June 16, 2016

Senate Democrats' Filibuster Seeking Tougher Gun Laws Ends after Almost 14 Hours

Source: CBS News

@CBSNews: BREAKING NEWS: Senate Democrats' filibuster seeking tougher gun laws ends after almost 14 hours https://t.co/YLPZLJQjKE/s/kOU6

Senate Dems' filibuster for tighter gun laws ends in wee hours

CBS/AP
Last Updated Jun 16, 2016 2:23 AM EDT

WASHINGTON -- A Democratic senator upset with congressional inaction on gun violence led a nearly 14-hour Senate filibuster before yielding the floor early Thursday with a pledge that he and his colleagues would press aggressively for a legislative response to the tragedy in Florida, the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy ended a nonstop series of speeches with his Democratic colleagues shortly after 2 a.m. EDT after promising at the outset that he would remain on the Senate floor "until we get some signal, some sign that we can come together."

He evoked the Newtown school shooting in his state in 2012 in a plea that came as presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would meet with the National Rifle Association about the terror watch list and gun purchases.

"For those of us that represent Connecticut, the failure of this body to do anything, anything at all in the face of that continued slaughter isn't just painful to us, it's unconscionable," Murphy said.

"There hasn't been a debate scheduled on the floor of the Senate," Murphy said as the filibuster neared an end. "There hasn't been a debate scheduled in the committees. ... There are 30,000 people dying" daily in the country, he said.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-democrats-filibuster-for-tighter-gun-laws-lasts-into-wee-hours

June 14, 2016

TOM THE DANCING BUG: The Power of Congress-Man - Thoughts and Prayers

http://boingboing.net/2016/06/14/tom-the-dancing-bug-the-powe.html

June 13, 2016

TOM TOMORROW: When We Were Great

Tom Tomorrow: "I didn’t have time yesterday to write anything in response to the latest horrific gun massacre, but there are relevant cartoons here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Oh, and also here. Those are just off the top of my head, I’ve undoubtedly forgotten others."

DAILY KOS LINK: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/06/13/1537198/-Cartoon-When-we-were-great

June 12, 2016

AP: Massacre At Orlando Nightclub That Claimed 50 Lives Is Worst Mass Shooting in U.S. History

@AP: BREAKING: The massacre at an Orlando nightclub that claimed 50 lives is the worst mass shooting in U.S. history

m.twitter.com/AP

June 8, 2016

AP: Sanders Wins N. Dakota Caucuses

Source: Associated Press

SANDERS WINS DEMOCRATIC CAUCUSES IN NORTH DAKOTA

Jun. 7, 2016 9:44 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on campaign 2016 as California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota vote. (all times Eastern):

9:42 p.m.

Bernie Sanders has won the Democratic presidential caucuses in North Dakota.

The senator from Vermont and his rival Hillary Clinton now each claim a win for the night, with four contests yet to be determined.

Read more: http://elections.ap.org/content/latest-sanders-wins-democratic-caucuses-north-dakota

June 4, 2016

Sanders Says Democratic Convention Will be Contested

Source: Associated Press

Sanders says Democratic convention will be contested
BY KEN THOMAS
JUN. 4, 2016 2:50 PM EDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bernie Sanders says that the Democratic National Convention will be contested, predicting that neither he, nor his rival Hillary Clinton, will have enough pledged delegates after the primary season ends.

Speaking to reporters in Los Angeles Saturday, just three days ahead of California's crucial primary, the Vermont senator said that the winner of the Democratic nomination will rely on superdelegates to reach the magic number.

Sanders said it is "not accurate" for the media to lump delegates and superdelegates together, saying that the two play a separate but important role in the Democratic electoral process.

He called the nomination process "deeply flawed," adding that whether he wins the nomination or not, he will do everything he can to change it.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/c64ea5574266427f9fa7b5519a687bee

June 4, 2016

Report: New Documents Show Snowden Tried to Alert NSA of Surveillance Concerns Before Going Public

@BreakingNews: Report: New documents show Ed Snowden tried to alert NSA of surveillance concerns before going public - VICE News https://t.co/kFPjHXpb7a/s/3BOb

https://news.vice.com/article/edward-snowden-leaks-tried-to-tell-nsa-about-surveillance-concerns-exclusive

Exclusive: Snowden Tried to Tell NSA About Surveillance Concerns, Documents Reveal

By Jason Leopold, Marcy Wheeler, and Ky Henderson

June 4, 2016 | 1:35 pm
On the morning of May 29, 2014, an overcast Thursday in Washington, DC, the general counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Robert Litt, wrote an email to high-level officials at the National Security Agency and the White House.

The topic: what to do about Edward Snowden.

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Hundreds of internal NSA documents, declassified and released to VICE News in response to our long-running Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, reveal now for the first time that not only was the truth about the "single email" more complex and nuanced than the NSA disclosed to the public, but that Snowden had a face-to-face interaction with one of the people involved in responding to that email. The documents, made up of emails, talking points, and various records — many of them heavily redacted — contain insight into the NSA's interaction with the media, new details about Snowden's work, and an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the efforts by the NSA, the White House, and Feinstein to discredit Snowden.

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United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) encompasses rules by which the NSA is supposed to abide in order to protect the privacy of the communications of people in the United States. Snowden was taking this and other training courses in Maryland while working to transition from a Sysadmin to an analyst position. Referring to a slide from the training program that seemed to indicate federal statutes and presidential Executive Orders (EOs) carry equal legal weight, Snowden wrote, "this does not seem correct, as it seems to imply Executive Orders have the same precedence as law. My understanding is that EOs may be superseded by federal statute, but EOs may not override statute."

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