"The New National Identification System Is Coming"

Special thanks to David Bier at CEI

"Maybe we should just brand all the babies.” With this joke, Ronald Reagan swatted down a national identification card — or an enhanced Social Security card — proposed by his attorney general in 1981. For more than three decades since, attempts to implement the proposal have all met with failure, but now national ID is back, and it’s worse than ever.

As in 1981, immigration restrictions have provided the justification. In the name of stopping illegal employment, proposals floated by a bipartisan group of senators would create both a physical national ID — an “enhanced” Social Security card — and even more menacingly an Internet-based, electronic ID that could be accessed anywhere to confirm identity.

Why foreign reporting on US domestic policy works for us

FROM THE EDITOR 

Here is an explanation, not an apology.

UPDATE: 2-7-2013: The Washington Post shielded the world from knowing which countries aided US in rendition and torture programs under fire during the Bush presidency. Russia Today reported Tuesday, 54 countries aided the programs.  Both drones and torture are taking center stage during  confirmation hearings of John Brennan as CIA director.

BTC -- The coverage of US public surveillance apertures keeps coming. To an embarrassment, mostly foreign reporting shows there is no exhibit of conscience from our leaders over this. Americans face a galling uphill climb as our government behaves at complete risk to the citizens and the world.  Our leaders may be besides themselves, locked away from criticism and dissent, but the effects of what is being done to world liberty at large is still being watched. What left can we have in common?

3 border states using biometric enrollment in Food Stamp programs

BTC - Citing "fraud reduction" USDA Food Stamp Programs in over 6 states are using or considering biometrics during enrollments.

c/o NewsCityBuzz

"Biometric identification systems are currently operational at some level in Arizona, California (under county initiative, first by Los Angeles County), Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. Finger imaging is the principal form of technology used in all eight States, though alternative technologies have simultaneously undergone trials in Massachusetts (facial recognition) and Illinois (retinal scanning). By the end of 2000, new systems are expected to be in place in California (statewide unified system), Delaware, and North Carolina. Other States are currently in the initial planning stages, including Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. However, there is little information available at this point regarding the specific course and trajectory these States will follow in terms of system types, implementation schedules, and the benefit programs in which they will implement the new requirement." 

:::MORE HERE:::

As much of an uphill climb as it is for the working poor, biometric ID will marry a previous criminal record to the impoverished person and vice versa. Mix in a criminal background check and a clever automated system will erode potential employment opportunities.

It's really not that far off to a sheer drop cliff for people who are scrambling to meet administrative requirements at TANF and other welfare-to-work programs in our underemployed America.

The United States should not be the country that underemploys our poor so it will be easier to criminalize them and stock them as convenient cattle in our prison system. But biometrics, a reliable eugenics modality, will help us get there as it was always designed to.

RELATED NEWS: 11 Body Parts Defense Researchers Will Use to Track You

StopSmartGrids: 2 Naperville homeowners arrested for refusing SmartGrid tech

c/o StopSmartMeters

NAPERVILLE, IL- The deployment of the “smart grid” took a dark turn on Wednesday in Illinois, as residents in the City of Naperville (CON) woke up to the reality of ‘smart’ meters forced on their homes by police officers and municipal utility installers working together to intimidate- and in two cases arrest- residents who continue to refuse the meters and protect their homes. This follows CON’s FINAL NOTICE to residents days before.

These developments would be unbelievable in and of themselves as flagrant violations of constitutional property rights. The fact that the meters emit a Class 2B carcinogen, have caused at least hundreds of fires, and clearly violate privacy laws including the 4th Amendment, not to mention that these facts are all at issue in an ongoing federal lawsuit brought against the city by its own residents- makes these events all the more troubling.

New details are emerging about the CON’s installation “blitzkrieg” – backed up by armed police- that hit neighborhoods in this Illinois city of 150,000 people starting on Wednesday January 23rd. The forced installations have continued since then.

:::GET ENTIRE NEWS & VIDEO RESULTS HERE:::

Are you the droid you have been looking for?

BTC  -The legislation has been passed.  Healthcare providers are required to report status of internal devices to a US federal agency as a condition of the Affordable Healthcare Act.  If that internal network device is hardware attached to your brain then, yes, the government is going to get reports about it.

According to predictive programming author, Ramez Naam, a futurists sci-fi complex will be driven by brain implants combined with pharmacological injections.  He posits in a Seattle Times interview that we will become the droids we are looking for, exemplifying the ~250,000 people walking around with brain implants now.

The people who hate TWIC cards are people who use them

BTC - Here is the common model gripe on US TWIC cards you will hear about.

c/o The Longest Climb

"The TWIC program was managed until recently by a down-at-heels military contractor who is always coming in second place in designing airplanes and shit to blow up shit contests. The TWIC card was a gimme program that fed their coffers a little while they tried and failed to come up with yet another military aircraft that someone would want somewhere. 

My beef with the TWIC is that every mariner with a Merchant Mariner's Credential already passes a rigorous background check by the FBI and Coast Guard. Why should we be vetted twice on the same issue every 5 years just to cut a check to the Coast Guard AND the Ministry of Offense (Department of Homeland Security) for $150 each to be given a card that isn't even accepted when presented to the DHS security agents who issued the card in the first place? Sounds crazy? Yeah, try showing the card when you're in line at the rape-o-scan at the airport."

:::MORE HERE:::

RELATED NEWS:

• E-Verify Lessons from Arizona 
• Identity Project on US violations of Human Right to Travel (for work etc.)