[toddausauras]

I wonder how long before the Tea Party gets blamed for all of these scandals? lol.

[dadfly]

human nature: the ends (bush’s need to track bad guys) justify the means (shreding the framers’ explicit limit on blanket search warrants).

the result: now the bad guys are the tea party and conservatives in general so looky what we found in bush’s data.

a madisonian conservative would never had allowed this.

[Eagles6]

This regime has already proven that they cannot be trusted with power.

Let's just say that a few years down the road a Supreme Court justice whom we thought was Conservative all of a sudden sides with the lefties (yeah, pretty far fetched right?/sarc) and they decide that the 2nd Amendment doesn't mean what it clearly says and the Founders really meant that only the the gubmint, the military and the police should have guns.

Do you not think that barry sotoero and his fellow travelers won't go through those stored emails, bank records, phone metadata, along with all of the 4473s and find out who bought an evil AR15 or an 80% receiver or a Noveske upper?

As diane feinstein so famously said "Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in."

Yeah, we are that close. And yeah, I know they're reading this post.

[momincombatboots]

So Russia calling to say hey you might have a terrorist in Boston is too old fashioned huh? How about the nearly 15000 other foreign students who aren’t where they are supposed to be. I don’t care if a Regean cabinet member says its legal... I don’t like it. Cruz should draft a bill to stop it so we can get a list of the facists on record. Right and left should join the Constitutionalists on this one.

[Fresh Wind]

So, with all that data, and several specific warnings from Russia and Saudi Arabia, we still weren’t able to preempt the Boston bombing?

Apparently, they didn’t have enough data to make the connection. What’s the next level that they will say they have to go to?

[Yo-Yo]

But only with the number can the agency run it through the metadata and parse correlations and connections. Otherwise, the information is put away and "not touched," he says.

Riiight. Wouldn't it have been convenient for the administration to simply consult this NSA database instead of having to go to three judges before finding one who would approve a warrant to get all the phone records of the AP, or Fox News, or individual reporters such as James Rosen in a leak investigation?

Then how far of a leap is it to look up data on a Supreme Court Justice who is ruling on the cornerstone piece of legislation for your administration?

[Flick Lives]

Hayden, who served as NSA chief from 1999-2005 and is also a former CIA director...

I was unaware Bush's term started in 1999.

[cva66snipe]

Bush or Obama Administration? Different names perhaps but same end game Globalist Agendas with now a more pro-Islamic leaning in our government.

IF and this is a huge IF such a system is needed then the right agency with the strictest accountability, non political, and discipline along with specific defense missions should be operating it. In Other Words The Pentagon/DOD {military personnel} should be doing the spooking and processing the INTEL. They are they only one qualified. We do not need a bunch of Boiler Room Political Hacks running amuck using government agency powers. We don't need agencies being used for domestic political gain or political party espionage to obtain political power in our elections process.

I remain opposed to all Bush Administration Acts, Agencies, and Programs, started in which he and both parties in Congress used fear to put into place. Bush and Congress bright ideas added to Obama's and the Democratic Party Radicals have been a huge disaster for our freedoms.

[MosesKnows]

government's acquisition of phone records and surveillance of Internet activity is lawful …

I want to call attention to the word "acquisition". The legally of the acquisition of the information is a minor issue.

What someone can do with the acquired information is more important than what someone will do with it. The reason I say can rather than will is because what someone can do makes what they will do possible.

Collecting the information to protect the nation from terrorist attacks was the reason to grant the power. However, that same power can thwart political opponents as well as thwarting terrorist attacks. That leads to the question; what can those who have access to the information do with the information.

[Amendment10]

"NSA actually intercepted about half a dozen phone calls from those guys in San Diego calling a known al-Qaida safe house ... in the Middle East," Hayden says.

The irony of the above statement is the following. Not only does Obama refuse to secure the borders to keep terrorists out of the country in the first place, the feds arguably not having the constitutional authority to regulate immigration being another issue, but Obama has also declared the war on terror to be over, at least from PC point of view. So actually doing his job concerning immigration and terror would likely take the fun out of spying on US citizens for Obama.