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[JDPriestly]

147. If the phone company keeps the records and the NSA/CIA/contractor, etc. has to get a specific warran

for a specific person and line based upon probable cause set forth in the application, request or motion for the warrant, then it seems to me that complies with the Constitution.

The problem with the database surveillance and the acquisition of vast amounts of materials with merely a court order that say Verizon should produce all of its phone bills is the lack of specificity and probable cause. The FISA court orders were the equivalent of general warrants, the general warrants that lead to our American Revolution and in particular, John Hancock's prominent signature on the Declaration of Independence.

For me, the warrants are not a problem if they describe with specificity the things to be searched as required by the Fourth Amendment. That requirement should end the collection of vast amounts of records most of which are necessarily and utterly irrelevant to any criminal investigation.

Your records, my records -- a waste of time for the NSA. And that is true even though we have family and friends in other countries and talk to them on the phone on occasion. I'd rather that our government increase the amount of money spent on food stamps and on housing for the homeless than on the NSA's collection of this absurd amount of data. On the other hand, if they have probable cause and can identify specifically what they want, the NSA or other departments in our government should be able to get a warrant and seize what they want to seize rather easily.