Originally Posted by javabytes

I'm not surprised at all. Rather, I'm dismayed that an underhanded and manipulative government and an uncaring public have allowed this sort of thing to happen at every turn.

A quote by James Madison has haunted me for decades:
"It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of Citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much, soon to forget it..."

Boy did we forget that lesson somewhere along the way.