Are We the "Proverbial Frog"??

The NSA wiretapping issue is not a big deal to many people because they do not feel threatened by it -- they feel they are not doing anything wrong so why worry who is listening. The problem with that is that each and every one of us is as vulnerable as the next. As Richard Clarke said,

"Think six degrees of Kevin Bacon.”

Investigators can discern patterns and links and before you know it an innocent person can end up being monitored because he spoke to someone who spoke to...who spoke to...who spoke to... and so on.

Back in December of 2005, District Judge James Robertson resigned his FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance ACT) Court position to protest President Bush’s illegal domestic wiretapping program..

A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources.

[...]

Two associates familiar with his decision said yesterday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court's work.

Judge Robertson, maintaining his integrity, courageously resigned because he saw the administration's actions as breaking the law and in violation of the Constitution.

As Cornel West, Princeton professor, theologian, activist and author said regarding the Bush administration's blatant disregard for the law,

"The real problem here is that there are thin mechanisms of accountability for elites so they feel they can do as they want."

He went on to say,

"Democracy is about ordinary people feeling they can live lives of decency by insuring that the arbitrary power of elites can be curtailed, regulated..."

The Bush administration ignored FISA and the FCC, broke the law, and shunned all accountability. Cornel West went on to say,

"When it comes to welfare, republicans are the first ones to say, personal responsibility, personal responsibility, but when it comes to their actions...who takes responsibility...hardly anyone at all."

I sometimes wonder if "we" are becoming the frog who allowed himself to be boiled to death. As the story goes, if you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, he will jump out and save himself. If you place the same frog in a pot of cool water and slowly bring it to a boil, he will allow himself to be boiled to death.