as the old saying goes: if it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck!
When you have a universal identifier like the social security number, and tie that to biometric features from something as simple as a digital photograph to the most elaborate measures like retinal scans, DNA indices, hand geometry, ad nauseam; add personal information such as Name, address, date of birth, and all of the other things now required on drivers' licenses and buddy, you've got a national ID!
A national identification card, in whatever form it may take, will allow the federal government to inappropriately monitor the movements and transactions of every American. Governments inevitably use the power to monitor the actions of people in harmful ways. Claims that the government will protect the privacy of Americans while implementing national ID simply ring hollow. We would be well served to remember what happened with the Social Security number; it was introduced with solemn promises on how it would be restricted only to identifying individuals' accounts, but it has become a de facto national identifier, anyway.
But others ask; why not? Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) suggested a Social Security card with "a magnetic strip on which the bearer's unique voice, retina pattern, or fingerprint is digitally encoded." Hillary Clinton, when she was First Lady, proposed a Health Security card bill in the early 1990's. That proposed legislation never made it to a full vote in Congress, mainly because of the Republican sweep in the 1994 elections; Congress was not the least bit interested in her plan to communize 1/7th of the American economy (our healthcare sector is really that big!)...
But "Hitlery" Clinton's national ID card provisions DID get attached to an amended heathcare bill which did, in fact, become law - thereby mandating that the federal government eventually adopt and implement certain standards for a national ID card!!
Next month (5/10/05) the US Senate is scheduled to vote on the implementation of a national ID card system. The 'Real ID Act' is "THE" National ID Act. What does this mean for America?
1. Dead Cops, or Dead Families of Cops!
The Real ID Act requires that everyone give their permanent home address. No P.O. boxes, no exceptions. What about judges, police, and undercover cops? Oops!!! Hey Senators, let's endanger our police and judges!!! [NOT!] We need all the honest cops we can get, to uphold the Constitution, and "serve and protect" the public as it was in the days of old. They can't do this if they're looking over their shoulders every time they come home. In fact, they won't leave home, because no cop with a family would dare, when every crook in town knows where to hit 'em where it hurts the most!
2. Stolen Identities, Leading to Implantable Chip ID.
Our new IDs will have to make their data available through a "common machine-readable technology". That will make it easy for anybody in private industry to snap up the data on these IDs. Bars scanning ID to collect personal data on customers will be just the tip of the iceberg as every convenience store learns to grab that data and sell it to Big Business for a quick buck. It won't matter whether the states and federal government protect their databases; it will be harvested by the private sector, which will keep it in parallel databases not subject even to the limited privacy rules in effect for the government.
Of course, when stolen ID becomes such an issue that it becomes an overnight crisis, they will say, "Hey, let's use those implantable chip-thingys and that'll solve the problem!" But RFID technology involving a syringe-implantable transponder was suggested waaay back in the early 1980s, so this is old hash. The concept once surfaced in a cabinet meeting in 1981, under President Ronald Reagan. Then-Attorney General William French Smith argued that a "perfectly harmless" ID card system would be necessary to reduce illegal immigration. (Sound familiar?) A second cabinet member asked; why not tattoo a number on each American's forearm? According to Martin Anderson, the White House domestic policy adviser at the time, Reagan blurted out, "My god, that's the Mark of the Beast!" As Anderson wrote, "that was the end of the national identification card during the Reagan years". The 9/11 commission report findings are proof that bad ideas never die in Washington, they just wait for another day; especially when there is a multigenerational, anti-Liberty agenda at work.
3. An End to the 4th Amendment: Papers, Please!!
National ID requires the states to link their databases together for the mutual sharing of data from these IDs. This is, in effect, a single seamless national database, available to all the states and to the federal government. Our nation will join the ranks of the Soviet Union, Communist China, & Vietnam by issuing its citizens a national ID card. The machine-readable part of the card may come in the form of a two-dimensional bar code; but the Department of Homeland Security, which will be crafting the regulations implementing Real ID, has made clear that it would prefer to see a remotely readable RFID chip. That would make private-sector access and systematic tracking even more easy and likely. More important, it would allow the government to track you and develop a database on your daily habits, travel patterns, and a log of the places you visit.
4. Martial-Law Checkpoints Across Amerika
We're not just talking about the federalization of drivers' licenses. We're talking about OUR federal government wanting to literally establish a Soviet-style internal passport system! Subjecting every citizen to a totalitarian surveillance network and internal checkpoints will actually make us less safe, not just because it will divert resources away from tracking and apprehending terrorists, but because it will deploy them against innocent Americans! And the few brave Americans that do the RIGHT thing and meet the police state with armed resistance will no doubt find themselves having to contend with these outposts of evil!
Those who lust for greater control over our society would be able, with a national ID system, to 'red flag' any class of people whom they would want to neutralize... It doesn't matter whether you're a law abiding American or not. Anyone can be demonized and marginalized. Gun-owning Americans who refuse to give up their firearms could also be labeled as terrorists. Ditto for anyone in a citizen militia (see how they were demonized as a class for the actions of people not even in their militias?) ...Or how about those who home-school their kids?
A national ID system is great for implementing anything unconstitutional you have in mind, and unlike what Henry Kissinger said, you wouldn't have to wait very long.
"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."
-Henry Kissinger (NY Times, 10-28-73)
Wake up, America!
It doesn't matter wthether or not you think President Bush is the American incarnation of Hitler, the next guy could be! Or perhaps more to the point, who's to say that today's "nice guy" in the White House won't become tomorrow's "Satan incarnate" in the face of a national emergency?
I say Bush knows exactly what he's doing, and he intends to take away your liberty one at a time for the remaider of his ungodly term in office. A national ID Post from the Drudge Report, late 2001:
www.drudgereport.com/id.htm states; "Bush Contemplates National ID Card For All Citizens" - "...House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt [D-MO] says Congress should quickly move to open debate on security measures such as a national ID card. "We are in a new world (order*)," Gephardt said; "This event will change the balance between freedom and security." This isn't a (D) vs. (R) debate, people! They're plotting how to best enslave you from BOTH sides of the partisan aisle, and any disagreement between the two parties is only a matter of style!
Worse even, some of you who call yourselves Americans will sit back and allow yourselves to become accustomed to each successive infringement of Liberty, thinking you will be safe. You may accept the chains of enslavement when you should be picking up whatever rifle you have and going after these bastards with hot lead!
By the way, I'm not jesting! Treason is a capital offense. Treason is when politicians strip you of your God-given Liberty and tell you to shut up and cooperate, "or else"! Treason is waging war on the American people, or aiding and abetting those who do.
The bottom line here is that if the criminals running this country get this system fully implemented, and you're not already lockin', loadin' and getting ready to expend some serious quantities of hot lead, you will earn every bit of the totalitarian hatefest that they have in store for you.
EDITORIAL UPDATE 5-20-05:
Well, it passed. America now has a national ID law. America, will you wake up to the fact that the scumbags running this country have declared you to be the enemy? Have you realized yet that they are warring against your God-given freedom? I normally don't repost whole editorials on this website; I usually just link to them. However, in the interest of insuring that you will be able to read this in the future, I have posted this May editorial
Also, now that NID is the law in 'Amerika', see what they're already doing to create a national ID database and how they intend to use it; remember, the Constitution doesn't mean SQUAT to them!
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/4510199/detail.html (expect them to delete the original page soon, so CLICK HERE to see the reposted original text of this article!
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/4510199/detail.html (expect them to delete the original page soon, so CLICK HERE to see the reposted original text of this article!Additional articles on the National ID threat to our few remaining Liberties
INFOWARS - The ID Card of the Police State:
National ID card system failing to attract supporters
By Joseph Menn, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
[Again, just because 99% of us don't want it doesn't mean that's going to stop freedom-hating politicians from making slaves out of you and every future generation!]
The American Police State - Counterpunch - Paul Craig Roberts
AMERICA IS NOT A FREE COUNTRY - Fount of Truth - Doug Newman
Search "American Police State" - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22American+Police+State%22
Search "National ID Card" - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22National+ID+card%22
