It looked just like an infomercial, but with a lot more frowning.

In an example of Orwellian newspeak, the CNN show The Lead with Jake Tapper took on Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth over its decision to distribute information pamphlets outside the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at Ground Zero in New York City. The pamphlets mimic the design of the "official" ones, but instead of the official story, they contain key scientific forensic evidence indicating that the three World Trade Center towers were brought down with explosives and incendiaries. Unlike the official version, the photo on the cover of the AE pamphlet shows the Twin Towers and Building 7.

The Tapper report is a hysterical compendium of all the empty slogans and anti-conspiracy-theory talking points that make up the mainstream media's continuing attack on the 9/11 Truth Movement. It didn't take more than a couple of seconds into the report to see how Tapper was going to play the story.
He tells us that "the conspiracy group" AE911Truth plans to stand outside the museum and hand out fake museum pamphlets that look exactly like the real ones. The volunteers handing them out are described as "so-called truthers," and the whole exercise is labeled an "affront to the victims' families."

"Can't these people give it a rest for one day out of respect for the families?" an exasperated Tapper queries, adding that the 9/11 memorial is "sacred." Indeed, since 9/11 itself, the grounds have been transformed from a place of truth-seeking to a pathologically sacred shrine to "not asking questions about 9/11."

Former Vice President Dick Cheney showed up on Fox News on Wednesday to make a familiar case for going back to war in Iraq: Nuclear weapons are "spreading" to extremists across the globe.

In recent weeks the al Qaeda splinter group ISIS has taken advantage of a power vacuum left after the U.S. invaded Iraq to take over large parts of the country, giving Cheney and other architects of the 2003 invasion an opportunity to use some of their original talking points for military action.

Cheney's recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal stopped just short of accusing President Barack Obama of treason, saying that he had been determined to take the United States "down a notch" before leaving office.

"Defeating them will require a strategy - not a fantasy," Cheney wrote. "It will require sustained difficult military, intelligence and diplomatic efforts - not empty misleading rhetoric. It will require rebuilding America's military capacity - reversing the Obama policies that have weakened our armed forces and reduced our ability to influence events around the world."

After a campaign of television interviews failed to make his case against Obama, Cheney was back on Fox News on Wednesday to play the same nuclear weapons card that he used in 2003.

I wrote a story earlier this week about the possibility of the Secret Service being authorized to arrest Sheriffs across the country if they fail to uphold new gun control laws. Just a few minutes ago, I received a very nice email from Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith who wants to clarify a few things.

It seems as though the story last night went viral and is now overwhelming his office with emails and calls, I assume in support. I was very worried when I read this story at the original source.

To the point, Sheriff Justin Smith wanted to clear the air while saying yes, there is a bill that would add the Secret Service to a "list of federal officers" but he says they would have "limited state authority" and the bill, he says, is not being portrayed correctly...

"In the last decade, CO started to grant limited authority to certain federal law enforcement agencies. The purpose is so that if they witness a citizen being victimized, they can act and turn the case over to a local police officer (because most crimes against our citizens are not federal crimes) and they have no other jurisdiction to intervene as federal officers. The law also allows them, in cases where they are investigating a crime that is against both state and federal law, to file the case with our local DA in situations where the damage amount doesn't meet a threshold where the federal prosecutors will file it in federal court. If you read the bill, you will see the limitations clearly in it. As Sheriffs, we are the beacon against over reach by federal authorities, but in this situation, it is not the case" - Sheriff Justin Smith

Read The Entire Bill Here

The Chicago City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a law that would allow the resumption of gun sales in the city but with restrictions that require videotaping of purchases and limiting sales to one per month per buyer.

Forty-eight council members voted to approve the ordinance proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel after a federal court invalidated the city's long-time ban on gun sales in January.

The law also requires a 72-hour waiting period to purchase handguns in the nation's third largest city and a 24-hour waiting period to purchase rifles and shotguns.

Chicago has been plagued by a gun-related homicide rate that is three times higher than New York's and twice that of Los Angeles.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that police officers usually need a warrant before they can search the cellphone of an arrested suspect, a major decision in favor of privacy rights at a time of increasing concern over government encroachment in digital communications.

In an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said there are some emergency situations in which a warrantless search would be permitted. But the unanimous 9-0 ruling goes against law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice, which wanted more latitude to search without having to obtain a warrant.

"We cannot deny that our decision today will have an impact on the ability of law enforcement to combat crime," Roberts wrote, adding that the right to privacy "comes at a cost."

Roberts acknowledged the unique nature of cellphones in contemporary life, noting that "the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy."

We've been covering the increasingly widespread use of Stingray or similar mobile phone tower spoofing equipment by law enforcement. The stories have been getting increasingly bizarre lately, starting with the news that police were claiming that non-disclosure agreements prevented them from getting a warrant to use the technology. And then, there was the recent news that the federal government was regularly stepping in to claim ownership of documents related to the technology (even when it's used by local police) in order to block them from being obtained under Freedom of Information laws. Just this morning, we wrote about some new evidence that police are claiming they need these devices to stop "weapons of mass destruction," though they then just use them to spy on people suspected of everyday crimes instead.

Late last night, the ACLU came out with perhaps the most explosive information so far: a set of internal police emails showing that the US Marshals have been instructing police to lie to courts about the use of such devices. Specifically, rather than revealing the use of the tool, they're told to just tell the court they got the information from a "confidential source." While affidavits may initially note the use of such a device, the police are told to submit a new affidavit after the fact without mentioning the Stingray, and seal the old one, so that it never becomes public. The key parts of the email are highlighted below:

A Republican state representative in North Carolina distributed literature to a gay colleague on Tuesday that compared homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia.

During a debate over a bill to expand charter schools in North Carolina, Democratic state Rep. Susan Fisher offered an amendment that would have prohibited schools from "discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity."

Republican Speaker Pro Tem "Skip" Stam - who is second in to command to House Speaker and GOP Senate candidate Thom Tillis - immediately objected to the amendment.

"Sexual orientation is not defined anywhere. I have here 30 different types of sexual orientation here," Stam said, while handing the Sergeant at Arms a stack of papers to distribute to fellow lawmakers.

"I offered to exclude two sexual orientations," he said. "I thought we should exclude pedophilia, masochism and sadism, which are sexual orientations. But the Speaker at the time, ruled it out of order to define the term."

The Virginia Speaker of the House has recently used a series of gimmicks and unusual tricks - including having Capitol Police enter the governor's unoccupied office, and refusing to recognize line-item vetoes - to push through a budget that blocks expanded health care for the poor.

After being sworn into office earlier this year, Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe pledged to fight to use the funds provided by President Barack Obama's health care reform law to expand Medicaid. Virginia Republicans, however, eventually convinced a Democratic state senator to resign, giving them the ability to pass a budget that included two amendments that blocked federal dollars for expanding Medicaid, and required the governor to get express permission from the Legislature before attempting any type of expansion.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the House had told McAuliffe's administration to be prepared to receive the budget no sooner than the Monday after Father's Day. But the House pushed it through earlier than expected, and House Speaker William J. Howell ordered his clerk to have Capitol Police enter the governor's office to deliver it, even though the executive suite was unoccupied during the holiday.

It appears Germany has come out swinging ahead of today's FIFA World Cup match:

• *GERMANY ENDING VERIZON CONTRACT, CITING NSA: AP

Is this the "boomerang" that Putin warned Obama about?

As AP reports,

The German government is canceling a contract with Verizon over fears the company could be letting U.S. intelligence agencies eavesdrop on official communications.

The Interior Ministry says it will let its current contract for Internet services with the New York-based company expire in 2015.

The announcement comes after reports this week that Verizon and British company Colt provide Internet services to the German parliament and other official entities.

Germany has been at the forefront of international outrage over alleged electronic eavesdropping by the U.S. National Security Agency and Britain's GCHQ, revealed last year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Ministry spokesman Tobias Plate said Thursday that Germany wants to ensure it has full control over highly sensitive government communications networks. Verizon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Alexander Turchynov, representatives of security agencies deliberately whipped up the situation systematically misinforming the country's leadership about Russia's possible military intervention, which had never happened.

"Our intelligence agencies have about ten times a month reported that the time of a military attack on the part of the Russian Federation was defined - usually it was at three or four in the morning. And we sat in combat readiness at the command post... and the rest of the army was preparing for an open war with the Eastern neighbor. But it did not happen," Alexander Turchinov said in an interview with Novoye Vremya, which is to be released tomorrow.

However, according to him, in March, the Ukrainian army was not ready for possible military actions. "The Minister of Defense reported to me that our army numbered ... as many as 5 thousand people. Throughout Ukraine," said Turchinov.