USA, the sneaky big brother?

I read this article in www.wired.com. Apparently, the US government is aiming to eavesdrop into any communication lines (anybody's phones, emails, etc) and search any house within the USA without any court approval.

Its not like they haven't been doing it already. Wired.com says

Bush has acknowledged the NSA program monitors Americans' international phone calls and e-mails without court authorization, but says the program only targets communications where one side or the other has suspected terrorist connections

Now which acts of an individual would qualify him/her to be a suspect of terrorism is of course decided by the US government. So, if they have the technology and the resources, they would probably be monitoring everybody (or maybe they already are).

I don't quite care much about it except that if I write an email and send it using GoogleMail, I would like to know if US the Government would have the rights to read it without my permission (because Google is based in USA).

That said, I don't quite know what Scotland Yard and MI5 are doing. Hopefully they will continue to be more sensible and respect our civil rights unlike their American counterparts.