I didn't see a posting about this yet but Hersh has another story about regarding our beloved government spying program.
http://www.newyorker.com/...
The money graf in my opinion:
Instead, the N.S.A. began, in some cases, to eavesdrop on callers (often using computers to listen for key words) or to investigate them using traditional police methods. A government consultant told me that tens of thousands of Americans had had their calls monitored in one way or the other. "In the old days, you needed probable cause to listen in," the consultant explained. "But you could not listen in to generate probable cause. What they're doing is a violation of the spirit of the law." One C.I.A. officer told me that the Administration, by not approaching the FISA court early on, had made it much harder to go to the court later.
10s of thousands of Americans? Without a warrant? Yep, there's a program that sounds pretty focused. While there is no implication in the story that it was a political tool, I still maintain that this is one cookie jar the Bush Admin would not be able to keep its hands out of. After all, questioning the government is akin to helping the terrorists.
Update: Thanks for the blockquote tips! Also... upon further reflection, the point is that we shouldn't need to trust whether Administration XYZ will use this politically, the 4th amendment, (when read properly) is clear about what is needed. It's called probable cause.