NSA spied without warrants on American Citizens

[mburbank]

"From what I understand, this has only been used thus far to monitor international calls to countries that are considered high risk and that this has yielded positive results."

You have no way of knowing that beyond their personal word. It may well be true, but the reason we have oversight and checks and balances is so that we don't have to be ruled by a policy of 'trust me'. That is one of the key aspects of a democracy.



"maybe I'm behind on my information, but why exactly is this a bad thing? "

For exactly the reason Clintons perjury was a bad thing, and though I personally thought it was silly, though I still believe it was a set up and I know it was in no way related to what he was under oath to testify about, PERJURY IS A CRIME. No matter what you think about the reasons for it, even if Clintons reason was just to keep from looking like a total fuck and W's reason was to save the world, PRESIDENTS BREAKING THE LAW IS A VERY, VERY BAD THING. We are a nation of laws, not people. If you want to argue that congress meant for him to have supreme power as long as he promised not to abuse it, do so. If not, we have a president breaking the law and saying he can and he intends to continue doing so. No one should want that or think it's no big deal.