You Get Fleas

With apologies to the dogs, what we have here is a perfect example of the old saw...If you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas.
Bush and company's playing fast and loose with FISA, the 4th Ammendment and Article II are producing just exactly the results one could have predicted if some serious reflection and outside consultation had been done before the law was ignored.

ReddHedd over at Firedoglake and Jeralyn at TalkLeft both have good overviews of the shitstorm that is brewing over the illegal domestic wiretaps by the NSA.

The short of it is that this "cowboy" spying on everyone and everybody has, in turn, threatened every terrorist investigation and legal proceeding currently underway and in the future. The government prosecutors are now faced with defending their actions in light of the fact that some or all of the defendants are potentially affected by the illegal wiretaps. The prosecutors must prove that nothing was illegally acquired and that all evidence has been turned over in discovery including any that was gathered in secret or illegally.

Some of the people spied on and currently detained or under prosecution are likely dirty but the actions of Bush's band of busybodies will probably give them the chance to go free.

We do not yet jail people in this country on secret or illegally obtained evidence. It will be very interesting to see this play out in the courts.