Lee, you of all people, as a NeoNazi and presumed disciple of der Fuhrerprincip, have the least credibility when it comes to soothing reassurances about the benevolence of an authoritarian State. "The government is your friend! The government will not harm you...if you keep your nose clean." Right...or we could forget the NeoNazi aspect and just call you a rabid Winger, in which case you're still being either hypocritcal or disingenuous.

It's a classic Winger belief (except when the Conservative mind flips into authoritarianism) that if you let the government get its nose in the tent, it's only a matter of time until it takes over. The consequences vary, but are never more serious than when it comes to expansion of government police powers.

There's already been mission creep in the Orwellianly-named "Patriot Act". Its later provisions uniformly apply the expanded powers not only to terrorism, but to money laundering, which somewhat overlaps terrorism; and drug smuggling, with only a tenuous relationship to terrorism as a possible financing vehicle, but long a big target of social conservatives. The "Patriot Act" is already being used to further the Right's social agenda. Further, there have been documented abuses that a prudent person would regard as the tip of the iceberg.

You may think it's great that all that extra power is in the hands of rabid Conservatives, but let's see how you feel about that on January 20, 2009.

In presenting the example of an isolated phone call being monitored, you demonstrate the classic Winger inability to connect the dots. In the real world, there's no such thing as an isolated instance of surveillance: One randomly-monitored phone call that trips the keyword filters starts a case file and will lead to systematic targeted surveillance, expanding beyond phone calls to include your Internet browsing and communication, sifting through your bank and credit card records, obtaining your credit report, and on and on. Once they notice you, they don't stop watching.

Modern technology makes ubiquitous surveillance cost-effective. 1984 was postponed for better technology. It costs the government about as much to put your life under a microscope as it costs Google to "monitor" a medium-size Web site. The trap we face is economics: Surveillance, like email spam, is so financially attractive that it's inevitable unless we push back now, right at the start.

Once you let Der Fuhrer get a toehold, he's damnably hard to get rid of again. The time to oppose creeping authoritarianism is early, before we pass the point of no return. If you'd bother to read my words carefully, Lee, you'd see that my concerns are for the future, are about drawing a line in the sand while it's still possible to do so. I promise you that America won't have a Fuhrer. Sorry, I know that must be a disappointment to you.