America has a Credulity Crisis. It’s not that we have too little of it, it’s that we have way too much, and a credulity glut is the last thing a democracy needs.

Today is the 154th birthday of SCOTUS Justice Louis Brandeis, one of the Court’s most forceful voices for freedom of speech and the right to privacy. Today, as AG Eric Holder deals with cases involving torture, wiretapping, state secrets, GQ paints a picture of an AG filled with angst, as Marcy Wheeler summed it up yesterday. But maybe it’s not angst, but that Holder is being haunted by SCOTUS Justices past, like Brandeis, Holmes, Robert Jackson, and Potter Stewart.

Happy birthday, Justice Brandeis, and keep up the good work.

Perhaps I’m missing something, but it seems that a somewhat coercive but nevertheless voluntary monitoring of cybersecurity via a program like “Perfect Citizen” for things like a nuclear generating plant isn’t such a bad thing.

The Department of Homeland Security wants to make a “one-stop shop” for the disaster response under a .gov URL. That means shutting down the current site, and taking another look at who has access to post on the site, with government deciding control of the content and message. So why did DHS allow BP to walk off with the mailing list of everyone who signed up for information about the disaster?

So my census form came yesterday and I filled it out and there are some pretty interesting questions. Like how many people live in your house, what are their names, races and relationships to you. “Unmarried partner ” is a new option. There are lots of options for race (versus ethnicity) available, including “other/fill in.” [...]

Will the greater discovery rights afforded to defendants in military criminal trials allow the Fort Hood shooter defense to shed light on CIA/NSA domestic spying?

Barrt Stupak is about to be Santorum’d. Head on over to Urban Dictionary to vote up Stupak #2.

Funny how that law that allegedly contained clear restrictions, ended up broadening domestic spying.

All this time, the fevered left has speculated that BushCheneyCo used its illegal warrantless eavesdropping powers on their political enemies. Not so, says Jane Mayer on Bill Moyers last Friday (via Digby).

Senators will not vote on the FISA amendments until after they ride in Fourth of July parades back home. Perhaps you could give them a message as they ride by. After all, what could be more patriotic than celebrating the Fourth of July by standing up for the Constitution?