To those who say ‘trust the government’ on NSA spying: Remember J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI?

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6. Forget Hoover

Think about the next time we have a president and head of NSA who are not trustworthy. Trust is irrelevant in the long run. We will have MANY leaders over the countries lifetime and they will not all be trustworthy. Precedence and limits are significant.

We've set up a surveillance system and databases that Hoover would kill for as well as becoming much more reliant on electronic communications. If/when the wrong people get access to the database they may never give up power.

I think a lot of congressmen, judges, media owners & reporters, campaign donors, and candidates DO have things to hide. Not a large percentage of any group, but enough that someone misusing the databases can exert a lot of control over legislation (and less oversite), warrants (expand surveillance), reporting (we won't know), and who gets elected.