From LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE: When The Wall Street Journal reporter Margaret Coker visited the Libyan government’s surveillance centre in Tripoli after the city’s fall, she saw that the authorities had been monitoring everything: the internet, mobile phones, satellite phone and internet connections. Some files included emails and online conversations between Gaddafi’s opponents.

From USA TODAY: Many of America’s teens smoke cigarettes as well as use smokeless tobacco, and the tobacco industry’s marketing fuels their addiction, says the first U.S. surgeon general’s report on youth tobacco use since 1994.

From the WASHINGTON POST: … “What is said on the campaign trail — those folks don’t have a lot of responsibilities,” [President Barack Obama] said. “They are not commander in chief. When I see the casualness with which those folks talk about war, I am reminded of the costs involved in war.”

From the HUFFINGTON POST: …Kaptur and Kucinich were victims of a congressional redistricting process that combined their seats. Because of the population losses recorded by the 2010 U.S. Census, Ohio lost two congressional districts and the borders of the remaining districts were redrawn. The new map combines the districts of Kaptur, who represents what is currently the 9th district, and Kucinich, who represents the 10th….

The following is from “The Operators, The wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan” by Michael Hastings. “In Jalabad, near the Pakistan border, he gets an overview of the war. He learns: Taliban is not a monolithic organization. He learns: U. S. sources are not fighting and dying to combat terrorists, but are fighting and dying in local political disputes….

From the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE Opinion: Broadcaster Rush Limbaugh has the perfect little racket going. As a cultivator of outrage, he invites periodic condemnation, which in turn drives more bitter and angry listeners to his rancorous broadcasts. Rather than criticism hurting him, it just makes him more controversial and popular…

From NEWSMAX: The warning signs of problem gambling are making their way into Pennsylvania schools and senior centers, leading counties to spend some of the revenue they receive from the state’s casinos on educational programs. The effort began after many counties admitted their agencies didn’t know much about compulsive gambling, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

From AL JAZEERA: “…the attorney general outlined a three-part test for determining when a targeted killing against a U.S. citizen is legal. He said the government must determine after careful review that the citizen poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the U.S., capture is not feasible and the killing would be consistent with laws of war…

From the PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW: More than half of PennDOT’s $1 billion in federal stimulus aid went to 20 Pennsylvania companies whose executives donated about $900,000 to state and federal politicians, a Tribune-Review analysis of campaign and contract records shows. The 20 firms received the most money from PennDOT’s stimulus share to perform bridge rehabilitation, road resurfacing and highway expansion projects.

Sometimes an essay by a humorist can accomplish more than the efforts of a thousand political activists. This was brought home to the Watchdog by a Harry Golden article entitled “The Vertical Negro Plan” from “Deadline Artists, America’s Greatest Newspaper Columns” by Jesse Angelo and Errol Louis.

From the NEW YORK TIMES: … James Q. Wilson, who taught government at Harvard for more than two decades, was the author of disquisitions on politics, the family, the nature of bureaucracies, virtue and vice that both countered and steered intellectual trends.

From NEWSMAX: Chris Christie, New Jersey’s first-term Republican governor, said he’d consider a request from Mitt Romney to become his vice presidential running mate, if the former chief executive of Massachusetts were to ask.