I agree with you that the US citizenry is brainwashed, I agree that we have essentially lost the privacy of our information and are being profiled with intent to submit through intimidation and I was just thinking today that we will all be spineless if the charred remains of our bretheren should start wafting our way. One good "election with the new computer fix in and we ought to be sold up the river, never to have a say against the aristocracy. Can you imagine if Bush steals the election?
Anyone doubting their privacy just need to look at this.........here are some examples:
From Sara Paretsky,Chicago Tribune, Sunday 21 September 2003

> A cloud of unknowing surrounds St. Johns College in Santa Fe, Andrew O'Connor and his long interrogation by Albuquerque police and the Secret Service in February 2003. O'Connor was removed from the college library by police after he made negative comments about President Bush in an online chat room. But since he was ultimately released without being charged, he clearly had not threatened the president's life. What he said, how the police and Secret Service knew he said it, and the gag order on the college to keep people from talking about his arrest, are all shrouded in silence.

Similarly, we don't know what a New Jersey library user was reading the day another patron called the police to report that the man was looking at a foreign-language Web page. But the man was hauled off for questioning, held without being allowed to call his home or a lawyer, and then released without being charged. We also don't know why the FBI arrived at a California student's home hours after she talked on the phone about bomb icons in a video game she was playing. >

And Ashcroft's response is to say that any questions about his policies, any questions about governmental lies, secrets or silences, is tantamount to treason.