Holy Shit! Did you forward this Hettinga? It actually makes sense and is relevant! The fact that Bush's wiretapping might be technically "illegal" is of only marginal interest. Remember that some of our bandits have probably been getting this level of info through Echelon: Remember, it's not illegal for the Brits to spy on US citizens. Receiving such info from our Limey bandits pals is probably only marginally illegal at best. The only thing "new" here is that there are new subgroups of bandits with the info now obtained through conventional channels, probably more local, and who aren't too afraid to reveal that they have it. Thus look for arrests of various troublemakers and big-mouths whereas NSA probably woud have been mum unless absolutely necessary, and even though only through a careful process that didn't indicate how they got the info (thus precluding general bigmouth roundups). Of course, this does have some practical implications. Time to update the hardware... -TD
Bleating about laws, whether we have "a nation of laws" or not, doesn't work too much when there's an egregious surplus of same. Under those circumstances, no matter who's in charge, the law fucks you in the ass. Everything is illegal, and thus nothing is.
As far as voting goes, no matter who you vote for, the government gets elected, as the old libertarian saw goes.