Is a Sense of Security for a Minor Threat Worth the Loss of Liberty – a Real Threat?

The government not only has PRISM, but there is also NUCLEON, MAINWAY and MARINA. The first two collect content from the internet and phone calls. The other two collect metadata from phone calls and the internet. This data collecting is generally referred to as Hoovering, after J. Edgar. This Hoovering includes phone and internet usage by all Americans. However, they store our data separately, in perpetuity, and require additional steps to investigate.

Details available from AP and Wash Post. Here is a summary:

How long will our communications be kept and who define and redefine the parameters that define a security risk?

Ben Franklin said:

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. (Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759)

After WWII, Martin Niemöller said:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.

We are sliding down the slippery slope. How long before only those in power are ‘free?’ How long before our corporate owned government legislates that personhood applies only to corporations and we all “owe our soul to the company store?”