(photo: Stephen Cummings) (update below) The Wall Street Journal editorial staff has now officially committed to lying through their teeth about how the phone hacking scandal at News of the World is exactly like the New York Times, The Guardian and other newspapers working with WikiLeaks. Yesterday, the editorial staff

Here’s today’s blog for the latest news and updates on civil liberties and digital freedom issues. All times are in EST. And, if you have any news tips and would like to contact me, email dissenter@shadowproof.wpengine.com. Atlanta City Council has okayed a measure that will bring Big Brother to Atlanta.

(photo: Cover of new CHRGJ report on impact of US counter-terrorism policies on women, sexual minorities) Calling attention to how the US government’s counter-terrorism measures impact women and sexual minorities (those in the LGBTI community), the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) has released a report that suggests

Calling attention to how the US government’s counter-terrorism measures impact women and sexual minorities (those in the LGBTI community), the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) has released a report that suggests the USG government cannot continue to claim it is taking a “holistic” approach to countering terrorism while at the same time failing to address how the so-called “war on terrorism” impacts women, men and sexual minorities differently.

Murdoch-owned papers are working overtime to defend Murdoch from blowback from the phone hacking scandal. And in a recent editorial addressing the business of news and those who are criticizing members of the News Corp family, the Wall Street Journal delivers a dig against papers like The Guardian that have done business with WikiLeaks.

(update below) As the News Corp phone hacking scandal continues to grow and envelop US newspapers and media organizations, which are owned by Rupert Murdoch and part of the News Corp family, the management of each of these papers and organizations are working overtime to defend Murdoch from the criticism.

Today, the United States House of Representatives voted to end the fund Wall Street – rather than Taxpayers – would have to pay into that would serve as the bailout mechanism in a future financial crisis. In other words they voted to repeal the already meager Dodd-Frank regulations and go

Gotta go to Clooney’s house. OK, outside it. And stay tuned for some EXCITING ROUNDUP NEWS tomorrow. • Mega-banks are trying to drag President Obama’s Fed picks across the finish line, which tells you something about their quality. But David Vitter and the Republicans won’t budge on the selections, which

Setting up a showdown over federal spending, the House of Representatives today narrowly passed a bill that would replace the cuts from the defense side of the trigger, part of the debt limit deal of last year, mostly with cuts to federal workers and the social safety net. The 218-199

So earlier today I was wondering whether the LGBT-led donor boycott of the Obama campaign would continue after his shift on marriage equality. After all, his Administration still planned to reject an anti-discrimination executive order, and this, not the President’s position on marriage equality, was the nominal reason for the

We all know that we’re only at the midway point of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and that subsidies for people who don’t get health insurance at work, so they can afford to purchase their own, won’t come around until 2014. And we know that, even after the

The FDIC has put together a new format for how they would wind down a systemically important financial institution that got itself into trouble. This is part of the resolution authority granted by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. When the next crisis brings a major financial firm to its knees,