The recent debate over the appropriate balance between personal privacy and national security cuts across the Democratic/Republican and liberal/conservative divide. Some Republicans are defending, while some Democrats are criticizing, the Obama administration's use of broad surveillance techniques to track terrorists.

"I'm glad the [National Security Agency] is trying to find out what the terrorists are up to overseas and in our country," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a frequent critic of President Barack Obama, said Thursday morning on "Fox & Friends."

Graham was responding to the news that Verizon received a secret court order to turn over its customers phone records to the National Security Agency. The White House defended the operation, calling it a "critical tool" in its efforts to protect the nation against terrorist attacks. more >>

There's a song that says, "don't let it go to your head, no." Perhaps First Lady Michelle Obama and President Obama should listen to its lyrics. It seems America's first black president -- as well as his wife -- have gotten so used to the coddling from the mainstream media that they believe they're above criticism or heckling.

A protester disrupted Michelle Obama at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser Tuesday night and the First Lady got perturbed -- really perturbed. In fact, she got in the heckler's face. A few minutes after Mrs. Obama started speaking at a home in the upper Northwest neighborhood of Washington, DC, gay activist Ellen Sturtz began yelling about how President Obama needed to sign an executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating against gays.

We can all agree that wasn't cool for Sturtz to do. But hey, this stuff happens when your husband is president. Mrs. Obama's response was interesting. more >>

When Republicans criticize the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative groups, they are using coded language to call President Barack Obama a n*****, MSNBC host Martin Bashir argued Wednesday.

"Despite the complete lack of any evidence linking the president to the targeting of Tea Party groups, Republicans are using it as their latest weapon in the war against the black man in the White House," Bashir began.

Bashir then played a clip of four Republicans – Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Rep. Paul Ryan (Wisc.), Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) – criticizing the IRS for the targeting of conservative groups from 2010 through 2012. To support his contention that those Republicans were being racist, he quoted an infamous 1981 interview with Republican strategist Lee Atwater in which he explained his party's "southern strategy." more >>

Al-Jazeera is about to bring jihad to American cable TV.

And who do we have to thank for this? Former Vice President Al Gore. Gore sold Current TV to Al Jazeera, owned by a Saudi Arabian billionaire sheik, for $500 million. His greed to earn $70 million from the deal surpassed any loyalty that he might have expressed having to his country. Many at Current TV, Americans, will lose their jobs as a result of his greed.

Gore justified the sale by saying, "Al Jazeera is an award-winning network ... that does terrific climate coverage." Climate coverage from an oil monopolizer-Saudi Arabia- one of the worst human rights abusers on the planet. more >>

Just in case you needed another reason to hate the IRS, it turns out the embattled government agency has used your tax dollars to make a "Star Trek" parody video.

According to a damning new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, "the IRS spent $50,187 on videos for the Anaheim conference in 2010, including a Star Trek parody that featured IRS executives portraying characters from the television show in a tax-themed skit."

In other words, the IRS spent Americans' hard-earned tax dollars to dress its employees up like Spock and Captain Kirk and broadcast the resulting video to the world. more >>

The White House is defending Thursday the secret collecting of phone records for millions of Verizon customers by the National Security Agency. The action was necessary, officials argue, to track terrorists, and it was approved by both federal judges and Congress.

Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian first broke the story Wednesday night. Verizon received a court order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on April 25 to turn over the phone records of its U.S. customers for a three-month period ending on July 19. The Guardian obtained a copy of the secret court order and posted it to its website.

The phone records do not include the content of any of the messages, but would include the time, duration and location of phone calls, as well as the numbers of both parties on the call. more >>