As Europe erupts over US spying, NSA chief says government must stop media | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | theguardian.com

As Europe erupts over US spying, NSA chief says government must stop media | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | theguardian.com: "If the German and French governments – and the German and French people – are so pleased to learn of how their privacy is being systematically assaulted by a foreign power over which they exert no influence, shouldn't they be offering asylum to the person who exposed it all, rather than ignoring or rejecting his pleas to have his basic political rights protected, and thus leaving him vulnerable to being imprisoned for decades by the US government?"

"The head of the embattled National Security Agency, Gen Keith Alexander, is accusing journalists of "selling" his agency's documents and is calling for an end to the steady stream of public disclosures of secrets snatched by former contractor Edward Snowden.

"I think it's wrong that that newspaper reporters have all these documents, the 50,000 – whatever they have and are selling them and giving them out as if these – you know it just doesn't make sense," Alexander said in an interview with the Defense Department's "Armed With Science" blog.

"We ought to come up with a way of stopping it. I don't know how to do that. That's more of the courts and the policy-makers but, from my perspective, it's wrong to allow this to go on," the NSA director declared."

Pro-Union, Crony-Capitalist Thinking Dooms Another Employer - Christopher Westley - Mises Daily

Pro-Union, Crony-Capitalist Thinking Dooms Another Employer - Christopher Westley - Mises Daily: "The trade-off is that the millions of dollars and incentives that go to these firms come from conscripted funds that would otherwise be directed privately in the form of investment or consumption. These unseen effects include investment projects foregone — perhaps in Lawrence County itself — in order to fund the EDO’s redistributive policies. Forcing taxpayers to finance economic development, as opposed to allowing savers to direct their resources to projects they believe will reflect their highest valued use"

"workers and politicians have called for the state to intervene to stop International Paper from shutting down, arguing that if conscripted capital partly financed the Honda plant in Lincoln, why can’t it also save paper jobs in Northwest Alabama? They forget, however, that International Paper does not exist to maximize employment or wages but to satisfy consumer demand, and that corporate graveyards are filled with firms that lost their focus on the latter."

To Save the Submarines, Eliminate ICBMs and Bombers | Cato Institute

To Save the Submarines, Eliminate ICBMs and Bombers | Cato Institute: "The sea leg of the nuclear triad by itself is a more powerful deterrent than that possessed by nearly any other nation in the world. Russia retains a relatively large arsenal, but no other country is capable of deploying more than a few hundred nuclear warheads. A single Ohio-class submarine can carry up to 192."

Supreme Court Teaches Students They're outside Constitution | Cato Institute

Supreme Court Teaches Students They're outside Constitution | Cato Institute: "“On April 22, 2010, the principal of Central High School (in Springfield, Mo.) announced over the public address system that the school was going into ‘lockdown’ and that students were prohibited from leaving their classrooms.

“School officials and agents of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department thereafter ordered students in random classrooms to leave all personal belongings behind and exit the classrooms (despite the previous order). Dogs were also brought in to assist in the raid.

“Upon re-entering the classrooms, students allegedly discovered that their belongings had been rummaged through.”"

"These searches were conducted without any individually cited suspicions of wrongdoing by any of the students"

Republicans' Errors May Lead to Higher Federal Spending | Cato Institute

Republicans' Errors May Lead to Higher Federal Spending | Cato Institute: "The Republicans could have passed a short-term continuing resolution that maintained spending at the lower levels required by sequestration and raised the debt limit temporarily, giving them plenty of time to continue attacking Obamacare in the months leading up to the next showdown.

Instead, the Republicans proposed — and Democrats reluctantly accepted — spending levels that are $20 billion above the sequestration level."

Seattle seizes elderly woman's parking lot to turn it into -- a parking lot | Fox News

Seattle seizes elderly woman's parking lot to turn it into -- a parking lot | Fox News: "”In this case, the city of Seattle is using eminent domain to seize a parking lot, so they can use it as a parking lot,” Morgan said. “There’s no public good in that at all.”  "

Using drones to kill people for doing calisthenics - CSMonitor.com

Using drones to kill people for doing calisthenics - CSMonitor.com: "On Jan. 14, 2010, a gathering of 17 people at a suspected Taliban training camp was struck after the men were observed conducting “assassination training, sparring, push-ups and running.” The compound was linked “by vehicle” to an al-Qaeda facility hit three years earlier. On March 23, 2010, the CIA launched missiles at a “person of interest” in a suspected al-Qaeda compound. The man caught the agency’s attention after he had “held two in-car meetings, and swapped vehicles three times along the way.” Other accounts describe militants targeted because of the extent of “deference” they were shown when arriving at a suspect site."

"Frequently a target is at home with family, or meeting with local tribal figures who aren't remotely interested in attacking US interests, when the hellfire missiles come knocking."

Federal government to stop printing nautical charts | Fox News

Federal government to stop printing nautical charts | Fox News: "Nowadays, most people instead use the on-demand maps printed by private shops, which are more up-to-date and accurate, Smith said.

Still, NOAA sells about 60,000 of the old 4-by-3-foot lithographic maps each year for about $20 apiece, the same amount it costs to print them."

White House national security aide fired for Twitter account that criticized administration | Fox News

White House national security aide fired for Twitter account that criticized administration | Fox News: "A White House national security official has been fired for running a Twitter account that was harshly critical of the Obama administration.

Jofi Joseph served as non-proliferation director at the National Security Council and was involved in nuclear negotiations with Iran."

Free speech? Tolerance?

Debt Ceiling Deal: DC Wins, Americans Lose - Campaign for Liberty

Debt Ceiling Deal: DC Wins, Americans Lose - Campaign for Liberty: "Instead of setting a new debt ceiling, it simply “suspended” the debt ceiling until February. This gives the administration a blank check to run up as much debt as it pleases from now until February 7th. Congress can “disapprove” the debt ceiling suspension, but only if it passes a resolution of disapproval by a two-thirds majority."