Remember when government surveillance of Americans (against whom there was probably cause to believe they were in contact with foreign terrorists) was the biggest threat the Constitution ever faced?

Either does the Obama administration:

The government is increasingly monitoring Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites for tax delinquents, copyright infringers and political protesters. A public interest group has filed a lawsuit to learn more about this monitoring, in the hope of starting a national discussion and modifying privacy laws as necessary for the online era.

Now, I have to admit that I think the “right to privacy” is a pretty thin thread, online; to expect that what you write on, say, Twitter or a blog can be presumed to some degree to be public.  Facebook – where the user builds a “closed network” – would be less public.  Email should be private.

But when the government is trawling the ‘net looking for dissenters…:

In October, the F.B.I. searched the New York home of a man suspected of helping coordinate protests at the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh by sending out messages over Twitter.

“But that’s a criminal investigation!”

Well, yeah.  So far:

Wired magazine reported last month that In-Q-Tel, an investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, has put money into Visible Technologies, a software company that crawls across blogs, online forums, and open networks like Twitter and YouTube to monitor what is being said.

Obama’s CIA, trawling the ‘net to monitor what Americans are saying.

“No biggie!”

Really?  And in 2012 or 2016, when a Republican wins the White House and dissent is suddenly the highest form of patriotism again?