Encore de l'audace.

Knowing my audience, you've all been following this breaking story on your own, but in case you missed the article that started it all, here is the original Washington Post piece.

The money quotes:

The super-secretive NSA, which has generally been barred from domestic spying except in narrow circumstances involving foreign nationals, has monitored the e-mail, telephone calls and other communications of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of people under the program...

The Times said it held off on publishing its story about the NSA program for a year after administration officials said its disclosure would harm national security.

Most of the powers covered under that law are overseen by a secret court that meets at Justice Department headquarters and must approve applications for wiretaps, searches and other operations. The NSA's operation is outside that court's purview, and according to the Times report, the Justice Department may have sought to limit how much that court was made aware of NSA activities.

The fact that Bush and his cronies did this comes as no surprise to me whatsoever; however, by insisting he was not only exercising legitimate presidential discretion but actually engaging in "a necessary part of [his] job," Bush has given me pause: could there truly be two men with balls this big?