Sitara Nieves

Secret documents leaked to WikiLeaks describe "persistent rumors of corruption" as fueling frustration with Tunisia's government. Tunisians have already been frustrated with their repressive leadership, but these documents may have helped to incite the current protests. Reporter for The Guardian, Ian Black, says that it is significant that these protests have forced the current president to announce that he will not seek another term in 2014.

The Lebanese government has collapsed following the resignation of eleven ministers from Hezbollah and its allies. Their resignation from the government came in the midst of a dispute over a U.N. tribunal, which has found ties between the 2005 assassination of former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, and Hezbollah.

Erik D. Prince, founder of private security firm Xe Services — formerly Blackwater Worldwide — has reached a deal to sell his company to a small group of investors in California. Blackwater became the center of a debate about using private security firms in foreign wars after an alleged skirmish between insurgents and Blackwater personnel in 2007 left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. In the wake of the controversy, the company lost a large State Department contract to protect the U.S. embassy in Iraq, but formed over 30 separate "shell companies" in order to continue to receive millions of dollars in other government contracts. What's next for the private security firm? 

Are we seeing the start of a Democratic insurrection? Our conversation this morning with Oregon Democrat Rep. Peter DeFazio suggests we are. Here's how he responded to John's question this morning about whether he'd support a Democratic challenge to Obama in 2012: "I'm going to withhold my support until I see who's on the ballot."

This morning, we got a little window into the group that's attacked MasterCard, PayPal, and Visa servers from "Anonymous" member Gregg Housh. He says he didn't help in this attack, but did tell us how it all worked:

The people behind Operation Payback have come up with a fairly ingenious way to do it, where it’s as simple as downloading a small piece of software, entering one little web address into this software, and hitting a button — and you’ve joining what they’re calling a voluntary botnet. You don’t have to have any talent. You minimize the application and it’s sitting down in your system tray there, and you don’t even know it’s doing anything, and it’s off just joining in. And anytime they change their target, everyone who’s part of the voluntary botnet changes their target and goes after them.

MasterCard.com, PayPal, and other sites are suffering large-scale attacks from a hacker group called “Anonymous”. The group claims it’s retaliating against companies that have stopped working with WikiLeaks.

Are these prankster antics or the start of a technological war?

What does Robert Penn Warren mean when he said, "The Civil War draws us as an oracle, darkly unriddled and portentous of our personal and our national fate"? That's pretty grandiose language, but what did Warren mean? What did Gertrude Stein mean when she said, "There never will be anything more interesting than that American Civil War"?

That’s from the opening lecture of Yale Professor David Blight in his course on The Civil War (which I recommend highly as a fascinating — and free — course on the Civil War). Here's more:

You’re still weighing in on the Wikileaks document dump:

The thing about these leaks is how little important information is here. Embarrassing to us and our allies? Sure. But who doesn't think North Korea acts like a spoiled child? Who isn't aware of how China has little impact on North Korea? If WikiLeaks acts like they're doing investigative journalism, they're wrong.They're just another example of tabloid journalism. (Andy on Facebook)

Which is it?

“Julian is a hero!” (Greg on Facebook)

Or

"I think in cases of national security like this they should find a way to screw up his servers and kill his website ... then the man should be prosecuted." (Tyra)

The Transportation Security Administration has begun more thorough pat-downs at airport security checkpoints just weeks before holidays' heavy travel season. Many passengers have already complained of inappropriate contact and others are upset with the intimacy of the search. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano explains the new search procedures and the full-body scanning machines that have been set up in airports. She and the TSA are asking passengers to be patient and cooperate.

"The vast majority of the traveling public understands that this is a safety and security measure," Napolitano said. Read a full transcript. 

Between the 1910s and 1920s an unprecedented social change occurred in the United States when six million black Americans left the South and headed North and West in what came to be known as the Great Migration. Yesterday, we asked listeners to share their stories of the Great Migration. Della Beaver shares her family's story of why her parents moved from South Carolina to Chester, Pennsylvania, and what it was like to travel back to the South to visit their relatives.

Delaware: so small, harmless, and sometimes, forgotten, has been making headlines in recent weeks with the emergence of Tea Party-endorsed Christine O'Donnell, who won the GOP nomination for Senate last night.  But what is the truth behind Delaware? It's known as the First State, for being the first of the original 13 colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution, but also the last to ratify the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. It's the origin of destination of many of those pesky credit card and collection agency bills you receive in the mail.

John Hockenberry takes us through his very own history of the First State.

All morning, we've been covering yesterday's district court ruling that Don't Ask, Don't Tell violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian service members. We've heard from a former assistant Secretary of Defense who testified against the policy, as well as a retired Army colonel who thinks Don't Ask is necessary.

Now we speak with someone who yesterday's ruling directly impacts. An active duty coast guard officer joins the program to tell us about the ramifications of yesterday's decision on his life and career, and explains why he's still keeping his identity a secret.

Yesterday evening, a federal judge ruled that Don't Ask, Don't Tell is unconstitutional because it violates the rights of gay men and lesbians. Earlier, we spoke with legal scholar Jeffrey Rosen and Larry Korb, a former Navy captain and assistant Secretary of Defense during the Regan administration who testified against DADT at the trial. Now we speak with Retired Army Colonel David Bedey, who is opposed to the ruling. He believes DADT is necessary.

As parents struggle with their children's behavior, more and more doctors are turning to antipsychotic drugs. According to a Columbia University study, the numer of two-five year-olds prescribed antipsychotic drugs doubled between 200 and 2007, with only 40 percent of those children had received a proper mental health assessment. Do our little ones need this much medication?

Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce was the primary sponsor of Arizona's immigration law, S.B. 1070. However, since a federal judge handed down a partial injunction yesterday in response to a legal challenge by the Obama administration, parts of that law are now blocked. Pearce tells The Takeaway that he is ready to take the fight all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. "Arizona's not going to take it," he says, "we're going to do something really novel, which is enforce the law."

By now you’ve probably heard the name Shirley Sherrod. She is the U.S. Department of Agriculture employee who was asked to resign Monday after a video was released by news aggregator Andrew Breitbart. The video shows Sherrod saying she was hesitant to help a white farmer as much as she could. This morning Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that he will reconsider the abrupt firing, but Sherrod tells The Takeaway that she's "unsure" if she'd return to the job.

U.S. Senate hopeful Alvin Greene has a new plan to stimulate South Carolina's economy: action figures — of himself! He says that by creating the toys, he'll be helping out the retail industry. Greene is a veteran, who says that it makes sense to create his own action figure. There are still questions around how this unknown man became the Democratic Senate nominee, but he will face Republican Jim Demint in November.

The Negro Leagues Grave Marker Project is setting out to locate all the unmarked graves of baseball players in the Leagues. Dr. Jeremy Krock, a 52 year old anesthesiologist from Illinois joined up with Larry Lester, a Negro Leagues historian. Lester calls this a quest to follow the "thread that leads to their last resting place." They've made some amazing discoveries, including the resting place of Bill Gatewood, who taught Satchel Paige his "hesitation pitch."

We continue our conversation with veterans about what they expect to hear from President Obama in tonight's speech on Afghanistan, and how they think the strategy will play out on the...