Thank You for Data-Mining  —  The NSA's ‘metadata’ surveillance is legal and necessary.  —  Well, another day, another Washington furor.  This one is over a National Security Agency phone data monitoring program, but unlike the other White House scandals there seems to be little here that is scandalous.

Misfired 2010 email alerted IRS officials in Washington of targeting  —  (Reuters) - A misfired email from a U.S. Internal Revenue Service employee in Cincinnati alerted a number of Washington IRS officials that extra scrutiny was being placed on conservative groups in July 2010 …

Texas woman arrested in ricin letters to Obama, Bloomberg: Officials  —  A Texas woman has been arrested in connection with the mailing of three letters containing a form of the poison ricin to President Obama, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, federal authorities said.

N.Y. Times changes scathing editorial  —  The New York Times editorial board has quietly changed the language in the most widely cited line from Thursday's scathing editorial about the Obama administration's surveillance of U.S. citizens.  —  The line — “The administration has now lost all credibility” …

Massive Government Spying Is The Result Of A Public Obsessed With Eliminating Terrorism  —  The revelations about massive National Security Agency snooping in Americans' phone records and Internet activities appear to be shocking, but they aren't.  —  The reason programs like these exist …

Transcript: Obama's Remarks on NSA Controversy  —  President Barack Obama on Friday defended his administration's vast data-collection efforts, saying the programs help prevent terrorist attacks and represent only small encroachments of people's privacy.  Here is the transcript of his remarks …

Why Obama Keeps Losing at the Supreme Court  —  In cases before the Supreme Court last year, President Barack Obama's Justice Department relied on outlandish legal theories that pushed a constitutional interpretation of extreme federal power.  That posture led to unanimous losses in three …

All the Infrastructure a Tyrant Would Need, Courtesy of Bush and Obama  —  To an increasing degree, we're counting on having angels in office and making ourselves vulnerable to devils.  —  Let's assume that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, their staffers …

Behind the Obamacare Derangement Syndrome  —  At TNR today, Noam Scheiber looks at the deep investment Republican pols and conservative scribblers and gabbers seem to have in the failure of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, and sees a concentration of the biases we have all called the Obama Derangement Syndrome on this one issue.

‘Uhhh...Uh...Uhhh....People!’  Obama at Total Loss for Words When Staff Forgets His Speech  —  President Obama strolled out to the podium today in San Jose, CA and was immediately at a loss for words.  Not only did the President not have teleprompter, his aides forgot his speech.

George W. Bush critics turn wrath on President Obama  —  A club of Capitol Hill liberals made life hell for George W. Bush in his second term.  —  Now the gang is back — and they don't care that this time the president is their guy.  —  In the last few weeks, some of the loudest anti-Bush voices …

Soldier Told Not to Read Levin, Limbaugh or Hannity in Uniform  —  A veteran member of the U.S. Army Band said he is facing retribution and punishment from the military for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his car, reading books written by conservative authors like Mark Levin and David Limbaugh …

Geraldo Rivera, Fox News Commentator, Will Not Run For U.S. Senate  —  There is a scene in The Lord of the Rings where my favorite character, the aging, battle-weary Théoden, King of Rohan is confronted with a profound dilemma.  Determined to honor his ancient oath and ride to the rescue …

Middling Jobs Gain Signals a Long Path to Healthy Payrolls  —  Why Wall Street Likes Slow Job Growth: Job growth in May kept up with the year's monthly average, with 175,000 new jobs added.  Meanwhile, the unemployment rate increased slightly to 7.6 percent.