I have trouble even comprehending "record and retain all citizens' communications traffic." To think that someone would tolerate a government spying on web traffic, I mean it's not like we're talking about cell phones here.

Agreed, there is no way he was acting on his own on this one. In other news, The United States has been removed from the world trade empire and branded rebels.

Why does it look like the case is alligator skin? I'm not sure, but don't they give a shit about things like that? Aside from that little oversight, this could be the last nail in the American-technology coffin.

Homeland Security will be an ever increasing beast. I'm already surprised at everything that falls under their authority. OTOH...This is not really something new for us. Who knows maybe they get funding from the "War on Drugs," the American public's interest is waning and the jailed population is going up. Maybe chasing down bloggers will keep us out of ground wars. A lot more than this would have to happen for us to stop cowering.