Let me make it clear that I appreciate Senator Ron Wyden’s willingness to raise the issues surrounding the US surveillance state, albeit quite obliquely until Edward Snowden risked his life to put the details on the table.

In a fascinating interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Wyden contorts logic in defense of compliance with the classification rules that determine what can and can not be discussed, and pats himself on the back for getting certain things declassified, including statements about an important FISA court ruling (but not the ruling itself). He then goes on to say that while the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has now admitted that the national security apparatus has violated FISA court orders on bulk phone record collection, “I’ll tell your viewers that those violations are significantly more troubling than the government has stated.”

It is time for a new public outcry — based on civil liberties and collective rights, beyond left and right, beyond ideology. It is time for all Obama supporters who once passionately stood up against the abuses of the Bush II administration to stand up once again. It is time for those who are afraid to speak out against an overzealous national security apparatus to begin to raise our voices together. In the face of the naked persecution of two prominent whistleblowers Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, WikiLeaks activist Julian Assange, as well as dozens of other people trying to shine a light on the wrongdoing of unaccountable government forces, it is time to take the security establishment up on its suggestion to SAY SOMETHING upon seeing something.

I believe that President Obama crossed a line on his recent appearance on Charlie Rose, spewing outright lies in an effort to protect his administration from growing criticism: