Subject:
Liberty
Date:
Mon, 10 Aug 1998 06:58:22 EDT
From:
Rlarmey@aol.com
To:
editor@daily-standard.com
Liberty vs. Totalitarianism, Clinton-Style
Monitoring by I.D. and Database
Two of the principal mechanisms by which the rulers of 20th century police
states maintained their control over their people were the file and the
internal passport. These governments kept a cumulative file (called the
dangan in Communist China) on every individual's performance and attitudes
from school years through adult employment. Citizens carried an internal
passport or "papers" that had to be presented to the authorities for
permission to travel within the country, to take up residence in another
city, or to apply for a new job.
These two methods of personal surveillance -- efficient watchdogs that
prevented any emergence of freedom -- required an army of bureaucrats
fortified by a Gestapo, a Stasi or a KGB, plus the ability to commandeer an
unlimited supply of paper and file folders. Technology has now made the
task of building personal files on every citizen, and tracking our actions
and movements, just as easy as logging onto the Internet.
Unknown to most Americans, coordinated plans are well underway to give the
Federal Government the power to input personal information on all Americans
onto a government database. The computer will record our school, business,
medical, financial, and personal activities, and track our movements as we
travel about the United States.
These plans were authorized by the so-called conservative Congress and are
eagerly implemented and expanded by the Clinton Administration liberals.
They plan to force all Americans to carry an I.D. card linked to a federal
database, without which we will not be able to drive a car, get a job,
board a plane, enter a hospital emergency room or school, have a bank
account, cash a check, buy a gun, or have access to government benefits
such as Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid.
Putting all that information on a government database means the end of
privacy as we know it. Daily actions we all take for granted will
henceforth be recorded, monitored, tracked, and contingent on showing The
Card.
Legislative authority for these dramatic changes in what we endearingly
call the American way of life was buried in two bills passed by Republicans
and signed by Bill Clinton in 1996: the Illegal Immigration Reform and
Immigrant Responsibility Act, and the Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reform Act (known as welfare reform).
The illegal immigration law prohibits the use of state driver's licenses
after Oct. 1, 2000 unless they contain Social Security numbers as the
unique numeric identifier "that can be read visually or by electronic
means." (Section 656(b)) The act requires all driver's licenses to conform
to regulations promulgated by the Department of Transportation, which
published its proposed regulations on June 17. (Federal Register, vol. 63,
no. 116, pp. 33219-33225)
The illegal immigration law orders the Attorney General to conduct pilot
programs in at least 5 states where the state driver's license includes a
"machine-readable" Social Security number. (Section 403(c)) The law also
orders the development of a Social Security card that "shall employ
technologies that provide security features, such as magnetic stripes,
holograms, and integrated circuits." (Section 657(a)) A "smart card" with
these technologies can contain a digitized fingerprint, retina scan, voice
print, DNA print, or other biometric identifier, and will leave an
electronic trail every time it is used.
The law orders "consultation" with the American Association of Motor
Vehicle Administrators. AAMVA, a pseudo-private, quasi-government
organization, has long urged using driver's licenses, with Social Security
numbers and digital fingerprinting, as a de facto national I.D. card that
would enable the government to track everyone's movements throughout North
America.
The welfare reform law requires that, in order to receive federal welfare
funds, states must collect Social Security numbers from applicants for any
professional license, occupational license, or "commercial driver's
license." (Section 317) The Balanced Budget Act of 1997, in the guise of
making "technical corrections" to welfare reform, deleted the word
"commercial," thereby applying the requirement to all driver's license
applicants, and even added "recreational" (hunting and fishing) licenses.
Another provision of welfare reform requires employers, since Oct. 1, 1997,
to transmit the name, address, and Social Security number of every new
worker to a Directory of New Hires. This is supposed to help track deadbeat
dads, but the information is collected from all new workers (regardless of
whether they are deadbeats or even dads) and maintained for 24 months.
The "instant background check" established by the 1993 Brady Act takes
effect nationwide on Dec. 1. Under this system, prospective handgun buyers
must be screened against a database of convicted criminals. But the new
national I.D. card will make it easy to keep a database of gun buyers, too,
which some states reportedly are doing already. Although the Brady Act
forbids federal agencies from using the instant check system to register
firearms, the FBI says it plans to keep records of prospective handgun
buyers for 18 months.
A few states have already quietly legislated acquiescence in the new
federal requirements, but fingerprinting and smart cards have stirred an
uproar in others. Most Americans have never been fingerprinted and look
upon it as something that happens only to criminal suspects.
The New Jersey Legislature recently abandoned efforts to pass Governor
Christine Whitman's high-tech driver's license called "Access New Jersey."
It was designed to contain a computer chip with 100 electronic keys capable
of storing large amounts of personal data. It would leave an electronic
trail each time the card was used to cash a check, make a purchase, pay a
toll, check out a book, get insurance authorization to see a doctor, or
used for identification, all identified by Social Security number. These
new federal laws effectively overturn the 1974 Privacy Act, which declared
that "It shall be unlawful for any Federal, State or local government
agency to deny to any individual any right, benefit, or privilege provided
by law because of such individual's refusal to disclose his Social Security
account number." On the pretext of catching illegal aliens, welfare cheats,
deadbeat dads, and criminals, these laws will subject law-abiding Americans
to the police-state apparatus of national I.D. cards linked to coordinated
government databases. ----------------------------------------
1. If you don't want the Federal Government to convert driver's licenses
into a national I.D. card or "smart card" that will allow Big Brother to
build a computerized dossier on every American, rush your comments to:
Docket Management
Room PL-401
National Hwy Traffic Safety Admin.
Nassif Building
400 Seventh St., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20590
mark your letter:
Docket No. NHTSA-98-3945
DOCID: fr17jn98-28
23 CFR Part 1331
Proposed Rule -- State-Issued Driver's Licenses
2. If you think your medical records are your own business -- not the
government's -- and you don't want the government to put all your medical
records on a government computer where the bureaucrats will be able to
force you to conform to Clintonesque health care policy, write your
Congressman and say:
"Add an amendment to every HHS appropriation bill to forbid the spending of
taxpayers' money to collect or coordinate medical information on
individuals."
3. If you don't want Al Gore and Janet Reno reading your email or listening
in on your cell phone conversations, write your Congressman and say
"Encryption is an individual right under the First and Fourth Amendments.
Don't give the Clinton Administration or the FBI the power to read our
e-mail and listen to our phone calls."
Congressman __________________
House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 224-3121
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