This week on CounterSpin: Congress caved in on a White House push to expand its surveillance powers under the out-Orwelling-Orwell "Protect America Act." Some major newspapers wrote blistering editorials against the Act, but the news pages and TV coverage often made the dispute nearly impossible to follow. Aziz Huq of NYU's Brennan Center will join us to try and explain what happened.

Also on the show: Hillary Clinton says she will take money from lobbyists, Obama and Edwards say they won't—but everyone's getting money from somewhere, and tracking it is Journalism 101 in an election year, or should be. Hoping to help shed light on the matter is a new project WhiteHouseforSale.org from the folks at Public Citizen. We'll talk to Laura MacCleery about forcing candidates to let in the sunlight on fundraising.

Links:

— Data-Mining Our Liberties, by Aziz Huq (Nation, 8/7/07)

— WhiteHouseforSale.org