Widespread, Illegal, Warrantless NSA Surveillance of US Citizens

Read this over-cautious article from the NYT, exposing the NSA's DOMESTIC warrantless surveillance of Americans, without even a required-to-approve warrant from the secret FISA court. I say over-cautious because -and this would only be reasonable speculation, which is a higher standard than the NSA has to use - it's almost certain the program is much larger and more commonly applied than the article's tone wants to suggest, and there is no reason to credit the idea that the Bush administration is not using it to monitor political enemies.

It would be one thing if this adminstration did not lie and avoid scrunity and hoard power as a matter of policy irrespective of 9/11.

I think this because FISA court requirements are to say the least extremely loose. Why avoid them as a matter of course? Why avoid using the FBI, when all they have to do most of the time is send a national security letter assuring the court that the agent thinks the ransacking of records is really important?

This is much worse than the Patriot Act, which at least retains some semblence of a legal structure, although it guts much of the substance of impartial judicial review. The NSA is apparantly operating against Americans without anything but self restraint.

Thank the next Republican you run into for this good heaping helping of a real U.S. police state. With the primary use of Patriot Act powers already directed towards ordinary crime, this practice makes the 4th Amendment essentially meaningless.