This morning two black sedans with TSA special agents came to the Connecticut home of blogger Steven Frischling and walked out with his laptop computer. They promised to return it, but later claimed that there were “bad sectors” on the drive.

He is not sure when he is going to get it back.

The agents were looking for the anonymous source who leaked a TSA Security Directive which advised airlines to restrict passengers from getting out of their seats, concealing their hands…

In May, the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General released an audit revealing that the FBI’s terrorist watchlist — the list used at border crossings, airports and other points of entry into the United States, often called the No-Fly List — often fails to include the names of those who are actually subjects of FBI terrorism investigations. At the same time, the list continues to include people who are no longer suspects — including at least one person who has remained on the …

The Wall Street Journal, Pat Buchanan and others are already condemning the Obama administration for treating Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a civilian criminal rather than an illegal warrior to whom we can presumably do whatever we please. We are in “a war,” The Journal reiterated today — as did Buchanan, debating Spencer Ackerman this morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” — and the government had better start fighting one.
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The Journal and Buchanan somehow overlook …

“I do not feel protected against Sarah Palin in a closed proceeding.”
So says Levi Johnston in an affidavit in the custody fight between him and Bristol Palin that has become public after a judge denied the Palins’ request to keep it confidential.
The court filings (.pdf) from earlier this month show, beneath the bitter charges and counter-charges, that Johnston appears to genuinely fear the tactics Sarah Palin would resort to to win the case. He says that Bristol’s attorney is her mother’s attorney.
“I know that …

By Dave Johnson
Health care: huge majorities of the public want something – anything – along the lines of a “public option” or Medicare buy-in. In the last election people turned out and overwhelmingly voted in Obama, 60 senators and a huge majority in the Congress.
But after “the system” plays itself out we instead end up with government power ordering all of us to buy insurance from giant insurance corporations. It remains illegal for us to buy into Medicare because this would interfere with …

When we began following Orly Taitz’s Birther litigation back in September, we never thought we’d end up with her cell phone on speed dial.
Well, it turned out to be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. But the last year (OK, fine, half year) has been full of bumps and setbacks for the attorney/dentist who is the country’s most prominent purveyor of the conspiracy theory that President Obama is not a natural born U.S. citizen.
Here, in chronological order, are some of the low points of …

Sarah Palin’s war on the media continues?
The woman who once called on the press to “quit makin’ things up” took it a step further yesterday by allegedly banning four members of the media from a book event in Wasilla, Alaska.
On a four-person “banned list” — yes, that term was actually used by police — were a blogger, a videographer, a local radio host, and another person who hasn’t been identified.
A bit before 11 a.m., Dennis Zaki and Jesse Griffin drove up to the Curtis …

A self-styled Nevada codebreaker convinced the CIA he could decode secret terrorist targeting information sent through Al Jazeera broadcasts, prompting the Bush White House to raise the terror alert level to Orange (high) in December 2003, with Tom Ridge warning of “near-term attacks that could either rival or exceed what we experience on September 11,” according to a new report in Playboy.
The report deals another blow to the credibility of the Department of Homeland Security’s color-coded terror alert system, and comes after Ridge’s claim …

By Stephen M. Davidson
Not surprisingly, progressives are disappointed at the turn the battle over health care reform has taken. The Senate is considering a bill that is much watered down even from the House-passed bill, which also left a lot to be desired.
While both would add 30 million or more Americans to the roles of the insured, provide subsidies to make coverage affordable for many of them, and prohibit insurers from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions, they don’t do much to keep …

By Stephen Gyllenhaal
This is a despicable Health Bill, a stain on the soul of anyone who has worked on it, who supports it, who believes they have done anything right in birthing it. If there is a hell I would want everyone involved with this bill to end up in it, nonetheless…
This Bill should be passed.
Then we need to work to throw everyone out of office that claims they did a good job here. I also think we need to remember that when …