A few weeks after the Obama administration was thumped for subpoenaing Associated Press phone records and monitoring the communications of Fox News reporter James Rosen, word arrived from the Guardian that the administration executed an unusually broad FISA warrant for Verizon call metadata (and grudging props to the Brits for scooping us Yanks on our own story). Half a day later, the Washington Post reported that the NSA and FBI were monitoring the content flowing through nine top internet companies.

To mark this recent spree of crazy-making domestic surveillance, these five TMN stories explore the ideas of surveillance, vigilance, and paranoia—ready to read here on TMN or in an e-book you can export to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, etc.