A court has ruled, in a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the Transporation Security Administration (TSA) violated federal law when it went ahead and installed airport body scanners without seeking comments from the public.

Florida is a key swing state in the 2012 presidential election, and Obama is already struggling there.  It also has the highest percentage of senior citizens of any state in the union. Can you chip in $10 to help us run these online ads targeted to seniors and future retirees? With your help, we can spread our pledge not to vote for anyone participating in benefit cuts, including President Obama.

Earlier in the press conference, Obama said that the budget deficit exploded because of unpaid tax cuts, an unpaid prescription drug benefit in Medicare, two wars and the recession. That’s largely correct, although the prescription drug benefit was a smaller portion of that overall total. But if you believe that, it seems that the course of action would be to end the Bush tax cuts, end the wars and get people back to work. Yet none of this will be a feature of even the “grand bargain” proposal that Obama still wants. He is wary of cutting defense, he wants to only end 1/5 of the Bush tax cuts, and any stimulative measures are just extensions of current law, swamped by cuts to the discretionary budget and contractionary fiscal policy.

It is with great excitement that I welcome you to The Dissenter, a Firedoglake blog that will cover civil liberties and digital freedom issues. It will feature regular coverage of the torture scandal that continues to wear on and the ongoing US government war on WikiLeaks, along with coverage of the Orwellian expansion of the surveillance state, Internet privacy rights, the mass incarceration of people of color in this country and the current and historic repression of dissent.

Let’s check in on the debt limit negotiations. Last night’s meeting at the White House was short and somber, with Administration aides still discussing elements of a big deal, even though that looks all but dead, as it includes tax changes. There is no meeting today; the President instructed the Congressional leadership to go back to their caucuses and determine what can actually pass both chambers. He wants to hear back in the next 24 to 36 hours. Both parties in Congress and the President are holding news conferences today, with the President’s coming up at 11am ET. This will be Obama’s second press conference of the week.

The good news for Obama is that there is currently no one in the Republican primary field right now who is likely to have as much broad base support a generic Republican. Against any of the actual opponents currently running I suspect Obama would perform slightly better.

The bad news is that the trend is currently moving in the Republican’s favor.

More debt ceiling tick-tock:

9:55 am Calculated Risk – Consumer sentiment drops sharply in July, despite low gas prices.  Many on the Hill were worried that telling senior citizens they might not get their Social Security checks was not the best idea in this environment for fear of making things worse.

The Justice Department will seek a short-term emergency stay to the bar on the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a puzzling twist to a court case that appeared to end the policy outright.

It’s a challenge to keep up with the pace of the debt ceiling news, so if you see anything, put it in the comments and I’ll add it. All times EST:

So, have you heard the one about the former American ally in the Middle East turning against us? I know, how rare.