Yeah, President Obama is the one driving all of this. How can anyone even imagine that he would stop it? And, the next president (probably Hillary) will drive it even harder. 9/11 pushed the US past a point of no return. If you read some recent US military history you can get a well integrated picture of what's really going on. The Office of the President essentially has it's own military, separate from the US Armed Forces and the US Legislature - SOCOM. The President by his hand alone can order SOCOM, in secret, to strike at any time and even to assassinate American citizens. That's an incredible power. It's not the only way the Office of the President has become more powerful in the last decade, though. The number of "signing statements" used by Obama to bypass congress is mind blowing. The only way the power of the Office of the President will be reduced in the future, and things like the NSA domestic surveillance activities stopped, is through a civil war that ends in a new constitution and completely restructured government. Does anyone really think that members of congress aren't being blackmailed with information the domestic surveillance activities produced? Look at the recent monitoring of press phones to see that the capabilities are turned against our representatives. Look to the recent insider trading investigation to see the kinds of things they'd be blackmailed over. They're powerless.