Liberty Alert - Latinos are the target but we are all at risk.
Date:
Sat, 6 May 2000 21:54:25 -0400
From:
"Weldon Clark" <whclark@bellsouth.net>
Reply-To:
<2nd-Amendment-News@frostbit.com>
To:
2nd-Amendment-News@frostbit.com
Liberty Alert - Latinos are the target but we are all at risk.
Editor's Note: Professor Joseph Olson is a member of the
NRA board of director and a long time activist in support of
our rights. I believe you should listen to him. If you have
been reading Second Amendment News posts you know the
confiscation of firearms follows registration. You also know
that the federal government has been keeping the records of
gun purchases illegally. However the government has a
problem. We are a mobile society. The average American
moves once every 5 years. Having the list of who has the
guns is no good unless you can find the gun owners. The
internal passport idea in the proposed law will be abused by
you government to this end. Weldon Clark editor.
Please repost.
By Professor Joseph Olson <Jolson@gw.hamline.edu>
Fellow gun owners, we all oppose gun registration and gun
owner licensing. How long do you think it will that the anti's
to recognize that the National ID card IS registration of
people and if so, there is no good reason not to register mere
objects. Do you think the FBI's NICS system data base and
this one won't be linked (just a "test" of anti-terrorist
capabilities, don't you know). Remember that everyone is
someone's hated minority group. This is a civil liberty crisis
for everyone. But we are organized, we'll be effective. Call
the Congress, call the media, call the NRA - tell them all to
STOP this bill.
It is time to call your Senators and your Representative, if you
don't want to be stopped on the street and hear the words
"Your papers, please." I've heard it in foreign countries by
machine gun toting bands of "police" and it is no fun. In fact,
it always makes me proud that it doesn't happen in America
(at least not to white college professors). Or will we start???
The Conference Committee deliberating on the terms of the
Department of Transportation's Appropriations bill will also
determine whether Big Brother in Washington, D.C.
continues to mandate a national ID card to the states.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) is the chief proponent of the
national ID card system (to go into effect October 2000);
although he denies what he is doing would be a national ID
card. What do you think of a driver's license that has your
social security number and fingerprints (and who knows what
else) encoded in it with your picture on it as well?
Without this "non ID card" federal law would prohibit you from
boarding a plane, opening a bank account, going to a doctor,
be eligible for Medicare, enter a school-- just things like that.
Nothing important, right Rep. Smith?
Will he promise us that the FBI databases of persons granted
clearances (such as Bar applicants, schoolteachers, and
other lawful citizens) not be included in the encryption on the
card? And what do we do if the FBI does it anyway? After all,
the FBI is the same group that lied about its activities in
Waco and violated the privacy of over 1000 national public
figures by keeping files on them (spying) and then turned the
files over to the White House-- the Filegate scandal.
Rep. Frank Wolf is on the Conference Committee that must
decide before September 30 whether to keep the Senate
language repealing this monstrous invasion of your privacy.
Wolf has said that he supports repeal of the national ID card
mandate, but Wolf sits on a subcommittee of the
Appropriations committee headed up by Rep. Smith himself.
Wolf is under a lot of pressure from Smith, and may be
weakening.
Wolf needs a great deal of bucking up. For those of you living
in the 10th District of Virginia, please call or fax Rep. Wolf's
office to express your support of repeal of the national ID
card that Senator Shelby embedded in the Senate version of
the Appropriations bill.
Wolf's voice # is 202-225-5136. His fax # is 202-225-0437.
"Why Does the ACLU Oppose a National I.D. Card System?"
The ACLU has vigorously opposed the creation of a national
employee I.D. number and/or card. It is a misplaced,
superficial "quick fix" that poses serious threats to our civil
liberties and civil rights. [Go and see Schindler's List or any
WWII movie if you need a reminder of the threat to your
liberty from an omniscient, omnipotent government.]
BACKGROUND
Over the past decade various proposals for a tamper-proof
national identifier have cropped up repeatedly, usually in the
context of immigration policy. The notion of using some form
of national identification card has also surfaced in
discussions of gun control and health care reform.
Proponents suggest that a tamper-proof worker identification
card would solve the problem of fraudulent work authorization
documents. Some claim an I.D. card would deter illegal
immigration and halt job discrimination resulting from the
passage of the employer sanctions section of the Immigration
Reform and Control Act of 1986.
This September, the Commission on Immigration Reform,
headed by former congresswoman Barbara Jordan, made
recommendations to Congress on the U.S. immigration
system. One of the commission's proposals was a universal
national employee number, which would be linked to a
national database. The number would be required of all
citizens and residents.
IN BRIEF
This is an impractical and ineffective proposal that would only
threaten our right to privacy and foster new forms of
discrimination. A national I.D. card would be no more reliable
than the documents a person would show to obtain it and the
cost to the American taxpayers just to issue the cards would
be at least $2.5 billion, according to the Social Security
Administration.
The continuing recession in California has fueled the wide
spread tendency for politicians to blame immigrants for our
economic woes. The call for a national I.D. card is just
another example of trying to sell a "quick fix" for much more
complex social and economic problems. Regardless of one's
views on immigration, a national identity card, with all its
dangers, is not the answer.
Just as the original restrictions on the use of the Social
Security card have been all but eliminated, limits on a
national I.D. number or card would be ignored or legislated
away. There would be an irresistible temptation to use the
data for purposes for which it was never intended, including
government surveillance. Former Senator Alan Cranston has
described the national I.D. card as "a primary tool of
totalitarian governments to restrict the freedom of their
citizens."
ACLU POLICY Editor's Note I usually do not agree with this
organization but this is the exception.
"The ACLU .... opposes the use of Social Security cards and
other governmentally issued documents as a condition of
employment. Such a practice, in effect, creates an
`employment passport,' which results in a universal identifier
of all persons in the United States." -- Policy #329
ARGUMENTS, FACTS, QUOTES
The ACLU does not object to efforts to make current
documents more fraud or tamper-resistant as long as
individual privacy is protected. The ACLU has, however,
consistently opposed proposals that would establish a single
document that serves as the sole form of employment
identification for citizens and residents.
Many Americans have an almost visceral reaction against the
use -- and abuse -- of technology for intrusive purposes. A
national I.D. card poses a grave threat to the civil liberties of
all by creating a powerful tool for abuse of privacy rights. The
system could not work without a national governmental
database of every person in the U.S., with identifying
information subject to continual updating. The linkage of
government databases with corporate databases increases
the likelihood that intimate personal information -- credit
histories, spending habits, unlisted telephone numbers,
voting, medical and employment histories -- could be easily
accessed without a person's knowledge.
A national I.D. card would essentially serve as an internal
passport. It would create an easy new tool for government
surveillance and could be used to target critics of the
government, as has happened periodically throughout our
nation's history. While the Social Security Act originally
contained strict prohibitions against use of the Social Security
card for unrelated purposes, over the past 50 years those
prohibitions have been ignored or legislated into oblivion and
restrictions on a national I.D. card would follow the same
path. In his seminal book, Databanks in a Free Society,
author Alan Westin wrote that "many dissenting and minority
groups in [American] society ... view the establishment of
such an identifier ... as a giant step toward tightening
government control over the citizen for repressive purposes."
The General Accounting Office (GAO) concluded in 1990 that
employer sanctions had resulted in widespread employment
discrimination against U.S. citizens and legal residents, with
almost 20 percent of employers found to be engaging in such
practices. Rather than eliminating discrimination, a national
I.D. card would foster new forms of discrimination and
harassment of anyone perceived as looking or sounding
"foreign." Latinos, Asians, Caribbeans and other minorities
would be the likely targets of status and identity checks from
police, banks, merchants, landlords and others. Latino U.S.
citizens are already subjected to random searches at border
checkpoints. Failure to carry a national I.D. card would likely
be viewed as a reason for search, detention or arrest of
minorities. The stigma and humiliation of constantly proving
lawful status is unacceptable.
***************************************************************
Professor Joseph Olson
Hamline University School of Law tel. (651) 523-2142
St. Paul, Minnesota 55104-1284
fax. (651) 523-2236 <jolson@gw.hamline.edu>
***************************************************
What To Do If The Police Come To Confiscate Your Militia
Weapons see www.2ndamendment.net
For legislative updates contact www.nealknox.com and go to
"Scripts from the Firearms Coalition Legislative Update Line"
*************************************************************
Date:
Sat, 6 May 2000 21:54:25 -0400
From:
"Weldon Clark" <whclark@bellsouth.net>
Reply-To:
<2nd-Amendment-News@frostbit.com>
To:
2nd-Amendment-News@frostbit.com
Liberty Alert - Latinos are the target but we are all at risk.
Editor's Note: Professor Joseph Olson is a member of the
NRA board of director and a long time activist in support of
our rights. I believe you should listen to him. If you have
been reading Second Amendment News posts you know the
confiscation of firearms follows registration. You also know
that the federal government has been keeping the records of
gun purchases illegally. However the government has a
problem. We are a mobile society. The average American
moves once every 5 years. Having the list of who has the
guns is no good unless you can find the gun owners. The
internal passport idea in the proposed law will be abused by
you government to this end. Weldon Clark editor.
Please repost.
By Professor Joseph Olson <Jolson@gw.hamline.edu>
Fellow gun owners, we all oppose gun registration and gun
owner licensing. How long do you think it will that the anti's
to recognize that the National ID card IS registration of
people and if so, there is no good reason not to register mere
objects. Do you think the FBI's NICS system data base and
this one won't be linked (just a "test" of anti-terrorist
capabilities, don't you know). Remember that everyone is
someone's hated minority group. This is a civil liberty crisis
for everyone. But we are organized, we'll be effective. Call
the Congress, call the media, call the NRA - tell them all to
STOP this bill.
It is time to call your Senators and your Representative, if you
don't want to be stopped on the street and hear the words
"Your papers, please." I've heard it in foreign countries by
machine gun toting bands of "police" and it is no fun. In fact,
it always makes me proud that it doesn't happen in America
(at least not to white college professors). Or will we start???
The Conference Committee deliberating on the terms of the
Department of Transportation's Appropriations bill will also
determine whether Big Brother in Washington, D.C.
continues to mandate a national ID card to the states.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) is the chief proponent of the
national ID card system (to go into effect October 2000);
although he denies what he is doing would be a national ID
card. What do you think of a driver's license that has your
social security number and fingerprints (and who knows what
else) encoded in it with your picture on it as well?
Without this "non ID card" federal law would prohibit you from
boarding a plane, opening a bank account, going to a doctor,
be eligible for Medicare, enter a school-- just things like that.
Nothing important, right Rep. Smith?
Will he promise us that the FBI databases of persons granted
clearances (such as Bar applicants, schoolteachers, and
other lawful citizens) not be included in the encryption on the
card? And what do we do if the FBI does it anyway? After all,
the FBI is the same group that lied about its activities in
Waco and violated the privacy of over 1000 national public
figures by keeping files on them (spying) and then turned the
files over to the White House-- the Filegate scandal.
Rep. Frank Wolf is on the Conference Committee that must
decide before September 30 whether to keep the Senate
language repealing this monstrous invasion of your privacy.
Wolf has said that he supports repeal of the national ID card
mandate, but Wolf sits on a subcommittee of the
Appropriations committee headed up by Rep. Smith himself.
Wolf is under a lot of pressure from Smith, and may be
weakening.
Wolf needs a great deal of bucking up. For those of you living
in the 10th District of Virginia, please call or fax Rep. Wolf's
office to express your support of repeal of the national ID
card that Senator Shelby embedded in the Senate version of
the Appropriations bill.
Wolf's voice # is 202-225-5136. His fax # is 202-225-0437.
"Why Does the ACLU Oppose a National I.D. Card System?"
The ACLU has vigorously opposed the creation of a national
employee I.D. number and/or card. It is a misplaced,
superficial "quick fix" that poses serious threats to our civil
liberties and civil rights. [Go and see Schindler's List or any
WWII movie if you need a reminder of the threat to your
liberty from an omniscient, omnipotent government.]
BACKGROUND
Over the past decade various proposals for a tamper-proof
national identifier have cropped up repeatedly, usually in the
context of immigration policy. The notion of using some form
of national identification card has also surfaced in
discussions of gun control and health care reform.
Proponents suggest that a tamper-proof worker identification
card would solve the problem of fraudulent work authorization
documents. Some claim an I.D. card would deter illegal
immigration and halt job discrimination resulting from the
passage of the employer sanctions section of the Immigration
Reform and Control Act of 1986.
This September, the Commission on Immigration Reform,
headed by former congresswoman Barbara Jordan, made
recommendations to Congress on the U.S. immigration
system. One of the commission's proposals was a universal
national employee number, which would be linked to a
national database. The number would be required of all
citizens and residents.
IN BRIEF
This is an impractical and ineffective proposal that would only
threaten our right to privacy and foster new forms of
discrimination. A national I.D. card would be no more reliable
than the documents a person would show to obtain it and the
cost to the American taxpayers just to issue the cards would
be at least $2.5 billion, according to the Social Security
Administration.
The continuing recession in California has fueled the wide
spread tendency for politicians to blame immigrants for our
economic woes. The call for a national I.D. card is just
another example of trying to sell a "quick fix" for much more
complex social and economic problems. Regardless of one's
views on immigration, a national identity card, with all its
dangers, is not the answer.
Just as the original restrictions on the use of the Social
Security card have been all but eliminated, limits on a
national I.D. number or card would be ignored or legislated
away. There would be an irresistible temptation to use the
data for purposes for which it was never intended, including
government surveillance. Former Senator Alan Cranston has
described the national I.D. card as "a primary tool of
totalitarian governments to restrict the freedom of their
citizens."
ACLU POLICY Editor's Note I usually do not agree with this
organization but this is the exception.
"The ACLU .... opposes the use of Social Security cards and
other governmentally issued documents as a condition of
employment. Such a practice, in effect, creates an
`employment passport,' which results in a universal identifier
of all persons in the United States." -- Policy #329
ARGUMENTS, FACTS, QUOTES
The ACLU does not object to efforts to make current
documents more fraud or tamper-resistant as long as
individual privacy is protected. The ACLU has, however,
consistently opposed proposals that would establish a single
document that serves as the sole form of employment
identification for citizens and residents.
Many Americans have an almost visceral reaction against the
use -- and abuse -- of technology for intrusive purposes. A
national I.D. card poses a grave threat to the civil liberties of
all by creating a powerful tool for abuse of privacy rights. The
system could not work without a national governmental
database of every person in the U.S., with identifying
information subject to continual updating. The linkage of
government databases with corporate databases increases
the likelihood that intimate personal information -- credit
histories, spending habits, unlisted telephone numbers,
voting, medical and employment histories -- could be easily
accessed without a person's knowledge.
A national I.D. card would essentially serve as an internal
passport. It would create an easy new tool for government
surveillance and could be used to target critics of the
government, as has happened periodically throughout our
nation's history. While the Social Security Act originally
contained strict prohibitions against use of the Social Security
card for unrelated purposes, over the past 50 years those
prohibitions have been ignored or legislated into oblivion and
restrictions on a national I.D. card would follow the same
path. In his seminal book, Databanks in a Free Society,
author Alan Westin wrote that "many dissenting and minority
groups in [American] society ... view the establishment of
such an identifier ... as a giant step toward tightening
government control over the citizen for repressive purposes."
The General Accounting Office (GAO) concluded in 1990 that
employer sanctions had resulted in widespread employment
discrimination against U.S. citizens and legal residents, with
almost 20 percent of employers found to be engaging in such
practices. Rather than eliminating discrimination, a national
I.D. card would foster new forms of discrimination and
harassment of anyone perceived as looking or sounding
"foreign." Latinos, Asians, Caribbeans and other minorities
would be the likely targets of status and identity checks from
police, banks, merchants, landlords and others. Latino U.S.
citizens are already subjected to random searches at border
checkpoints. Failure to carry a national I.D. card would likely
be viewed as a reason for search, detention or arrest of
minorities. The stigma and humiliation of constantly proving
lawful status is unacceptable.
***************************************************************
Professor Joseph Olson
Hamline University School of Law tel. (651) 523-2142
St. Paul, Minnesota 55104-1284
fax. (651) 523-2236 <jolson@gw.hamline.edu>
***************************************************
What To Do If The Police Come To Confiscate Your Militia
Weapons see www.2ndamendment.net
For legislative updates contact www.nealknox.com and go to
"Scripts from the Firearms Coalition Legislative Update Line"
*************************************************************