The more I read about what, where, when, why and how Snowden came to find out about the scope of the NSA intelligence gathering – the more I accept there was no other way for him to reveal the entire mess.  
(Via The Guardian) Edward Snowden, the former security contractor who leaked a trove of National Security Agency documents, welcomed a court ruling on Monday that declared the bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records to be a likely violation of the US constitution.

Snowden said the ruling, by a US district judge, justified his disclosures. “I acted on my belief that the NSA’s mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts,” he said in comments released through Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian journalist who received the documents from Snowden.
“Today, a secret program authorised by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans’ rights. It is the first of many,” said Snowden, whose statement was first reported by the New York Times. (more…)

25 year old 2nd Lt Paul deWolf, USAF, third year medical student and active duty officer on an Air Force scholarship at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor,  was murdered by three black thugs during a home invasion robbery of his residence, an off campus fraternity house he shared with other medical students.

DeWolf was asleep in his own domicile – a bedroom in the basement of the Phi Ro Sigma fraternity house – when he was startled awake by the noise the intruders were creating during their return to the residence after previously stealing and removing a PlayStation 3 game system.  At a hearing held this week, it was revealed by Ann Arbor police that the still unnamed alleged trigger puller currently jailed in Michigan on a bond violation in a different case, had not yet been charged with deWolf’s murder. (more…)

One of the interesting aspects of the Treehouse is the international readership and how they contribute to our understanding of events. A recent link from a South African reader was sent to us outlining accuracy within a particular regional article was. So here it is:

[…] In South Africa, the signing man told the world, you don’t actually have to know what you are doing in order to get a job. You don’t have to have any ability whatsoever, as long as it looks, to most, as though you can go through the motions — whether you are a teacher, a police officer, a bureaucrat, a government official or (as some have suggested) a state president.
There are those who see through you and complain, but they are ignored. Ours is not a culture of accountability. So one gig leads to the next. You’ve done it before so you get to do it again, because everyone in a position of power agrees that the emperor’s new threads are stylish.
You stand there and tell us that the appearance of something becomes more important than the substance of it. Your obvious inability to do your job does not prevent you from getting ahead, until you reach the most prominent stage in the world, and then pretending suddenly isn’t enough. Too many people noticed — too many people who couldn’t just be dismissed because of their politics or race, which is how criticism is normally dealt with. (more…)

The Adam Leitman Bailey law firm has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible.  […]  Meanwhile, police were asking for the public’s help in identifying the carjackers, who vanished after dumping the SUV with license plate U26-BVD.   Tipsters are being urged to call the DA’s office at (877)847-7432.   (link)

But guess what ?   The media are unwilling to publish descriptions of the thugs who killed Dustin Friedland.   Ask yourself why?

NEW JERSEY – The Hoboken lawyer killed by carjackers at an upscale New Jersey mall gave up his life — to protect his wife.
Dustin Friedland had just let his beloved Jamie into their luxury SUV and was walking around to the driver’s side when he was ambushed by two crooks who demanded the keys, a source close to the investigation told The Daily News.
“He knew his wife was in there and he refused,” the source said Monday. (more…)

FYI – I’m looking for the actual written ruling to share.

Federal judge rules that NSA's program of gathering data on all telephone calls made in the US is unconstitutional – @PeteWilliamsNBC

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 16, 2013

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Monday that the National Security Agency’s controversial surveillance program that collects millions of Americans’ telephone records may be unconstitutional.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon ruled in a lawsuit brought by conservative activist Larry Klayman that the legal challenge to the massive surveillance program — disclosed in full earlier this year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden — would likely succeed.
Leon, appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, issued a preliminary injunction against the program but suspended the order to allow an appeal by the Justice Department, which said it was reviewing the decision. (more…)

If Dick Cheney was Darth Vader what exactly is President Barack Obama?  
Fourteen people in a wedding party were accidentally killed last week by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.    The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch reported in October that at least 57 civilians have been accidentally killed by missiles fired from the unmanned aircraft.  In May of 2012 the New York Times reported that President Obama personally approves of every single strike that takes place in Yemen.  

“Every week or so, more than 100 members of the government’s sprawling national security apparatus gather, by secure video teleconference, to pore over terrorist suspects’ biographies and recommend to the president who should be the next to die. This secret “nominations” process is an invention of the Obama administration, a grim debating society that vets the PowerPoint slides bearing the names, aliases and life stories of suspected members of Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen.”  (link)
(more…)

(Via Forbes)  Of all of the last-minute delays, website bungles, and Presidential whims that have marred the roll-out of Obamacare’s subsidized insurance exchanges, what happened on Thursday, December 12 will stand as one of the most lawless acts yet committed by this administration.

The White House—having canceled Americans’ old health plans, and having botched the system for enrolling people in new ones—knows that millions of Americans will enter the new year without health coverage. So instead of actually fixing the problem, the administration is retroactively attempting to force insurers to hand out free health care—at a loss—to those whom the White House has rendered uninsured. If Obamacare wasn’t a government takeover of the health insurance industry, then what is it now?
On Wednesday afternoon, health policy reporters found in their inboxes a friendly e-mail from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announcing “steps to ensure Americans signing up through the Marketplace have coverage and access to the care they need on January 1.” Basically, the “steps” involve muscling insurers to provide free or discounted care to those who have become uninsured because of the problems with healthcare.gov. (more…)

Denying the existence of evil does not protect you from it.

NEW YORK –  A Queens man broke his leg Thursday in a horrific, unprovoked daytime attack similar to a “knockout game” strike, the Daily News has learned.
Clifford Wong, 52, was leaving his job at a New York Lottery office in Harlem and was nearing his car on W. 126th St. near Lenox Ave. at about 2:30 p.m. when he saw a group of black teens watching him.
“Something didn’t feel right so I crossed the street,” he said. “I took a few steps and in an instant one guy was in front of me.”
“Where do you think you’re going?” the suspect — believed to be about 15 — asked before he and several of his pals started lobbing haymakers at him.
“Basically they were trying to aim at my face,” said Wong in an interview at Harlem Hospital Saturday. “I had my hands up, but they hit my nose.”
The goons pummeled Wong until he fell to the ground and then ran off. (more…)

The Denver Post re-edited their initial story removing the reference to the shooter being a socialist. When challenged about why that decision was reached the editor of the DP began a series of obfuscations and ridiculous explanations:

@Whatwesettlefor We decided not to have another student apply a label to the shooter — a label the student likely didn't even understand ..

— Lee Ann Colacioppo (@LAColacioppo) December 14, 2013

(more…)

HatTip to iOTW.  Who Shares –  The latest book by Jack Cashill uses the Zimmerman case to explain how the  left gins up a story in order to serve the narrative they need to create at the  time.
His insightful discussion on his book airs early tomorrow morning at  1:15 am on BookTV (CSPAN2).  I found the first 10 minutes of his  presentation on YouTube.  It’s an eye-opening peek at how the left created  the concept of Agitprop and how it is used today.
There is a 10 Minute Preview Available HERE – Jack Cashill argues that President Obama and the liberal media worked overtime to convince the public that George Zimmerman unlawfully killed Trayvon Martin on the night of February 26, 2012,, even though neither knew what really happened. He writes that Martin was a drug user and streetfighter who was legitimately confronted and shot by Zimmerman. Mr. Cashill spoke at the Platte County Resource Center in Kansas City, Missouri.