They're trying to change the conversation to be about the leak rather than their activities. At this point people should be discussing what can be done to restore the checks and balances that prevented this kind of abuse. America needs to send a strong message to it's leaders that it does not consider itself at "war" and it's well past time to remove any temporary measures that were justified on the back of 911.

"Section 702 was recently reauthorized by Congress after extensive hearings and debate."

Well that's a huge lie right there. I watched the FISA renewal on C-SPAN live, and Dianne Feinstein was trying to take down any criticism of the FISA and rush the vote through with every occasion she got, "because terrorists" and "we need it now".

They let Rand Paul, Ron Wyden, Udall, and one or two others speak for a few minutes each, but then they voted to pass FISA 92-7. It made me so angry.

Not to mention they did it on December 20th, just before Christmas, when nobody listens to politics anymore. They tried that with SOPA, too, a year before. They always seem to do this with the worst of the worst laws, that they know the public would be outraged if they listened a bit more carefully to what they are about. But then they have the nerve to say that "everyone knew about it, and nobody complained so far".

Is anyone else disappointed he didn't manage to work in "I am high as a kite." in the translation?

Background: the mother of all translations:

[ http://daringfireball.net/2007/02/macrovision_translation ]

> "In other news, the NSA is considering sponsoring the creation of a prime time television series featuring a secret machine that spies on what everyone in the country is doing or saying, and the machine is portrayed as the protagonist."

I'd watch that.