tinfoil hat? perhaps if I thought the Federal Govt. had the ability to(hahaha) and wanted to, listen to my phone calls and the other Billion or so per day accross the USA. and I was ignorant enough to think they were doing this with Domestic phone calls, as opposed to International, which is what the issue actually is.
after 9/11, 93 WTC attack by Al-Qaeda, USS Cole, Brooklyn Bridge plot, Fort Dix Six, etc, its reasonable to conclude that their is indeed a "Fifth Column" of Sharia State worshiping fruitcakes plotting clandestine operations within the USA. They already have pulled such operations off. Nothing new about this, just that its Jihadist instead of Nazi's or the Japanese or the Soviets. Which is why none of this is 'new'.
nor is it "Unconstitutional", for any halfway educated Constitutional and Historical scholar would know. Whether talking about George Washington or FDR.
or the FISA courts own ruling on the matter:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/washin...sa.html?hp
Quote:"In validating the government’s wide authority to collect foreign intelligence, it may offer legal credence to the Bush administration’s repeated assertions that the president has constitutional authority to act without specific court approval in ordering national security eavesdropping."
Congress are the one's that acted "Unconstitutionally", by enacting and trying to enforce a statute, FISA, that sought to diminish the president's constitutional authority. A power grab made after Nixon, which goes specifically against Hamiltonian inspired/written Article II powers, used throughout the countries history.
also, certain distinctions always blurred together
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/washin...ml?_r=1&hp
Quote:The ruling is the latest legal chapter in a dispute dating back to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, when Mr. Bush secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international communications of American citizens without the approval of Congress or the courts.
Its of little wonder, paticularly after being debriefed, that Obama decided it wasn't in his personal political interest to be a brain dead fool and political ideologue.