Saturday, April 19, 2008

5-11: The Anti-Real ID Campaign

The 5-11 Campaign - a BeatTheChip action exclusive

For those getting a little green around the edges about Real ID's emminent domain on America, take heart in the fact that you are not without a recourse.

For every state like Idaho and Alaska, who fought and won their states private fight to go against Real ID, you may have a story like Maine's, where their fight for citizens with their birthrights in the US will have to show a birth certificate to get an ID.

South Carolina's Gov. Sanford, has become somewhat of a national governing spokesperson against Real ID in the delicate dance of power, freedom and securities negotiations. In US foriegn policy, the Oval office doesn't negotiate with terrorists. As US people how do we adopt a policy to not negotiate with fascists- whatever powerful masks they wear? It's never that simple, at least while the painted lines are still drying.

The pill we take every day as American's is in our choices. We create our own hope. Government is the art of set-up and tear down. It is very much a blue collar job with a lot of whitewash. The government needs people to do it's job. We need the governing people to do their job. Our responsibility to the globe has gotten as larger with the damaging tracks we leave when we permit commerce to lead over human rights. Activism is now in our living rooms.

Which brings me to post some important literature from activists in the fight against Real ID. You can print them out and present them to people you know in government. When the odds are tough, you get tough with oddness.

BeatTheChip.org, WTPRN.com, 90.1 FM and Aaron Russo's Restore the Republic are teaming up to promote the new 5-11 Campaign. With documents like these we can move together to stop America from being the next nation to be biometrified, chipped, tagged and gagged in surveillance states like Cananda and the UK, in someone elses version of a One World Government.

Please visit this link to get started on documents you can send to your representative to stop your 5-11.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Real ID's Crisis of Constitutionality

Philidelphia is the birthplace of the Constitution, where Wednesday's Democratic debates took place on ABC. Both Clinton and Obama, democratic presidential hopefuls, voted in The Patriot Act and The Real ID Act of 2005-a very unpopular federal unfunded mandate passed to states which are now causing land rights infringements.

The local Pennsylvania bill HS 1351 opposes the Real ID Act, with 85 House Co-Sponsors and 16 Senate supporters. Teamsters are hot over the increase in costs over their commercial drivers licenses due to these two acts.

Lawsuits against the US Department of Homeland Security over section 102 of the Real ID Act of 2005 are headed for the Supreme Court. Real ID is at the center of class action lawsuits from landowners, tribal governments, environmental groups, civil liberties and privacy advocates. 36 federal laws have been waived at the discretion of DHS to run roughshod over wildlife preserves, native american lands and right through a few living rooms of border residents.

I reached out to Pennsylvania Real ID activists to get them to plug for their issue during Wednesday's debate on ABC. They hit the same stonewall I did - and many others who had massive Constitutional concerns that day. I reached George Stephanopolous's office and demanded that ABC not obscure the issues with distractions, a virtual plague on the democratic campaign. What can you expect when Bill Clinton's former press secretary is running the debates? The day of the debate the major networks were covering Obama cajolling Israeli special interests and our beloved Hapsburg, THE POPE.

All this in the face of the birthplace of our constitution.

Clinton's campaign could not be reached. The answer that reached me from Obama's camp came from a Texas delegate working in Philly. The answer was: shut up and vote democratic ; Obama's version of homeland security is final. After I burned her ears off that Real ID, myself and the million other Real ID opponents were not going away, she offered to "pass a note" to his hotel suite. How nice. I'm sure it would have been more effective however to give my message to one of his campaign advisors. You get what you get - I got a self important conservative democrat who more than likely voted for Bush in the last election, and believes she is paying party penance. She was still hawking 2004's election's Kerry flamer about "flip flopping"-as some sort of great answer to the absolute mistake of passing Real ID, a trojan horse inside of HR 1268 - tsunami relief and supplemental aid to troops. The other absolute mistake was voting in Dubya.

I am an American. I was born with Constitutional rights. I intend to die with the same rights I was born with. No unconstitutional law is legally enforcable.

Illegal enforceability results in cases like todays local dead gagged activist who was "found" by the FBI. His death is on their books as a suicide.

Here's to "shut up and vote democratic" :

Veritech Technologies Has It For Real ID: CA, MN

I find it odd that California and Minnesota have just become the new roosts for a tech company that wants to help out on Real ID. NKOTB: Vertitech and SCV Network of California? ~sniff sniff~ Can anyone smell a Conservative Democrat here?

"SCV Network of California is a wireless and mobile technology industry consulting and marketing organization that provides government and the private sector, solution services for wireless and mobile networks for delivery of VOIP, data, video streaming services and secure eCommerce applications. John Ramos, SCV Network President, said "We will be honored to exhibit and represent Veritec, Inc.'s identification and security solutions at the GTC West government technology conference on May 12-16, 2008 at the Sacramento Convention Center. Veritec's two-dimensional matrix coding technology is the ideal solution for secure mobile eCommerce and Real ID card applications. Based upon our research, we foresee a huge growth of secure Internet applications on hand-held Mobile Internet Devices (MID's) as consumers rely on them for voice, data and video applications, as well as conducting commerce, in the real and virtual worlds, with those mobile devices." ::FULL STORY HERE::


Don't forget there are privatized securities firms that still want to be in the business of your identity trade for "convenenience". I realize that we all have times that we have to just get through the day- but one weak move in this direction will cost you more than your freedom. Someone in India may be paid to trade your address and other private information, possibly by AAMVA, American Association for Vehicle Administrators ,a chief proponent of Real ID implmentation and funding declare themselves a "clearinghouse" for driver information.

For information on the other non-profit and private government contractors trying to get into the world trade of buying and selling your personal information e-mail : stoprealid@aol.com

Please do something today.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Real ID Waives Federal Laws; Violates Native Lands

Real ID Waives Law Protecting Natives, Landowners and Ecology 4-11-08
c/o Indian Country Today

WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security in conjunction with the Department of the Interior has waived nearly 40 federal laws, including the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, to try to speed construction of a border fence between the United States and Mexico.

''Congress and the American public have been adamant that they want and expect border security,'' Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said in a statement, which announced the action April 1. ''We're serious about delivering it, and these waivers will enable important security projects to keep moving forward.''

NAGPRA, a federal law passed in 1990, created a legal process for federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return American Indian human remains and cultural items to their respective tribes or lineal descendants. Sherry Hutt, the national NAGPRA program manager, said she was not informed that the waiver would happen before it did; she's put in a call to DHS for an explanation.

''I want to know more about how they're proceeding,'' she said. Several tribal officials nationwide have said that they, too, were not informed of this decision.

Officials with DHS say they are trying to be mindful of culturally focused laws but have found it necessary to make blanket law waivers, since legal challenges have already greatly extended the timeline to build the controversial fence between the U.S. and Mexico.

''We will continue to work with tribal nations and tribal leaders to ensure that we are collaborating before we proceed with any major construction,'' said Laura Keehner, a spokesman for DHS. ''We invite the government-to-government discussions, and definitely expect that to continue.''

Under the waiver, more than 55 miles on the Tohono O'odham Reservation in Arizona would be affected, as well as several miles on lands owned by individual Indians and on other Indian communities. In total, the waivers apply to 470 miles of land in a stretch of area from California through Texas. In making the waivers, Chertoff is striving to meet a deadline by the end of the year to survey and build nearly 700 miles of fencing. Three hundred and nine miles of fencing have already been built. NAGPRA's waiver is but one of several recent DHS moves that are impacting Native peoples.

Several Apache landowners on the Rio Grande in January asked DHS to halt the seizure of their lands for the U.S.-Mexico border. The department has declared that it is using the principle of eminent domain to survey and possibly ultimately take possession of land. DHS is currently suing the landowners so that building of the fence can proceed. Despite the lawsuits, Keehner said that DHS is not trying to be insensitive. She even suggested that the building of the fence could be beneficial for Indians.

''Quite frankly, Indian country is incredibly [affected] by drugs coming into communities,'' Keehner said. ''Building this fence is another way that helps our efforts in keeping out drug dealers, drugs and human smuggling - so it's really better for the entire homeland.'' Although legislators who support border control are happy with Chertoff's decision-making, some lawmakers are already questioning the need for blanket waivers.

''I favor building barriers along the border where border patrol agents think they will help them do their job,'' Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said in a statement. ''In fact, I have helped secure millions of dollars for vehicle barriers in New Mexico. But I have not yet heard any justification for why the Bush administration cannot abide by current laws in the construction of this fence.''

Federal law gives Chertoff full authority to mandate such waivers, but some policymakers are particularly concerned by this most recent instance because Chertoff provided little reasoning on why they were necessary. ''While the [REAL ID] Act gives the Secretary the unilateral authority to waive those laws, I always understood that the Secretary would make that determination only to the extent necessary, after careful consideration and analysis,'' Bingaman wrote in a letter to Chertoff sent on April 1. ''I share your desire to improve security along the border and I agree that there may be certain instances where it is necessary to waive legal requirements; however, there must be a sound justification for doing so.''

In Chertoff's announcement of the waivers, he indicated that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne had urged him to take the action. Bingaman has also written to Kempthorne, asking for ''analyses, justifications and recommendations'' on why Kempthorne felt the waivers were so important. To date, he has not received a response.

In March, the Defenders of Wildlife advocacy group and the Sierra Club filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its argument against the REAL ID Act, which grants Chertoff his waiver power. The groups contend that the REAL ID Act's waiver provision unconstitutionally allows the DHS secretary unilaterally to repeal laws, which they say threatens the system of checks and balances assured in the Constitution. The organizations are currently calling on tribes to file amicus briefs, if the case were to be heard by the Supreme Court.

''We want to be reaching out to tribes because this waiver process is now starting to affect laws that affect them,'' said Brian Segee, a staff attorney with the Defenders of Wildlife. Beyond NAGRPRA, he said tribes should be especially concerned about Chertoff's waiver of the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.