|  Last week a concerned friend
in New York City sent me the following disturbing article, from a site
called WhatDoesItmean:
In a chilling act more reminiscent of the now defunct
Soviet Union or the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler, the United States Congress
passed legislation yesterday that requires the States to surrender their
regulatory rights over driver's licenses and birth certificates to The
Department of Homeland Security.
Beginning in 2005, the Department of Homeland Security
will issue new uniformity regulations to the States requiring that all
Drivers Licenses and Birth Certificates meet minimal Federal Standards
with regard to US citizen information, including biometric security provisions.
Added to currently existing Federal Laws and Supreme Court rulings
American citizens when born will be issued a Social Security Number
that will
be included on their Birth Certificates, along with DNA biometric markers.
All birth certificates will also be registered in a Federal Government
database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. No child
will be allowed enrollment to schools or be entitled to either State
of Federal Government benefits programs without first presenting a
certified Homeland Security registered Birth Certificate.
Drivers Licenses will also contain DNA biometric markers and include
the holders Social Security Number and be required for receiving and
applying for all State and Federal benefits programs.
The rest of the article basically posits that since
the Intelligence Reform Bill weighs in at over 3,000 pages and the Bush
regime pushed it through in a pre-holiday hurry, nobody has bothered
to read the small print, and this egregious assault on individual liberty
was slipped in under the radar screen.
Ignoring the instant flare of indignation, and not believing
something that outrageous could possibly be true (and having been burned
before),
we
started searching
for confirmation from other sources, and found nothing. No stories
about national ID, or biometric recording, or driver's licenses and
the intelligence bill. No stories about driver's licenses at all, Now,
a week later, other media are starting to pick
up on it. This,
from from USA
Today today:
WASHINGTON The anti-terrorism bill to be signed by
President Bush on Friday opens the door for people across the nation
to have similar driver's licenses, a plan that is fueling a debate over
whether security concerns will lead to what amounts to a national identification
card.
Not quite the full Orwellian nightmare, but an important
story nonetheless. It appears the administration is laying the
groundwork for a significant upgrade in governmental surveillance and
control of the civilian
population - almost completely without discussion or debate. We think
we should renew OUR drivers licence THIS year, and maybe our passport
too,
to remain unmetricized until 2014.
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