POLICE STATE USA

NY Times Op-Ed: Walk This Way By MAUREEN DOWD

Call me a civil liberties prude, but I don't want John Poindexter tracking my body part contours.

Or my silhouette pixels, for that matter.

Not since Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks has a government devoted so much money and study to watching our steps.

Admiral Poindexter, who supervised the strutting Oliver North during the Iran-contra machinations, is now supervising the Pentagon's attempt to create an Orwellian "virtual, centralized grand database," which could put a spyglass on Americans' every move, from literally the way Americans move to their virtual moves, scanning shopping, e-mail, bank deposits, vacations, medical prescriptions, academic grades and trips to the vet. (Sometimes pets are the first to go in biological warfare.)