Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday asked for answers on an obscure Pentagon agency that included reports on student anti-war protests and other peaceful civilian demonstrations in a database meant to detect terrorist activities.

"Under what circumstances can peaceful protests at universities or by anti-war groups be monitored?" Feinstein, D-Calif., wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

"What authorities, and under what regulations, do military counterintelligence units have to conduct investigations on U.S. persons?" she wrote.

The NSA story has completely snowed this one over. Instapundit posted an LA Times editorial by right winger "Max Boot" today exclaiming that it is totally irrelevant whether or not the NSA surveillance broke the law because there has been no political abuse of the surveillance system. We don't NEED laws 'cause we're the good guys! In fact, the Pentagon was caught running a program to surveil domestic political groups LAST MONTH!! Where have Glenn and Max been? Obviously somewhere with a lot of sand to stick their heads in.

AP Wire | 01/12/2006 | Senator questions Pentagon surveillance

Cops in Edinburgh have been holding video-game competitions with troubled kids to keep them off the streets and out of trouble -- the kids seem to take especial delight in kicking the coppers' asses at games.

Boing Boing: Cops organize videogame competitions against troublesome kids

This is your opportunity to have your Top-Level Domain related questions responded by Vint Cerf. Please post your questions using the comment submission button below (similar to posting a comment). Please limit your questions to one per comment.

"I have one question, in 27 parts..."

Ask Vint Cerf: The Road Ahead for Top-Level Domains

First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."

This is probably more interesting, and timely, then Gore's speech.

Martin Luther King - Letter from Birmingham Jail

The American Constitution Society and the Liberty Coalition host a speech by Fmr. Vice Pres. Al Gore at the DAR Hall in Washington. Gore speaks about the limits of executive power, the issue of monitoring domestic communications and the authorization of the use of torture in the war against terrorism.

Gore has been doing the speech thing for a while. Sometimes he slips in a good point or two if you can stomach the partisan swipes, but I think the media is growing a bit tired of him. This speech is getting a lot of traction because it really says what a lot of people are thinking. In reading it, it appears to be a clearer, cleaner position then I recall his previous speeches taking. This is good Gore...

Transcript here.

C-SPAN: Fmr. Vice Pres. Gore Speech on Executive Powers

After signing the legislation into law with no ceremony at his Texas ranch, Mr. Bush issued an accompanying "signing statement" - the 8 p.m. e-mail message - that Democrats and some Republicans say asserted that he could ignore the law if he wished.

...Scholars say, Mr. Bush has greatly expanded the scope and character of the signing statement...

"The whole history of American government is one of trying to figure out what executive power actually is, so here is the president saying, 'Well, it's my job to tell you what that power is.'"

For President, Final Say on a Bill Sometimes Comes After the Signing - New York Times

India's and China's educational systems — known for producing vast numbers of engineers — are commonly thought to be slowly and steadily overtaking the U.S. in technological leadership. But that may not be the case.

A controversial Duke University study contradicts that perception, pointing out that engineers are defined differently in different places. Those differences give the impression that foreign colleges are graduating more engineers, as measured by U.S. standards, than they really are. In addition to blurring the definition of the term, schools in India and China may not be graduating engineers of the same caliber as those in the United States. And their graduates may not be competitive in a global sense for a variety of reasons, including language issues and job locations.

U.S. engineer education not in dire straits: study

We are scholars of constitutional law and former government officials. We write in our individual capacities as citizens concerned by the Bush administration's National Security Agency domestic spying program, as reported in The New York Times, and in particular to respond to the Justice Department's December 22, 2005, letter to the majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees setting forth the administration's defense of the program.

This letter is a bit repetitive due to its structure, but the legal explanation offered here is relatively clear and concise.

On [Domestic] NSA Spying: A Letter To Congress

Scientists in Taiwan say they have bred three pigs that glow in the dark.

They claim that while other researchers have bred partly fluorescent pigs, theirs are the only pigs in the world which are green through and through.

When pigs glow...

On the Internet, of course, it is readily available from any computer terminal, and a lot of minors today are a lot more sophisticated in the use of computers than their parents. The ability of parents to monitor and supervise what they are doing is greatly impaired by this difference in computer aptitude.

"I can't say much more than that, but it is a difficult question. And I think there needs to be additional effort in this area, probably by all branches of government, so that the law fully takes into account the differences regarding communication over the Internet and access to materials over the Internet by minors.

Mike DeWine (R. Ohio) has been quizing nominees about Internet Porn. Thats interesting in and of itself. DeWine seems to be of the opinion that its a shame that the CDA was overturned. He makes the typical deciet of saying "pornography" in reference to legislation that actually says "indecency." The two concepts are very different. Roberts didn't really say anything substantive in response to this question. Alito, on the other hand, seems to be of the opinion that because old people are less likely to understand computers then young people (is that really still true, last I checked I'm nearly 30...) perhaps the First Amendment shouldn't be as broadly applied to the Internet as it is in environments where adults are more comfortable. This stands in contrast to the Court's view that because the Internet is a medium where the user gets to control what they see, and anyone can publish, it deserves better protection then media like broadcast Television, not worse...

Alito Weighs in on Internet Porn - Broadcasting & Cable