The U.S. Marines have arrived in Yemen following an attack there on the U.S. embassy.

Closer to home, bomb threats at University of Texas and North Dakota State University have led to evacuations.

Rhonda Weldon, the school’s director of communications, said the university received a call about 8:35 a.m. from a man claiming to be affiliated with Al Qaeda. The man said he'd placed bombs all over the campus that would detonate in 90 minutes.

There have also been attacks on embassies in Tunisia and Sudan.

The protests are rapidly escalating around the world. The U.S. has now identified Nakoula Basseley Nakoula as the a self-described Coptic Christian, as the key figure behind the anti-Muslim film that sparked the protests. He is on federal probation in California for bank fraud and the Probation Department confirms they are reviewing his case to see if he violated his probation. One of the terms was he could not use the internet. Authorities say he is "a self-described Coptic Christian."

Twitter has given up its fight against a court order requiring it to turn over tweets of Wall St Protester Malcolm Harris. It provided the tweets to the court today.

Harris was one of hundreds arrested during a mass protest on the Brooklyn Bridge in October 2011. The Manhattan district attorney's office wants the tweets, which are no longer available online, to try to undermine Harris' argument that police officers appeared to lead protesters on to the bridge's roadway only to arrest them for obstructing traffic.

The Harris case was unusual because Twitter joined the case as a third party, seeking to prevent the disclosure. On June 30, the Court ordered Twitter to comply.

[More...]

Busy day. No blogging by me.

Open Thread.

Here's the podcast from my show today on Daily Kos Radio:

The 11 Show Daily Kos Radio 09.13.2012 by Blue Skies Radio

NBC release polls for Florida, Ohio and Virginia, President Obama leads in each among Likely voters. In Florida and Virginia, he leads by 5, and in Ohio he leads by 7.

Open Thread.

I'll be flying solo on Daily Kos Radio from 11 to noon Eastern today.

How to Listen to Daily Kos Radio:

Can't see the Flash player? Click here to download the stream directly.

Open Thread.

The iPhone 5 debuts.

The X-Factor premieres, pitted against The Voice and Big Brother. Does anyone want to see Brittany Spears as a mean judge or Demi Lovato? I'm not expecting much from either of them. Simon and LA Reid will be more interesting. But three nights of The Voice in one week is a little much.

In more important matters, the Marines are headed to Libya, the US is launching a terrorist hunt there, and Mitt Romney has interminable foot in mouth disease -- and no comprehension of foreign policy.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Forrest (SDNY) has granted a permanent injunction against the provision in the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act that allows the indefinite detention of individuals (including U.S. citizens) who substantially support Al-Qaeda, the Taliban or their “associated forces." The 112 page ruling is here.

This Court rejects the Government’s suggestion that American citizens can be placed in military detention indefinitely, for acts they could not predict might subject them to detention, and have as their sole remedy a habeas petition adjudicated by a single decision-maker (a judge versus a jury), by a “preponderance of the evidence” standard. That scenario dispenses with a number of guaranteed rights.

[More...]

The House of Representatives today reauthorized the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, which allows the National Security Agency to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and emails. The Supreme Court will hear the ACLU's challenge to the 2008 law in October.

The ACLU says:

“Yet again, the House has rubberstamped a law so broad and vague that, despite its passage four years ago, we still have little idea how the government is using it,” said Michelle Richardson, ACLU legislative counsel. “It is at the very heart of the Fourth Amendment that Americans and their communications are fiercely protected from government intrusion. This law should be amended to include much stronger privacy protections when the Senate takes it up later this year.”

Sen. Ron Wyden has put a hold on the Senate's consideration of the bill until later this year. Voice your opposition now.

CBS News' Steve Kroft asked President Obama to respond to Mitt Romney's criticism of the Administration regarding the Libya situation, The President's response:

Fred Hiatt's Editorial Board!!!

it was stunning to see the GOP nominee renew his verbal offensive Wednesday morning, when the country was still absorbing the news of the first death in service of a U.S. ambassador since 1988, as well as the loss of three other Americans. Though reports were still sketchy, it appeared that a militant jihadist group, Ansar al-Sharia, took advantage of the Benghazi protest to stage an armed assault that overwhelmed the Libyan security force at the consulate.

At Outside the Beltway, Doug Mataconis writes:

The statement issued last night was ill-advised and dumb, but at least the campaign had the excuse of not being aware of the facts behind the embassy statement. Nearly twelve hours later, after we not only knew the truth behind the Cairo Embassy statement but also knew that four Americans, including an Ambassador, had died was there any attempt by the Romney campaign to walk back their ill-advised statement? Of course not. Instead we got [Romney's morning appearance.] A worse response to the news of the deaths of four Americans who were serving their country I cannot possibly imagine. Worse yet for Romney, it was sandwiched between televised statements by Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama that made his attempts to characterize the Obama Administration in the manner that he did look foolish and ham-handed[.]

Mataconis' post is titled "Could Foreign Policy Cost Mitt Romney The Election?" I think what he is really asking is "Could Romney's Lack of Judgment And Honor Cost Him The Election?" The answer, I submit, is yes.

Who said this?

[We] reject the reported message of the movie. There is no room for religious hatred or intolerance.

Compare that to this:

[We] condemn[] the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims—as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.

Sounds similar no? The difference? Mitt Romney's campaign is circulating the former talking points AFTER the news of the death of the US Ambassador to Libya. The latter was issued by the US embassy in Cairo before the unrest faced the embassy. So who did the "apologizing?" My timeline says Mitt "No Apologies" Romney.