BTW, I'm not surprised, that Barstow would fail mention the article "TV's Conflicted Experts" by Daniel Benaim, Priyanka Motaparthy and Vishesh Kumar (two former interns and a free-lancer.) Reporters at the NYT often pretend to a scoop that builds on uncredited info from a previous article in a supposedly "lesser" source.

For instance, in "Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process," Elisabeth Bumiller, on 9/2/08, fails to acknowledge that Anchorage Daily News reporters Sean Cockerham and Wesley Loy published interviews with many of the same folks on August 29 in "Choice stuns state politicians."

For details and links, see my blog post of September 1, "Sarah, Who?: http://bethwellington.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah-who.html

http://www.newstrust.net/webx/Stories/files/80214-0020/

This provides some covereage of the FISA actioin in the House. Uses "bickering" to describe House debate, which falls short of dispassionate reporting, as does description of a vote against a 21-day extension of the FISA bill as a "notable victory for Bush." Puzzling, when the story goes on to note Protect America Act will likely expire--not what the administration sought. The story lacked analysis of 34 Democrats who voted to defeat the extension. Did they favor the Senate version which includes telecom immunity or want the bill to expire? Here, though, in a story on waterboarding, we find something Kane left out of the main FISA story --"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) signaled last night that debate over the bill is unlikely to end quickly and that Democrats may let the temporary law expire. Although Bush and his aides have said such a move would undermine current surveillance efforts and pose a national security threat, Democrats note that intelligence-gathering orders under the temporary law are good for a year and that routine surveillance powers would remain. "The President and House Republicans refused to support the extension and therefore will bear the responsibility should any adverse national consequences result," Pelosi said in a statement. What I didn't see either article was mention of the earlier deadline imposed on the House by the recess to attend the Lantos funeral.

Also interesting is coverage of Congressional earmarks, although it raised a lot of questions:

http://www.newstrust.net/webx/Stories/files/80214-0019/

There's also an older piece on the President's earmarks from the Times:

http://www.newstrust.net/webx/Stories/files/80210-0003/

And one that catches home builders out for pulling campaign contributions in what may be direct retalitation for being left out of the stimulus package:

http://www.newstrust.net/webx/Stories/files/80214-0022/

Tomorrow we're featuring the topic U.S. Congress on Newstrust and I'm working on a blog entry right now that includes the FISA bill. The New York Times mail alert let me know the paper had published its story "Senate Passes Bill to Expand U.S. Spying Powers" and I've reviewed it at Newstrust.

http://www.newstrust.net/webx/Stories/files/80212-0039/

You can review it above and add others stories here:

http://www.newstrust.net/submit

What interests me about the story is that although the introductory paragraph provides a good overview, it's certainly not as detailed or nuanced as I would have desired and I wonder whether it sends a message to the House exerting pressure when it says, "The House has already rejected the idea of immunity for the phone companies, and Democratic leaders reacted angrily to the Senate vote. But Congressional officials said it appeared that the House would ultimately be forced to accept some sort of legal protection for the phone carriers in negotiations between the two chambers this week."

Just who are these anonymous leaders? And there was no rundown of the vote--I cited Glenn's rundown with a link. Since Neither Obama nor Clinton voted on final passage, what does this say about their promise to Dodd to support his filibuster.

Glenn and readers, see this page for the reviews that generated the score for my submission of your post today...despite the topic of the day being "U.S. Presidential Election"

http://www.newstrust.net/webx?14@@.f8ace37

What is your take on:

http://www.slate.com/id/2177962

"State Your Secrets: The smart way around telecom immunity," by Justin Florence and Matthew Gerke . They write,

Retroactive immunity isn't about letting the telecoms off the hook. It's about hiding the administration's own legal claims from any judicial or public scrutiny. The administration wants to keep these cases out of court so it can cover up for itself.

Congress can protect the telecoms without falling for this trick. In reforming FISA, Congress should enact a comprehensive law governing the state secrets privilege, one that protects our national security and also allows litigants to make their case in court. Congress figured out this sort of balancing act for criminal cases decades ago when it passed the Classified Information Procedures Act; now it's time to do the same for civil suits. We agree with the administration that state secrets should be protected at all costs. But this administration can no longer be trusted to use the privilege to protect only genuine secrets. It's instead covering up its own dubious legal reasoning—not just in the domestic surveillance cases, but also to avoid scrutiny of the torture and rendition programs at issue in the cases of Khalid El-Masri and Maher Arar. Someone other than the executive must be able to review whether the executive is abusing the privilege.

,

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., also a Democratic presidential candidate, has come out in opposition to the provision too.

Other Democratic presidential candidates, particularly Sen. Barrack Obama, D- Ill., have come under pressure from bloggers to oppose the provision.

Obama's office, as well as the campaign and Senate offices for Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., have refused to comment.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200710190901DOWJONESDJONLINE000536_FORTUNE5.htm

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/10/18/post_137.html?hpid=news-col-blog