Gene Healy: "It Can't Happen Here" Just Did

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has long warned of a "secret PATRIOT Act"—a classified interpretation of the law that allows the administration to undertake massive data collection on American citizens. Last week, we got a glimpse of what he meant, when a National Security Agency contractor revealed that the agency has assembled a database of at least seven years' worth of Verizon customers' call records—a practice that apparently extends to other carriers. You know the old saying, "It can't happen here." Well, writes Gene Healy, it just did.