Okay, so has anybody figured out yet what all this sabre–rattling over invading Iraq is really about yet? Why after taking the time to “coalition build” before bombing Afghanistan into a new area code, Mad King George is all ready to go after Iraq all by himself (er, figuratively, of course)?

Is it that the oil pipeline can't be run through Afghanistan like they thought?

Or is it that UnoCal wants oil prices higher so that they can make more profit off the pipeline when they build it (with government subsidies)?

A post to Declan McCullagh's politech list points to this article in the Sydney, Australia Morning Herald by Ritt Goldstein which says that the Bush administration's TIPS program–part of Bush's volunteer effort, Citizen Corps, means ” the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report 'suspicious activity'.”

The informants–identified by stickers put in the windows of their vehicles with a toll-free number on them– would be initially drawn from people whose jobs give them a high level of access to others' personal lives–postal workers, meter readers, etc. TIPS is a project of John Ashcroft's Department of Justice.

No word on whether the “suspicious activity” to be reported will include anti-American activities like negative comments about the administration while watching the evening news.

Goldstein, by the way, is a Connecticut man seeking asylum in Sweden because police officers attacked him physically and threatened his life (ostensibly because of his leadership role in an organization calling for civilian oversight of police).