Oversight? We don't need no stinkin' oversight.

It's unambiguously within Duhbya's power (for once) to reverse Gerald Ford's executive order, but it perfectly illustrates his preference for spying without restraint or transparency.

Even when the board had teeth, they were just dentures in a glass by the bed. It's not as if they restrained the Bushist surveillance state in the slightest.

The Globe's illustration for the story is perfect:

• Gerald Ford, who pardoned Nixon and affirmed the evasion of culpability for Republican criminals
• James Baker, who ran the first stage of the Bushist coup, in Florida
• Dick Cheney, emissary of the dark side, who pushed the Bushists toward unfettered imperial power