The Constitution and why the U.S. is verging on tyranny

I do not wish to be alarmist. I seek to always offer a quite balanced perspective. But, in reading the U.S. Constitution, and especially our Bill of Rights, I am increasingly alarmed at trends in our government that run directly counter to what the plain text of our Constitution reads.

One example, is that our Constitution protects American citizens from illegal searches of our property, effects, etc., yet if we make a phone call or even send an e-mail to anyone living outside of the United States, we the People of the United States of America can now have our phones (cell-phone and land-lines) monitored by N.S.A.

Or another example, in another part of our Constitutional protection against governmental tyranny is that excessive fines may not be imposed upon an American citizen (or excessive bails), yet judges routinely impose fines and bails in the range of tens of thousands of dollars. Even a fine of $500 is excessive, yet this is often a minimum fine/bail set by a judge. $500 for any hard-working middle class American is excessive.

Finally, regarding issues of Religious Freedom, although the Catholic group the Knights of Columbus lobbied Congress to adopt the "under God" clause to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, if one were ever to pray in an official governmental capacity in a non-Deist unitarian format (for example, a prayer to allah, a Hindu prayer to Vishnu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu), or a Christian prayer "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ Our LORD," then one could be censured.

So, there you have it. Government surveillance, excessive fines imposed by our judicial branch and finally a state-enforced restriction on freedom of religious speech while praying in an official capacity (e.g. a chaplain opening Congress with a prayer for example).

Tyranny. Read the Constitution. I did today at Starbuck's.

Blessings in Jesus (not Vishnu! :-)
Rob J. King, Protector of Constitutional Government in the United States of America (of course, I might have to end up becoming a Democrat to do this it seems . . .)