Here's the problem...and there's no good solution...
Forget 911 and the Islamo-fascist people.
This country has to decide what it wants.
Every time we have a Columbine school shooting (which were a group of white, "clean cut" kids) or an Oklahoma City bombing, or a Waco, everyone says "we should have done more. we could have stopped this".
If we had the exact same scenario happen tomorrow as what happened in Oklahoma City, the media would crucify...absolutlely crucify this President. They blamed the man for a freakin act of Nature and for not being able to personally deliver pizza to every hurricane survivor's house and give them a lift to higher ground in his own Presidential hover jet. What do you think they would do to him if we had another Timothy McVeigh where hints were dropped what was going to happen, just nobody took it seriously enough.
So, here's the question. Do we want absolute protection all the time or do we want our absolute privacy? It's a tough question, but we can't have it both ways. If we want to prevent another Waco or another Timothy McVeigh, then this article explains part of how ya do it. If we don't allow the government to monitor people, then we can't have people calling for official's heads on a platter because the government didn't read the signals that the crazy person has decided to blow up a building.
Can't have it both ways. We're going to have to pick one and go with it. Otherwise, we're going to keep sliding the way we're sliding every time we have a 911 or a Waco or a Columbine or an Oklahoma City happen.
Rant over.
We are in a WAR. Ergo, your thoughts are useful for peacetime; but not in a time of War.