[NSA Spying]

In Case You Needed More Information ...

Wow, a LOT of amazing stuff about this NSA thing. People have been busy busy busy.

One of the most linked sites is Volokh, wherein a Bush defense is offered. I'm not a lawyer, but I can't imagine that would make me more inclined to buy this crap. More interesting is SCOTUSblog, where Lyle Denniston tackles Bush's claim to "inherent" power. (Buddhists will find the inherency argument especially dubious.) It's a rambling, inconclusive piece, but rich with data about the claims and their legal basis. While we're doing the law blog thing, TalkLeft poses an interesting question: what if this talk of "monitoring versus detecting" isn't about routing calls through New York, but rather about IP addresses? Yeah, freaky. Good post.

There's also a fair amount of ranting going on, ala Hog. Select cuts: Berube on trust; Digby's got a few--on the legality of Bush's spying, on Hugh Hewitt's idiocy, and on Jay Rockefeller's letter about those Bush "briefings" (via Jesse Berney in .pdf); Kevin Drum on the timing of the Times' article; David Neiwart has a nice take on the scope of Bush's Orwellianism; Ezra Klein also has a lot, but check out his take on the "Pelosi defense." Oh, and eRobin goes on a rant after my own heart, one so long that it defies single-phrase summary.

I also recommend Memeorandum for following the news and reaction to it as it happens.