As Armando noted in his front page story on Daily Kos, the New York Times is now reporting that at Bush's behest, the NSA has conducted widespread warrantless electronic surveillance of American citizens.

As has also been noted by Armando, myself, and others, this situation closely parallels the Supreme Court case of Youngstown Sheet and Tube v. Sawyer, in which the Court ruled that if, in the legislative history of an act, Congress examines and decides in the final legislation against granting a particular power to the Executive Branch, that power is effectively denied to the Executive, and if the Executive assumes that power, it is acting extralegally.

I say we sue the bastards in a massive class action.  How we do that and what obstacles such a suit might face are detailed after the break.

Cross-posted at Daily Kos, but as with many more technical diaries, it got pushed off the front page in about five minutes.

With the untimely death of Bob Matsui, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair, 13-term Congressman from Sacramento, and third-ranking Democrat on the influential House Committee on Ways and Means, a huge, gaping void has been created in the bulwark Democrats have been attempting to erect to defend against the coming onslaught from the Bush administration concerning the privatization of Social Security.

Bob Matsui was not only chairman of the DCCC; he was also chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee of the Committee on Ways and Means.  He would have been our point man in the House on the issue.  And he was perfectly prepared to be that point man.  Matsui was probably more knowledgeable than any other Democrat in the House on the subject; he was well-respected among his peers on both sides of the aisle despite the fact that he was a fighter and would never have wavered on the issue.  He was just the guy we needed.