I suggest that, on the question
prominent in this thread, "what should
the US do about terrorism and
the claimed excesses of the NSA", there is now
an answer that is unavoidable,
rock solid, quite clear, maybe
crystal clear, even if it does not
address all concerns.

Here in logical steps is the unavoidable
answer:

(1) Due to whatever in history before
1776, the US founding fathers gave us
the Constitution. Soon they gave us
the Bill of Rights. In particular
we have the Fourth Amendment.

(2) Congress, the FISA 'court',
the Intelligence committees of
Congress, the president, the NSA,
etc. may have done this and that,
but there are claims that
the Constitution has been violated.

(3) Law suits are being brought
claiming that the Constitution has
been violated. Apparently there
will be suits from Google, EFF,
and the ACLU, and there's little
to stop more suits from being brought.
It appears that quite generally
lots of lawyers will be burning
midnight oil, word processing,
filing cases, etc.

(4) Very likely some of these law
suits will make it to the steps
of the Supreme Court, be taken
in by the court, studied, argued,
and decided. If the Constitution
has been violated as clearly
and strongly as it is easy to guess
from the recent news, then the
court will likely strike down at
least some of the laws that
enabled the violations. Really,
for this process, nothing can
stop it now -- not the president,
the NSA, the FISA court,
Congress. People can argue
this and that, that we need what
the NSA has been doing or we
don't, but still the Supreme
Court will take this issue and
address it.

(5) The founding fathers made sure
that the Supreme Court was not just
a bunch of kids playing tag on a
playground. Instead the SCOTUS
(Supreme Court of the US)
is about as serious as anything
in this solar system. The court
is absolutely, positively 100%
aware of the Constitution, their
role in defending it, and threats to it.
Arguments
of short term expediency, the
threats of Boston loser wackos
with backpacks with pressure cookers,
Jihaders with chembio in public places,
or well funded efforts to
sneak a nuke into a major US
city will not be seen as
repealing the Bill of Rights
or even one comma in the Constitution.
And the SCOTUS is just awash
in power, both in principle and in
practice, to strike down as unconstitutional
whatever parts of the Patriot Act,
the FISA court, etc. they
conclude, with considerable
study and wisdom, is appropriate.

The process of (1)-(5) has now
started and will move forward
"with all deliberate speed"
which might be 1-2 years.

In simplest terms, the SCOTUS can,
yes, understand the threats of
terrorism but can understand
with much greater concern the
threats to the Constitution.
The SCOTUS has no choice but to
pay essentially all their attention
just to the threats to the Constitution.

It's the process: The Executive
branch is supposed to follow the laws
and, really, can't change the laws.
If the laws are
too limiting for the important work
of the Executive branch, then
have Congress
pass some new laws. We did that. If the new
laws are unconstitutional, then bring
suits before the SCOTUS to have the
unconstitutional laws struck down.
We're now in the process of doing just that.
The SCOTUS
has to protect the Constitution and
can't change it. If the
Constitution needs changing, then
that's 2/3rds of the House, 2/3rds
of the Senate, and 3/4ths of the
states.

So, in 1-2 years we will know.
The smart money is on the Constitution
coming out whole. And the chances
of an amendment to the Constitution
are as usual from slim to none.

So, where will the SCOTUS defending
the Constitution
leave Congress,
the Executive branch, the NSA,
the FBI, local police, etc.?
They will have to put their
thinking caps on and find
ways to
protect the
US from the Jihaders within
the Constitution.
Or the Executive branch will
find more ways to violate
laws and/or the Constitution,
and then there may be more leaks,
law suits, etc.

Whatever, and it may take time,
in this mud wrestling
the Constitution stands to
come out whole. Thank you
founding fathers.

Did the founding fathers see
this coming? Absolutely.
Been there; done that;
got the T-shirt, 200+ years ago.

Or, we need to defend the US.
One of the best parts of the US
is the Constitution. So, it is
logically impossible to defend the
US and trash the Constitution.
Instead, in defending the US, it
is in particular necessary to
defend the Constitution. For also
defending the rest of the US,
that's a problem we have to
work to solve; I have no doubt
at all we can solve it.

In simple terms, the problem is
not finding ways within the
Constitution to stop the Jihaders.
Instead, the problem is
stopping intellectually lazy,
empire building
bureaucrats
and CYA politicians
from using the Jihader threat
as an excuse to
trash the Constitution,
build empires, and CYA.