My ethical concerns about what the NSA's doing aside, this is still a democracy, and there are established channels which the NSA is, by law, required to go through in order to do things like this. They're called FISC courts, and FISA warrants are what they're supposed to acquire before spying on American citizens. We have that requirement for very good reasons, and it should neither be treated lightly nor circumvented at will by the Administration or any of its agencies.

We're a democracy dammit, or have you forgotten what that actually means?