N.S.A. Sifting Broader Set of Data Crossing U.S. Border  —  WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency is searching the contents of vast amounts of Americans' e-mail and text communications into and out of the country, hunting for people who mention information about foreigners under surveillance, according to intelligence officials.

Dear Lawrence O'Donnell, Don't Mansplain to Me About Russia  —  Tonight, I went on Lawrence O'Donnell's show, and Lawrence O'Donnell yelled at me.  Or, rather, he O'Reilly'd at me.  That O'Donnell interrupted and harangued and mansplained and was generally an angry grandpa at me is not what I take issue with, however.

Why Ted Cruz Thinks the Media Gets Conservatism Wrong  —  Texas Senator Ted Cruz talks to TIME about Barack Obama, foreign policy and his spats with fellow Republicans  —  By Alex Altman @aaltman82Aug.  08, 2013  —  U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, right, talks with Republican Party …

Why I changed my mind on weed  —  (CNN) — Over the last year, I have been working on a new documentary called “Weed.”  The title “Weed” may sound cavalier, but the content is not.  —  I traveled around the world to interview medical leaders, experts, growers and patients.

Picking A Losing Battle To Win the War  —  There's a fascinating column penned by Craig Shirley (one of the keepers of the Gipper's flame) and Newt Gingrich up at cnn.com that analogizes the recent state of the Republican Party to that which existed after Richard Nixon's resignation …

Exclusive: IRS manual detailed DEA's use of hidden intel evidence  —  (Reuters) - Details of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration program that feeds tips to federal agents and then instructs them to alter the investigative trail were published in a manual used by agents of the Internal Revenue Service for two years.

Great Orator Gaffes Again  —  One comment makes him akin to Akin.  —  “The odds of people dying in a terrorist attack obviously are still a lot lower than in a car accident, unfortunately,” President Obama told NBC's Jay Leno last night.  —  Wait, “unfortunately”?

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin: Southern senator called President Obama ‘exotic’ in closed-door meeting  —  U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin provided some behind-the-scenes insight into the partisan animosity that continues to follow Barack Obama in his second term as president.  —  Harkin, a Democrat …

How Secrecy Has Already Corroded Our Democracy in Concrete Ways  —  The renewal of the Patriot Act is a case study in how opaque policy and law destroy a people's ability to self-govern.  —  This summer, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, an author and longtime champion of the Patriot Act …

Hundreds protest Obama outside Phoenix high school  —  FONT:  —  Hundreds of protesters wielded signs, chanted slogans and argued with each other Tuesday outside Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, while President Barack Obama spoke about housing and the economy inside.

Greek unemployment hit new record in May of 27.6 percent  —  (Reuters) - Greece's jobless rate hit a new record high of 27.6 percent in May, official national data showed on Thursday as the country staggers under austerity linked to its international bailout.

Man torches $400 million nuke sub; Navy's budget struggles for air  —  The end of the USS Miami  —  (CNN) — Casey James Fury simply didn't want to be at work, and in the process cost the Navy nearly a half-billion dollars and one attack submarine.  —  Fury admitted to setting fire to the USS Miami …

A User's Guide to Obama's Inside-Out Economics  —  The president may be out of ideas, but he is never out of words.  He has been sharing voluminous amounts of them with audiences over the last two weeks on his latest speaking tour, or pivot, on the economy.  —  And for good reason.

The Fort Hood attack was terrorism.  The Army should call it that.  —  Shawn Manning is a retired U.S. Army staff sergeant and mental health counselor who lives in Lacey, Wash.  —  In November 2009, my Army Reserve Medical Detachment reported to Fort Hood, Tex., in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan.

How the White House is weaseling Congress out of ObamaCare.  —  The White House on Wednesday released the legal details behind its ObamaCare bailout for Members of Congress and their staffs, and if anything this rescue is worse than last week's leaks suggested: Illegal dispensations for the ruling class …

Immigration ‘Plan B’ Focuses on White House  —  Immigration-reform activists aren't supposed to talk publicly about a “Plan B.”  They can't, or won't, answer questions from the media about what they will do if no bill passes this year to legalize the undocumented population.

The decline of newspapers has been good for everybody else  —  Same building as 13 years ago, but definitely a different place.  (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)  —  I started working at The Washington Post on June 5, 2000.  It was in the same building we work in now, but it was very much a different place.

Fast-Food Fight  —  The fast-food workers who have been walking off their jobs illustrate a central fact of contemporary work life in America: As lower-wage occupations have proliferated in the past several years, Americans are increasingly unable to make a living at their jobs.

YouTube's Founders Challenge Vine and Instagram with New Video App  —  After months of teasing, the wait is over: Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, who brought us the video-sharing site YouTube, are taking the wraps off their newest project, a video creation app called MixBit.

Scandal politics sweep Capitol Hill  —  A top Boehner aide reminded Capitol Hill staff in a meeting that they must keep their message tightly focused on economic recovery, despite the spate of TV-friendly investigations.  Senior GOP aides acknowledge they are keeping a close eye on Issa's oversight panel …

Everlasting Realities of the Bohemian Lifestyle  —  As writers in New York lament the “de-classing of intellectuals,” a reminder that creative types have never had it easy.  —  The Chelsea Hotel in 1978 (AP/G. Paul Burnett)  —  NEW YORK — Is it still possible to be a bohemian in today's New York City …

Everybody's Racist!  —  I am back in Singapore, but my lovely husband came with me and the girls on our trip to Bluffton, South Carolina to see my dad, at my childhood home.  We stayed just over the bridge in Savannah, about 30 minutes drive away.  It makes me so happy to go and sit at the top …

The Opt-Out Generation Wants Back In  —  Sheilah O'Donnel tells herself that her new home, a townhouse in a development in Chevy Chase, Md., just a stone's throw from a Safeway, isn't really all that bad.  Sure, it's near a gas station.  And the front window, with its cheerily upholstered cushions, overlooks a dreary parking lot.

Republican Ken Buck files paperwork to run for U.S. Senate in 2014, four years after loss  —  Ken Buck, the current Weld County District Attorney, will run for U.S. Senate next year in an effort to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.  —  Buck, a Tea Party Republican, filed paperwork …

Darrell Issa's gavel up for grabs as jockeying begins  —  Call them the Darrell Issa wannabes.  —  About a half-dozen lawmakers are jockeying for the gavel of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, trying to prove to their colleagues that they have the chops to probe …