It may seem unreasonable, unfair and downright mean-spirited to compare the Bush administration to the minions of Sauron, the granddaddy of evil in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. But here goes.
The executive branch's attempts in 2002 to peer into the lives of Americans were more than a little similar to the exploits of Middle Earth's would-be rulers.
Take, for example, the Bush team's most notorious proposal of the year: the Total Information Awareness system. TIA is an "ultra-large, all-source information repository" (PDF) meant to track citizens' every move, from Web surfing to doctor visits, travel plans to university grades, passport applications to ATM withdrawals.
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