NDAA and SOPA: A Compilation of the Best Coverage of These Critical Bills

The professional commentary and coverage of the National Defense Authorization Act (aka NDAA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (aka SOPA) has been coming hard and fast even since before President Barack Obama signaled he would not veto the NDAA.

Much of the old-guard media has done appallingly little on the topic, so the blogosphere and web-based columnists are picking up the slack and churning out the most compelling content on these issues. And some leading figures, (check these videos by Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart,) are bravely speaking out against these bills.

The New York Times editorial page belatedly jumped on the bandwagon Friday, following the blogs, Twitter, and the rest of humanity in criticizing President Barack Obama's plan not to veto NDAA. But the Old Gray Lady has run some compelling work on the topic on its Loyal Opposition blog, written by Andrew Rosenthal, with titles like The Sound of One President Caving.

Meanwhile, the New York Post has apparently printed only one mention of the bill since it has become such a point of controversy, in the form of a quick hit on the U.S. House of Representatives voting to pass it Wednesday.

The New York Daily News seems not to have even touched the topic at all, according to a search of its archive.

So the trick is to go at least one rung down into slightly-less-prominent territory. A wealth of information has been building for days now, from Matt Taibbi's early takedown of NDAA in Rolling Stone, which ran more than a week ago, to the New York Review of Books, which also covered its potential impacts a week ago in comprehensive fashion.

One of the most important pieces on the topic was written by Dilshad Ali, a Muslim living in America who details her fears about the act and its potential impacts on professional, unthreatening Muslim-Americans like herself.

David Seaman at Business Insider has been banging out can't-miss commentary on the bill, including his chilling NDAA Set To Become Law: The Terror Is Nearer Than Ever, which declared NDAA the most important news story since 9/11.

Kevin Underhill at Forbes has written some good stuff on the topic on his own blog and at Forbes, getting on the story earlier than many.

To see who voted yea and nay re: NDAA, the House's official roll call vote is a key document.

SOPA is a whole new ballgame, as the bill was just marked up over the last couple of days, and a vote has yet to take place.

But the outcry may be even greater against this act, which could lead to vast censorship of the internet. Web companies from Facebook to Twitter to Google have come out against the bill. Wikipedia even threatened a blackout over the specter of its being adopted.

And, bucking the division that separates them on nearly any other issue, right-wing and left-wing sites are aligning alongside one another to oppose the bill. The commentary on SOPA will only continue to grow as it comes closer to being approved by the U.S. Congress, so stay tuned.

Despite all the good content, some erroneous information and rumors have of course gotten out through various means, including the false contention that Obama had signed the NDAA bill earlier this week.

As they say, don't believe everything you read on the internet.