[Might be funnier if it weren't so true...] Learning to love Big Brother George W. Bush channels George Orwell Daniel Kurtzman Sunday, July 28, 2002 )2002 San Francisco Chronicle. URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2002/07/28/IN244190.DTL Here's a question for constitutional scholars: Can a sitting president be charged with plagiarism? As President Bush wages his war against terrorism and moves to create a huge homeland security apparatus, he appears to be borrowing heavily, if not ripping off ideas outright, from George Orwell. The work in question is "1984, " the prophetic novel about a government that controls the masses by spreading propaganda, cracking down on subversive thought and altering history to suit its needs. It was intended to be read as a warning about the evils of totalitarianism -- not a how-to manual.