Well, this data dragnetting will end up in the Dept of Homeland Security to be sure, and as Nicole points out, the $200 million is likely just the money for ordering paper clips and staples.

Not only is there the danger of abuse (the system is set up to BE a flagrant violation of civil liberties, and will, I guarantee you, end up before the Republican Supreme Court who will likely approve it). But with the job protections for federal workers thrown out the window, and the whistleblower laws so pathetically weak, there will be no checks and balances whatsoever. The FBI agent who blew the whistle on higher ups in Washington DC for not taking the warnings from her field office seriously about terrorist activity, has since been fired (not much national media coverage on that one, though was there).

We also know that the worst of all this is the departments with access to the files will not only be incompetently managed, politically motivated, and without any checks and balances--they will destroy many, many innocent people's lives before the pendulum swings back the other way. We do need to keep in mind that the majority of Americans are idiots, who don't even know what the Bill of Rights is, much less why we need one. They are too busy shopping and eating junk food and watching wrestling and Victoria Secrets models dancing in their underwear.