Last week, reports surfaced that the federal government has been eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without their knowledge and without any kind of court order providing a cause for the spying.

Administration officials have now admitted to the reports, but have said the government is only doing all within its power to stop terrorism.

We call that spin. Sure, we’re breaking the law, but it is for your own good, they seem to be saying.

The issue is a slippery slope and one with the almost constant danger of an avalanche of political spin and fear mongering.

If you’re against the idea and for protecting the privacy of U.S. citizens, then you can quickly be labeled weak in the war on terror. “What do you have to hide?” critics are asked. “If you’re not a terrorist, then you have nothing to worry about.”

Something is fundamentally wrong when Americans allow a key way of life to be trodden upon in the false name of “protecting freedom.”

We have a court system that is set up to allow wiretaps and e-mail spying when necessary. But for law enforcement investigators to gain such access, they must provide a court of law with the reason for suspecting criminal behavior. No one should be allowed to listen to your private calls on a whim or on a hunch.

We’re a nation of laws. When high levels of our government fail to follow those laws, our nation’s very roots are undermined.

You can be for or against the U.S. involvement in Iraq or Afghanistan, but we should all be concerned — very concerned — at the growing power of the federal government in our lives.

American men and women should be able to go to bed at night knowing that what they do and say in the privacy of their own homes remains private.

Hopefully, some common sense will creep back into the nation’s psyche and the insanity of government run amok will end soon.

In the meantime, be careful what you say and do, someone may be watching.