Reading Wired’s Threat Level blog is enough to make you schizophrenic.

First, they post about a federal court standing up to the administration and killing a key part of the Orwellian-name Patriot Act.

The ruling strikes yet another blow at the FBI’s use of National Security Letters, which were used to issue 143,074 requests for phone and internet records from 2003 to 2005, and as a recent Inspector General report showed, the widespread use led to abuses and sloppiness.

Early this year, a damning report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General found that the FBI used NSLs in violation of applicable NSL statutes, Attorney General guidelines and internal FBI policies. The FBI, along with the Inspector General, are now criminally investigating an office that sent more than 700 emergency letters, with false statements in them, to phone companies.

Then they discuss the predictions of a “privacy and information practices consultant” listing some government practices he says will be “commonplace” by the year 2020.

PCs with a mandatory static IP address.
Every car outfitted with a working transponder.
A penniless marketplace where every purchase and financial transaction is electronically tracked.
Mandatory MySpace pages that every citizen will be required to maintain with up-to-date contact information.

Sounds like the set up for a sci-fi movie/TV show focusing on the underground movement fighting the government.

Where do I sign up?

patriot act, government tracking