The shocking thing about NSA spying is that it is so routine.

The Atlantic article here is a must read:

   "But the thing about the NSA revelations is that this isn't exceptional illegality. It is routine, somehow justified by legal opinions written by John Yoo-style hacks.

And worse, it is so routine that 29 y/o contractors have access to it.

The issue isn't so much that we've expanded the national security in response to perceived threats, but rather than doing so has become so unexceptional that it is routine, widely known, and the information widely (though not publicly) available.

At the risk of Godwining the email, this is the essence of the "banality of evil" in the precise Arendtian sense of the term."

"Godwining"  A proper noun turned into a noun, and now that converted to a verb. The versatility of the English language is stunning.  Moving on....

1.  The national-security complex was charged after 9-11 with this credo: "Never Again." This is a mission so absolute that it permits no cost-benefit analysis of any kind. 

2.  Throughout the Cold War we understood that the enemy was roughly as afraid of being wiped out by nuclear weapons as we were—hence the "mutually assured destruction" doctrine ... Deterrence does not work well against terrorists. 

3.  The War on Terror can have no logical ending because there can be no Gorbachev who can credibly surrender. We can never be sure that any leader speaks for all terrorists. And it only takes one determined terrorist to do immense damage. 

4.  The surveillance-state apparatus—which as you point out is the greater danger to democratic survival than the direct casualties from any act of terrorist violence—creates a chilling effect on the very sort of democratic activity that is prerequisite to its dismantling."

This whole NSA thing, coupled with the destruction of our healthcare and the nationalization of the rubble, the perversion of the media, the corruption of the Justice Department, all of it and more add up to the most serious threat to the liberties of our people, the wealth of our nation, and the security of our population that has ever existed short of the Civil War.   Like the Civil War, the real and most present threat arises internally, and the question of how and even if it can be stopped is one that we will all need to answer very soon.