re: The NSA existed before the Patriot Act, bless your hearts if you think PAct caused spying

Patriot Act was awful and unconstitutional and it has brought massive escalation to the violations of everyone's rights. You may think the NSA was doing stuff before, but not even remotely close to what started with the Patriot Act. They have filled and built new data warehouses in recent years. That did not take place in the years prior to the Patriot Act.