Declassified documents show NSA violated privacy rules on a massive scale. The NSA claims they were too stupid to understand their software...

Well, this really inspires confidence...

Via The Washington Post:

The National Security Agency for almost three years searched a massive database of Americans’ phone call records in violation of court-approved privacy rules, and the problem went unfixed because no one at the agency had a full technical understanding of how the system worked, according to new documents and senior government officials.

The improper activity went on from May 2006 to January 2009, according to a scathing March 2009 opinion by Judge Reggie B. Walton, a judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.[...]

In fact, only numbers in which analysts could prove there was “reasonable articulable suspicion” of a link to foreign terrorists could be queried against the database, according to court-approved rules.
 

Walton said NSA’s explanation for its violation of the court order — that some NSA personnel thought the querying rules applied only to archived data — “strains credulity.” He also expressed consternation at NSA’s inaccurate description of the process it was using to query the database.

Boxer Campaign Violates Law by Asking Teachers to Solicit Students for Boxer Campaign

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Barbara Boxer's Campaign staff has sent a letter (posted above) to teachers asking them to solicit student volunteers for the Boxer campaign. The letter suggests extra credit for students who participate. This is violation of California law. Don't hold your breath waiting for California AG Jerry Brown to take action.

Via Flash Report:

Today the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association notified the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Board of Education today that, in abject ignorance of California state law, the political campaign of Senator Barbara Boxer has openly solicited teachers employed by LAUSD to urge their students to volunteer for her campaign.

HJTA’s letter to the school district urges LAUSD to immediately inform all its personnel, credentialed or otherwise, that it would be a clear violation of law for teachers to recruit their students on school property during school hours to volunteer for a specific political campaign.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel Reams Senate Democrats For For Rules Violations

Senate Democrats are willing to do anything to ram Harry Reid's health care reform bill through Congress before Christmas. In a clear violation of senate rules, Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders violates long standing Senate rules by ending reading of his giant amendment without unanimous consent. Mitch McConnell calls the Democrats out on their dirty trick in the video posted below.