Is it important? Yes it is. However these disclosures yesterday are old news. For example Spencer Ackerman's "big scoop" that the surveillance program was useless was written about in the NY Times 3 1/2 years ago.  (see link below).

What I want to see is an investigation and criminal charges brought. Wringing your hands and complaining that Bush was a naughty boy is pointless. What scares me more is that I see Obama wanting to do absolutely nothing. And it is not because he has enough on his plate.

All indications is that Obama wants to preserve the prerogatives of executive power even if he does not exercise all the abuses committed in the Bush Administration. I am giving Obama the benefit of the doubt because I think Glenn Greenwald and Jonathan Turley make an excellent case that there is little difference between Bush and Obama on national security.

 
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/politics/17spy.html?pagewanted=all&ex=12951540
00&en=f3247d208f184898&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

We'd chase a number, find it's a school teacher with no indication they've ever
been involved in international terrorism - case closed," said one former FBI
official, who was aware of the program and the data it generated for the bureau.
"After you get a thousand numbers and not one is turning up anything, you get
some frustration."

My favorite quote was this:

In response to the F.B.I. complaints, N.S.A. eventually began ranking its tips
on a three-point scale, with 3 being the highest priority and 1 the lowest, the
officials said. Some tips were considered so hot that they were carried by hand
to top F.B.I. officials. But in bureau field offices, the N.S.A. material
continued to be viewed as unproductive, prompting agents to joke that a new
bunch of tips meant more "calls to Pizza Hut," one official, who supervised
field agents, said.