"I'm forever the 5 year old of something"

Pretty swamped with life at the moment, but can't say enough good things about this Kanye interview. Far too many good quotes to choose from, but this is one of the best:

I love the fact that I’m bad at [things], you know what I’m saying? I’m forever the 35-year-old 5-year-old. I’m forever the 5-year-old of something.

The NSA Whistleblower Reveals Himself

The courage it takes to do something like this is breathtaking. He lived in Hawaii with his girlfriend making $200,000 a year. There's a good chance he's voluntarily given up the chance to see her/his family and friends ever again to make this information public. Listen to him in his own words, it's unbelievably powerful.

It Gets Worse

Makes you wonder what else we don't know about:

The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post.

The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley.

Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants, according to the document: “Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.”

So many questions. First off, what the fuck is "paltalk"?

But thankfully after yesterday's news, our Senators are on the case!

Feinstein says on MSNBC she thinks the Guardian leak should be investigation, worries about a "culture of leaks."
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 6, 2013

Chambliss on NSA: "This is nothing particularly new... Every member of the US Senate has been advised of this."
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 6, 2013

Feinstein on NSA collecting phone records: "It's called protecting America."
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 6, 2013

"This wasn't a news conference. This was stalking," Feinstein quips of reporters badgering her about NSA/FISA.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 6, 2013

Abolish the Senate, or at least give Diane Fienstein a primary. She is the worst.

The NSA Is Collecting Our Wireless Data

Well this is fucking appalling:

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

The disclosure is likely to reignite longstanding debates in the US over the proper extent of the government's domestic spying powers.

Under the Bush administration, officials in security agencies had disclosed to reporters the large-scale collection of call records data by the NSA, but this is the first time significant and top-secret documents have revealed the continuation of the practice on a massive scale under President Obama.

The unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is extremely unusual. Fisa court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target who is suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets.

If I were guessing, I'd say that there won't be any huge congressional action to push back against this either. Republicans love bashing Obama, but I think they love their national security state more.

Secrets

Digby is right, this segment actually made me think, which isn't true about 99.9999% of cable TV. I hope the ratings for his new show pick up so we can get more of this:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Our Racist Drug War

This shouldn't come as a surprise, but here it is in black and white (pun kind of intended, I guess):

WASHINGTON — Black Americans were nearly four times as likely as whites to be arrested on charges of marijuana possession in 2010, even though the two groups used the drug at similar rates, according to new federal data.

Post racial america, everyone!

"Do no ask me to enter the minds of the totalitarians running this government"

Watch this video. You won't regret it.

The age old question: crazy person pulled off the street, or Wall Street Journal Editorial board member?