Take nothing for granted any more

Just thinking:

While the Senate and the country debate and agonize over provisions in the Patriot Act that might violate our civil liberties and right to privacy, we learn that George W. Bush is going to do what he wants no matter what the law is.

The NY Times reports:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.

And does it susprise you at all to find out that we live in a country where it is big news when the President agrees to a ban on torturing prisoners?

What is going on?