From The Ramparts

AmeriKKKan Police State One Step Closer

Big Brother Police State One step Closer

“REAL ID goes way beyond that. It's a huge power-grab by the federal government over the states' systems for issuing driver's licenses. REAL ID doesn't go into effect until three years after it becomes law, but I expect things to be much worse by then. One of my fears is that this new uniform driver's license will bring a new level of "show me your papers" checks by the government. Already you can't fly without an ID, even though no one has ever explained how that ID check makes airplane terrorism any harder. I have previously written about Secure Flight, another lousy security system that tries to match airline passengers against terrorist watch lists. I've already heard rumblings about requiring states to check identities against "government databases" before issuing driver's licenses. I'm sure Secure Flight will be used for cruise ships, trains, and possibly even subways. Combine REAL ID with Secure Flight and you have an unprecedented system for broad surveillance of the population. Is there anyone who would feel safer under this kind of police state?”- Bruce Schneier 05-0805

The cowards in the US Senate recently passed an $82 billion dollar military emergency appropriations bill that contained an attachment establishing what amounts to a National ID card. The plutocrats have been attempting to force surveillance and ID measures on the public for quite some time. Now using 9-11 as a rouse has given them the pretext under claims of “national security” to implement wide ranging means of spying on, intruding upon and interfering with the everyday lives of the AmeriKKKan public. The PATRIOT Act I and II were merely pieces on a larger puzzle to usher in a totalitarian police state under the guise of protecting the sheep from the big bad wolves of foreign terrorists. The 9-11 Whitewash Commission offered recommendations along these lines and the US congress did their part by passing it as a stand alone bill (HR 418) by a vote of 261-161 last February. Later the fascists realized they might have some trouble passing a stand alone bill in the Senate so they adroitly attached it to a military appropriations bill no one was going to oppose. If national security requires a national ID why didn’t they present it as a stand alone bill debate it and vote up or down on its merits? They didn’t do that because the legislation is totally bogus. There is no need for a national ID. The fact they snuck it by shows their disingenuousness. Most AmeriKKKans don’t even know what was going on because the corporate media distracted the public with disproportionate coverage of the Michael Jackson saga or the disappearing fiancee stories that have taken up so much time and space in all the media lately. The bill is called the Real ID Act, it mandates the states modify their respective driver’s license to follow national uniform ID standards to be established by the Department of Homeland Security. The rationale was to make it difficult for illegal aliens to get driver’s licenses. But establishing a national ID will not solve that problem. They simply will do what a lot of folks already do, drive with no license, insurance or registration! The Senate voted to pass it on May 10 without discussion or debate and of course George W “Freedom is on the march”Bush has indicated he will sign it.
The bill mandates states, at their own expense, (which means the local taxpayers will absorb the costs) will collect data on each person that show s proof of citizenship upon applying for a driver’s license; and the states must switch to a uniform and standardized driver’s license that can be swiped through computer scanners. (Where are the state’s rights advocates when you really need them?) The bill does not provide for federal funding to pay for the changes which will cause additional fiscal hardship for cash strapped states. Of course if the federal government bribes them with money more states may be willing to go along with the okey-doke. The new standardized license will contain encoded data that could be accessible through storage and sharing in a humongous national data base. (What would happen if hackers got into that data base?) Homeland Security has already gone on record as supporting Radio Frequency ID (RFID) chips that could be implanted on our person, in ID cards or on license plates. More radical supporters of a police state are calling for IDs based upon fingerprints, retina scans or DNA. How will any of this provide protection from or stop a terrorist or terrorists from doing harm if he or she is so motivated? Even the FBI admits they don’t really know the real identities of the 19 “high-jackers” who allegedly commandeered the four planes on 9-11 because their IDs were fake. This bill is just a rouse, another a step in bringing George Orwell’s Big Brother into reality. Wake up AmeriKKKa don’t allow the fascists to frighten us into accenting to a totalitarian police state! Over 600 organizations are opposed to the legislation including the ACLU. Don’t be surprised if some legal challenges surface before the bill goes into effect in 2008. Pass the word, join the fight to save your privacy and freedom!
We already endure long lines and inconvenience at airports, this new law will create the same situation at local DMV sites and state offices where applications for driver’s licences are taken, and for what? So some hacker or corrupt bureaucrat can steal our identity or sell our information? One reason so many people who knew about it opposed this bill, is because they lack coincidence in the government to maintain the data securely. An article by Lisa Vaas on www.eweek.com dated May 6, 2005 pointed out “Security experts have expressed dismay about new legislation that will usher in the nation's first national ID system—citing a lack of confidence in the government's ability to employ the technology in such a way as to prevent citizens from being preyed upon by identity thieves... ‘Gathering that information and putting it into state DMVs with a skyrocketing incident rate of identity thefts is a really bad idea,’ said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, an organization which has long opposed the idea of national Ids. It's not that the database information can't be encrypted, security experts point out—it's that the government has proven untrustworthy in doing so.” There have been a rash of hacks and computer thefts from DMVs in Nevada and Florida. Almost daily hackers and identify thieves break into government as well as private company data bases and steal information. The federal government is not immune and a national data base would be a prime target for hackers! Couple this with the potential for invasion of privacy and tracking of individuals abuses makes the bill bad news. When you consider the bill was passed in the US Senate without discussion or debate, it makes you wonder whose side they are on?

-30-

posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 9:11 AM