One of the things that has always distinguished the United States from the authoritarian countries of the world in that we have the freedom to travel anywhere and everywhere within the country - at will and without any required national documentation. We don't have internal passports and we don't have national ID cards.
However, our betters at Pravda on the Potomac (or the Washington Post, if you prefer) think we all should have a universal national ID card with biometric identifiers built into it. They propose this as a means to keep employers from hiring illegal aliens and as a means to deter illegal immigration.
An effective solution would be to issue tamper-proof, biometric ID cards — using fingerprints or a comparably unique identifier — to all citizens and legal residents. Last week, both President Obama and a bipartisan group of eight senators seeking immigration reform urged something along those lines, without calling it a universal national identity card. That’s a major step forward.The Post thinks this is more effective than securing the border. They also dismiss concerns held by civil libertarians.
Critics on both the civil-liberties left and the libertarian right have long resisted such cards as the embodiment of a Big Brother brand of government, omniscient, invasive and tentacular. Their criticisms ring hollow.I'm surprised that the Post doesn't argue that we need to be "chipped" just like your dog or cat. Wouldn't that make it even easier to determine who is legally in the country or is a citizen?
More than a third of Americans (35 percent) possess passports, up from just 6 percent 20 years ago — and all passports issued since 2007 contain chips that enable biometric use of facial recognition technology. The proliferation of passports for foreign travel has not encroached on Americans’ civil liberties. Why would another form of ID, used for employment verification, pose such a threat?
As to the Post's argument that a national ID card won't encroach on our civil liberties and wouldn't pose a threat, that's BS. It is the height of control by the government. It is their key to our lives, our privacy, and our freedom.
I say thanks, but no thanks.
The Post says, "More than a third of Americans (35 percent) possess passport...Why would another form of ID...pose such a threat?"
ReplyDeleteBecause I can take that passport, throw in the fire, and no one will know or give a rodent's posterior. And I'll still be able to live my life in a relatively free manner, (though becoming less free every day).
The guys I remember who ran the University Newspaper (I just took pictures) were really consumed with their own self-smarts and Inside-Politics, even though few or none were Poli-Sci majors, meanwhile consuming as much booze and drugs as humanly possible while remaining only partly functionally erect. Why on earth should we be ruled by these idiotic fried-brain Hunter Thompson wannabees?
ReplyDeleteThis is how liberty is smothered. Post-9/11 erode our liberty to travel to Canada and Mexico by requiring passports to reenter the country. Then a few years later claim that because so many more people have passports that forcing everyone to have another form if official ID is not a horrible intrusion.
ReplyDeleteThey're already at work on this. We received a notice from the State of Iowa that new drivers licenses and renewals will now contain electronic information about the bearer. You'll have to face a background check of sorts but the new license will supposedly allow you entry to federal facilities without a search. You can't opt out of this program, either.
ReplyDeleteThey will trace our every step before they're done.
creeper
The funniest part?
ReplyDeleteThey won't be required for voting.
Ponder that for a second.
Then finish the bottle and it'll all be better.
Veeshir, I know how to get around that. Pass Creeper's Iowa system in every state, and then move all the polling places to federal buildings. The law says the voting has to take place on the second Tuesday in November, so in order to get into the polling place you need this identification.
ReplyDeleteAmerican Universal System (for) Wealth Egalitarianism, Identification Safety (and) Security
A.u.s.w.e.i.s.s. As in "Ausweiss, Bitte."
I still haven't forgiven the politicians for that cutesy-named snake, the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act.