As the author of the article, I'm generally accused of being too cynical, so it's a delight to see an accusation from the other side. I generally agree with yo

As the author of the article, I'm generally accused of being too cynical, so it's a delight to see an accusation from the other side. I generally agree with you on one point, at least. If you believe the NSA is "more than willing to operate on an extra-legal basis" -- they certainly did during the Bush administration -- then the only way to change thing is have a new president who is willing to look into suspected abuses and file criminal charges against .gov employees who go too far. The problem is that those people would have been given legal immunity by the outgoing administration, so it's only a prospective remedy, not a retrospective one.