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AP: Police got phone data from brokers

Numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies have bypassed subpoenas and warrants designed to protect civil liberties and gathered Americans' personal telephone records from private-sector data brokers.

These brokers, many of whom advertise aggressively on the Internet, have gotten into customer accounts online, tricked phone companies into revealing information and even acknowledged that their practices violate laws, according to documents gathered by congressional investigators and provided to The Associated Press.

The law enforcement agencies include offices in the Homeland Security Department and Justice Department — including the FBI and U.S. Marshal's Service — and municipal police departments in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and Utah. Experts believe hundreds of other departments frequently use such services.

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Due to Al Gore being scheduled for an interview on Countdown last night, I felt that was a perfect reason/excuse to see An Inconvenient Truth.

I liked it, but not in the excited way I enjoyed Fahrenheit 9/11. (Although there are parts of each movie that are remarkably similar.)

Gore did pretty well on Countdown, except where Keith asked him a question about current politics and the war. I could see Gore's eyes almost going tharn as he shifted into generic terms and noncommittal answers. (Keith, astute anchor that he is, quickly changed the subject back to global warming.)

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Abramoff Associate and Ex-White House Official David Safavian Found Guilty of Lying, Obstruction

Bushenomics 102: Reality

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What's your favorite internal part of the human body?

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Can someone get the Pentagon in touch with up-to-date psychologists? Pentagon memo: Homosexuality a disorder

Fla. cycle deaths rose since helmet law repealed: ‘Unhelmeted’ fatalities in soared from 22 to 250, newspaper reports -- Libertarians are upset that we have helmet and seat belt laws, but this is an area of law where I see safety trumping not freedom but stupidity/pride/machismo. What are "unhelmeted" riders saying? "I have the freedom to kill myself"?

This is frightening: Supreme Court to hear second abortion appeal. The case hinges on Alito.