medals, because they don't take the same risks." A Predator drone on a menu at a diner in Alamogordo "Another time we followed this guy outside his house for half an hour, and all he did was go scoop water from a stream. Seeing that just made it sink in—how we live worlds apart," he recalls. Asked about feeling any sense of attachment to his targets after long hours of scrutiny, Mike replies, "Whether it gives me empathy or sympathy or just familiarity I'm not sure. We compartmentalize the job like anyone else."Yet the pilots insist their distance from their targets does little to desensitize them to the real-life consequences of their actions. Ryan, a captain who used to fly a B-52 bomber, says, "Oh yeah, you still get buck fever; you know you're about to do some damage. The heart rate goes up. The main thing is repetition, so whether it's a training weapon or 2,000-pound laser-guided missile, it doesn't feel different."An RPA pilot at his home in Alamogordo, which he shares with another pilot An RPA pilot who previously flew B-52 bombers relaxes after work. Surveillance often includes hovering indefinitely to scan for IEDs or ambushes. There is massive demand for this "overwatch" work, as American commanders on the ground now feel blind without it. Mike describes an incident when employees of a private security agency dressed in local garb were mistaken for Taliban fighters. An attack controller on the ground called in a Reaper strike, but when Mike examined the area, he noticed that the men were openly brandishing their weapons, suggesting they were friendlies. He decided to withhold ordnance and instead asked ground forces to investigate, whereupon they confirmed his assumption. He was awarded a Pilot Safety Award of Distinction, and months later had an unlikely run-in with the owner of the firm that employed the contractors. He says the CEO shook his hand and told him, "Thanks for not killing my guys."But an award or handshake can't replace the buzz of flying at Mach speed over a combat zone. Many early recruits to the program flew jets, bombers, or cargo planes before being "asked" to transfer to drone duty under the impression they could reassign to a base of their choosing after putting in time on RPA rotations. But as demand for their new skill set increased, the timelines became moving targets. Some have been flying drones so long they would need expensive retraining to fly regular aircraft again.Two drone pilots on their Harleys outside the Aviator 10 movie theater in Alamogordo The entrance to the shopping exchange at Holloman Air Force Base "I'm overpaid, underworked, and bored," says Ryan. "What the Air Force doesn't get is that they can't throw money at us to make us happy. I didn't even know how much a pilot made when I enlisted. I just wanted to fly." Brad, who flew a B1 bomber in Afghanistan and is now an RPA instructor at Holloman, compares it to "being transferred from marketing to the accounting department." Ryan says pilots in their situation have taken to calling themselves the "lost generation," and many have become resigned to the notion that if they stay in the Air Force they might never feel g-forces in a real cockpit again."It's tough working night shifts watching your buddies do great things in the field while you're turning circles in the sky doing ISR," says Ryan. And the dusty town of Alamogordo doesn't offer much in the way of extracurricular perks. "If we can do this job from anywhere, why can't they just put the base in Hawaii?" wonders Mike, only half-joking.A bar in Indian Springs, Nevada, across from Creech Air Force Base, another major hub of drone operationsAn intersection in Indian SpringsThis isn't to say RPA pilots are a disgruntled lot; they see value in what they're doing, but it's an adjustment for the guys who followed their Top Gun daydreams only to find themselves landlocked in air-conditioned containers.Still, these are boom times in the RPA business. Classrooms at Holloman are filled with recruits who will soon deploy to the virtual front lines at the base or similar facilities in Nevada and South Dakota. Some trainees have logged zero hours of actual manned flight time, though Ryan believes "the video game generation may have advantages in some respects." And there are plenty of pilots happy to raise their families inside the suburban confines of an Air Force base without needing to deploy abroad. It's hard to beat making a 7,500-mile commute in just a few minutes.An Armed Forces recruiting center at a shopping mall in AlamogordoTue, 18 Jun 2013 06:30:31 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000248http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000257Edward Snowden's leaks have prompted many questions about government surveillance activity in the United States, including this one: How often do tech firms turn over user data to the feds? In recent years, companies including Google, Microsoft, and Twitter have released data on this front—but it's been incomplete, because the government has prohibited them from revealing the full extent of the requests they've received.Last week, following Snowden's disclosures about the National Security Agency's PRISM program, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter pressed the federal government to allow them to give the public a fuller picture of how often the authorities request user information, including the number of requests they receive under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act . In response, the FBI and the Department of Justice granted permission on Friday to disclose the number of FISA requests they get—but with a pretty big catch. The companies must lump these top-secret surveillance orders in with ordinary criminal investigations by local, state, and federal authorities, a caveat that provides little insight into how often the government is invoking its surveillance powers, let alone the type of content that is being released to federal authorities. The government is "failing to offer the public anything but the bare minimum amount of transparency," argues Sina Khanifar, a privacy activist who helped launch Stopwatching.us, a coalition demanding more information about NSA surveillance efforts. After the government relaxed the rules about the type of information they could make public, Microsoft and Facebook released data combining national security requests and criminal investigations. But Google and Twitter have so far declined to do so until the government allows them to break out FISA requests. "Our request to the government is clear: to be able to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately," says Google spokesman Chris Gaither.​In an effort at transparency, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter have issued reports for the past several years disclosing bare bones information about the requests they receive from a variety of law enforcement authorities. Google and Microsoft have also reported limited data about national security letters, controversial documents used by the FBI to secretly compel the disclosure of certain online records. The companies have permission to report only a vague range of the number of national security letters they receive. For instance, Google could only report that it had received as many as 999 national security letters in 2012, targeting between 1,000 and 1,999 user accounts.Collectively, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter report receiving tens of thousands of requests for user data from the US government annually. In 2012, Google received more than 16,400 requests covering 31,000-plus user accounts from federal, state, and local authorities. The number of data demands directed to Google has been increasing since 2010, when the company reported receiving less than 9,000 requests. Microsoft revealed on Friday that in the second half of 2012 it received between 6,000 and 7,000 criminal and national security warrants, subpoenas, and orders affecting up to 32,000 accounts.  During the same time period, Facebook says government entities made between 9,000 and 10,000 requests, covering up to 19,000 accounts.The tech companies don't comply with all law enforcement requests, but they go along with most of them. A Facebook spokesperson told Mother Jones that the company provided information in response to 79 percent of the data requests it received between July and December 2012. The other companies haven't released new data that incorporates FISA requests, but here are the compliance rates reported in 2012 by Google, Microsoft, and Twitter:                                                              The companies still can't reveal much about the type of content released under national security requests. Google says that it will only hand over the content of an email if a search warrant is issued. According to Gaither, under a subpoena, Google can disclose the name listed when on the account, the IP address from which it was created, and the date and time a user signed in and out. Using a national security letter, Google says that the FBI can also only obtain limited information, excluding email content and Google search queries.Twitter, which follows a similar policy, received 1,494 requests affecting 2,093 accounts from federal, state and local authorities in 2012. Between July and December 2012, most of the requests were subpoenas, which require Twitter to provide basic user information. In order to get direct messages, Twitter notes that the requester would have to present a court order.Microsoft put together a chart detailing what is generally released when the company provides "non-content information" to the authorities:  Nate Cardozo, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, notes that normal restrictions on the type of information released may go out the window when FISA orders are involved. "What we know about FISA orders is that they seem to be targeting non-US persons, so they may actually request content, since Fourth Amendment protections don't apply." Snowden claimed Monday in a live chat with the Guardian that when a NSA analyst targets an email address, he or she gets "all of it…IPs, raw data, content, headers, attachments, everything." And even when the NSA isn't targeting domestic communications, Snowden claimed that the content of a US citizen's email is only protected by a "very weak" filter that can be "stripped out at any time."Charts by Ian Gordon and Maggie SevernsTue, 18 Jun 2013 06:30:30 -0400http://dailyme.com/story/2013061900000257http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004795Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500http://dailyme.com/story/2013061800004795