First phones, now banks! They're spying on us all.

Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before. A Federal Government walks into a bar and says...

There's no punch line, because they don't say anything. They never say anything. They just take what they want.

First they started spying on us over the phone--without warrants, in a clear violation of FISA law. But just to up the ante on that one they recruited the major telcos to give them detailed info about all the other calls we make that they may not be listing in on. And now, The New York Times reports (free reg. required) that the same damn thing is happening with banking transactions.

Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.

Key word? "Secret." And they don't mean secret like a classified warrant is issued and then they snoop around. They mean secret as in no warrant for the individual case they're reviewing. It seems from the article that they're trying to cover their asses with blanket warrants:

The program, however, is a significant departure from typical practice in how the government acquires Americans' financial records. Treasury officials did not seek individual court-approved warrants or subpoenas to examine specific transactions, instead relying on broad administrative subpoenas for millions of records from the cooperative, known as Swift.

"Swift," the Times reports, is "the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions."

But they're just looking at international wire transfers and the like, right? Uh, no:

Officials described the Swift program as the biggest and most far-reaching of several secret efforts to trace terrorist financing. Much more limited agreements with other companies have provided access to A.T.M. transactions, credit card purchases and Western Union wire payments, the officials said.

Well perhaps Congress gave the administration approval of this kind of action ? No again. They weren't given the chance to perform that little bit of oversight.

Is any of this sounding at all familiar? One has to wonder what other aspects of our lives are being spied on. How far are they going? How much data are they collecting? What are the possible abuses of that data?

It's a long article, with lots of details--most provided anonymously, of course. But they article notes that this administrations attempt to disrupt terrorism financing has been no secret in general. But, get this, BushCo tried to get the Times not to publish this story--again, sound familiar?

The Bush administration has made no secret of its campaign to disrupt terrorist financing, and President Bush, Treasury officials and others have spoken publicly about those efforts. Administration officials, however, asked The New York Times not to publish this article, saying that disclosure of the Swift program could jeopardize its effectiveness. They also enlisted several current and former officials, both Democrat and Republican, to vouch for its value.

(So that's why Lieberman's been campaigning less than expected. Heh. /snark).

In the meantime, the administration told some "select" members of Congress about the program--though as they learned the Times was going to report it they told more members. Like children caught in a lie, doing playground damage control. This administration has a sickness, an addiction to lies, to unbridled power, to defiance of law.

I don't care how it comes--impeachment or elections--but this has got to stop before... well, you know what will happen to our country if it doesn't stop. I'd weep for us all, but I think my time will be better spent electing a Democratic Congress.... Let's get it together, guys--we've got to put an end to this travesty of government.