WaPo picks up NSA spying story

You know a story is resonating when a major paper picks it up, even though the only source they can cite is the competition.

President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in the United States, despite previous legal prohibitions against such domestic spying, sources with knowledge of the program said last night.

The super-secretive NSA, which has generally been barred from domestic spying except in narrow circumstances involving foreign nationals, has monitored the e-mail, telephone calls and other communications of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of people under the program, the New York Times disclosed last night.

Is it okay to call it "fascism" yet?

The Repubs yell and scream anytime we suggest that there is a fascistic tone to the way George W. Bush governs this country. They snort and snicker when we say it is starting to feel like a police state.

But, can't we call it that now? When the government is actually employing the tactics of police statism by spying on its own citizens, isn't it okay to call it a police state?