The U.S. White House and National Security Agency websites have been quietly snooping on visitors.

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National incomes are up. Democracy, life expectancies and social equality are slumping. Next continent! :^)

More in this BBC story:

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Critic Edward Rothstein takes on the thesis of director Steven Spielberg's new film Munich, which is basically that violence begets violence.

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Prosecutors in the Philippines are set to charge four U.S. Marines with sexual assault over an alleged incident from November.

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Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, tells the BBC that the terror threats to his city mainly come from disorganized groups of disaffected people.

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Salon speaks with James Bamford, the pre-eminent American journalist when it comes to investigating the National Security Agency. He says the agency's latest shenanigans are illegal.

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The U.S. National Security Agency has analyzed much more telephone and Internet traffic flowing in and out of the United States than the Bush administration has admitted to date, the NYT reported today.

And they did it with the co-operation of some of the U.S.'s largest telcos.

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A bit of a catch-up post (mainly for personal note-taking purposes) on Dubya's speech from Sunday and his assertion on Monday that he would keep up with the spying on Americans because it could save millions and jillions of lives.

Whitehouse.gov: Transcript of Bush's speech

NYT: Asking for patience, Bush cites progress in Iraq

NYT: In Sunday speech, Bush is more humble but firm (analysis)

BBC: Bush defends phone-tapping

Somewhat bizarrely, from my perspective, is the fact that Globe and Mail columnist and editorial page editor Marcus Gee spanked Dubya over this one. It's in Wednesday's paper.

One cynical definition of news is anything that scares mothers. If that's true, this NYT story about teenagers who make money selling images of themselves online is a doozie.

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Chile is likely to elect a socialist leader in January. Bolivia just did. This NYT story talks about why Latin American is shifting leftward again.

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Artists, architects, fashion designers ... New York used to be a magnet for them. But as the cost of real estate and health care skyrockets, and other locales are willing to cut them a deal, many are fleeing the metropolis.

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