BREAKING: Federal judge rules NSA data gathering on all US telephone calls is unconstitutional

[JDPriestly]

163. WWII was a real war. We are not facing off with major world powers.

Our "enemies" do not have a state with a sophisticated organization. WWII only lasted 5 years for the US. The NSA system that has now been put in place is a forever investment. It is time to end it.

Don't be so sure that the Supreme Court won't enforce the law on this. This is a constitutional issue. The previous case regarding pen numbers, as I have explained, was decided on very different facts.

It is very unlikely that the NSA really needs this much metadata in order to find terrorists within the US. And the personal phone paid for by her political party, of Angela Merkel? That is just one example of a phone that does not need to be under surveillance. We have so much military in Germany that hanky-panky by their government is highly unlikely. It is more likely that we are trying to steal secrets of German industry and inventors, far more likely. It is more likely that someone has or had a perverted interest in Angela Merkel's private life. We repeatedly see situations in which prominent figures are embarrassed by sex scandals, and I always wonder how that very personal information, frequently texts of e-mails, etc. could have been discovered. Well, this NSA program may explain some of the "finds."

I strongly suspect that the NSA is collecting the metadata because it can and because it can potentially obtain material of other interest to it when it does. The entire program is overly broad and overly intrusive.

35,000 people are said to be employed in the NSA program. Figuring that the average salary is $50,000 plus insurance, plus rent on an office, plus equipment, etc. That comes out to probably an average of $75,000 to $100,000 at least per employee. That is a huge waste of money.

And I seriously doubt that Supreme Court Justices like Roberts and others want to have their metadata collected in this manner. It is naive to think that this metadata collection is really in the best interests of the citizens of the US. The government already has plenty of information on each of us. This metadata is superfluous and an invasion of our rights guaranteed in the Constitution.

The reality is that this program should be limited by Congress. It is way out of control. All the contacts between members of Congress and their constituents are listed and made available to the NSA and thus, the sitting president. In the hands of a megalomaniac president that could be the key to destroying our democracy.

The program has to be curbed.