I'm no huge fan of William Safire, so when I find myself nodding in agreement, I know something big is up. Read this piece on the impact of the Homeland Security Act. If left unamended, it gives extraordinary powers of electronic information gathering to our government, and in particular a new office headed by John Poindexter, the same fellow who brought us Iran/Contra. Essentially, the Hooverian fantasy of a "mega-database" tracking every citizen is funded in this bill. The only comfort: so far, the government has been famously inept in the IT integration department.