A local boy looks at US Army soldiers as they conduct a morning patrol through the village of Kowall in Arghandab District, July 11, 2010. (Reuters/Bob Str…

Out this morning in the New York Times is a stark tale: The United States’ intelligence apparatus has little idea what Edward Snowden took, despite spending half a trying to find out.
As the full scope of what Snowden absconded with likely can’t be known, the government is forced to operate on its toes, unsure of what might be coming next. And that could be anything. From the phone metadata program, to PRISM, to work on ending everyday encryption, to the pervasive XKeyscore, to MUSCULAR, the Snowden revelations have been as broad as they have been deep.

President Obama’s surveillance task force will reportedly recommend that a civilian should direct the National Security Agency and that it should reform its mass data collection practices. An overview of the non-binding recommendations were described to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, giving the eager public a glimpse of what might be in store.
Unfortunately, the headlines offer conflicting interpretations. If you bother reading multiple news outlets today, you’ll conclude that the president’s spying reform task group is going to recommend a “modest” but complete “overhaul” of the National Security Agency, and “continue” with mass data collection, but in a way that protects privacy.

On a recent Sunday morning at a small target range in rural Frederick, Md., a handful of teenagers are shooting .22 caliber rifles. Inside an adjacent clubhouse, Perrin Lewis, a crane operator and part-time firearms instructor, presents a fact-packed, …

Poll workers reviewing ballots in Charlotte, North Carolina, November 6, 2012. (Reuters/Chris Keane)

A federal judge in Winston-Salem t…