What A Tangled Web We Weave...

Amid more and more revelations that debunk their spin and lies, the White House has (as Andrew Sullivan notes) "tied itself up in knots with its defenses of its own law-breaking". They have tried many excuses and each from the first ('need for speed' debunked by the emergency clause/retroactive warrants) to the last (need for looser standards debunked by their opposition to the '02 DeWine proposal) has not held water for more than a day before the facts came to light. They broke the law because they wanted to, not because they had to.

All of which points to the conclusion that much of the surveillance was aimed domestically- and not at terrorists.

This conclusion is validated by numerous other related stories.

And today, the President stated that he will continue to bypass the laws and would strongly resist any legislative efforts to revise or change the laws to help improve surveillance (?!), because the legislative process in itself could reveal things to our enemies about how we operate. Think about that. Why, it could even reveal to our enemies that we still believe in the democratic process. Don't want them getting that impression.

Keeping track of all the different positions they've tried on this (the power was granted by the Afghanistan resolution, but Congress insists that it decidedly was not, the President couldn't ask Congress for change because they'd say no, Congress offered change and the President refused on consitutional ground, oh wait that wouldn't be unconstitutional after all and in fact the President has had the inherent authority all along) has been a textbook lesson in political desperation. The President is, as Sullivan stated, tying himself up in knots with increasingly contradictory defenses. I hope Arlen Specter agrees.

ThinkProgress explores how the administration's initial response to the new revelations is false as usual:
Administration’s Response To Greenwald Is Contradictory and Inaccurate

And former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Morton Halperin (who also later served on the National Security Council in the '90s) joins in the discussion:
Former NSA Director Hayden Lied To Congress And Broke The Law

Finally, Michelle Pilecki explores Greenwald's bombshell: Administration Flip-Flopped on FISA