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From Countdown, James Risen on the NSA's domestic surveillance program which has been found to have accessed the personal emails of former President Bill Clinton, along with millions of other Americans' mails and phone calls.

Keith asks just what Congressional oversight is in place to prevent this and whether the Obama administration has actually put some oversight in place to end the over-collection of data that occurred under the Bush administration. Risen notes Eric Holder's unwillingness to say the program is illegal during Congressional hearings, which means we aren't going to see anyone prosecuted for spying on every American illegally any time soon. Of course with so much of this being classified we're going to be lucky to ever find out just what the NSA has been doing. I'm inclined to assume the worst since these people have given me no reason not to.

When or how we ever get Big Brother out of our lives is a question yet to be answered. If spying on a former President and a former member of the House Intelligence Committee isn't enough to raise some concerns from our political elite and put a stop to some of this, I'm not sure what is.

For more on this you can read Risen's article at the New York Times: E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress. From the article:

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An analysis by LightMAP.org reveals that the 94 Democrats who changed their position on FISA since March are being flooded with donations from the companies who they now want to give a free pass. Shouldn't this be illegal or something?

Politico:

Dems who flipped on FISA immunity see more telecom cash

House Democrats who flipped their votes to support retroactive immunity for telecom companies in last week’s FISA bill took thousands of dollars more from phone companies than Democrats who consistently voted against legislation with an immunity provision, according to an analysis by MAPLight.org.

The 94 Democrats who changed their positions received on average $8,359 in contributions from Verizon, AT&T and Sprint from January, 2005, to March, 2008, according to the analysis by MAPLight, a nonpartisan organization that tracks the connection between campaign contributions and legislative outcomes.