The Breakfast Club (Start of Holiday Edition)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover  we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

This Day in History

Breakfast Tunes

Breakfast News

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NSA reformers dismayed after privacy board vindicates surveillance dragnet

Civil libertarians saw their hopes for curtailing the National Security Agency’s massive digital surveillance program dimmed in the wake of a report from a US government privacy board vindicating much of the international communications dragnet.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) voted Wednesday to adopt a 200-page report on the NSA’s so-called “702” powers, which include the widespread collection of foreign email, voice and text messages and Americans’ international calls.

While PCLOB chairman David Medine said those efforts walked “right up to the line of constitutionality,” the report largely vindicated the controversial surveillance, the scope of which was disclosed through reporting on documents provided by Edward Snowden, as both effective and legal.

Elisebeth Collins Cook, one of five board members and a Justice Department official in the Bush administration, hailed the digital surveillance as “legal, valuable and subject to intense oversight,” and characterized the PCLOB’s recommendations as “relatively slight changes at the margins of the program.”

In ways both bold and subtle, the long-awaited report blessed the NSA’s large-scale collection of digital data, even as it found elements of it problematic.

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U.S. increases security at overseas airports amid bomb concerns

(Reuters) – The United States said on Wednesday it would increase security at overseas airports with nonstop flights to the country, and U.S. officials cited concerns al Qaeda operatives in Syria and Yemen were developing bombs that could be smuggled onto planes.

The new security measures would be required at airports in Europe, Africa and the Middle East that have direct flights, the U.S. officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The Department of Homeland Security said “enhanced security measures” would be implemented in the next few days at “certain overseas airports with direct flights into the United States.”

It did not specify which airports or what countries would be affected, nor did it say what triggered the extra precautions.(Reuters) – The United States said on Wednesday it would increase security at overseas airports with nonstop flights to the country, and U.S. officials cited concerns al Qaeda operatives in Syria and Yemen were developing bombs that could be smuggled onto planes.

The new security measures would be required at airports in Europe, Africa and the Middle East that have direct flights, the U.S. officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The Department of Homeland Security said “enhanced security measures” would be implemented in the next few days at “certain overseas airports with direct flights into the United States.”

It did not specify which airports or what countries would be affected, nor did it say what triggered the extra precautions.

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Fear, cash shortages hinder fight against Ebola outbreak

(Reuters) – West African states lack the resources to battle the world’s worst outbreak of Ebola and deep cultural suspicions about the disease remain a big obstacle to halting its spread, ministers said on Wednesday.

The outbreak has killed 467 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since February, making it the largest and deadliest ever, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

West African health ministers meeting in Ghana to draw up a regional response mixed appeals for cash with warnings of the practices that have allowed the disease to spread across borders and into cities.

Abubakarr Fofanah, deputy health minister for Sierra Leone, a country with one of the world’s weakest health systems, said cash was needed for drugs, basic protective gear and staff pay.

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Transfer of Syrian chemical weapons complete: Pentagon

WASHINGTON: The transfer of Syrian chemical weapons from a Danish container ship to a US vessel was completed on Wednesday in an Italian port, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The disposal process marks the culmination of a program to rid Syria of its chemical weapons stockpile after the outcry that followed chemical attacks by the Bashar al-Assad regime in the suburbs of Damascus on August 23 last year, that may have killed as many as 1,400 people.

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Consumer Reports: McDonald’s burger ranked worst in the U.S.

Some major fast-food chains – McDonald’s, KFC, Taco Bell – may find the latest Consumer Reports fast-food survey hard to swallow.

According to the survey, released on Wednesday, more than 30,000 Consumer Reports subscribers say these restaurants’ signature items are the worst in their categories: McDonald’s has the worst burger; KFC has the worst chicken; and Taco Bell has the worst burrito.

Consumer Reports surveyed 32,405 subscribers about their experiences at 65 fast-food and fast-casual chains. This is what they were asked: “On a scale of  1 to 10, from least delicious to most delicious you’ve ever eaten, how would you rate the taste” of their signature dishes?

Habit Burger Grill, In-n-Out and Five Guys Burgers received the highest rating for their burgers, 8.1, 8.0 and 7.9 respectively.  Meanwhile, McDonald’s scored a paltry 5.8 rating.

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Must Read Blog Posts

Democratic Blame for SCOTUS Rulings by Margaret Kimberly, Black Agenda Report

Not War on Poverty but War on the Poor: Washington’s Real Foreign Policy Aims by Juan Cole, Informed Consent

Oil-By-Rail: A Battle Between “Right to Know” & “Need to Know” by Steve Horn, MyFDL

Obama To Appoint Pharma Patent Lawyer, Who Has Fought Against Any Patent Reform, To Head Patent Office by Mike Masnick, Techdirt

Court Tells DOJ To Cough Up The Other Secret Memos That Justify Killing People By Drone by Mike Masnick, Techdirt

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The Daily Wiki

Derecho

A derecho (/dəˈreɪtʃoʊ/, də-reh-choh, from Spanish: derecho [deˈɾetʃo], “straight”) is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm that is associated with a land-based, fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms. Derechos can cause hurricane force winds, tornadoes, heavy rains, and flash floods. Winds convection-induced take on a bow echo (backward “C”) form of squall line, forming in an area of wind divergence in upper levels of the troposphere, within a region of low-level warm air advection and rich low-level moisture. They travel quickly in the direction of movement of their associated storms, similar to an outflow boundary (gust front), except that the wind is sustained and increases in strength behind the front, generally exceeding hurricane-force. A warm-weather phenomenon, derechos occur mostly in summer, especially during June, July, and August in the Northern Hemisphere, within areas of moderately strong instability and moderately strong vertical wind shear. They may occur at any time of the year and occur as frequently at night as during the daylight hours.

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Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

Summer afternoon-summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.

Henry James

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Stupid Shit by LaEscapee

So I Took a Few Days off

Cross posted at Docudharma and Voices on the Square