More fun with Big Brother

For the past five years, George W. Bush has been acting as if he's above the law. More and more atrocities are coming to light. This time we learn that Bush may have ordered a secret program by which the National Security Agency has been spying on hundreds or thousands of ordinary Americans without warrants.

Why would Bush feel the need to override our legal protections that require a court warrant in order to intercept our e-mail and phone calls. What does he want to hide from the courts?

Is it all reaching critical mass? Will Congress finally say "enough"?

From MSNBC:
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President Bush refused to say whether the National Security Agency eavesdropped without warrants on people inside the United States but leaders of Congress condemned the practice on Friday and promised to look into what the administration has done.

“There is no doubt that this is inappropriate,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He said there would be hearings early next year and that they would have "a very, very high priority."

He wasn’t alone in reacting harshly to the report. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the story, first reported in Friday’s New York Times, was troubling.

Bush said in an interview that "we do not discuss ongoing intelligence operations to protect the country. And the reason why is that there's an enemy that lurks, that would like to know exactly what we’re trying to do to stop them.

"I will make this point," he continued. "That whatever I do to protect the American people — and I have an obligation to do so — that we will uphold the law, and decisions made are made understanding we have an obligation to protect the civil liberties of the American people."

[...]

The Times reported Friday that following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Bush authorized the NSA to monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds — perhaps thousands — of people inside the United States.

Before the program began, the NSA typically limited its domestic surveillance to foreign embassies and missions and obtained court orders for such investigations.
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