One government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the administration complained bitterly that the FISA process demanded too much: to name a target and give a reason to spy on it.
link

That is the state of the union:

The executive is on to grab more power to control the peasants. In New York, the police mixes agent provocateurs into political rallies. Simple book orders are suspicious. A Catholic worker group is spied on as the fifth column of a long dead enemy. No bounds are accepted. There is no need for reason.

The legislative is either up to do the business of the highest bidder or in constant S&M session not willing or able to reign in the administration. Elections are unreliable. The people and their representative are manipulated through fake terror.

All hope now rests on the third branch, the judiciary. And there we find some encouraging motions.

Though the real Fitzmas may only come next year, with Abramoff willing to spilling his guts, hopes are up for a long holiday season.

But the judges, not the prosecutors are decisive and some are upset enough to take a real stand.

Judge John Jones clobbered the creationists over their unintelligent designed fairy tales.

The rubber stamp FISA court is in uproar about being bypassed by the government. One judge resigned in protest. The others are preparing a revolt and demand in depth briefings.

One judge, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also said members
could suggest disbanding the court in light of the president’s
suggestion that he has the power to bypass the court.

I´d love to see the editorials when that happens.

The same very conservative federal appeals court that allowed the administration to keep Jose Padilla as an "enemy combatant", is now seriously pissed off. The court first took its stand in favor of the administration and expected the case to be revisioned by the Supreme Court. But then the administration tried to chickened out and asked to declare Padilla a simple criminal. Say judge Luttig (pdf):

[W]e would regard the intentional mooting by the government of a case of this import out of concern for Supreme Court consideration not as legitimate justification but as admission of attempted avoidance of review. The government cannot be seen as conducting litigation with the enormous implications of this litigation […] in such a way as to select by which forum as between the Supreme Court of the United States and an inferior appellate court it wishes to be bound.

Take that Darth Vader.

When the administration "complains bitterly" about a need to justify their actions in front of a court, all judges will listen up. Their mere existence is questioned. Independent of their political position, they will slash back at this in outrage.

Finally the administration may have created an enemy it can not frame as a terrorist threat.

But without that scam, there is little left for them to swagger about.