Clarence Page on Uncle Sam wants your data in yesterday's Washington Times:
In an atmosphere of fear and tragedy, Americans surrendered some of their privacy rights and gave law-enforcement officials more powers of surveillance than they really needed.
Make their jobs easier, goes the logic of such circumstances, and everyone will feel safer. Feeling safer is what security is all about.
But it's less easy to forgive us, the public, the media and the rest of the chattering classes for refusing to pay attention as more and more of our privacy protections are sucked into the dark abyss of legislative fine print.
Bingo. Shame on those who went along. Shame on those who tried to silence civil libertarians or called us "reactionary" loons. Shame on the whole lot of you. You got what you wanted. Now bask in the glory that Total Information Awareness will bring – secret arrests, manipulation, blackmail, and other kinds of fun.
Any of you feel safer now? No? Well just wait until the internment camps start. That's when we'll really feel "safe".
