It’s now the Terrorism Information Awareness program.
Feces by any other name is still feces.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15395-2003May20.html?nav=hptoc_tn
They didn’t even change the initials.
Enjoy,
Steven
shudder
Believe it or not, I haven’t yet read everything Isaac Asimov has written. I don’t even know if it’s humanly possible in one lifetime. 
But I ran across an essay written by him back in the 60s that actually managed to lower my opinion of him a bit. In it, he advocated an immense government computer bank that would track and record everything anyone ever did, justifying the huge invasion of privacy with what was basically a “We already have no privacy” argument.
Seriously made me rethink Dr. Asimov’s worldly-wisdom.
Um…the essay was written by him in the 60s. I only ran across it yesterday, not having been present even in gonadio (I’d kiss the person who gives me the actual correct term for that concept) in the 60s.
My daughter called me this morning to inform me that, even though no murders have been commited in my neighborhood lately, I will be the prime suspect when one does occur, because I have checked out so many British murder mysteries from my local library.
Reeder, do you have a distinctive "gait’? They can identify you by it. They can look at your veterinary records to see if you are testing biological weapons on your pets (and then, of course, rushing them to the vet).
I really hate being afraid of my government.
Hmm. I wonder what the conservative posters here will come up with to try to defend this…
(Sorry, feel snarky.)
Snark away. I think it sucks.
When are the clowns in government going to learn that freedom is a strength?
Sam: Good for you, and I apologize for my comment. I should’ve remembered reading about both liberal AND conservative groups speaking out against this. I guess I’m just too used to cheerleading from certain circles of our government and media…
As for the debate, i wonder how far this’ll go? This certainly has a lot more stuff to it that I think would be scary to the general populace if they knew about it (unlike stuff like the DCMA, which isn’t quite as accessible to a lot of people, for example)… Hope all the opposition make a lot of hay over this.
In reply to a letter from me, Congressman Howard Coble (R., NC) – yes, the guy who said it was right to imprison innocent citizens of Japanese descent during WWII – wrote me:
"Our libraries and the access to them by the public is one of the cornerstones of our freedom to educate and express ourselves openly and freely. Unfortunately, there are those who may take advantage of this free and open access to gain information or use computers to carry out criminal acts again the U.S. and its citizens. In writing the PATRIOT Act, Congress tried to balance the freedom to use libraries for all citizens with the need to investigate potential terrorists who may use libraries for the wrong reasons."
Now, don’t you feel more comfortable knowing that Howard, who is chairman of the subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, is one of the people who will decide if you’re using your public library “for the wrong reasons”?