Leaks of the National Security Agency (NSA) PRISM scheme and other surveillance shows a grimly pervasive level of intrusion into the lives of virtually all Americans. If there was to be a silver lining, it’s that unlike the all-seeing governments of dystopian fiction, the NSA doesn’t have any actual police powers, and DC bureaucracies are notoriously unwilling to share information with one another.

That could be a thing of he past too, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is already a national secret police agency, is hoping to get the exact same surveillance powers as the NSA.

The DHS has been proactive in cracking down on the Internet in the past, moving against Bitcoins and seizing wrestling websites through their ICE force, which is itself meant to be an immigration enforcement faction.

Giving the DHS and their hundreds of millions of bullets access to the private information of all Americans is the surest way imaginable to ensure that the abusive surveillance will directly lead to abusive police actions.