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It's come to this for the media and Bush Administration critics.  Turns out the illegal NSA domestic spying without a warrant program isn't just aimed at "catching terrorists" -- or saving all of our phone call records for years and years and years -- it's also aiming right at the media and their sources, especially Administration critics.

ABC News reports:

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.

There was an entire season of The Wire devoted to investigating a drug kingpin who had his dealers using throwaway cell phones which made it harder to trace calls.  Why am I thinking that Netflix will be getting a whole lotta requests for that season on DVD when it comes out?

Or that a pot of geraniums will be popping up periodically in some select Georgetown and Arlington neighborhoods in the near future.

Bad spy movie cliches r us.  Perhaps.  But for the Bush Administration, which is clearly willing to go to any lengths to spy on its critics and suppress and intimidate people who might be willing to come forward as a whistleblower (not that the Rubber Stamp Republican Congress would work with them on it, but there's still the Inspector General's office at each agency -- at least it seems to be working at the CIA after the Foggo search warrants on Friday, eh?)

Hmmmm....now that the media has been specifically targeted, do you think they might report more aggressively on domestic spying without a warrant?  And, if so, do you think the Bushies can spell "backfire?"