FBI spying on phone calls! Imagine that!

Stop the presses! It's now been revealed that the FBI has been spying on all Verizon phone communications in the U.S. for months!

Gasp! Say it ain't so!

Seriously, why is anybody surprised by this? The federal government has been routinely spying on phone conversations for at least a quarter-century. In fact, Cincinnati Bell was caught up in a scandal in which they did it even before then, as they wiretapped such notables as Gerald Ford and local newsman Al Schottelkotte. I know government wiretapping got even worse under Bush because "things changed", so there's no point in feigning surprise.

This of course doesn't make the FBI's current wiretapping right - or legal. The FBI and Verizon are violating constitutional protections against unreasonable searches. Even so, Saxby Chambliss, Dianne Feinstein, and Lindsey Graham have the unmitigated nerve to defend this unconstitutional spying program.

In 2011, President Obama issued a jobs plan - embodied in the American Jobs Act - that was popular and would have been workable if the Tea Party hadn't killed it. For a truly free people, however, economic advancement is only one part of the equation. The other side of the freedom coin stands for social progress - and expansion of civil liberties must now zoom to the fore.

Obama can and must put forth a civil liberties plan. True, it would involve rejecting much of what Gil Kerlikowske has proposed, but that's the price of leadership. No President in recent memory has had a real civil liberties plan, and now it's long overdue. There's absolutely no question whatsoever that Americans have less personal freedom now than 30 years ago - in all but a precious few aspects.

It's hard to say whether the FBI's current spying program is worse than public school uniforms, but it's high time our leaders acquire the guts to publicly denounce both.

The FBI's wiretapping proves the truth of this adage: Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.