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Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood. Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood. A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday. "I don't think she was familiar with his...

Exactly one week after the highly-publicized arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates stirred a national discussion on race relations, legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was detained by police officers in a "low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood" in Long Branch, New Jersey. Makes one wonder why it took so long for this to get reported, and if news outlets that were convinced Gates's arrest was racially motivated will see the delicious irony in a white rock star being questioned by police just because he was "wandering around the neighborhood." The Associated Press sure didn't (h/t Clarence Page): Rock legend Bob Dylan was...

Despite the advances in technologies and solutions, the concern that remains central to the objective of providing security to the nation is the question of “who is who?” The federal homeland security laws directed toward enhancing the security of the United States — and the federal government’s confidence in the adequacy of such efforts — is, at the most basic level, grounded in the process of identity determination and the use of powerful databases to accurately determine individual identity to best evaluate threat and risk. Much of government’s effort to protect the borders, minimize the risk to infrastructure and ensure...

Absolute must watch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf

Policy and regulation | Privacy The notion of a national ID number is being considered for a variety of reasons: the Social Security number was never intended as a national ID number, but is used that way, the illegal immigration crisis is due in part to the difficulty of identifying valid U.S. citizens, and law enforcement, insurance agencies, and health care providers all like the idea of having a better way to keep tabs on people. Meanwhile, we have Google and the credit card companies tracking and aggregating information on everything we do. For an idea of how this might...

JERUSALEM – Following the 9/11 attacks, President Obama's nominee for a top intelligence post advocated that to effectively combat terrorism, the U.S. government should implement a national identity system, "so we better know who is who." In testimony before the 9/11 commission, Charles "Chas" Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, also recommended conducting the war on terrorism primary as a law enforcement effort. Freeman is slated to head the U.S. National Intelligence Council, or NIC, a crucial component of the U.S. intelligence apparatus. The NIC serves as the center for midterm and long-term strategic...

There are plenty of reasons not to have a national ID card, but for the first time I now favor a secure, highly encrypted, biometric based National ID card. I know there are those who say that this is the “Mark of the Beast” and is the means by which the yoke of slavery will be places upon the necks of the American population. Unfortunately, I now fear the yoke being placed upon me largely through voter fraud. Add this to ID theft, illegal immigration, welfare fraud, and the terrorist threat and I believe that the time has come to...

September 23, 2008 Exclusive: How Many Subprime Mortgages Were Awarded to Illegal Aliens? This short news report [see my comment below] might have been a bit longer if it had been written a couple of weeks later than it was. This story is dated September 5th and deals with one of the key issues about immigration that virtually no one is willing to talk about - especially politicians and others who subscribe to the open borders philosophy and to the idea of providing the millions of illegal aliens who are in our country with a Guest Worker Amnesty Program and...

A California bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses is one step closer to becoming a state law. State senate bill 60 passed through the assembly Friday. If the bill becomes law, legislators say the estimated 2.2 million undocumented immigrants in California will apply for one, an idea that's creating a lot of controversy. "I think they should be able to get licenses just like everybody else," said Nicole Holland, a Fresnan who supports the bill. "They are already committing a crime coming over here," said Albert Ratliff, a Fresnan who opposes the bill. "I don't think...

Madison, WI - If you're irked by long waits at the Division of Motor Vehicles, brace yourself. Things could get worse.The state Department of Transportation is asking legislators to approve a funding package today that includes $3.7 million to remodel DMV service centers — much of it to go toward expanding the waiting areas of four centers. Also included in the package is $1.4 million to install or upgrade take-a-number systems at 33 centers because drivers will soon have to make two trips from the waiting area to the service counter. In all, the department is asking lawmakers to release...

Nevada Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign today announced the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded more than $2.8 million to Nevada under the 2008 REAL ID Demonstration Grant Program.  Nevada is one of four states receiving funds for partnering with the lead hub state, Missouri, for pilot implementation and verification testing.This program is designed to standardize drivers’ licenses and protect against fraud and identity theft.  These funds will be used to help the Department of Motor Vehicles enhance the integrity of driver’s licenses and ID cards, their issuance and security. “I am pleased...

The State Department will soon begin production of an electronic passport card that security specialists and members of Congress fear will be vulnerable to alteration or counterfeiting. The agency has contracted with L-1 Identity Solutions Inc. to produce electronic-passport cards as a substitute for booklet passports for use by Americans who travel frequently by road or sea to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. About the size of a credit card, the electronic-passport card displays a photo of the user and a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip containing data about the user. The State Department announced recently that it will begin...

Technology already exists that could lead to the tracking of purchases and people. Critics fear a loss of privacy. Here's a vision of the not-so-distant future: • Microchips with antennas will be embedded in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumer items — and, by extension, consumers — wherever they go, from a distance. • A seamless, global network of electronic "sniffers" will scan radio tags in myriad public settings, identifying people and their tastes instantly so that customized ads, "live spam," may be beamed at them. • In "Smart Homes,"...

Phil from the UK anti-ID-register group NO2ID sends in this nugget -- note the call to action there. We've got a sensitive government document revealing the British government's plan to trick us into a database state and we need as many copies as possible, as quickly as possible! If you mirror this document, please add a link to it in the comments for the post. UK campaigners NO2ID this morning enlisted the help of bloggers across the world to spread a leaked government document describing how the British government intends to go about "coercing" its citizens onto a National...

The personal and bank details of 25 million people - almost every child in the country as well as their parents and carers - have been lost by HM Revenue & Customs, the Government admitted today. Names, addresses, dates of birth, employment and bank details all went missing when two CDs containing the information were mislaid. Alistair Darling told the House of Commons that the discs containing the highly sensitive information failed to arrive after they were sent in the ordinary internal mail between government departments. MPs gasped as they heard the scale of the catastrophic breach of security guidelines....

How The Plan To Force Vaccination Gave Birth To The National ID, A Government Health Records Database, and the End of Medical Privacy History of Mandatory Vaccination Immunization laws in the US are not federal, but state mandates. The authority of U.S. states to promulgate regulations which protect the public health and safety is well established, having historical roots in health regulations created in the colonial states during the 18th century. A seminal Supreme Court decision in 1905, Jacobsen v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), affirmed the authority of state legislatures to assign "police powers" to health officials to enact...

One of the more clever country song titles I ever heard was If the Phone Don’t Ring, You’ll Know It’s Me.That’s something like the predicament of searchers after the menace of voter fraud, who can’t seem to find much of it. The New York Times today reports that “scant evidence� exists of a significant problem.Voter fraud is the idea that individuals might vote multiple times, in multiple jurisdictions, or despite not being qualified. This is distinct from election fraud, which is corruption of broader voting or vote-counting processes. While voter fraud (and/or voter error) certainly happens, it is apparently on...

REALITY CHECK National IDs: One way or the other By David Berlind December 5, 2001 Since September 11, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy have become this country's most vocal cheerleaders for forgery-proof digital identification. Civil libertarians in turn have twisted the messages of both men into something they are not, creating a national ID opposition movement. Idiots. My father used to repeat his favorite rule of life to me every time I said something stupid (which is still pretty often). "Put your mind into gear before your mouth into motion." As McNealy implied in my recent ...

Last week a federal judge in Georgia upheld a state law requiring photo identification to vote. Courts have upheld similar laws in Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi and Arizona. The trend is encouraging. And as U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy noted in his 159-page ruling, arguments that these laws disenfranchise minorities don't hold up to scrutiny. "Voters who lack photo ID undoubtedly exist somewhere," wrote Judge Murphy, "but the fact that plaintiffs, in spite of their efforts, have failed to uncover anyone 'who can attest to the fact that he/she will be prevented from voting' provides significant support for a conclusion that...

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday he will introduce legislation to replace all paper Social Security cards with plastic biometric cards that can't be duplicated, so employers can be certain of the legal status of their workers. The South Carolina Republican said Congress must address the out-of-control illegal immigration problem, and last month's defeat of comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate means the problem must be tackled piecemeal.

SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 9 — At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are being installed along streets here in southern China and will soon be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed company to recognize automatically the faces of police suspects and detect unusual activity. Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued to most citizens. Data on the chip will include not just the citizen’s name and address but also work history, educational background,...

The Federation for Identity and Cross-Credentialing Systems (FiXs) -- a little-known group of non-profits, government contractors, commercial entities, and government agencies -- has just unveiled a first-of-its-kind global infrastructure to support distributed, integrated identity management and cross-credentialing across organizations. The implementation combines several existing security technologies along with a set of trusted models, policies, and operating rules to insure the accurate identity of personnel accessing physical sites or logical systems. Already in a pilot mode at a handful of government agencies and defense contractors, the FiXs identity management initiative does not have a hard date for broad deployment, although the...

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff today joined Senator Lindsey Graham, Graham a leading proponent of amnesty, to promote a new crackdown on illegal workers. .... CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff traveled to South Carolina, home to Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. The visit was disguised as a demonstration of an upgrade to the nation's eligibility employment verification system, which checks social security numbers. CHERTOFF: I came here because we have a senator who I had the privilege of working with who I think is about as clear eyed and farsighted an observer and a...

The U.S. Senate definitively rejected President George Bush's immigration bill on Thursday, just hours after senators expressed deep misgivings with portions that would have expanded the use of a national ID card. Because the procedural vote was 46 to 53, with 60 votes needed to advance the immigration legislation, the proposal is likely to remain dead for the rest of the year. Privacy advocates were quick to claim that a vote against Real ID cards the previous evening doomed the bill. Wednesday's vote showed that senators were willing to delete the portion of the labyrinthine immigration bill that would require...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- New Hampshire on Wednesday rejected the federal Real ID Act as tantamount to requiring a national ID card, joining five other states in opposing it. South Carolina, Montana, Washington, Oklahoma and Maine also have rejected the federal act. ``Here in New Hampshire, we pride ourselves on being frugal, and here in New Hampshire, we pride ourselves on respecting the privacy of our neighbors,'' Gov. John Lynch said at the bill signing. The law's supporters say it is needed to prevent terrorists and illegal immigrants from getting fake identification cards. Critics say it is too intrusive, too...

JUAREZ, Mexico - We're on the streets of Juarez, a few feet from the bridge leading across the U.S. border. NBC News producers with hidden cameras came here this week to see how easy it is to get fraudulent documents to enter the U.S. The first offer came within 15 minutes. A man offered U.S. residency and Social Security cards for $1,000. For about $500, we could rent what is known as a lookalike document — a real "green card" — with a photo of someone resembling our undercover producer. Because the document is authentic, it will pass inspection unless...

As the Senate is mulling the details of a compromise immigration bill hammered together by the odd couple of Sens. Edward Kennedy and Jon Kyl, and as members of Congress hear from their constituents over the Memorial Day recess, it may be worthwhile to put the issue in historical context. For most of our history, the United States had no restrictions on immigration at all. I am told that my Canadian-born grandfather was a "nickel immigrant": He took the five-cent ferry from Windsor, Ontario, north to Detroit roundabout 1896. This situation resulted from America's strong demand for labor, coupled with...

Senator Ted Kennedy and the anti-gun zealots who wrote the bill just couldn't resist the temptation to get their hands on our guns. They have included language that GOA has been able to defeat in the past. When Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced these anti-gun provisions in 1998, the GOA grassroots were able to convince seven senator cosponsors to pull their names from Hatch's bill. The current language in the amnesty bill is only slightly different from Hatch's original language almost 10 years ago, but it would essentially do the same thing -- threaten every gun store in America. In...

<p>ORLANDO — Rudy Giuliani said he will not support any legislation to make it easier for illegal immigrants to stay in this country unless there is a requirement to force all immigrants to have "tamper proof" identification cards.</p> <p>"We need to know everybody who is in the United States," the Republican presidential candidate said today.</p>

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff visited Seattle on Friday to help Gov. Christine Gregoire kick off a pilot program that will allow Washington state residents to use a security-enhanced driver's license, rather than a passport, to travel to and from Canada. Chertoff predicted the new licenses will help meet the department's dual goals of enhancing security and reducing wait-times at the border. In a wide-ranging discussion with The Seattle Times editorial board after the event, Chertoff spoke repeatedly of his agency's efforts to balance competing demands. On issues ranging from port security to air travel to home-grown terrorism, Chertoff described...

(Will new requirement for driver's licenses create unsafe roads and second-class citizens?) Laws requiring motorists to prove they are in the country legally to get a driver's license will force immigrant workers further underground, make roads more dangerous and inconvenience all drivers, local workers' rights advocates say.A state law goes into effect April 1, requiring proof of legal presence in the United States before a driver's license or state ID card is issued. The new law will put Wisconsin in compliance with the federal REAL ID law, which requires states to adopt a legal presence requirement by May 2008. Civil...

SEATTLE - High-security driver's licenses aimed at letting U.S. citizens return from Canada without a passport could be adopted elsewhere if Washington state's experiment works, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. The pilot project, signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire and formally approved by Chertoff on Friday, calls for Washington to begin issuing new "enhanced" driver's licenses in January. They will look much like conventional driver's licenses, but will be loaded with proof of citizenship and other information that can be easily scanned at the border. Radio frequency ID chips and other advanced security features also would make the...

Jim Harper of the CATO Institute wrote an outstanding article on the REAL ID Act. While trekking through our local Fox News Headlines in the dense jungles of Washington DC, Harper's article put me on the scent of four fine specimens of RINO. The RINOs I found are four Republican Senators who have cosponsored the REAL ID Act most recently authored by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). I thought I was on the trail for five, but it seems as if though Sen Carper (D-DE) was just another liberal democrat trying to increase the size and scope of government by cosponsoring...

Excerpt - LITTLE ROCK --As state legislators line up against the U.S. government's attempt to standardize driver's licenses nationwide, some believe it is a beastly plot that will draw the world closer to the apocalypse. Their inspiration: a magazine dedicated to biblical prophecy. Their fear: national ID numbers given to residents are the mark of the beast, the 666 from the Book of Revelation. "The ramifications are horrendous," said Sen. Ruth Whitaker, whose resolution opposing the Real ID Act of 2005 has passed the Arkansas Senate. "If there is anything akin to Nazi Germany, it is this act." ~ snip...

Something I came across on the radio quite by accident, I don't know if any of you have done any digging on this but definately a check on this. The REAL ID Act of 2005 is Division B of an act of the United States Congress entitled Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-13, 119 Stat. 231 (May 11, 2005)[1]. This legislation is intended to deter terrorism by: Establishing the national standards for state-issued driver's licenses and non-driver's identification cards;

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 — Opposition among state officials is turning into an open revolt against a federal law calling for the creation of standardized driver’s licenses nationwide that are meant to be less vulnerable to fraud. Maine legislators started off the rebellion late last month by passing a nonbinding resolution that rejected the law, called the Real ID Act, which Congress passed in 2005. They said that it would cost the state $185 million to put into place and that instead of making Maine’s residents more secure, it would leave them more vulnerable to identity theft. Since then, legislatures in...

A revolt against a national driver's license, begun in Maine last month, is quickly spreading to other states. The Maine Legislature on Jan. 26 overwhelmingly passed a resolution objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law sets a national standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases. Within a week of Maine's action, lawmakers in Georgia, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington state also balked at Real ID. They are expected soon to pass laws or adopt resolutions declining to participate in the federal identification network. "It's the whole...

Maine lawmakers on Thursday became the first in the nation to demand repeal of a federal law tightening identification requirements for drivers' licenses, a post-September 11 security measure that states say will cost them billions of dollars to administer. Maine lawmakers passed a resolution urging repeal of the Real ID Act, which would create a national digital identification system by 2008. The lawmakers said it would cost Maine about $185 million, fail to boost security and put people at greater risk of identity theft. Maine's resolution is the strongest stand yet by a state against the law, which Congress passed...

Maine overwhelmingly rejected federal requirements for national identification cards on Thursday, marking the first formal state opposition to controversial legislation scheduled to go in effect for Americans next year. Both chambers of the Maine legislature approved a resolution saying the state flatly "refuses" to force its citizens to use driver's licenses that comply with digital ID standards, which were established under the 2005 Real ID Act. It asks the U.S. Congress to repeal the law....

In 1775, New Hampshire was the first colony to declare its independence from oppressive laws and taxes levied by the British crown. Now it may become the first state to declare its independence from an oppressive digital ID law concocted in Washington, D.C. New Hampshire's House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a remarkable bill, HB 1582, that would prohibit the state from participating in the national ID card system that will be created in 2008. A state Senate vote is expected as early as next week. The federal law in question is the Real ID Act (here's our FAQ on...

By the time my four year old son is swathed in the soft flesh of old age, he will likely find it unremarkable that he and almost everyone he knows will be permanently implanted with a microchip. Automatically tracking his location real time, it will connect him with databases monitoring and recording his smallest behavioural traits.Toronto Star

It's unfair to say that the Republican Congress has done nothing on immigration. In one respect, according to a new report from state officials, Congress made matters worse. In May of last year Congress passed the Real ID Act at the urging of House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.). It was yet another border-security measure, intended to thwart illegal immigration by denying drivers' licenses to undocumented aliens. President Bush signed the legislation in hopes that Republicans then would meet him halfway on comprehensive immigration reform. Didn't happen. We now know that the Tom Tancredo "enforcement first" crowd has no...

Sacramento -- Starting in 2008, all 22 million licensed California drivers will be required to go in person to a DMV office and prove their identity and address with three different documents before getting a new, federally approved state license. The sheer size and scope of that task -- required by a federal law passed in the wake of Sept. 11 -- already has the state Department of Motor Vehicles worried about lines that would make current complaints about the agency's notoriously slow service seem trivial. The new identification cards will be required in order to fly on airplanes and...

Luis Hernandez is laughing as he sells fake drivers licenses and Social Security cards to illegal immigrants near a park known for shady deals. The joke, to him, is the government's promise to put people like him out of business with a tamperproof ID card. "One way or another, we'll always find a way," said Hernandez, 35, a sidewalk pitchman who is part of a complex counterfeiting network operating around MacArthur Park, a teeming area near downtown. No matter what the federal government does, sellers vow to keep providing authentic-looking IDs for as little as $150, to anyone who wants...

VeriChip chairman Scott Silverman's appearance on American TV this week has raised fears of the introduction of RFID technology. According to RNIF, he "bandied about the idea of chipping foreigners on national television Tuesday". RINF said Silverman appeared to be emboldened by the Bush Administration call to know "who is in our country and why they are here". He told Fox & Friends that the VeriChip could be used to register guest workers, verify their identities as they cross the border, and "be used for enforcement purposes at the employer level". He added: "We have talked to many people in...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- Buried in the huge border bill the U.S. Senate passed Thursday is a provision that would allow states to put citizenship details on new secure driver`s licenses. The pilot program, which would allow those getting new licenses the option to have the card confirm their citizenship as well as their identity, would make licenses an effective substitute for a U.S. passport at the nation`s borders and throughout the Caribbean. And critics say it would be an important step towards a national identity card system. The license provision is one of a series...

HB 1582 – AS INTRODUCED 2006 SESSION 06-2986 05/03 HOUSE BILL 1582 AN ACT prohibiting New Hampshire from participating in a national identification card system. SPONSORS: Rep. Marple, Merr 9; Rep. Souza, Hills 11; Rep. Phinizy, Sull 5; Rep. L. Christiansen, Hills 27; Rep. Kurk, Hills 7 COMMITTEE: Transportation ANALYSIS This bill prohibits New Hampshire from participating in a national identification card system. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -...

A group of Christian conservatives is urging Gov. Joe Manchin to reject a federally mandated digitized driver's license law, comparing the bar-coded national ID program to the "mark of the beast." Fourteen members of the group that opposes the federal Real ID Act of 2005 met with Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo, governor's office lawyer Joe Ward and Manchin legislative aide Jim Pitrolo for more than an hour on April 5. Pastor Ervin "Butch" Paugh, a 57-year-old Nicholas County preacher who heads the group, said last week that the new driver's licenses are unconstitutional, invade people's privacy and...

And the wallet of every other American who wants to fly on an airliner or visit certain federally-controlled facilities in the future. President Bush signed the The Real ID Act of 2005 into law in May 2005, mandating that all states meet minimum standards within three years. Legislators enacted the standards for a national ID after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and over concern about illegal immigrants crossing U.S. borders. But in the 12 months since Bush signed the act into law, there has been a lot of confusion surrounding the national ID card. What is known is...

RFID: Europe Wants to Tag You From the desk of Elaib Harvey on Sun, 2006-03-12 20:45 Am I the only one who is a tad concerned about the new RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) Policy for Europe? I hope not. This year data retention legislation was introduced by the European Parliament and now we have the execrable Viviane Reding at a major conference in Hanover burbling about the Commission’s new consultation on the electronic tagging technology. Given that Commission Press Releases are normally bland to the point of ennui the following is quite something, “But their power to report their...