Last Chance to Defeat National ID Card

[phoenixx]

I blogged about this tonight, but spread the word yourselves also:

Last Chance to Stop National ID - by Ron Paul

[erik_kosberg]

Ihre Papieren, bitte.

Until just a few years ago, something like this would have been denounced by folks on the right as exactly like the internal passports of the Soviet Union.

[pippadaisy[$]]

Maybe I don't know enough about it. Maybe we should require everyone to have a regular passport. But while some states have really good IDs, some are awful. Merely from a carding standpoint and fake ID standpoint, they are much more easily faked than other states.

And the government already got themselves access to the DMV stuff with the Patriot Act.

[phoenixx]

The DMV as a national database is a terrible idea, and even worse is this über collection of health information, monetary data, driving records, and more.

[erik_kosberg]

National ID: Biometrics Pinned to Social Security Cards

"This is an exact example of why IDs are so ludicrous as a form of security," American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel Tim Sparapani said. "Do we really think the migrant workers are going to show up at the pickle farm and the farmer is going to demand ID and have a laptop in the field to check their ID?"

National ID cards are wrong on so many levels (privacy concerns, police-state issues, huge problems with implementation, etc.) that it's hard to know where to begin.

[realtraveller]

Privacy concerns are a laugh so long as we have the IRS.

I don't care whether I have to identify who I am. It matters much more to me that the IRS knows everything (financial) that I do.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

erik_kosberg said

Ihre Papieren, bitte.

Until just a few years ago, something like this would have been denounced by folks on the right as exactly like the internal passports of the Soviet Union.

Conservatives I had dinner with the other night pointed out that an internal passport like what the used is exactly what we need. I just sort of stared at them in horror and disbelief.

[drmomentum[$]]

You mean "Authoritarians."

-JP

[jgibson2[$]]

I am amazed and appalled by the number of people of a variety of political persuasions who think some sort of national ID card is the solution to our problems. I don't think they've figured out that it will apply to them in addition to whichever group they believe needs to be controlled.

Authoritarians indeed.

[realtraveller]

A tamper proof National ID card is fine. It all depends on when the government can ask you to show it. We already have to show ID when we commit a traffic violation, when we board a plane, when we open a bank account, when we apply for a job, etc. etc. We have to get a national ID number i. e. SS# for our children shortly after they are born. This number goes on every important document of your life.

A biometric national ID would stop a lot of crime and make it very difficult for criminals to change names, buy a fake ID and hide from the law.

I don't have any problem with the government knowing that I am who I am. I don't want them to know everything I do. If it's only used in circumstances where you have to show ID now, I'd have no problem with it.

In a country in which one of the rudest questions is "How much money do you earn?" we have to give up our privacy on that every April 15.

Asking about money is right up there on the rude scale with asking about VD (which will come when government controls all healthcare).

[drmomentum[$]]

I'm not sure why you're making a case against the IRS based on what questions are considered rude when one person asks another.

If you want to follow that line of reasoning, the government should not be allowed to ask whether you terminated your pregnancy, no matter how far along. It's rude, you see.

-JP

[realtraveller]

Rude = what people consider invasion of privacy.

I wouldn't ask someone about how much money they made, how much they inherited when their parents died or how much they'd made in the stock market any more than I'd ask how they got that nasty rash on their genitals.

[realtraveller]

Is Europe a police state?

Because when I travel there this summer, I'll have to show an 'identity document' i. e. my passport, when I enter any museum or gallery. I'll also have to show a passport when checking into a hotel.

[erik_kosberg]

So you're cool with the police knowing every time anyone checks into a hotel? Whatever will happen to cash and a bit of privacy?

[erik_kosberg]

BTW, if Europe is to be our model, let's place severe restrictions on gun ownership, have state-sponsored health insurance, six weeks of paid vacation, $7 a gallon gas, et cetera, et cetera. The whole package.

[realtraveller]

So then Europe run by socialists and other leftists is a police state? Because you do have to show passports at hotels and museums.

Sure you can pay cash at American hotels, but they won't turn the phones on for you. Which might be what you want if you're registering as Mr. and Mrs. Doe and paying cash.

[realtraveller]

Yeah, state sponsored medical treatment so the government will know about that penile sore or those crabs. No invasion of privacy there.

[erik_kosberg]

Red herrings -- not just for breakfast any more.

[realtraveller]

Pan European medical records system proposed | OUT-LAW.COM

Pan European medical records system proposed.

5 million people would have access. No provision for patients opting out.