ObamaCare: The Tyranny of the Nanny State Exposed

First came the erection of the Security State under George W. Bush after that conveniently labeled date of 9/11 introducing the Big Government and Big Brother institutions and programs like Homeland Security, REAL ID (which West Virginia incorporated unnecessarily into the DMV issued drivers licenses, despite resistance), USA PATRIOT ACT (which handed over your Social Security number to banks, enabled arbitrary detention or searches and seizures without a warrant), expanded TSA searches, and much more.  Suddenly, free Americans were all to be treated as terrorist suspects and "show their papers" and be opened to Federal (and state) surveillance, electronic and with a growing camera system.   It was something that George Orwell had warned of in his book 1984, and now almost prophetically. 

Now comes the Nanny State under Barack Obama with the Affordable Healthcare Act (neither affordable nor about improving health care) which is now more openly disclosed (though we warned of it before) as another data-mining system on all Americans easily tapped by Federal or even State authorities (which work in tandem with the Feds) whenever someone abuses or taps this medical surveillance system.

Read about the intrusive privacy-breaking power of Obamacare and then you will understand how the Security State + the Nanny State = Totalitarian superstructure (all unconstitutional per the 4th and other amendments) over all "free Americans".

The "plea of necessity", warned the founding fathers, is "the tyrant's plea".  Yet distracted Americans easily fall for this oldest trick in the political book, and that to our own peril.

Move over NSA, here comes the Obamacare Big Brother database

the potential for abuse is enormous. The massive, centralized database will include comprehensive personal information such as income and financial data, family size, citizenship and immigration status, incarceration status, social security numbers, and private health information. It will compile dossiers based on information obtained from the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, state Medicaid databases, and for some reason the Peace Corps. The Data Hub will provide web-based, one-stop shopping for prying into people’s personal affairs. - See more at: http://rare.us/story/move-over-nsa-here-comes-the-obamacare-big-brother-database/#sthash.oaZink0S.dpuf

the potential for abuse is enormous. The massive, centralized database will include comprehensive personal information such as income and financial data, family size, citizenship and immigration status, incarceration status, social security numbers, and private health information. It will compile dossiers based on information obtained from the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, state Medicaid databases, and for some reason the Peace Corps. The Data Hub will provide web-based, one-stop shopping for prying into people’s personal affairs. - See more at: http://rare.us/story/move-over-nsa-here-comes-the-obamacare-big-brother-database/#sthash.oaZink0S.dpuf

Whistleblower: NSA Targeted Journalists, Snooped on All U.S. Communications (Wired.com)

Just one day after George W. Bush left office, an NSA whistleblower has revealed that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program targeted U.S. journalists, and vacuumed in all domestic communications of Americans, including, faxes, phone calls and network traffic.

Russell Tice, a former NSA analyst, spoke on Wednesday to MSNBC host Keith Olbermann. Tice has acknowledged in the past being one of the anonymous sources that spoke with The New York Times for its 2005 story on the government's warrantless wiretapping program.

After that story was published, President Bush said in a statement that only people in the United States who were talking with terrorists overseas would have been targeted for surveillance.

But Tice says, in truth, the spying involved a dragnet of all communications, confirming what critics have long assumed.

"The National Security Agency had access to all Americans' communications," he said. "Faxes, phone calls and their computer communications. ... They monitored all communications."

This is powerful testimony from an NSA insider that Bush lied about the extent and purpose of domestic spying being used upon Americans and this report reveals that journalists and media were specifically targeted. All this from a credible source, a former NSA analyst who had first hand knowledge and experience.

The mark of tyrannical governments is paranoia, particularly spying on the press as well as their own citizens.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Senators Votes on Telecom/Spy Bill--Obama, Clinton, McCain, Byrd, Rockefeller

Clinton, Nay; Obama, Yea; McCain, No Vote. McCain ducked!

As usual, Byrd got this one right, Nay, (Constitution in pocket) and Rockefeller, Yea, got it wrong, again. See more traitors and defenders of the 4th amendment at the linked source.

clipped from senate.gov U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress - 2nd Session as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate Vote Summary Question: On Passage of the Bill (H.R. 6304 ) Vote Number: 168 Vote Date: July 9, 2008, 02:47 PM Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Bill Passed Measure Number: H.R. 6304 (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ) Measure Title: A bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to establish a procedure for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence, and for other purposes. Vote Counts: YEAs 69 NAYs 28 Not Voting 3 Vote Summary By Senator Name By Vote Position By Home State Byrd (D-WV), Nay Clinton (D-NY), Nay Leahy (D-VT), Nay McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting Webb (D-VA), Yea Obama (D-IL), Yea Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea Feinstein (D-CA), Yea Kennedy (D-MA), Not Voting

The Senate Votes to Abolish the 4th Amendment, Permit Spying on Americans

America Becoming Land of Surveillance, West Virginia Too

Charleston surveillance camera

traffic cameras in West Virginia have multiplied

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated

--the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

All this increase in surveillance cameras, including in West Virginia, despite a lack of evidence that it is effective, or even evidence (mentioned in article below) that proves it is ineffective from UK studies. (See our previous "surveillance" tagged articles). But the security merchandisers (see WVDOT contractors here) are making a fortune and state and local governments are impulsively spending faster than a woman with a credit card. The source article states this:

P. Freeman said the domestic market for such systems last year had doubled over five years, to $9.2 billion, and estimated that it would more than double again by 2010, to more than $21 billion.

So you as a taxpayer are paying for your loss of liberty (4th amendment rights), while they profit, which is insult to injury. It is worth wondering how many government officials own stock in security companies (either individual stocks or mutual funds), which would be a conflict of interest (perhaps even insider trading) in that lawmakers and officials (including those heading state DMVs and DOTs) also profit through authorizing this spending.

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com Smile! More and more, you’re on camera Public surveillance video mushrooms despite lack of evidence it works After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, local governments across the country set aside concerns over privacy and installed surveillance cameras in public streets and plazas. Now — even after a damning report by the head of London’s extensive surveillance network and with little evidence that the systems work — police in many cities are trying to add thousands more cameras to their networks. “‘Cameras Everywhere’ continues to be the best description of the trend in the video surveillance market,” security market analysts J.P. Freeman Co. said in a report in 2006 that estimated that a quarter of major U.S. cities were investing in the technology. Officials in many cities are eager to take advantage of money from state and federal security agencies to install the cameras on street corners and intersections

US House Votes Down 4th Amendment, Warrantless Spying on Americans is Okay

HR6304 - FISA AMENDMENTS ACT
Great video outlining similar abuse http://www.WashingtonYoureFired.com

On June 20, 2008 - 293 Representatives voted in favor to invalidate the 4th Amendment--including Shelly Moore Capito and democrats like Nancy Pelosi.

But before they voted, this is what our leaders in Washington had to say about HR6304



AMENDMENT IV:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

"A legislative act, contrary to the Constitution, is not law".

--Chief Justice John Marshall

ACT NOW TO BLOCK PASSAGE OF THIS IN THE SENATE, using DownsizeDC.org's legislative contact system with this message:

"Please do everything you can to defeat the Senate version of HR 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. Please use your power to filibuster."

Please send this message now, with your personalizing comments added.

Arizona Joins the Revolt, Outlaws REAL ID

Next! Liberty is a threatening thing to Homeland Security. If it was really about making drivers licenses secure then the Feds would not care. But it is really about federal power and their matrix of surveillance that they want to construct that is at stake.

West Virginia needs to defend its own and the federal Constitution (4th and 10th amendments), and outlaw and nullify REAL ID in the next legislative session, irregardless of Governor Manchin and the DMV's irresponsible and unjust support of REAL ID, to defend our liberties that began on July 4, 1776.

clipped from www.azcentral.com Napolitano: Real ID a no-go in Arizona Arizona will join roughly a dozen states that have vowed not to participate in federal plans for a uniform standard on state-issued driver's licenses and identification cards. On Tuesday, Gov. Janet Napolitano signed a measure, House Bill 2677, barring Arizona's compliance with the Real ID program. In so doing, she called it an unfunded federal mandate that would stick states such as Arizona with a multibillion-dollar bill for the cost to develop and implement the series of new fraud-proof identification cards. HB 2677 is a rare recent example of broad, bipartisan agreement at the state Capitol, with the Democratic governor and GOP-led Legislature finding common ground in their opposition to Real ID. Some of that opposition is grounded in concerns about privacy and government advancement toward a national identification card. For Napolitano, the biggest issue is related to Real ID's costs for the states.

Fingerprinting of "Free Americans" Expands

Americans are losing their historical and constitutional "presumption of innocence" which is being replaced by REAL ID and other data-mining requirements by government (or business) that pre-book "free Americans" like is done to criminals upon arrest. In other words there is a growing presumption of suspicion or guilt, rather than innocence, which "requires" trampling the Constitution and all the freedoms Americans used to fight for. It is impossible then that Americans can be truly free if this fascism is permitted to stand unchallenged.

Why is everyone not offended at this, and its implication that unless you forfeit your privacy (your 4th amendment rights) you will not be considered a free citizen?

clipped from www.openmarket.org Fingerprint Registry in Housing Bill!!! Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of information, and fingerprint databases created and proposed in the name of national security have generated much debate. Recently, “Server in the Sky” — a proposed international database of the fingerprints of suspected criminals and terrorists to be shared among the U.S., U.K. and Canada — has ignited a firestorm of controversy. As have cavalier comments by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that fingerprints aren’t “personal data.” Yet earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2. “an indvidual may not engage in the business of a loan originator without first … obtaining a unique identifier.”

FED UP With REAL ID: Cato Interviews SC Gov. Mark Sanford--"REAL ID Rebels"

Great interview with the Governor of South Carolina (R) who is resisting REAL ID, that Governor Joe Manchin, State legislators, and the entire public should listen to.

He frames the controversy as between State and Federal government power, and Liberty vs. Security, consistent with the Constitution, which all swear to defend and protect:

Listen to it on the Cato Institute Daily Podcast here

Congress Introduces Bills to Curb FBI Spy Powers

Good news here per this Washington post (linked) article. Ron Paul is behind one of these bills, which in particular restores some Constitutional bounds in regard to domestic surveillance. (Of course these letters are still much more loose than the requirements of the 4th Amendment, which requires judicial warrants exclusively "issued upon probable cause"). This legislation will need a public push, even though it is very reasonable.

Watch the Bush administration (and neocon Attorney General Mukasey) begin the fear mongering about "summer terrorism threats", which is the typical pattern when opposition legislation, consistent with the Constitution, arises.

NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS

Lawmakers Want FBI Access to Data Curbed

Bipartisan groups in Congress are pressing to place new controls on the FBI's ability to demand troves of sensitive personal information from telephone providers and credit card companies, over the opposition of agency officials who say they deserve more time to clean up past abuses....

The House bill, sponsored by Nadler, Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), would tighten the language governing when national security letters could be used, by requiring that they clearly pertain to investigations of a foreign power or an agent instead of just being considered "relevant" to such investigations.

The House bill would also force the FBI to destroy information that had been illegally obtained -- something that existing rules do not require -- and it would allow the recipient of a letter to file a civil lawsuit if the missive is found to be illegal or without sufficient factual justification.

A Senate bill, sponsored by Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and John E. Sununu (R-N.H.), would require the FBI to track its use of the letters more carefully and would narrow the types of records that can be obtained with a letter, and therefore without judicial approval, to those that are least sensitive.

Montana Governor to Feds: "Go to Hell" On REAL ID; Governor Joe Manchin Plays the Puppet

While other governors like our own Gov. Joe Manchin are playing politically-correct puppets like cowards and complying with REAL ID, to kiss up to the federal powers (for political ambitions?), the governor of Montana is standing up boldly like a man (consistent with his oath of office) for the Constitution, State's Rights, 4th amendment privacy of their citizens and challenging what he called the "bluff" of the Federal government with its threats of "special treatment" beginning May 11th for those whose states are rejecting REAL ID (see earlier post).

West Virginia almost joined seventeen other states that have passed measures against REAL ID as well when the Senate passed bipartisan bill 248 with only three dissenting votes until the governor's lobbying got it stalled in House committee without an up or down vote. The governors and legislators of Maine and New Hampshire have made it clear they will not bow to federal threats or coercion against their citizens (by arbitrary and unconstitutional treatment) either that are being used to intimidate to force REAL ID upon the states.

The governor of Montana should be an example to Gov. Manchin, and the government and people of West Virginia. As Ronald Reagan stated once,

"All of us need to be reminded that the federal government did not create the states; the states created the federal government".

Therefore the sovereignty of the states, demonstrated in their creation and limiting of federal powers, is the chief defense in preventing federal despotism, particularly effecting citizens rights and privacy.

This is a short, must-listen NPR interview that every American needs to hear. (Click the link at the top of the clip if the "listen now" does not open the player, to go directly to the story page and audio).

clipped from www.npr.org Nation Montana Governor on 'Real ID' Act Listen Now [4 min 21 sec] add to playlist All Things Considered, March 7, 2008 · Montana is one of several states that have balked at a federal law requiring states to issue tamper-proof identification cards to residents. Gov. Brian Schweitzer discusses his state's opposition.

Biometric Speed Passes Promoted to Ignorant Americans

What is being implemented in Iraq under Martial Law is being sold to the public as "voluntary" (for now) here. Will Americans trade their privacy and freedom for convenience? (Answer: the stupid ones will). REAL ID will employ this eventually too. "Membership has its privileges".

clipped from www.globalresearch.ca The Biometric Cataloging of Americans at Home by Dahr Jamail "Avoid the hassle of airport security every time you fly." This is the rhetoric being used to entice U.S. citizens to voluntarily provide their biometric information to the U.S. government. The program, called "clear," is being installed at airports around the country now. For a little background on this, view a post at this website from September 2005, called Securitizing the Global Norm of Identity: Biometric Technologies in Domestic and Foreign Policy. In Fallujah, the cataloging of human beings has been involuntary since the U.S. siege of that city in November 2004. Having retina scans, fingerprinting and bar-code IDs is mandatory there for Iraqis. But now, in the "homeland" of the United States, you too can join the happy club of those giving their biometric data to the federal government. These kiosks are planned for airports in New York, Denver, Oakland, and many others.

NSA quietly expands domestic spying program

"The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering has never been publicly disclosed,"... an inquiry reveals that its efforts have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people's communications, travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks.""According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records.

read more | digg story

Wireless Cell Provider Gave Feds Backdoor Access--Surveillance via Cell Phones

Just another good reason to BOYCOTT VERIZON! This is why Bush wants Telecoms protected instead of free citizens, because of deliberate network of illegal spying on millions of Americans. This was plainly illegal, and probably continues. Congress is being notified and the documentation taken seriously.

A cell phone is a powerful medium for conducting surveillance, even in real time, on any individual.

clipped from blog.wired.com Whistle-Blower: Feds Have a Backdoor Into Wireless Carrier -- Congress Reacts A U.S. government office in Quantico, Virginia, has direct, high-speed access to a major wireless carrier's systems, exposing customers' voice calls, data packets and physical movements to uncontrolled surveillance, according to a computer security consultant who says he worked for the carrier in late 2003. According to his affidavit, Pasdar tumbled to the surveillance superhighway in September 2003, when he led a "Rapid Deployment" team hired to revamp security on the carrier's internal network. He noticed that the carrier's officials got squirrelly when he asked about a mysterious "Quantico Circuit" -- a 45 megabit/second DS-3 line linking its most sensitive network to an unnamed third party. Quantico, Virginia, is home to a Marine base. But perhaps more relevantly, it's also the center of the FBI's electronic surveillance operations. suit names Verizon Wireless as the culprit.

Rutherford Institute on Cell Phones and Increasing Surveillance

FBI Admits Spying on Innocent Americans--Citizens Now Under Surveillance

This was all done using "national intelligence" letters from the so-called USA PATRIOT ACT. You are no longer a free citizen protected by the Constitution, but a criminal or terrorist suspect.

Note how credit reports...phone records...internet traffic are among things admitted to. Your credit report has your entire financial and life history on it.

This is why REAL ID must be resisted entirely, as well as the extra-constitutional Gestapo-patterned Office of Homeland Security.

The founders always warned that necessity is the tyrant's plea, justification for breaking constitutional restraints on government.

clipped from apnews.myway.com More FBI Privacy Violations Confirmed WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI acknowledged Wednesday it improperly accessed Americans' telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at tracking terrorists and spies. The breach occurred before the FBI enacted broad new reforms in March 2007 to prevent future lapses, FBI Director Robert Mueller said. And it was caused, in part, by banks, telecommunication companies and other private businesses giving the FBI more personal client data than was requested. An audit by the inspector general last year found the FBI demanded personal records without official authorization or otherwise collected more data than allowed in dozens of cases between 2003 and 2005. Additionally, last year's audit found that the FBI had underreported to Congress how many national security letters were requested by more than 4,600. National security letters, as outlined in the USA Patriot Act

Bi-Partisan Opposition in Pennsylvania to REAL ID Seeks to Block Implementation

Pennsylvania also, like West Virginia, presently has bi-partisan legislation pending against REAL ID to prevent its implementation.

As the article points out this unusual bi-partisan coalition is mirrored at the national level where groups as diverse as the ACLU and American Center for Law and Justice (as well as National Rifle Association) are all finding common ground in the Constitution to defend their rights to privacy and state's rights against government intrusion. As in West Virginia, it can be seen that republicans have taken up the cause in their respective legislatures and become among the most vocal in opposition.

Note the name of the Senate bill introduced in Pennsylvania and the detailing of what "biometric" and "economic" measures are to be kept private from government intrusion (bills linked in clip):

This act shall be known and may be cited as the
REAL ID and Biometric and Economic Privacy Act.

Any governor that does not see the strength and broadness of this movement, or is blind to what the Constitution limits government from doing, will probably find bipartisan opposition to their re-election as well.

Note the legislative bills from Pennsylvania are linked in the clip below.

clipped from www.pittsburghlive.com Backlash mounts against REAL ID HARRISBURG -- Republican and Democratic state lawmakers are teaming up to oppose the federal REAL ID program, claiming it creates a national identity card that poses a threat to personal privacy. REAL ID "is a terribly invasive new government tracking system being implemented here in Pennsylvania and across this nation, without legislative approval and certainly without public knowledge," said Rep. Sam Rohrer, a Berks County Republican known as one of the Legislature's most conservative members. Rohrer and Rep. Babette Josephs, a liberal Philadelphia Democrat, are sponsoring a bill that would block REAL ID in Pennsylvania. "The potential for identity theft is gigantic, unbelievable," Rohrer said. The REAL ID program was included in a federal defense spending bill approved in 2005 without public hearings. Senate Bill 1220, by Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon County. View it online. House Bill 1351, by Rep. Sam Rohrer, R-Berks County. View it online.

Homegrown Fascism Begins 5/11: Non-REAL ID Citizens to be Treated Like Suspects

"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector."
- Plato

This "homegrown fascism" begins May 11th at an airport near you. After all, "membership has its privileges" and you must be a federally-approved citizen and accept the Federal "mark" to be treated like you are "free".

The new extra-constitutional Dept. of Homeland Tyranny (aka "Security") plans to "make an example" of the citizens of Maine and New Hampshire for their states' (absolutely justifiable) rejection of REAL ID. TSA will be their deployed mercenaries to harass law-abiding free citizens for their nullification of this federal legislation. What they want by this of course is for remaining state legislators and governors to be fearful of their alleged power and "consequences", and while complaining bitterly, to even reluctantly comply, as the cowardly House of Representatives in Utah just did. For a better example people should consider the open and righteous "rebellion" of the Governor and legislature of Montana (per previous article).

There should be open and public protests and lawsuits filed to stop this second-class citizen "handling", and states should join together, as republicans and democrats are together against REAL ID within the states, in securing their states' and citizens' rights by suing it out in federal court. Citizens from states that reject REAL ID should be treated as full-fledged and free citizens of the United States rather than denying, harassing, or withholding freedom of travel and government services. The federal government is outside the law when it denies citizens and states their rights, and the Constitution has not been amended otherwise.

Both REAL ID and the Dept of Homeland Security should be rescinded and abolished, being contrary to the Constitution, if Americans expect to be free indeed. It is impossible to "defend freedom" while erecting tyranny.

clipped from www.wmur.com Rejecting REAL ID Could Mean Stiffer Security At Airports New Hampshire, Maine Travelers May Face Secondary Security Checks Starting on May 11, the federal government will be enforcing the REAL ID program, a set of strict rules surrounding the issuing of photo identification, such as driver's licenses. While 45 states have agreed to go along with the program, New Hampshire and Maine are among those who haven't.Residents of states that don't comply may find themselves the focus of a second screening at airports. "Secondary screening means you'll be pulled aside for a pat down and your bags will be opened before you can get on board the aircraft," said Mark Brewer, director of Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. Because New Hampshire has not joined REAL ID, Granite State residents will need to show a military ID or passport to avoid the second security search. Residents said they weren't happy to have to go through the additional step.

A state senator in Maine (the first state to refuse REAL ID) makes a compelling argument how REAL ID would not prevent terrorism and is a burden to the people.

Bush Began Spying on Americans Feb. '01--Why?

Note this is well before 9/11, yet the official story by the administration is that it received no notification of any national threat, while in stealth it began comprehensive spying on American citizens, to which the telecoms objected upon legal grounds as contrary to their obligations to protect consumer rights even from government demands.

Further consider that the government could have issued "warrants" for such if it indeed had any "probable cause" with specific evidence to justify it. The fact that Bush government did not issue warrants, or attempt to get them, proves it was trying to circumvent the law, and the Constitution, to spy on Americans secretly, in order to do so in stealth.

Such a secret pattern by government, before 9/11, could be regarded as evidence of secrecy and providing for its own security, not against foreign terrorists, but from the American people at large whom its surveillance plans desired to freely sift through. The question of MOTIVE must be answered.

clipped from www.nytimes.com “What he saw,” said Bruce Afran, a New Jersey lawyer representing the plaintiffs along with Carl Mayer, “was decisive evidence that within two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.” N.S.A. officials met with the Qwest executives in February 2001 and asked for more access to their phone system for surveillance operations, according to people familiar with the episode. The company declined, expressing concerns that the request was illegal without a court order. Other N.S.A. initiatives have stirred concerns among phone company workers. A lawsuit was filed in federal court in New Jersey challenging the agency’s wiretapping operations. It claims that in February 2001, just days before agency officials met with Qwest officials, the N.S.A. met with AT&T officials to discuss replicating a network center in Bedminster, N.J., to give the agency access to all the global phone and e-mail traffic that ran through it.

REAL ID: Dept. of Homeland Tyranny Continues to Lobby State DMVs; Head of Nat'l Gov. Association Plays Sycophant

MAD ABOUT REAL ID
"Mountaineers are always free"--unless they accept REAL ID.
Preserve our way of life, tell the WV legislature and Governor to pass the pending bi-partisan bills opposing REAL ID implementation. A nation ID card is un-American, and unconstitutional.

Alot of good current information in this article on one of the most important topics that could change every West Virginian's "way of life" more than any presumed terrorist threat, which is a microscopic threat statistically. Whether "Mountaineers are always free" (the state's real official slogan that has been laid aside, while liberty has been consistently encroached upon) is up to the state legislature and Governor, whether they will pass the pending legislation opposing and nullifying REAL ID or not. (See REAL ID tags for previous articles).

As another alternative, any citizen could sue, as did the individual from Alaska to their DMV in the link at bottom, to prevent REAL ID being implemented based upon the West Virginia Constitution which requires the state to resist federalization, maintain constitutional continuity, and defend our rights of privacy, insteading of being "pre-booked" as criminal suspects (it is no longer merely an "operator's license" since they required SSN and photos) in order to have "freedom" to travel.

Homeland Security is America's Gestapo and it ought to be dismantled as well, since it is designed for federalization of the states, and contrary to the U.S. Constitution which does not authorize any such tyrannical agency to exist. Notice in this article how they found a sycophant to do their bidding, the head of the National Governor's Association, who is not representing the States, but this usurping rogue power illegally added to the Federal branch.

From Wired:

DMV Gets Educated on Real ID by Homeland Security Industrial Complex

By Ryan Singel September 25, 2007 | 6:55:58 PMCategories: Identification

The database and identity wing of the Homeland Security Industrial Complex sponsored a conference this week on Real ID, the controversial, unfunded government mandate that forces states to join in a national identification program or face having their residents unable to enter federal buildings or board airplanes.

Much of the conference agenda seemed dedicated to rallying state DMV employees to make sure the vendors get the fat contracts, regardless of the drubbing the proposal has gotten from states and the public.

Under the proposed rules all current driver's license and state I.D. holders would have to track down verified copies of "breeder documents" that prove their citizenship and marital status.

Many states are balking at the proposal, seeing it as a federal encroachment on state sovereignty, a privacy-invasive initiative and a financial strain on cash-strapped states.

Among the many sessions held Monday and Tuesday at the D.C.-based conference was a keynote from Dr. Raymond Scheppach, the head of the National Governors Association, which aimed to educate DMV bureaucrats on how they could use Real ID's bigger databases to bring in more money to pay for the databases.

What options did Scheppach suggest for states to deal with the estimated $23 billion cost over 10 years? According to the schedule, his speech included

Assessing various ways of creating the extra funding yourself, e.g. can you use a nation-wide database in other areas of your jurisdiction too, such as finding fathers who aren't paying their child support, or providing extra security for retailers using credit cards?

THREAT LEVEL thinks DMVs might think about selling the database to data brokers, Florida-style...

Jim Harper, the Cato Institute's resident identification specialist, noticed the event first, highlighting another session entitled Bringing Your Public Onboard For Smoother Legislature Changes, teaching DMV employees how to sell Real ID to the public so that politicians will make the necessary changes to state laws.

Harper comments: "State legislators who care about privacy should bar their employees from attending events like this - before the bureaucrats oust them from office."

See Also:

• Montana Rejects Real ID Mandate, Joins Rebel Forces
• Panels Scrutinize Real ID Proposal
• Senate Looks into REAL ID
• Second Round of Real ID Fight Coming to Close
• Homeland Security's Own Privacy Panel Declines to Endorse License ...
• DHS Honchos Get a Polite Earful on New ID Regulations
• Another State Pulls Out of REAL ID, Alaska DMV Sued

CC photo: Anna Reid

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