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
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in Los Angeles; The Six-Day War erupts in the Mideast; Birth of the Marshall Plan; First reported AIDS cases in the U.S.; Former President Ronald Reagan dies.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
Breakfast News
NSA’s use of ‘back-door searches’ against hackers is reformers’ next target
Surveillance reformers, fresh off a week of tenuous victories, have vowed to ensure there are further overhauls to the National Security Agency’s vast dragnets after a new report detailed another stretch of legal authority by the US government to stop malicious hackers.
Based on documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the New York Times and ProPublica reported on Thursday that the Justice Department in 2012 permitted the NSA to use widespread surveillance authorities passed by Congress to stop terrorism and foreign espionage in order to find digital signatures associated with high-level cyber intrusions.
The FBI is also able to access the data – which, the reports noted, may contain information associated with Americans or data stolen from Americans outright. Searching for the threat signatures often involves accessing the stolen data.
Fifa corruption crisis: FBI inquiry now includes 2014 Brazil World Cup
The FBI’s investigation into Fifa corruption, which has already led to the downfall of president Sepp Blatter, has widened further to include the organisation of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil last summer.
With the FBI examining links between disgraced former Brazilian football chief Ricardo Teixeira and embattled Fifa secretary general Jérôme Valcke, the investigation now encompasses three of the past five World Cups and the controversial award of the next two tournaments in Russia and Qatar.
In explosive testimony from former Fifa executive committee member Chuck Blazer unsealed by a New York court on Wednesday, he admitted receiving bribes from South Africa related to the hosting of the 2010 World Cup and facilitating the payment of a bribe related to the 1998 tournament from losing bidder Morocco.
After Ten Months, Will Congress Finally Be Forced to Debate the War on ISIS?
A small group of bipartisan congressional lawmakers on Thursday introduced legislation calling for the withdrawal of the U.S. military from Iraq and Syria, in a surprise move that could, for the first time, force a real debate on the 10-month-old war on ISIS.
Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Walter Jones (R-N.C.), and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) invoked the War Powers Resolution when introducing the legislation, which directs President Barack Obama “to remove United States Armed Forces deployed to Iraq or Syria on or after August 7, 2014” within 30 days or by the end of the year.
Upon bringing the bill to the House floor, McGovern rebuked Congress as “the poster child for cowardice.”
Snowden: balance of power has shifted as people defy government surveillance
A “profound difference” has occurred over the past two years, following the leaking of NSA documents that led to revelations about US surveillance on phone and internet communications, whistleblower Edward Snowden has said.
Speaking to the French newspaper Liberation, the computer analyst said that the balance of power is changing as a post-terror generation “turns its back on the reaction and fear to embrace the resilience and reason”.
Snowden said that bulk data collection programmes had been declared illegal and disavowed by the US Congress.
Disturbing New Study Links Fracking Wells to Lower Birth Weights
In an alarming new study, University of Pittsburgh researchers revealed that pregnant parents who live in close proximity to fracking wells are more likely than their counterparts, who live farther away, to have babies with lower birth weights.
Perinatal Outcomes and Unconventional Natural Gas Operations in Southwest Pennsylvania was published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE. Hailing from Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, the researchers investigated birth outcomes for 15,451 babies born between 2007 and 2010 in three counties in the fracking-heavy state of Pennsylvania: Washington, Westmoreland, and Butler.
New species of dinosaur, the regaliceratops, discovered in Canada
When fossil experts first clapped eyes on the skull, it was clearly from a strange, horned dinosaur. When they noticed how stunted the bony horns were, its nickname, Hellboy, was assured.
The near-complete skull of the 70 million-year-old beast was spotted by chance 10 years ago, protruding from a cliff that runs along the Oldman river south of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.
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Must Read Blog Posts
The TPP Gang That Can’t Shoot Straight CTuttle, FDL
Obama Administration Expanded Warrantless Surveillance to Target ‘Malicious Cyber Activity’ Kevin Gosztola, FDL
When corporations co-opt social justice, who pays? Lucas Robek, AMERICAblog
In October 2013, Patrick Leahy and Jim Sensenbrenner Rolled Out a Bill That Would Have Ended Upstream Cyber Collection Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
TISA Agreement Might Outlaw Governments From Mandating Open Source Software In Many Situations Mike Masnick, Techdirt
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