National Biometric Identification Card

There's a fine line between enforcing the law and taking away freedoms for the law abiding. With the push for a national biometric identification card, the government  is crossing that line in a manner that should alarm everyone:

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill are proposing a new national biometric ID card that would be required of all U.S. workers. WSJ's Laura Meckler explains the proposal and the objections from privacy advocates.

Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.

The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar bills in the past.

The uphill effort to pass a bill is being led by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who plan to meet with President Barack Obama as soon as this week to update him on their work. An administration official said the White House had no position on the biometric card. 

I heard Judge Napolitano give a perfect reason as to why this should give us all pause.  Due to the countless television shows dealing with law enforcement in one aspect of another, I expect that majority of Americans know that they have "a right to remain silence."  Yet, with a quick swipe of a biometric card, a government employee, any government employee, would instantly know more information about you than they have any right to know. 

I've warned before (during the previous administration) that this is a slippery slope that is just plain scary. It will turn us into a country that none of us will like regardless of our political persuasion.

It's Getting Worse

No, I'm not talking about the economy. I'm talking about the peeling away of our individual right to privacy and freedom. The TSA has heightened alerts after the failed Christmas Day bombing of an airplane. This heightened alert means that millions upon millions of travelers will be treated as criminals as they travel for business or pleasure:

The current directive requires airlines to pat down all passengers boarding planes bound for the United States and inspect their carry-on bags.

It also gives airlines the discretion to take other measures to prevent people from secretly assembling or igniting bombs on aircraft. Those measures include prohibiting people from keeping pillows or blankets on their laps during the final hour of flight.

I can't decide what is worse, the virtual strip search or the humiliation of a forced pat down of otherwise law abiding citizens to travel the country.

What is truly bothersome is that this expansion of an overreaching police state is absolutely unnecessary. This bomber could have been stopped from ever boarding the plane.

"A systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable," Obama told reporters Tuesday during his vacation in Hawaii, referring to what authorities allege was Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab's failed attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane preparing to land in Detroit, Michigan.

The president said information on AbdulMutallab should have sufficed to alert authorities to prevent him from getting on the flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands.

So, despite massive amounts of Homeland Security spending and the further erosion of freedoms, we still have the same problems today that we had in the pre-9/11 world. Namely, a failure to communicate in the intelligence community.

Now, I know there are people out there who feel it okay to give up our rights to ensure our safety - although, I have yet to meet them in my circle. But, when does it stop? If terrorist gunmen were to unload in a shopping mall, would we then be okay with being patted down and virtually strip-searched every time we went to the mall? Would we tolerate it going to work, or church, or ours kids sporting events? Where does it stop?

I've remarked before that it troubling how quickly we have adapted to this government intrusion.  It is not so far fetched to believe that it will continue to the extremes mentioned above in a very short time. As one year comes to an end and another begins, I sincerely hope this trend reverses itself.  If it does not, by the time our kids grow up, this country will no longer resemble the free nation we all loved.

Can't Help But Wonder

I can't help but wonder what happens to one of my favorite past times if we get a government run healthcare system in the U.S. In July 2007, I bought a four door Jeep Wrangler. I can't even tell you how therapeutic I find it to drive with the top off and the windows open under the clear blue skies of the Land of Enchantment.

I've put nearly 60,000 miles in the first two years of ownership criss-crossing the state. Sometimes I did it for business, sometimes for fun. Actually, no matter what the purpose, I always had fun. Especially those trips that took me on dirt roads with nothing but the cows and deer for company.

The first month or two I had the vehicle the doors were off as well, but my always sensible wife ruled that the kids were forbidden to drive with me if there were no doors on the vehicle. So, that didn't last too long. [Note to lawmakers enacting revenue generating schemes: No law had to be passed to protect our children.]

Okay, you're wondering what does driving with a topless Jeep have to do with government run healthcare? That's a fair enough question. Consider this new medical study released on the potential damage to hearing provided by convertibles [hat tip: NewMexiKen]:

Convertible lovers who take to the open road with the top down may be risking hearing damage, according to a new study out of the U.K.

"If you are exposed for long periods above 85 decibels [of sound], you have the potential for hearing loss," says Philip Michael, MD, an ear-nose-throat surgeon at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcestershire, U.K., and the study's lead author. In his study, he found that the noise level with the top down was higher than 85 decibels. "The maximum noise was at 70 miles per hour and that was 89 decibels. It has the potential for causing long-term hearing loss.''

To put those decibel levels in context, a normal conversation is about 60 decibels; a rock concert is about 115 decibels.

Well, once the government is running the healthcare system is it too far fetched to consider that they might outlaw the use of convertibles, or rock concerts for that matter, to cut costs related to hearing loss? I don't think so. Remember our own Senator Bingaman has already made the point:

If the government is going to be involved in the far end… I don’t see why it’s inappropriate for the government to encourage healthy behavior up front.

Time and time again, we allow the government to extend its reach into our lives without giving much thought to the precedent that sets for further intrusions. If you enjoy cranking up the stereo while driving your convertible, and eating an occasional fast food burger, fries and a large chocolate shake, you may want to give a second thought to the implications of a government run healthcare system.

You Have the Right to Remain Silent

Thanks to countless television shows and movies, I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone in America that doesn't know about the Miranda Warnings. Keeping those rights in mind, watch the video below (Hat tip: Blue Collar Muse).



This is not a partisan issue. The previous administration put the TSA in place under the guise of safeguarding America. The intrusion on freedom and privacy concerned me then, and it concerns me now. Review history, and you'll discover that it does not take long for governments to move from intrusive to oppressive. There are ample number of examples on the left and the right.

It is easy to look back at how the Nazi's round up Jews during World War II and wonder how all of those millions of people allowed themselves to be loaded up into cattle cars and taken to their deaths. Yet, look at how quickly we've given up the right to move freely around the country. It's been less than 10 years, and already the nation has grown accustomed to moving through cattle lines for processing and being detained for questioning.

The Nazi's did not start filing people into ovens from Day One. There were steps that were taken to acclimate the public over a number of years. They were taken in the name of national interest.

The continued and ever growing encroachment on our personal freedoms coupled with the global economic crisis and escalation of the threats by North Korea and in the Middle East are a combination that historically have set the stage for increased government control and oppression.

Am I being overly alarmist? I don't think so. As George Santayana so aptly wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Today, I turn 40. I would like to enjoy for the next forty years of my life the same freedoms I have enjoyed during the first forty. But, more importantly, I'd like my children and their children's children to enjoy those freedoms. For that to happen, we must ALL safeguard those freedoms regardless of political persuasion. We are no longer at the precipice of a slippery slope. We are now sliding down it.