"LET US BE THANKFUL WE HAVE AN OCCUPATION TO FILL. WORK HARD, INCREASE PRODUCTION, PREVENT ACCIDENTS AND BE HAPPY. LET US BE THANKFUL WE HAVE COMMERCE. BUY MORE. BUY MORE NOW. BUY. AND BE HAPPY" This was posted up on PunkPlanet recently and while it doesn't have a direct baring on things here in the UK its probably only a matter of time before we have something similar. The original article is You Are A Suspect by William Safire and you can read the whole thing on the NY Times website (registration required) but here's enough to get you worried - or feel safer if you are a mindless idiot: "If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you: Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend � all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database." To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you � passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance � and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen. This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario. It is what will happen to your personal freedom in the next few weeks if John Poindexter gets the unprecedented power he seeks. Remember Poindexter? Brilliant man, first in his class at the Naval Academy, later earned a doctorate in physics, rose to national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan. He had this brilliant idea of secretly selling missiles to Iran to pay ransom for hostages, and with the illicit proceeds to illegally support contras in Nicaragua." The story goes on to list Poindexter's faults and points out that he has been given a budget of $200 million to set this thing up. Personally I'm more afraid of this kind of thing than a terrorist attack... Mike is blogging to: Godspeed you black emperor