How about an open thread? All topics welcome.

A federal judge in the District of Columbia has granted a request for a preliminary injunction against the NSA preventing them from bulk collecting and querying of telephone record metadata, finding it likely violates the Fourth Amendment.

The opinion is here.

In a 68-page ruling, Judge Richard J. Leon of the District of Columbia called the program’s technology “almost Orwellian” and suggested that James Madison, the author of the Constitution, would be “aghast” to learn that the government was encroaching on liberty in such a way.

“I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary’ invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval,” Judge Leon wrote. “Surely, such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy’ that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.”

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RIP actor Peter O'Toole, who has died at age 81.

Tonight on TV: 60 Minutes is doing a feature on the NSA surveillance. I wish someone other than John Miller was the correspondent.

Also tonight: Finales for Homeland, Survivor and Restaurant Express (food network.) I thought Homeland was too dark this year and the plot too convoluted. Some of the subplots were just completely uninteresting: Saul's marital life and Brody's daughter to name a few. Even the Iranian CIA worker went nowhere. I watched, but it wasn't enjoyable. Apparently, the Golden Globes nominators agree.

Restaurant Express had a good first season. I'm actually looking forward to seeing who wins tonight. I think it will be between Adam Goldgell and Seonkyoung Longest, with Jan Charles coming in third and getting eliminated first. Adam and Seonkyoung couldn't be more different in terms of personality or cooking experience, and they each have strengths and negatives. I think Adam will take it, even though Robert Irvine has given Seonkyoung every possible break and he doesn't seem to like Adam that much.

In real news: [More...]

The FBI is still at it -- instigating and then foiling terror plots that would never have existed but for their prodding. The latest is in Kansas.

Quoted in the article is the excellent Topeka defense attorney Dan Monnat. Without judging this case, he says of terror stings in general:

"If the fragile mental state of an otherwise upstanding individual is exploited to commit a crime that the individual otherwise would not have taken steps to commit, how does that make us safe and why spend taxpayer money on prosecution?" Monnat said Saturday.

"If that is what happened here, we have to ask ourselves is grooming terrorists the best use of our taxpayer money for security if the person otherwise would never have taken further steps in furtherance of terrorism. What is the point?"

On a related note, once charged, the Government is likely to deny discovery to these targeted defendants claiming it is classified. [More...]

The Arapahoe County Sheriff held a live press conference today at 3:15 MT on yesterday's shooting at Arapahoe High School. Here are my notes of what he said:

Authorities know what happened now that they have viewed the school security video. Karl Pierson entered the north side of Arapahoe High School at 12:33 pm. The door is next to library.

Pierson parked at the curb by the north side parking lot. He entered the school with a pump shotgun, which he did not attempt to conceal. He also had a "bandoleer" (?) strapped across him with multiple rounds of ammunition. In addition, he had a machete and a backpack containing 3 incendiary devices. All were molotov cocktails.

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The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Friday in the appeal of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Blagojevich's attorneys had to be happy that the panel raised questions about the heart of their defense that the attempted sale of a U.S. Senate seat was political horse-trading and that prosecutors had unfairly made it into a crime.

Does that bode well for Blago? Impossible to know. Predicting how an appeals court will rule is usually a futile exercise.

While Blago could not attend the hearing, his wife Patti did and addressed the media afterwards: [More...]

No one besides the shooter died at Arapahoe High School today, where a male student entered the school with a shotgun and asked for teacher/librarian/Tracy Murphy. The shooter shot at Murphy and missed. A janitor helped Murphy get out of the school and into a car. The shooter then shot two one student who happened to be nearby. He then went into a classroom and killed himself. He was found 5 minutes after the shooting was first reported. No law enforcement shots were fired and all 2,000 students have been reunited with their families. Two 2 molotov cocktail "devices" were also found.

The deceased shooter is believed to be Karl Pierson.

The motive, according to the Sheriff, was revenge following a disagreement with the teacher a few days ago when the teacher "docked him a few points" in speech class.

I'm swamped at work. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

A U.S. drone in Yemen has mistakenly killed 15 civilians en route to a wedding. They were mistaken for an al Qaeda convoy.

Retired Gen. Michael Lehnart, who was in charge of Guantanamo when it opened in 2002, says it's time to close it and end the mistake.

"In retrospect, the entire detention and interrogation strategy was wrong..."

"We squandered the goodwill of the world after we were attacked by our actions in Guantanamo, both in terms of detention and torture," Lehnert wrote. "Our decision to keep Guantanamo open has helped our enemies because it validates every negative perception of the United States."

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Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing this afternoon, "Continued Oversight of U.S. Government Surveillance Authorities." You can watch online here or at CSpan 3 here.

The Government's prepared statement is here. It begins:

Thank you for inviting us to continue our discussions with this Committee on our efforts to enhance public confidence in the important intelligence collection programs that have been the subject of unauthorized disclosures since earlier this year: the collection of bulk telephony metadata under the business records provision found in Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, and the targeting of non-U.S. persons overseas under Section 702 of FISA.

The statement details the Government's recent efforts to increase transparency and then lists a few changes to the FISA statute it willing to endorse, and several that it opposes. [More...]