I can't believe the nonsense surround this NSA leak investigation. The admin is saying that the release of this information will hamper future counter-terrorism investigations. Well, I'm pretty sure that any potential terrorists know that the US government will attempt to interecept their communication, and if they're smart, they take counter-measures to hide their tracks. The only conceivable advantage it gives them now is that they know that law-enforcement officials are apparently not even bound by the US constitution anymore. Whoever leaked this information clearly did so because they throught that their agency was committing egregrious violations of law. They're a whistle-blower and they deserve the respect and protection granted to them by law.

The admin claims that the requirement that they acquire a warrant before wiretapping communication in this country is unduly burdensome. Unfortunately for them, it's one of the core principles of the constitution. Not only that, they don't even really have to obtain a warrant to wiretap, at least not immediately. This is something which a lot of people are trying to play down or ignore, but law-enforcement officials can obtain a warrant up to 72 hours, that's 3 days, after the wiretapping begins. To claim that the leader of the free world can not obtain a simple court order from a judge given three full days is absolutely absurd.

Good news for the constitution and bad news for that pesky phrase "enemy combatant": Jose Padilla has been released from military custody and handed over to the Justice Department. After being held, essentially without charge for four years, it's good to see he's getting the fair treatment he deserves as an American citizen. Lucky for him too. A number of the previous charges, notable the dirty-bomb accusations, have mysteriously dissapeared upon his custody transfer. Apparently, military courts require a much less severe burden of proof, another good reason for them to stick to their stated purpose.

And how about that Iran? That baby's gonna go nuclear one of these days, and it's probably not going to be pretty for either side. I guess a CIA led overthrow of the government is out of the question, given our previous experience with that.