THE REAL ID or THE REAL IDIOCY

THE REAL ID or THE REAL IDIOCY

The heritage dictionary's definition of ...

idiocy n., pl. idiocies. 1. Extreme folly or stupidity.
2. A foolish or stupid utterance or deed.
3. Psychology. The state or condition of
being an idiot; profound mental retardation.

I do believe this state or condition is what this Bush-Neocon Government think we the people are inflicted with. And we are, Profoundly, Mentally Retarded (or PMR) and idiots if we allow them to easily get away with making such a horrible infringement on our liberties a LAW!

Any citizen with half a brain should be OUTRAGED to put it mildly. Please read some of the information I have gathered from the Internet and note, even Mark Morford with his usual witty way could not find much humorous dialog to describe this frightening madness the neocons are pumping out more and more these days. ONCE AGAIN GOD HELP US! ThinkingBlue

They Really Are Watching You Ready for your own all-new, sinister ID card, courtesy of Homeland Security? Shudder
-
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Well, now we've done it. Congress just passed it and Dubya has promised to sign it and the Homeland Security Department is giddier than Mel Gibson in a nail factory over it and marketers nationwide are salivating at the groin at the prospect of it, and the next big step toward America becoming an even more delightfully paranoid and draconian Big Brother wonderland has now officially been taken.

It's called Real ID. It is, in short, a new and genetically mutated type of driver's license for all Americans, replacing your current license and replacing your Social Security card and replacing your sense of well being and privacy and humanity and part of a new, uniform, deeply sinister, national uniform card system whereby every person living and breathing in these paranoid and tense times shall henceforth be much more traceable and watchable given how we will all soon be required by law to carry this super-deluxe computerized ID card with us at all times, packed as it will be with more personal, digitized info about you than even your mother knows.

Real ID is coming very soon.
The legislation was passed with little outcry and zero debate by both House and Senate just last week because lawmakers snuck it into a massive $82 billion military spending bill, and therefore no one was really paying much attention and this is the way you get thorny disturbing culturally demeaning bills to pass without resistance from smart people who should know better.

The new law will, according to the Wired News story linked above, require everyone to hand over not one, not two, but fully four types of documentation to renew their driver's license, such as a photo ID, a birth certificate, proof that their Social Security number is legit and something that validates their home address, like a phone bill. DMV employees will then have to verify the documents against giant teeming federal databases and store the documents and a digital photo of you in a database. Isn't that fun? Doesn't that sound gratifying?

What's more, the card's design plan includes multiple openings for the Homeland Security Department to add on whatever features they deem necessary, with or without your knowledge, consent or who the hell cares what you think because we do what we want now please shut the hell up and quit asking questions.

Computer (RFID) microchip? Likely. Digital fingerprint? Sure. Political affiliation? You bet. Web-site-visit log and religious affiliation and recent sperm count and arrest record and drug addictions and medical history and blood type and gender orientation and parent's/children's home address and number of personal blog posts calling Dr. Phil a "slug-licking ego-bitch charlatan" and your recent purchase history on shotathome.com? One guess.

Make no mistake: Real ID, in short, takes us one happy step closer to a total surveillance state, where everyone is stamped and everyone is watchable and everyone is traceable and unless you live way, way off the grid out in the increasingly nonexistent hinterlands, you cannot escape the spazzy and twitchy and paranoid eye of Homeland Security. (We all know what is next... forced to wear a badge to identify whether you are for Bush, against Bush or A FOREIGN, NONNATIVE OR SPACE ALIEN! Please Click Here TO READ HOW IT HAPPENED BEFORE ThinkingBlue)

Remember the scenes in that surprisingly not-awful Tom Cruise flick "Minority Report" with the ubiquitous eye scanners, installed all over the near-future city? And as poor Tommy ran around like a maniac, little scanner machines installed by the gummint would read the eye pattern of every citizen as they walked around and the system could track anyone at any time no matter where they might wander and all the info was dumped into a huge database that was studied and cross-checked and manipulated by the CIA and FBI and Banana Republic?

Real ID feels much like that, only not nearly as cool.

Real ID is, as you might expect, giving civil liberties groups and immigrant-support groups the hives. State governors across the nation are none too happy, either, as implementation of the new law will cost each state hundreds of millions of dollars, but, of course, the bill provides zero federal funds to help. Such is the BushCo way. This is the funny thing. This is the sad thing. This is the terrifying thing. We have suffered one major debilitating act of terrorism in this nation and we have recoiled so violently, so rabidly, so desperately that we are still more than willing to give up whatever freedoms necessary in a vain and silly attempt to control chaos and plug every hole, when of course the nation is basically one giant hole to begin with.

Of course, any good conspiracy theorist worth his secret underground bootleg Area 51 videos will tell you this sort of citizen-surveillance thing has been going on for years, decades, from spy satellites to GPS to all manner of phone tracking and e-mail snooping and behavior watching and this Real ID thing only takes it a little more public, national, makes it part of the cultural lexicon because we have finally weakened so much we just don't seem to give a damn what they do to us anymore.

Don't think it's all that bad? Think BushCo's flying monkeys in the CIA and FBI and Homeland Security really have your best interests at heart and are genuinely trying to protect you from scary swarthy furriners who want to sneak into our country and poison our Cheerios and paint our flag orange and cover our wimmin in burlap? Have at it. The GOP would love to have you. Oh, and while you're at it, enjoy that tiny grain-of-rice-size bar-coded implant RFID microchip the FDA just approved, which they can permanently slip under your skin in about 20 seconds, with nary a peep.

This is what's happening now. With Real ID (and who knows what else), the government is cracking down and creating a new and improved and far more devious and exploitable system to monitor its citizens because, well, because we let them. Because millions of us have been pummeled so successfully by the fear-mongering Right. Because we have never been so lax, so blinded by warmongering and dread, so numbed to what might become of us.

Ah, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is just rampant paranoia talking and it's just a silly piece of harmless legislation and Real ID is overall a genuinely good and useful idea that will ultimately make us safer and more secure. You think?

Because hasn't BushCo proven to be reliable and honest and just reeking with integrity about privacy and security issues so far? Hasn't the USA Patriot Act been just a wondrous boon to police and CIA and our sense that we are trusted and cared for by our government? Aren't we all feeling just so much safer with this most secretive, least accountable administration at the helm?

After all, why not trust the government on this? Why not put our faith in the goodly Homeland Security Department? Maybe Real ID really is patriotic and constructive and it will be a smooth and secure and completely inviolable system, one that protects citizens while giving them a new sense of freedom to move about the country with carefree flag-waving ease, safe in the knowledge that their big, snarling gummint is watching over them like a protective mother bear -- as opposed to, say, a female praying mantis, who greedily screws her lover, and then, of course, eats him alive.

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THIS IS SCARIER THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE ... READ ON... FROM THIS
SITE http://www.watchblog.com/thirdparty/archives/002254.html

"Real" Disturbing News

Expecting heavy resistance in the Senate, the Real ID bill was instead attached to an
appropriations bill which will fund our troops in Iraq and send aid to tsunami victims. Needless to say, it passed the House on Thursday and is expected to pass the Senate next week. Does it need mentioning that Bush has signed every bill to cross his desk?

The Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) has been pushing for the Real ID bill since the beginning of 2005. The House approved a version of the bill in mid-February, however there was not enough support in the Senate to get the bill through Congress. So, what else can be done when a bill doesn't have enough support? Tack it to the end of a bill which is loaded with public stigma, perhaps one which funds troops and victims of natural disasters.

I've written about the Real ID bill previously, but I think it bears repeating.

1) The Real ID bill (attached to H.R.1268 and its counterpart in the Senate) gives the DHS sole power to approve and regulate standards regarding state-issued ID
cards.

2) For states to receive federal funding, they must link their information databases into a national one. Thereby giving away records containing your vehicle information, driving records, police records,etc.

3) Federally accepted ID cards must be 'machine readable', and the DHS will get to determine what this means exactly. It may be magnetic stripes or bar codes, or it may be something more intrusive like RFID tags, which can be used without
physical access to the card. (With a barcode or magnetic stripe, you must allow someone to scan your card physically, but with RFID, if you have your ID in your pocket, and you walk past an RFID scanner, you've been identified.)

If you think that the DHS isn't just itching to use this technology, think again. They're planning to test a system of RFID-containing IDs on

foreign visitors starting July 31, 2005. The DHS will keep biometric data along with information such as date of entry and country of origin linked to their RFID-numbers. How long before this isn't just a test anymore, and it's being rolled out to all law-abiding native US citizens?

4) Your card will store information about you with this 'machine readable' technology. It will, at the very least, contain your name, address, gender, ID number and a digital photograph. (thus, when walking past an RFID scanner, it can retreive your ID number and a photograph, making it easy for authorities to pick you out of the crowd if your ID triggers an alarm.)

5) The DHS is allowed to change its regulations whenever they see fit. This allows for them to pass the bill now, and later on, require that your ID contain digital record of your fingerprints (to be retrieved by an RFID scanner) or retinal scan, maybe your political/religious affiliation, personal income information, you name it.

However, that extra information wouldn't even necessarily have to be stored on the card, once they have your SSN from your ID card through an RFID scanner, the linking of information databases could easily bring up your voter registration, tax information, criminal record, etc.

Finally, I want to commend Howard Coble of North Carolina, John Duncan of Tennessee, and Ron Paul of Texas, the only three republicans in the House to vote against this bill. The complete voting record is here.

Call your Senators TODAY, and urge them to vote against H.R.1268, "EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR DEFENSE, THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR, AND TSUNAMI RELIEF, 2005".Posted by

Andrew Parker at May 6, 2005 11:01 AM
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Show me your papers by Ed Quillen

but it's hard to see how this has
anything to do with making America more secure.

For one thing, the country got along without government ID cards for many years. Social Security cards used to say, "Not to be used for purposes of identification." As for driver's licenses, our neighboring state of Wyoming didn't even bother with them until 1948 - and America somehow got through World Wars I and II.

For another, consider that last month, we commemorated the 10th anniversary of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. One of the perpetrators was Timothy McVeigh, a decorated Army veteran with an honorable discharge. Before the bombing, would he have had any trouble getting a Real IDs? Of course not. The Real ID could not have prevented one of the most destructive acts of terrorism in American history.

And there are other possibilities that reduce public safety. The more paperwork it takes to get a driver's license, the more unlicensed, and presumably uninsured, drivers on the highway. That can't be good for public safety or security.

Identity theft should get simpler with state information repositories that are required to be accessible nationally. Besides, has there ever been a document that couldn't be forged?

In other words, Real ID just sets up more bureaucratic paperwork. It won't make us an iota safer, but it will take us another step toward the internal passports of totalitarian regimes.

But to be fair and balanced here, I should note that President Bush said that "This legislation will help America continue to promote freedom and democracy."

I guess there's a difference between promoting freedom and practicing it.

Ed Quillen of Salida (ed@cozine.com)
is a former newspaper editor whose column appears Tuesday and Sunday.

THE BUSH-NEOCON REAL ID CARD

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MORE READING:

1. Real ID Under Fire
2. Real ID' Act Could Help ID Thieves
3. An Unrealistic 'Real ID' In a more rational world, Congress would have started thinking hard about identity cards right after Sept. 11. By now, the nation's lawmakers could have had a long and serious discussion about how to create a sensible national ID that would provide identification and security while protecting privacy. This is, after all, a critical issue
   in terms of both safety and civil liberties.
   Too bad. What Congress is doing instead is to ram through a bill that turns state-issued driver's licenses into a kind of phony national identity card through the mislabeled "Real ID" provision. And in order to make absolutely sure there's no genuine debate, the sponsors have tied it to a crucial bill providing funds for American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Attaching a bad bill to a vital one is a sneaky business, making it nearly impossible for thoughtful members of Congress to vote against it. In this case, in order to provide financial support to American troops doing dangerous service abroad, lawmakers are stuck also supporting a plan that eliminates the chance of doing anything serious about identity security. It also puts a new burden on the states and potentially subverts the real purpose of driver's licenses: safe drivers. READ MORE HERE
4. Take Action Papers, Please!
   

National ID Legislation PassesTuesday May 10th 2005 is the day that future historians will note as The Day America Changed. On this date, the Senate of the United States of America passed legislation that will bring about a national ID card. President G. W. Bush is expected to sign the bill on May 12th 2005. The national ID card scheme will take three years to implement.

A National ID Card.In the United States of America.

The question is whether May 10th 2005 will be known as the day the American people simply rolled over and accepted this, or as the beginning of a struggle to restore our birthright?

Will the individual States resist federal encroachment on their rights under the US Constitution? Will those responsible for this unconstitutional atrocity be booted out of office in the 2006 mid-term elections? Will those who believe that a national ID number is truly the Mark of the Beast make their voices heard? Will those who fear a surveillance state work to expel totalitarians from power? >> Sign up for updates... Stay tuned. This is not over. God bless (HELP) these United States of America.

CAROLYNCONNETION - I've got a mind and I'm going to use it!

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