"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson This whole NSA brouhaha is really bothering me. I am totally......

Do try again.

Bithead, as the NSA has in fact illegally accessed the phone records of millions of innocent Americans, then millions of Americans have had their rights violated. Is that enough for you?

As per Michael Moore�s documentary film, Fahrenheit 9/11, George Bush is a friend (or business associate?, I don�t remember) of some of bin Laden�s family. That is a very small degree of separation. So I hope the Bush family and all their hanger-ons are being surveilled.

You take Michael Moore's fantasies, as factual, do you? (Shudder)

Well excuse me for not being over-excited about a re-hash of an old story, the timing of which stinks to high heaven. The hysterical drama queens on the left are out in full force. AhemNo sooner had the man who ran the National Security Agency for year...

***SCROLL FOR UPDATES*** (h/t Drudge) The media is still buzzing, and will continue to buzz, over the recently leaked NSA phone call data collection program, until they're able to create a new bogus scandal to attack the president with. What......

Certainly, one can argue that such data gathering of itself constitutes abuse of our rights, but that I think is a futile effort, and a Totally overhyped one.

So it comes down to providing one , just one instance of someone's rights being violated. In all of this hyperbolic argument, I've yet to see one instance of that. And that's really what it all comes down to.

The NSA contends that they are simply looking for "patterns." In fact, the kinds of patterns NSA analysts are looking for may be the key to winning the War on Terror.
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This story is not a new revelation to the NSA surveillance program, as the New York Times reported this aspect on Christmas Eve last year. So, then, why the timing of this story by the USA Today? The motive is revealed in the next paragraph of the re.....

One PRESUMES that safeguards are in place, James Joyner? Before the Bush administration, one PRESUMED that the government was not asking phone companies to hand over the calling records of millions of Americans. Before the Bush administration, one PRESUMED that the NSA did not intercept domestic calls, because that is against the law. Before the Bush administration, one PRESUMED that the DOJ went to a FISA court to present probable cause for a search warrant before surveilling someone, because that is the law.

Anyone who can still write a sentence saying "One PRESUMES there are safeguards in place..." is dangerously naive, incredibly uninformed, or just plain stupid.

If there's anything Americans should have learned by now about the Bush administration, it's that the only thing one can PRESUME about Pres. Bush is that, even if there ARE safeguards in place, Pres. Bush will ignore them whenever he wants to.

USA Today is reporting a new NSA program based on new leaks of classified information. Doesn't that strike anyone the least bit odd? These are actually records that are kept and maintained by the phone companies themselves....

Anybody remember 900 FBI FILES?

Yes, I do remember them. I also remember, that obtaining those files was already illegal. This, is not.

Clearly, the real story here is laws don't protect us from the lawless. What they do, is prevent the lawful from doing their job.

And isn't it interesting, that the people who were screaming the loudest over the NSA programs , said nothing whatever about those 900 FBI files?