The Bush Adminstration wants you believe it so but there are three problems with this.

First, you are more likely to die from a car accident then you are from a terrorist incident. Far, far, FAR, FFFFAAARRR more likely. Heck, you're more likely to win the Lottery than to get involved in a terrorist incident. As I've blogged before, tobacco and alcohol kill more Americans than terrorists but you see no action on those fronts.

Second, with all the secrecy surrounding what the Administration does, we have no measure the effectiveness of their anti-terrorism actions. They could say to us "With our illegal wiretapping, we stopped 200 terrorist actions last month!" and we'd have no way to judge the truthfulness of the statement. We are expected to believe what they tell despite their history of repeated lies. That ain't gonna cut it. Bush wants to strip us of our privacy then we need to see open and honest results.

Third, with the amount of information they plan and want to collect there is an increased risk of false positives. That is, a greater chance of a message looking suspicious and implicating an innocent person. And with the Administration we have now you could be picked up and shipped to Guantanamo without any recourse - none! No lawyers, no explanations. Is that what you want? I'm sorry but the little shred of security we'd receive for the amount of privacy and freedoms we give up isn't an equitable trade. It isn't America.