Bank records, of course. Can’t upset the financial guys. AP:

The U.S. government gained sweeping access to international banking records as part of a secret program to choke off financial support for terrorism, officials confirmed Thursday.

Treasury Department officials said they used broad subpoenas to collect the financial records from an international system known as Swift. Stuart Levey, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, called the subpoenas “a legal and proper use of our authorities.”

Well, I guess I should be pleased that Bush gets subpoenas for something, and the rule of law still applies to some people in some situations.

Just too bad it isn’t the average American citizen.

And say, I just thought of something… All the arguments about flexibility, “new kind of war,” “social network analysis,” yadda yadda yadda—All the arguments we’ve heard in favor of trashing the Fourth amendment for warrantless surveillance of data and voice—All those arguments apply with equal force, if not more force, to financial data.

So why did Bush break the law to surveill us, and obey the law to surveill the banks?

Like the old joke about why dogs ____ their ____s:

Because they can.