[OneLoneClone]

Agreed, the issue is not the ID. But cards with RFID work hand in hand with networks and databases, truly it will enable a new kind of aggregate surveillance as well as individual surveillance.

And lets be clear, the profiling of citizens based on consumption/shopping/travel patterns will probably be done more by insurance, marketing, retail and credit companies than by the feds. Hell, its better for the feds to outsource it, privatize it, externalize it. All they need to do is get a 'national security letter' to harvest the data legally, and THEN it can go into a federal database forever.

Not the end of the world, just the end of romantic 20th century notions of privacy.

As an IT worker, I can tell you emphatically that most companies are incredibly negligent with the security of customer data. Increasing numbers of my programmer friends are disabling online banking because its simply too risky now.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Starvid', 'I')n Sweden all citizens are registered with a special number, called the "Personal number".

It is yymmdd-xxxx, that is the six first characters show date of birth and the last four show place of birth, sex and a control number.

It works well and there is no government abuse. It helps the bureaucracy a lot.

[Princess]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'I')'ll be darned if I'm gonna become a number and use a credit card to buy everything because it helps the beauracracy. I don't want anything from the beuaracracy but for it to get the heck out of my life.

[shakespear1]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')s an IT worker, I can tell you emphatically that most companies are incredibly negligent with the security of customer data. Increasing numbers of my programmer friends are disabling online banking because its simply too risky now.

[Starvid]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Princess', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'I')'ll be darned if I'm gonna become a number and use a credit card to buy everything because it helps the beauracracy. I don't want anything from the beuaracracy but for it to get the heck out of my life.

[oowolf]

The day I "have to" carry an ID is the day I begin carrying a loaded weapon at all times.
I suppose most of the sheeple will also climb into boxcars on command.

"Live free or die." There are actually some of us who cannot tolerate the insult to human dignity that passes for so-called life in the corporate-fascist police state; i.e. docile consumeroid zombies trapped in the spinning squirrel cage of mindless comsumerism that passes for life in most of the "industrialized" world.

The CoC forbids me from communicating my true feelings about anyone stupid enough to own and operate a personal ICE powered vehicle or travel on a jetliner...oops, rant coming on, must go next door for more "moose drool".

[The_Toecutter]

Personally, I don't care much for a trackable ID and anyone that dares request I show them one will see a loaded weapon instead. Who I am, among other info, is none of their goddamn business if I don't wish to give them the information, nor is it within their constitutional jurisdiction to request it without a warrant or the probable cause required of the warrant.

The U.S.S.A. becomes more pronounced as a function of time. It shows a significant resemblence to its Soviet cousin, but it is right-wing and corporate dominated as opposed to left-wing dominated...

[AmericanEmpire]

It appears more and more to me that we are in a race between a total Mad Max fossil fuel depleted world and total police state control. Neither one is good in my book but if I had my pick I think I'd rather deal with Mad Max.

[The_Toecutter]

What we might see is even worse: a combination of both Mad Max and Police State, varying upon whether you're in an urban or a rural area.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hat we might see is even worse: a combination of both Mad Max and Police State, varying upon whether you're in an urban or a rural area.

[Denny]

When I was a kid, the use of an identity card was one of the sorry spectacles we were taught about Soviet totalitarianism. Maybe Deborah Davis, taught as I was, came to realize that this mentality had taken root in her homeland.

What the heck is homeland security going to protect if not the basics of freedom that has made America great in the eyes of the world?

Deborah Davis, you are courageous. The world could use more like you!

If the security at the federal center is so worried about terrorism, they would be advised to ride with the bus through the complex. My guess is the real terrorists will have some well done identity cards in any case.

[Tim7332]

How awesome would it be if you had to show ID randomly in public. That way we'd finally fix the illegal immigration problem.

I don't mind showing my id a couple times in order to fix this mess in my state of California.

[OneLoneClone]

As Tim#### indicates, people will exchange privacy for security EVERY TIME, usually without debate.

Whether its for protection against immigrants or terrorists or bird flu...here is another example of the creep towards the surveillance state. We are almost done with the transition. Its so simple... National ID's with RFID, cheap videocameras and microprocessors, wireless networking, modern databases, most transactions are paid in debit/credit cards, most communicaiton in searchable email or tracable cellphones...its a surveillance state's wet dream. Totally irresisistable for those in power, all over the globe. The ID card (and faster microprocessors for biometric scanning of public spaces), are the last pieces of technology needed in place for it all to get 'synergistic'.

Now they just need to iron out a few legalities

Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity
Washington Post

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Pentagon has pushed legislation on Capitol Hill that would create an intelligence exception to the Privacy Act, allowing the FBI and others to share information gathered about U.S. citizens with the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence agencies, as long as the data is deemed to be related to foreign intelligence. Backers say the measure is needed to strengthen investigations into terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.

The proposals, and other Pentagon steps aimed at improving its ability to analyze counterterrorism intelligence collected inside the United States, have drawn complaints from civil liberties advocates and a few members of Congress, who say the Defense Department's push into domestic collection is proceeding with little scrutiny by the Congress or the public.

"We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a [congressional] hearing," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a recent interview.

Wyden has since persuaded lawmakers to change the legislation, attached to the fiscal 2006 intelligence authorization bill, to address some of his concerns, but he still believes hearings should be held. Among the changes was the elimination of a provision to let Defense Intelligence Agency officers hide the fact that they work for the government when they approach people who are possible sources of intelligence in the United States.

Modifications also were made in the provision allowing the FBI to share information with the Pentagon and CIA, requiring the approval of the director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte, for that to occur, and requiring the Pentagon to make reports to Congress on the subject. Wyden said the legislation "now strikes a much fairer balance by protecting critical rights for our country's citizens and advancing intelligence operations to meet our security needs."

Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the data-sharing amendment would still give the Pentagon much greater access to the FBI's massive collection of data, including information on citizens not connected to terrorism or espionage.

The measure, she said, "removes one of the few existing privacy protections against the creation of secret dossiers on Americans by government intelligence agencies." She said the Pentagon's "intelligence agencies are quietly expanding their domestic presence without any public debate."

[The_Toecutter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')s Tim#### indicates, people will exchange privacy for security EVERY TIME, usually without debate.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Starvid', 'W')ell Miss Neoliberals, do as you please. I stay with the welfare state and the strong society.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ow awesome would it be if you had to show ID randomly in public. That way we'd finally fix the illegal immigration problem.

I don't mind showing my id a couple times in order to fix this mess in my state of California.

[OneLoneClone]

Yeah gee its too bad there aren't cops everywhere checking ID's and rounding up non-white immigrants (that should help collapse Cali agriculture) and imprisoning addicts (at taxpayers expense) and the all the other parasites of society. If only we had the manpower, prison cells and the money.



the only thing I hate more than government fascists are vigilante thug skinhead/redneck fascists