This is the kind of thing that drives me batshit crazy:

TOLEDO, Ohio — Presidential adviser Karl Rove criticized a federal judge’s order for an immediate end to the government’s warrantless surveillance program, saying Wednesday such a program might have prevented the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Rove said the government should be free to listen if al-Qaida is calling someone within the U.S.

"Imagine if we could have done that before 9/11. It might have been a different outcome," he said.

This type of statement prays on ignorance. 

The facts are quite simple: the government has always been able to listen in on phone calls from al-Qaida to the United States.  There is a law — called FISA — which has been around for three decades (i.e., long before 9/11).  It allows the government to listen in on these conversations.  So, if al-Qaida is calling someone within the United States, all the government has to do is go to a judge a get a warrant.  It takes an hour.  They can even get the warrant after they’ve done the wiretap (within 48 hours).

You know what might have made a difference "before 9/11"?  If Bush had responded to his August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing memo which said that al-Qaida was determined to attack the United States — specifically, that the FBI had noted patterns indicating possible hijacking attempts and the fact that al-Qaida was surveilling buildings in New York.  But it was August, and Bush was clearing brush in Crawford.