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.

Transcript here.

This is the best speech Gore has given lately. It may be the best speech he has ever given. Its rare you get to see Al invoke some true passion. In many of his speeches, he takes sly swipes at the opposite political party in ways I've often thought were inappropriate. In this case, the entire speech was a swipe, but an entirely deserved and accurate one. Not just against the Bush Administration, but the entire Congress.

One comment that has been abound lately, is that the Democratic party is lacking a single clear and concise voice. Is Al prepared to be that voice, again, for real this time?

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

The pace and scope of attrition in the ranks of the FBI's analysts suggest root causes that are more serious in nature and more systemic in effect than the inspector general and the bureau realize. It wasn't the photocopying or the lack of promotion potential that compelled me to leave my job as an FBI analyst this year -- it was the frustration of working in a system that does not yet recognize analysis as a full partner in the FBI's national security mission.

For example, not all the people carrying the title "All Source Analyst" in the division for which I worked even had desktop access to the Internet or to intelligence community e-mail and intranet servers.

The analyst's access to investigative data becomes almost entirely a function of personal relationships cultivated with agents in the field -- a difficult task for those whose work it is to assess threats emerging across the nation and overseas.

The FBI needs MemeStreams, period.

The FBI's 2nd-Class Citizens

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”

Please tell me this is some nut-job exaggerating the accuracy of his sources. So far all references to this point back to the writer of this article. I will maintain my doubts as to it's validity, if just to maintain my own calm. I don't want to believe Bush said that in the Oval Office, regardless of how much I dislike him.

This should be examined further. Bush took an oath to uphold that "goddamned piece of paper." Even in a fit of anger, making a statement like that is going way too far.

Update: More about this fellow's sources here. I hope some more media outlets look into this. I have trouble buying into any story where the single point of failure is one reporter and media outlet I know little about.

Capitol Hill Blue: Bush on the Constitution: 'It's just a goddamned piece of paper'

It's an open secret that the US intelligence community has its own classified, highly secure Internet. Called Intelink, it's got portals, chat rooms, message boards, search engines, webmail, and tons of servers. It's pretty damn cool … for four years ago.

It doesn't have to be that way. Instead of embarking on an expensive and decades-long process of reform - the type loved by bureaucrats on Capitol Hill - the services can fix this themselves. There's no reason our nation's spy organizations can't leap frog what the Army is already doing with Web technology and, at the same time, build upon what the public is doing with the blogosphere.

Unfortunately, the intelligence community has not kept up with the Army. The 15 agencies of the community - ranging from the armed services to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency - maintain separate portals, separate data, and separate people. The bad guys exploit the gaps, and your safety is on the line. So if all us knuckle-draggers in the Army can use technology to make ourselves better, why can't all the big brains at Langley and Foggy Bottom do the same?

The first step toward reform: Encourage blogging on Intelink. When I Google "Afghanistan blog" on the public Internet, I find 1.1 million entries and tons of useful information. But on Intelink there are no blogs. Imagine if the experts in every intelligence field were turned loose - all that's needed is some cheap software. It's not far-fetched to picture a top-secret CIA blog about al Qaeda, with postings from Navy Intelligence and the FBI, among others. Leave the bureaucratic infighting to the agency heads. Give good analysts good tools, and they'll deliver outstanding results.

Within secure networks, as we hope SIPRNET and NIPRNET are, uses of Open Souce style intelligence and media within the protected area is completely possible. They certainly seem to trust Google, so all the properitery tools necessary are available thanks to their search appliances.

Wired 13.03: Intelligence Blogging and Army Social Networking

For some, the chunk of marble that fell from the facade of the Supreme Court yesterday was a frightening safety hazard.

But this is Washington, after all, where people search for hidden meaning in anything that happens at places such as the nation's highest court. And so, some couldn't help but note that the tumbling piece chipped at a carved marble figure that represents "Authority."

When one of the dentil blocks fell, chipping into "Authority" and dinging the "Equal Justice Under Law" inscription, some tourists were marveling at the grand building while others stood in line to attend the morning's oral arguments.

Although "Authority" was damaged, there will be no need to restore "Order," its neighboring figure. Or "Liberty Enthroned," which also survived the accident.

At the foot of the Supreme Court steps, where engineers were photographing the remains of the Vermont marble pieces and carefully loading them into crates, one onlooker nudged a friend: "Notice how it happened on the right side. Not the left. The right."

A picture of the damage went over the AP photo wire.

Rattle can use the following elements to create a whitty comment, pick any two:
1) The Consipracy
2) A message from Jabalon
3) Partisan politics
4) "Booga booga!"

Anyone know what's currently on the court's docket?

Omen on the High Court?

He may announce his resignation, thereby setting off a 21-day period during which Mr. Katsav can seek alternative government coalitions consisting of at least a 61-seat majority in Knesset. Should this fail, then elections will follow 90 days following the 21-day period.

The second option, Sharon may request from the president that he dissolve the Knesset and then is left with a similar 21-day option to reestablish a new coalition. Should that fail, the 90-day election timer beings counting down.

In either scenario, elections will take place within a maximum of 110 days.

Israeli politics are about to get interesting. I don't know enough about the political layout to give any useful commentary about what's going on.. But from what I've been able to gather, Sharon is ditching the right-wingers and attempting to create a centrist party. This can only be a good thing as far as the Palestine situation is concerned.

Arutz Sheva - Israel Political Restructuring

What would Samuel Alito's confirmation mean for First Amendment law? It's impossible to be sure, but his appeals court opinions give us some clues. A Justice Alito would likely take a pretty broad view of free speech protections; support religious exemptions from some generally applicable laws; uphold evenhanded benefit programs that include both religious and secular institutions; and uphold the use of religious symbolism by the government.

Eugene Volokh on Alito's First Amendment case history.

Volohk: Alito is a Free Speech Libertarian

Well, you get the point. At a time when we are busy lecturing others about the need to adopt democratic systems, ours and many others seem to be hopelessly gridlocked - with neither the left nor the right able to generate a mandate to tackle hard problems. And it is the yawning gap between the huge problems our country faces today - Social Security reform, health care, education, climate change, energy - and the tiny, fragile mandates that our democracy seems able to generate to address these problems that is really worrying.

"Show me a democratically elected government today anywhere in the world with a popular mandate rooted in a landslide victory - there aren't many," said Mr. Naím, whose smart new book, "Illicit," is an absolute must-read about how small illicit players, using the tools of globalization, are now able to act very big on the world stage, weakening nations and the power of executives across the globe. "Everywhere you look in this age of diffusion, you see these veto centers emerging, which can derail, contain or stop any initiative. That is why so few governments today are able to generate a strong unifying mandate."

This is a real dilemma because a vast majority of Americans are just center-left or center-right. Many surely feel disenfranchised by today's far-left, far-right Congress. Moreover, the solutions to our biggest problems - especially Social Security and health care - can be found only in compromises between the center-left and center-right. This is doubly true today, when the real solutions require Washington to take stuff away from people, not give them more.

Friedman is trying to address the national unity problem faced by democratic nations, while sitting in China. He isn't advocating that we switch to authoritarian rule, but he is clearly trying to figure out how you get that same kind of mandate to attack issues of importance.

Thomas Friedman Prays: Thou Shalt Not Destroy the Center

If, based on their zip code, voters could access wiki based information about upcoming local and federal races and referenda items relevant to their districts, working families would have a powerful and democratic information resource at their disposal in the ballot box.

I've discussed this idea with Decius in depth. A Wiki voter guide would be possible, but extremely hard. In terms of spam and attacks, this would pose the greatest challenge to the Wiki format either of us can think of. No content would be as charged as a voter guide.

Even seeding the Wiki would be tough. Just finding out who is running in what district and what zip codes cover a district is non-trivial.

A wiki voter information guide | SinceSlicedBread.com

Then it seemed that the White House actually believed everything liberals say about conservative Christians—that we are “uneducated” and “easily led.” After administration officials snookered a few evangelical leaders into supporting Miers, they sat back and congratulated themselves on a job well done. But evangelicals are, at best, split down the middle on Miers. Apparently, Christians aren’t so easily led. (That’s what you get for believing The Washington Post!)

I fully realize that recommending an Ann Coulter article about the withdraw of Miers is kind of like putting out a person on fire by pissing on them. That's why I'm doing it. (That's what you get for linking The Washington Times!)

Now, rather than go on about how this is a good thing while stating that I half expect the next nomination to be just as laughable... I think I'm going to make a comment that "Miered" as a verb fits this situation as perfectly as "Borked" did in 1987.

Ann Coulter on Miers Withdrawal: It's Morning in America!