Thinking it through

Kate Martin, director, Center for National Security Studies is quoted in the WSJ as follows:

"Compiling a data-base of the phone calls of millions of Americans is not likely to find actual terrorists, but is a dangerous threat to the privacy and associational rights of Americans.

How so, unless you assume the NSA is violating the law? But how do we know they aren't?

If you don't want them to intercept terrorists and spies, you can't. You have to trust the people who are briefed on their activities. If you don't trust the people who have this information, what makes you think that some judge who isn't answerable to the public is any more trustworthy? You can have these agencies hobbled or full of leaks and know that they're not a threat to anybody, including terrorists, or you can have them connect the dots and possibly prevent more terrorist activity, but you can't have both.

If you're so distrustful of your government, especially when another party is in control, maybe you don't want democracy. Maybe you can find a country somewhere that'll allow you to take over. Like, say, France. They have a perpetual oligarchy of the liberal class.