The Nurse Ratched meets Atilla the Hun state.

Cartoon from "The Peoples Cube."

Kevin Rudd has been referred to on occasions as “obsessed with micro-management,” which appears a fairly apt description. Kev likes to take a controlling hand in everything. In an age where we are seeing the state adopt the attitude that it needs to take an increasing role in our lives, Rudd excels at promoting this trend.

Declarations of war on unemployment, whalers, disadvantage, downloads, drugs, pokies, doping in sport and bankers salary deals in what has been called his war on everything. Generally we are seeing the rise of the control freak state, sort of Nurse Ratched meets Atilla the Hun. Kevin Rudd is a man of his time.

This is the latest effort. (From The Australian):

THE Defence Signals Directorate should be given new powers to spy on Australians at home or overseas to deal with evolving security threats including terrorism and cyber warfare, according to a leading national security expert.

Ross Babbage, an adviser to the Rudd government, says the DSD's charter, which strictly prohibits it from spying domestically on Australian citizens, should be changed to reflect the more fluid and dynamic outlook facing Australia.

His call for a change in the DSD's powers and a restructuring of the current tightly separated Australian intelligence community is backed by a number of senior government officials in Canberra.

Similar debates in Britain about extending the powers of GCHQ, Britain's main signals intelligence agency, and in the US, over the role of its National Security Agency, have sparked a political furore.

Who says Kevvy doesn’t want us to be like America?

He has however been surpassed by a man who is prepared to go much further to ensure his will be done, take the latest missive from the White House:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Even Rudd has not dared to push the limits so far as to ask the public to inform on their contacts who try to exercise what remains of their freedom of speech. Here is a video: