= new reply since forum marked as read
...simply because of the concentration of power in one agency. Our Constitution, and our whole system of government is based on the DISPERSION of power, for the protection of the rights of the individual. We have certainly seen what has happened to the rights of the individual as that power has been concentrated within that agency. Washed away! Where is our rights of habeas corpus? GONE. Right to be free of warrantless searches? GONE. Right of privacy from government intrusion? GONE. The new reality is unchecked government power to tap our phones, read our e-mails, track our Internet usage, data-mine our financial transactions, spy on us with hidden (and not-so-hidden) surveillance cameras, AND overhead drones, tracking our movements via cell-phones, and God-knows what other kinds of insidious espionage tools. And ALL of that data/information is now available to ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY that can dream up an excuse to have it.
NOW tell me there's not a whole lot to be said about it!!
And I will forever hold GEORGE W. BUSH and RICHARD B. CHENEY utterly responsible!!
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When Bush created this Frankenstein monstrosity, I thought it was sounding a lot like the old Soviet KGB--and with GWB's chimp-paw prints all over it, it just seemed natural to call it the "KGWB".
And Tom Ridge just looked like a commissar--without all the battle-ribbons......
code orange! 
