Wednesday: 6/12/13

NSA

The Overview

It seems Snowden may be exaggerating the capabilities of sys-admins.  "One of the most startling disclosures from Edward Snowden ... was that he could tap into the private email of any American citizen—even President Obama—from his desk station in Hawaii. Former top NSA officials ... however, say Snowden’s claim that systems administrators like himself could eavesdrop on U.S. citizens is incorrect, and that any NSA employee that targeted even a foreign source for personal reasons would be stripped of clearances and fired on the spot ... It is difficult to evaluate the claims of the officials—or those of Snowden—because the organization operates in almost total secrecy." Eli Lake at the Daily Beast.

Congress can't say anything ... because of Congress.  "Congress is gagged, yes -- but because they allow themselves to be gagged. It's not inherently up to the bureaucracy or the president to set the rules about secrecy. Congress can do that. And they do, either explicitly or implicitly. Granted: both the president and the bureaucracy can fight for the rules they prefer, too. But Congress, when they really want to do something, have plenty of tools to make it happen ... Those upset about the NSA stories should be putting a lot of the blame on Congress ... This is Congress's job. No one should let them off the hook with the excuse that they 'have to' do what the NSA or the president says."  Jonathan Bernstein at A Plain Blog About Politics.

Explaining varied public polling results.  "If we read a bit beyond the face value of each poll result, we can see evidence of a large number of Americans that feel strongly cross-pressured on issues of protecting privacy and investigating terrorism ... The lesson we could all stand to learn here is that on issues of public policy no single question provides a precise, 'scientific' measure of the truth."  Mark Blumenthal and Ariel Edwards-Levy at the Huffington Post.

The intelligence community bites back.  "Mueller joined President Barack Obama and other administration members in defending the programs as a crucial tool in preventing possible attacks. He said making the details public could force a switch in tactics by potential terrorists ... General Keith Alexander, head of the NSA, told Congress on Wednesday the programs had helped disrupt dozens of possible terrorist attacks."  David Ingram and Patricia Zengerle at Reuters.

And they want even more data.  "National Security Agency chief Gen. Keith Alexander may be under fire for collecting millions of Americans' phone records and Internet data. But the nation's top electronic spy told a Congressional panel Wednesday that he wants the feds to slurp up even more information - and distribute it more widely throughout the government."  John Reed at Killer Apps.

The difficulty in catching leakers before they leak and the DARPA programs on the job.  "Government-funded trolls. Decoy documents. Software that identifies you by how you type. Those are just a few of the methods the Pentagon has pursued in order to find the next Edward Snowden before he leaks. The small problem, military-backed researchers tell Foreign Policy, is that every spot-the-leaker solution creates almost as many headaches as it's supposed to resolve."  Joshua Keating at Foreign Policy.

Edward Snowden

Snowden may have broken the law, but he did not commit treason.  "Of course, Snowden could always be charged under the Espionage Act or another, less sexy law than the treason provision of the Constitution. But if Julius Rosenberg, who almost certainly spied for the Soviets, couldn’t be tried for treason, it’s hard to see how Edward Snowden could be, or why federal prosecutors would want to introduce a charge that would be so difficult to prove."  Dylan Matthews at Wonkblog.

The establishment is not too thrilled with Snowden, to put it lightly.  "For most of the political establishment, across the ideological spectrum, it has taken only a few days to conclude that Edward Snowden is nothing less than a dangerous villain. If any part of Snowden hoped for a Pentagon Papers-style response to his leaks ... this week certainly shattered any such illusion. Ask nearly anyone in a position of authority in Washington and you will get a similar judgment on Snowden, the 29-year-old former defense contractor who exposed a vast National Security Agency surveillance program in multiple newspapers last week."  Alexander Burns at Politico.

And the Feds were already looking for him, even before the leaks.  Wonder how he got to Hong Kong?  "U.S. government investigators began an urgent search for Edward Snowden several days before the first media reports were published on the government's secret surveillance programs, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday."  Mark Hosenball at Reuters.

Industry

Industry pushback is intensifying.  "Microsoft and Twitter have joined calls by Google and Facebook to be able to publish more detail about how many secret requests they receive to hand over user data under the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa)."  Charles Arthur and Dominic Rushe at the Guardian.

PRISM

Everything we know about PRISM.  Timothy Lee at Wonkblog.

Direct or indirect access - it's not just semantics.  "This is the difference between companies voluntarily giving the government direct and unilateral access to arbitrary customer data and companies merely complying with the law in a ... way that doesn’t change the nature of the data received by the government. If Greenwald and MacAskill have documents or detailed statements from Snowden that provide illumination ... they should share this information. Because as it stands now, the only way their story is true is if all the companies involved are lying, and the NSA is lying, and Senators Feinstein and Rogers are lying, and the President is lying, and the New York Times’ sources are lying."  Mark Jaquith at Medium.

Whistleblowers

Not all whistleblowers are created equal.  "'The Whistleblower Protection Act does not apply to the intelligence community. They’re exempt from it ... You can’t even go to the Office of Special Counsel because they’re exempt from that, too, and the merit system protection board ... The Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act ... doesn’t ... have any teeth there to protect you against retribution from the agency that you’re reporting abuse on.' So when private contractors and other members of the National Intelligence community blow the whistle... they are, ... oftentimes unwittingly faced with a different fate than federal employees of countless other government agencies."  Collier Meyerson at MSNBC. 

The Economy

The Overview

The economy is still awful.  "Right now, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, there’s approximately one job opening for every 3.1 unemployed persons who are looking for work. That ratio of jobs to jobless has improved an enormous amount since 2009. But to put things in perspective, it’s still worse than it was at any point during the last downturn, which started in 2001."  Brad Plumer at Wonkblog.

CEOs: The individual vs society.  "Every American CEO is laser-focused on his own paycheck, on his company’s share price, and on whatever financial measure his investors care about. He may worry about the deficit or ... public education ... but by day he is working hard to minimize his company’s tax bill ... His own job is to make his own company more efficient, which means using machines instead of people and outsourcing to reduce labor costs ... CEOs want to be good. But all too often, the way global capitalism works requires them ... to do things that are bad for the rest of society."  Chrystia Freeland at Democracy.

Finance

How the rise of finance has hurt the economy.  "Economists are still searching for answers to the slow growth of the United States economy. Some are now focusing on the issue of 'financialization,' the growth of the financial sector as a share of gross domestic product. Financialization is also an important factor in the growth of income inequality, which is also a culprit in slow growth ... Adair Turner, formerly Britain’s top financial regulator ... suggests, rather, that the financial sector’s gains have been more in the form of economic rents — basically something for nothing — than the return to greater economic value."  Bruce Bartlett at Economix. 

Housing

Racial discrimination still persists in the housing market.  "Minority renters and homebuyers deployed to test for housing discrimination did not run into the blatant discrimination of four decades ago, but were told about and shown fewer homes than their white counterparts with similar backgrounds, according to the results of a major federal housing study released Tuesday ... Discrimination affects minorities' ability to move to a community with a good school, denying their children the best education; to move to safer neighborhoods or relocate to an area with job openings, thus affecting financial security."  Associated Press.

Internships

Courts vs unpaid internships.  "A Federal District Court judge in Manhattan ruled on Tuesday that Fox Searchlight Pictures had violated federal and New York minimum wage laws by not paying production interns, a case that could upend the long-held practice of the film industry and other businesses that rely heavily on unpaid internships ... The judge noted that these internships did not foster an educational environment and that the studio received the benefits of the work. The case could have broad implications. Young people have flocked to internships, especially against the backdrop of a weak job market."  Steven Greenhouse at the New York Times.

The other side of the internships debate.  "Do unpaid internships in the media industry lock poor kids out of the profession? I think that depends on what you think the likely alternative is. If the Labor Department cracks down, are we going to see a blossoming of paid internships? My worry would be that we'll replace zero-salary work/training positions with what amount to negative-salary training in the form of graduate school ... While requiring people to spend months working for free does put a substantial barrier in the way of someone who can't get financial assistance ... requiring someone to spend a year or two paying many thousands of dollars to a school creates a much larger barrier."  Matthew Yglesias at Slate.

Politics

Abortion

Trent Franks is nearing Todd Akin territory. "Another Republican congressman ventured into the realm of rape and pregnancy Wednesday, saying at a committee hearing that incidences of pregnancy from rape are 'very low.' Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) ... argued against a Democratic amendment to make exceptions for rape and incest by suggesting that pregnancy from rape is rare."  Aaron Blake + Audio at the Washington Post.

And Scott Walker is the new Bob McDonnell.  "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday he will sign a measure that's quickly working its way through the Republican-controlled Legislature that would require women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound ... While Democrats were able to temporarily hold up the bill, they don't have the votes to kill it."  Associated Press.

Congress

What do Congresspeople, medical researchers, and panhandlers have in common?  Andrew Gelman at the Monkey Cage.

6 crazy things that Congressmen Peter King has said.  Elias Groll at Foreign Policy.

DOD

The new plan to resolve sexual assault in the military goes down.  "An effort to place military sex assault cases in the hands of an independent prosecutor was thwarted late Tuesday when Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin sided with the top brass – and against a fellow Democrat. Levin (D-Mich.) will strip a proposal by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) from the ... Defense Authorization Act and replace it with a measure that instead requires senior military officers to review decisions when commanders refuse to prosecute a case."  Andrea Mitchell and Alastair Jamieson at NBC.

NAVY TO DROP ALL-CAPS COMMUNICATIONS.  "THE U.S. NAVY WILL NO LONGER COMMUNICATE EXCLUSIVELY IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS AND ORDERS HAVE BEEN IN ALL CAPS SINCE 19TH CENTURY ... BUT NOT ALL NAVY SYSTEMS CAN PROCESS MIXED CASES. AND OFFICIALS SAY IT WON’T BE UNTIL 2015 THAT ALL MESSAGING SYSTEMS WILL BE ABLE TO USE LOWERCASE LETTERS."  Julian Barnes at the Wall Street Journal.

Elections

Why Democrats still need working-class whites.  "Although long-term demographic trends, such as the increase in minority voters and the rise of the Millennial generation, are favorable for the Democrats, translating those trends into true political and electoral dominance will remain difficult so long as Democrats rely on simply turning out core Obama coalition voters. Their margins will be too thin and subject to backlash ... To create a stable Democratic majority, Democrats need to win the support of a significant group of voters who are now part of the Republican coalition ... The group that has perhaps the greatest potential in this regard is the white working class."  Andrew Levison and Ruy Teixeira at the New Republic.

No unions in the New Jersey special elections helps Cory Booker.  "The best chance for liberal-leaning Pallone and Holt to make the race competitive against Booker --who is far better known statewide and has already begun racking up key endorsements -- would be to win the endorsement of one (or both) of the Garden State’s two most powerful unions ... But sources connected to both the NJEA and CWA tell RealClearPolitics that they do not expect their organizations to endorse a candidate in the Aug. 13 primary, leaving Booker with one less obstacle on his expected march to victory in the Oct. 16 general election."  Scott Conroy at Real Clear Politics.

Fiscal Fights

The storm approaches, again.  "With Washington consumed by scandals this summer, the White House and GOP congressional leaders are slowly lurching toward a potential debt default or government shutdown this fall ... Their sharp differences were on display in private meetings on Capitol Hill last week between Senate GOP lawmakers and top White House officials. They underscore the growing expectations that the two sides will fail to reach a budget agreement this year, meaning the crisis atmosphere that dominated the fiscal debate during much of 2011 and 2012 could return in the coming months."  Manu Raju and John Bresnahan at Politico.

Foreign Policy

Obama is ramping up international action on climate change.  "President Obama’s top climate adviser said a recent agreement with China is the beginning of a more aggressive international agenda on climate change from the White House ... The HFC agreement is the start of a “long and robust international agenda on climate change” for Obama’s second term, Zichal said. Zichal noted that Secretary of State John Kerry also has talks scheduled with India about reducing greenhouse gas emissions."  Zack Colman at the Hill.

Obama lifts sanctions on rebel-controlled portions of Syria. "The Obama administration on Wednesday made it legal for Americans to sell technology and buy oil from the Syrian rebels. The country has come under an increasing number of sanctions since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad began more than two years ago. Wednesday's waivers aim to give the U.S.-backed opposition a boost as Assad's regime is gaining ground in the western part of the country."  Julian Pecquet at the Hill.

Guns

Bloomberg vs red-state Dems - an escalating fight.  "The effort by the gun reform movement to build a serious, long-term political infrastructure to challenge the NRA just got a boost this morning ... Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who retains enormous clout in the financial community, will send a letter today to hundreds of top New York donors, urging them to stop giving any contributions to any Democrats who vote the wrong way on guns — angering Senate Dems who say it is a threat to their majority ... The letter ... singles out four Senate Democrats who voted against the Manchin-Toomey compromise on background checks — Mark Pryor, Heidi Heitkamp, Mark Begich, and Max Baucus."  Greg Sargent at the Plum Line.

Health

Democrats have an edge on health issues.  "Voters trust Democrats more than Republicans on healthcare issues, according to a new poll. The survey, released by the Morning Consult website, found that 42 percent of likely voters trust Democrats to handle healthcare issues — compared with 32 percent who said they trusted Republicans."  Sam Baker at the Hill.

Designated drivers drink ... often ... "The concept of a designated driver is a very, very simple one: This is the person who is designated to not drink and to drive his or her companions home at the end of the night. Easy in concept but apparently a bit difficult in execution. About one-third of designated drivers have at least one drink while carrying the title, according to a new paper in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Twenty percent, breath tests showed, had a blood alcohol level higher than 0.05, enough to impair their driving skills."  Sarah Kliff at Wonkblog.

Immigration

Senate Democrats are divided on strategy.  "Sen. Chuck Schumer’s pitch to find 70-plus votes for a sweeping immigration overhaul is running into skeptics from his own party – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Majority Whip Dick Durbin. The top two Senate Democrats believe that the push to win more GOP senators could significantly water down the measure, arguing their party should instead focus on the more achievable goal of securing the 60 votes needed to break an expected Republican filibuster. The Democratic leaders don’t believe they should make major concessions to conservatives — mainly on issues such as border security — in order to inflate the vote tally."  Manu Raju and John Bresnahan at Politico.

In the House, it's all about the Hastert Rule.  "Under the 'Hastert Rule,' a Republican Speaker of the House is only supposed to bring bills to the floor that most of his own caucus supports ... Republicans shouldn't even consider bills if they're dependent on Democratic votes ... The right is starting to panic ...  When it comes to immigration reform, arguably nothing matters more. Rank-and-file House Republicans are not going to support a comprehensive bill ... As such, if immigration reform passes the Senate, Boehner will either ignore the 'Hastert Rule' (in which case success is possible) or he'll honor it (in which case the bill is probably doomed).  Steve Benen at Maddowblog.

Sounds like a terrible amendment.  "Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wants to strengthen requirements in a sweeping immigration bill that mandate that illegal immigrants learn English before earning permanent U.S. residency. Under the current bill, immigrants would have to earn English proficiency or show they are enrolled in a language course. Rubio ... plans to offer an amendment that would eliminate the second provision and require that undocumented immigrants be able to read, write and speak English before earning a green card."  David Nakamura at the Washington Post.

Polling Latino voters. "According to a new poll, Latino voters strongly oppose an approach to immigration reform that would require some form of certification that the nation’s borders are 'secure' before any other provisions of an immigration reform bill could take effect: A strong majority of Latino voters reject the idea that border enforcement should come before a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants ... The poll, like other surveys on the topic, found strong support — 81 percent — for measures that provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants at the same time as they increase border security."  Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway.

IRS

This scandal gets less scandalous by the day.  "So far, the House Oversight Committee’s investigation of the Internal Revenue Service and its targeting of Tea Party groups has yielded no evidence that the White House was involved. The original story — that this was the work of a few employees struggling to handle a growing workload — remains intact, and the available information we have throws water on the idea they were motivated by partisanship. The IRS agent who initiated the flagging, for example, was a Republican. And several of the groups denied tax exempt status were — as the New York Times reported recently — ineligible, given their partisan activities."  Jamelle Bouie at the Plum Line.

LGBT Rights

A new court case in Maine signals the next step in the fight for transgender equality. "Restrooms are one of the last explicit vestiges of segregation on the basis of sex ... We still maintain strict and outdated rules that discriminate in who can use which restroom ... Most people don't question this form of separate-but-equal, perhaps because there don’t appear to be inequalities engendered by gendered bathrooms ... The controversy over transgender students, however, may force us to reconsider our sex-specific bathrooms. As our society becomes more tolerant of gender differences, especially in the context of transgender people, the issue will continue to arise."  Adam Winkler at the New Republic.

Nominations

Obama raises the bar on appointing female judges. "Obama has successfully appointed a greater percentage of women to federal judgeships than any other president in American history ... Forty-two percent of Obama's successful nominations have been women, according to the study. That's well above the rates of President George W. Bush (22 percent) and President Bill Clinton (29 percent), the study found. President Obama is the first president to appoint two women to the Supreme Court."  Legal Times.

Stand Your Ground

Racial disparities like you wouldn't believe - data, data, data.  "The 'stand your ground' law is notorious for being applied in a biased and inconsistent way. The Tampa Bay Times found that defendants claiming 'stand your ground' are more successful if the victim is black. Seventy-three percent of those who killed a black person faced no penalty. Only 59 percent of those who killed a white person got off. The Urban Institute determined that in 'stand your ground' states, when white shooters kill black victims, 34 percent of the resulting homicides are deemed justifiable. When black shooters kill white victims only 3 percent of the deaths are ruled justifiable."  Katie Halper at Salon.

International

Asia

China's new cap and trade plan sounds like great news.  But there might be a problem.  "So what’s the hitch? ... A new study ... points out that the wealthy coastal provinces in China are now 'outsourcing' a big chunk of their carbon pollution to the poorer inland provinces ... Different provinces have different targets for carbon-dioxide emissions. But if wealthier provinces can simply shift around some of their pollution to the poorer provinces, the targets could conceivably be met without any real progress being made."  Brad Plumer at Wonkblog.

China's newest manned mission.  "A Chinese rocket roared into space Tuesday (June 11) carrying a crew of three on their way to the nation's space module orbiting Earth."  Miriam Kramer at Scientific American.

Europe

Unrest in Turkey could affect its EU bid.  "The crackdown against protesters in Istanbul by the Turkish government creates a dilemma for the EU. The Europeans don't want to tolerate violence against demonstrators, but they also don't want to lose Erdogan as a partner ... Over the weekend, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton warned there is a connection between how members of the opposition are treated in Turkey and the country's accession negotiations."  Der Spiegel.

Hello intolerance... "A bill that stigmatizes gay people and bans giving children any information about homosexuality won overwhelming approval Tuesday in Russia's lower house of parliament. Hours before the State Duma passed the Kremlin-backed law in a 436-0 vote with one abstention, more than two dozen protesterswere attacked by hundreds of anti-gay activists and then detained by police. The bill banning the 'propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations' still needs to be passed by the appointed upper house and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, but neither step is in doubt."  Nataliya Vasilyeva and Mansur Mirovalev at the Associated Press.

Germany searches for a new longest word.  "The search is on for the longest word in the German language after the following 63-letter monster was taken out of use last week: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. If you keep repeating it out loud, it gets easier to pronounce. Loosely translated, the word means 'law on the transfer of monitoring duties for labelling beef.' It was in the regional statute book of the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania until last week, when the regional parliament suspended it."  Der Spiegel.

Middle East

Things aren't going well in Egypt.  "Egypt's largest opposition group on Tuesday rejected calls by the president for national reconciliation talks as 'too late' as pro and anti-government protesters briefly clashed ahead of plans for a mass rally calling for his ouster later this month."  Maggie Michael at the Associated Press.

Or in Turkey for Erdogan - gaming out the possibilities.  "This is no Turkish spring. Protesters are not challenging the political legitimacy of Erdogan's thrice-elected Justice and Development Party (AKP)-led government. Nor is there an economic trigger for popular anger ... There is no popular opposition party with enough support to assume power. Instead, demonstrators are angry at Erdogan's often authoritarian, uncompromising style of governing ... Turkey's political system is not at risk, but the political future of the man at the center of Turkish politics for the past decade remains in the balance."  Naz Masraff at Foreign Policy.

The United Arab Emirates, bullfighting, the past and the present.  "The bull face-offs in Al Fujayrah ... are one of the cultural holdovers from the time before this patch of rocks and sand jutting into the Persian Gulf became a country in 1971. Before then, most people herded camels and sheep in the desert and fished or raised dates and other crops along the coast. The development since has been rapid, as oil wealth and international business have turned Dubai and Abu Dhabi into skyscraper-lined hubs and given Emiratis a standard of living on par with Westerners’. But echoes of the past remain. Crowds still pack camel races ... and the men of Al Fujayrah still pit bull against bull."  Ben Hubbard at the New York Times.

South America

Venezuela audit confirms President Maduro's victory. "Venezuela's electoral body has confirmed the victory of President Nicolas Maduro in the April election, after carrying out an audit on millions of votes. The Venezuelan National Electoral Commission (CNE) said it had found no discrepancy with the initial results. Mr Maduro won the vote by less than 1.5 percentage points."  BBC.

Science

Cheetahs are awesome.  "The collars cemented the cats’ speedy reputation. The fastest individual, appropriately named Ferrari, hit a top speed of 59 mph, very close to the reported 64 mph maximum. And while that old measurement was taken on a flat, track-like surface, Ferrari was running through vegetation."  Ed Yong at National Geographic.

So are sushi drones.  "One restaurant chain in the U.K. has found a new use for drones, delivering sushi: ... YO! Sushi is developing its 'first flying serving tray', to be rolled out next year. It has a lightweight carbon fibre frame with four propellors, two fixed cameras and its own Wifi connection, and is controlled using an iPad app."  Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway.

Miscellaneous

The last 19th century man has passed away.  "Jiroemon Kimura was the last man living who witnessed the 19th century. Born in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, he was 6 years old when the Wright Brothers showed the world that man can fly, and 11 when Henry Ford introduced the Model T automobile. He lived through two world wars, the reigns of four emperors, the terms of 20 U.S. presidents, and 61 Japanese prime ministers. Along the way, he had five kids, 14 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren, and 13 great-great-grandchildren, his family said. And on June 12, at 2:08 a.m., he passed on, in his hometown of Kyotango. He was 116 years and 54 days old."  Moeko Fuji at the Wall Street Journal.

Jet engines on bicycles.  Video.

Florida is cray - drugs and alligators edition.  "Four men and a juvenile were arrested Sunday on suspicion of picking mushrooms at the Little Big Econ State Forest in Seminole County to get high, and one of them had an alligator in his backpack, wildlife officials said."  Click Orlando.

And butt enhancement edition.  "Two months after a woman died after receiving butt-enhancement injections, police are ramping up their investigation of a West Miami-Dade strip mall beauty clinic."  The Huffington Post.