In case you slept through the weekend

...you've probably heard the news that Bush personally authorized the NSA's spying on individual Americans, bypassing both the warrant process and the NSA's primary mission (which involves monitoring foreign communications). Almost as appalling, the New York Times sat on this story for a year at White House request. (Who will watch The Watchmen?) Americans seem split between support for their golden calf beloved King and apathetic protest based on the presumption that Big Brother has been on the loose for some time...



Update: surprising nobody (even more), Gonzales claims the President acted within his power in directing these illegal acts of surveillance.

Update 2: related links include a look at the Supreme Court case from 1972 that specifically forbade the President from authorizing warrantless surveillance, and a convincing argument that such spying is not about terrorism but about dissent. I'd like to say "Department of Duh" on that last one, but who knows anymore...