Never Hot, Never Cold, Never Free

I love the old standards: "In Soviet Russia, thermostat controls YOU!"

California is proposing revisions to its housing code that would require all new or remodeled homes to have a "programable communicating thermostat." Equipped with special "nonremoveable" FM radio recievers, theses devices would allow state power authoritiesto set the temperature in your home as they see fit. Ostensibly to manage demand during "price events" and other "emergencies," you would basically cede control of your home's heating and air conditioning to the state (when and if state officials wanted to exercise it).

Is this part off the grandiose erosion of our rights that the Bush haters keep screaming about?