The author of a letter to the Times this morning has noticed that nowhere in the discussion of the Total Information Awareness program has she seen reference to tracking gun sales. But, of course, gun sales are going to be tracked, along with everything else. As Alex Cockburn always points out, this is just the sort of government activity gun nuts are afraid of. And it's why the ACLU has always stayed out of the gun debate.
This is where the populist left and right will find common cause. Our country is more than a little barbaric, but Bush and Cheney are cynics, who make use our barbarism it to serve their own interests.
Barbarism is a violent system that applies to all. Fascism is a system one applies to others. It is the barbarism of cowards.