Pity her father's a bit of a rotter.

Except to note that that's an awfully well edited (and shot)video for something that Megan's "friend Shannon" to have thrown together since this weekend.

I wonder if there will be the same kind of concern about a candidate's daughter being "pimped out".

Glenn,

OT (and I know you probably are on it already) - TPMMuckraker points to a WSJ article (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120511973377523845.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news):

NSA’s Domestic Spying Grows

As Agency Sweeps Up Data

Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans’ privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But the data-sifting effort didn’t disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system…

~snip~

…According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records. The NSA receives this so-called “transactional” data from other agencies or private companies, and its sophisticated software programs analyze the various transactions for suspicious patterns. Then they spit out leads to be explored by counterterrorism programs across the U.S. government, such as the NSA’s own Terrorist Surveillance Program, formed to intercept phone calls and emails between the U.S. and overseas without a judge’s approval when a link to al Qaeda is suspected…

~snip~

…Current and former intelligence officials say telecom companies’ concern comes chiefly because they are giving the government unlimited access to a copy of the flow of communications, through a network of switches at U.S. telecommunications hubs that duplicate all the data running through it. It isn’t clear whether the government or telecom companies control the switches, but companies process some of the data for the NSA, the current and former officials say…

~snip~

…Two current officials also said the NSA’s current combination of programs now largely mirrors the former TIA project. But the NSA offers less privacy protection. TIA developers researched ways to limit the use of the system for broad searches of individuals’ data, such as requiring intelligence officers to get leads from other sources first. The NSA effort lacks those controls, as well as controls that it developed in the 1990s for an earlier data-sweeping attempt…

~snip~

…Gen. Hayden, the former NSA chief and now Central Intelligence Agency director, in January 2006 publicly defended the activities of the Terrorist Surveillance Program after it was disclosed by the New York Times. He said it was “not a driftnet over Lackawanna or Fremont or Dearborn, grabbing all communications and then sifting them out.” Rather, he said, it was carefully targeted at terrorists. However, some intelligence officials now say the broader NSA effort amounts to a driftnet. A portion of the activity, the NSA’s access to domestic phone records, was disclosed by a USA Today article in 2006…

~snip~

…It isn’t known how many Americans’ data have been swept into the NSA’s systems. The Treasury, for instance, built its database “to look at all the world’s financial transactions” and gave the NSA access to it about 15 years ago, said a former NSA official. The data include domestic and international money flows between bank accounts and credit-card information, according to current and former intelligence officials…

And all of our guesses/speculations/paranoid imaginings are correct!

makes me physically ill, really I almost wretched...

You're, like, .... supposed to say, like ..... Awesome!

That piece is definitely put together by a professional.

You know, if I were a journalist, after the past few years, starting with Bush's election, the war in Iraq, the dismantling of our civil liberties, the role of the press during the Libby trial, etc, coupled with the common perception that most people turn to The Daily Show for their TV news, I would have been too embarrassed to go to this party and instead would have stayed at home and grown a pair.

But I do have two questions:

1) Were any bloggers invited and if so, how many attended?

2) Has anyone who was there from the media written a story about it?

I suppose the answer to both is "no", although I wonder about #1.

-c

...when Politico runs a love-in piece on McCain, let's just remind everyone about the flowers.

Every single time.

It is amazing that McCain's daughter could capture rare footage of the brave, intrepid press corps in their native environment.

Some choice lines from Meghan's narration of the video:

-------------

"I thought it was going to be a lot more difficult than it turned out to be."

"It was really great to see big journalistic figures like Holly Baily, swinging on a tire swing."

[note: watch video closely, you'll see empty wine glass in her hand]

"I thought it was so cute that they brought my mom flowers. That's rare. They are journalists."

-------------

Also note, that giant house where you see the "journalists" frolicking is a "cabin". McCain's staff are "long-time friends". Yes, those are our brave "journalists" in action, "scrutinizing" the Republican candidate, John McCain. This should be on Saturday Night Live. No need for writers and actors. SNL could just play the entire video, MTV edits and music and everything.

...they love to get outside the Beltway and kick back. They seem so relaxed and chill when they can be themselves. It's a pity those mean folks in the establishment can't just let John be himself all the time!

I could see myself there too, just hanging out and chillin' with everybody! I bet John's "famous" ribs are delicious. Imagine a busy politician having the time to come up with an original recipe all his own!

It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy, just like heavily-edited, politically-motivated "amateur" video of a presidential candidate carefully targeted to my 20-something age demographic should.

Maybe Democrats should, like, get together and send all the reporters, like, flowers and cook for them and stuff.

Then maybe they'll stop reporting rumors, exaggerations, and blatant lies as if they were "newsworthy".