Yes, I noticed in scanning through it all the references and pointing to Bush’s administration.
Then I looked up to see the source, and ....
Voila! The NEW YORK TIMES of course!
And they never disclose how they could know all of the warrantless spying started under Bush. I know for a fact that the Bush people analyzed emails and phone records taken to Canada via RIM’s Blackberry smartphones because Canada allows for warrantless monitoring. But this was limited mostly to US government employees and contractors.
But since the end of Bush’s second term the domestic espionage program has been expanded beyond anything like what was started under Bush’s terms, and the rubber stamp warrants that exist are a fig leaf, a joke.
It’s been five years under Obama. If they wanted to dismantle and stop it, they could and would.
If they could say Bush enacted this Big Brother monitoring to secure their place as the better people, they would have done so years ago. Or they knew it was in place and ramped it up because they want a big (data) file on everyone.