The national police state is thwarting States' power and consolidating its own

the relentless march of fascism...

The New Jersey attorney general has issued subpoenas to five telephone companies to determine whether any of them violated the state's consumer protection laws by providing records to the National Security Agency. Experts say it is the first legal move by a state to question the agency's program to compile calling records to track terrorist activities.

On Wednesday, the United States filed a lawsuit to block the subpoenas, setting up a legal showdown pitting the state's authority to protect consumers' rights against the federal government's national security powers.

thus opening up a much larger can of worms...

But as a matter of government practice and legal precedent, the dispute is significant because it transforms what had primarily been a fight between the federal government and civil liberties groups into a far knottier one pitting federal authorities against state ones.

Clifford Fishman, a professor at Catholic University Law School who is an expert on electronic-surveillance law, also said the actions by both state and federal government were laden with political overtones.

Professor Fishman said New Jersey's subpoenas — issued by a Democratic administration — appeared to be "a political move to try to embarrass the Bush administration as well as the phone companies." But he added that "the Bush administration is responding with a howitzer instead of a sniper."

totally in keeping with the modus operandi of this administration... don't just thwart your enemies, beat them to death with heavy blunt instruments, dismember the bodies, and then burn them on a sacrificial pyre...

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