A year ago Sen. Ron Wyden released a statement that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) had found, in at least one case, that the government's surveillance activities were both illegal under the FISA and unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.

It's been 150 years since the Civil War and passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments,  and the Supreme Court is still trying to get it straightened out.

Did fifteen inches of grading, crushed some dreams, and now there's time for some rambling,  motivated by the recent tragedy in Connecticut and BD's question "How do you regulate crazy".

A few points to start off with:

Two interesting comments recently:  one claiming that banning gay marriage denies equal protection under the law, and another asking why lack of judicial review in a parliamentary democracy is abhorrent.

Way back last Spring, when this Libya business started, we were told that NATO was going to intervene in a very limited way for the sole purpose of protecting civilians.  Some NATO spokesmen went so far as to state that the rebels as well as the loyalists would be subject to action if they attacked civilians.  We were also told that the US involvement was even more limited - strictly a supporting role, and definitely not "hostilities".

As Trav points out, there's a bad week coming at the UN, with the Palestinians bringing forth requests and the US vetoing them, and unnecessary hysteria all around.  A series of blunders by the Obama administration is largely to blame - blunders so bad that someone on either side of the Israelis vs Palestinians debate should be able to agree they were mistakes. 

There is no plan.

Secretary of State Clinton:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that
beyond seeking an end to the violence in Libya, “a final result of any
negotiations would have to be the decision by Colonel Gadhafi to
leave.”

On the other hand, Admiral Mullen:

"all necessary measures, notwithstanding paragraph 9 of resolution 1970 (2011), to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation
force of any form on any part of Libyan territory..."

There's been some minor outrage about the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, PCNAA, introduced by Sens. Lieberman and Collins, with some commentators calling it an "Internet Kill Switch". That description is maybe a bit exaggerated; it's based on Section 249 "National Cyber Emergencies", which reads in part:

Today the US Supreme Court upheld a statute allowing federal commitment and indefinite continued incarceration, without a jury trial, of people deemed "sexually dangerous," upon completion of a prison term for a federal crime.