We’ve had three big stories this week, each showing how the right plays the scandal game better than the left. Of the three, one is a non-scandal (Benghazi), one is a minor scandal with the potential to turn into more (IRS),1 and one is an honest-to-God scandal right now (AP). Republicans don’t bother with such fine distinctions though, and that’s why they are better at playing it than Democrats: when they get something they can run with, they do

It’s quite a week when the entire MSM suddenly gets sufficient oxygen into its hairspray-addled brain to be shocked, shocked, I tell you, at the fact that the Obama administration has been, well, behaving like Loyal Bushies on meth for the last four years. Mainly, because team Obama was just a tiny bit nicer about how they icily disdained several parts of the Bill of Rights, not least that first one, the punitive prosecutions could continue. the wiretapping comfortably privatized, and the illegality and cronyism of the Bush era would be magically transformed into cuddly bipartisan consensus.

Trouble is, that sort of thing only works until it doesn’t.

An annual report to the United States Senate by the Justice Department shows the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court did not deny one single request made to the court by federal law enforcement. All applications to conduct electronic surveillance or “physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes” were granted.

So what happens when the Department of Justice and the Police Service of Northern Ireland decide to violate the spirit of a treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom by subpoenaing a confidential collection of taped interviews detailing Northern Ireland’s militant past?

An alliance of nonprofit organizations committed to promoting freedom of thought and free expression has been challenging a decision by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to ban Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis. It has also sought more information on what led to the decision by filing Freedom of Information Act requests.

In a significant ruling, the military judge in the case of Pfc. Bradley Manning has denied a motion by his defense to preclude evidence that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda “received” copies of information published by WikiLeaks.

Judge Army Col. Denise Lind wholly rejected the arguments the defense had made that evidence involving receipt of information by Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) would be prejudicial to proceedings. However, the judge found the evidence would not be prejudicial or probative.

An environmental activist, who was prosecuted by the Justice Department for engaging in acts the department considers to be terrorism, has found out through a lawsuit of which he is a plaintiff that he was transferred to a prison in Marion, Illinois, and held in isolation for his political speech.

Judge Thaddeus Wilson – holding down the house in Room 303 of the Cook County Courthouse in Chicago, IL – ruled the Illinois terrorism statute constitutional on its face.

This ruling was issued approximately two months after the attorneys defending the three clients known as the “NATO 3” issued a motion and memorandum arguing the law defied the dictates of the First Amendment because it is overly-broad as currently written, an argument rejected by Wilson.

On RT America, I discuss the recent court ruling in a lawsuit where an unnamed telecommunications company (believed to be Credo) challenged the gag provisions in FBI national security letters.

A US district court in California found in a decision made public on Friday that Nondisclosure or gag provisions of National Security Letters “significantly infringe upon speech regarding controversial government powers.” The provisions were found to violate the First Amendment and the “separation of powers principles.” The court also determined the provisions were effectively preventing public debate on surveillance.

Before his sentencing hearing, Andrew Auernheimer, who was convicted on one of charge of conspiracy under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and one charge of fraud involving personal information, declared in a statement that he was going to jail for “arithmetic.”

Twenty-six year-old security researcher, known as “Weev,” was sentenced to forty-one months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered pay $73,000 in restitution to AT&T.