As was mentioned before,

many thousands of posts ago, Playboy had an interview with an internationally-respected security consultant, Andre Bacard, who was asked if America could be turned into a police state.

"Easy,: he replied. "First, compile dossiers on every school kid from the first grade on, so that no American would ever again grow up without the feeling that the government is watching and recording.
Next, fill the news with stories of drug dealers, pedophiles, and terrorists so that adults will surrender their liberties for security.
In fact, it is happening now."

Since most Americans feel that the war on drugs is a failure, and terrorism seems to have fallen off of the radar screen since the elections, that leaves us to carry the flag.

I hope that you are right, but I cannot shake the feeling that the media need a bogeyman to keep the people distracted from the economic situation.

Pray that the worldwide protests continue to spread; anything that shakes the establishment will probably be beneficial to us, even if it does nothing else than give the media something new to chew on.