With Obama, Big Brother Is Watching You
Mar 1, 2009 Political
Remember not too long ago when the Real ID issue was front and center? Remember how all the so called civil liberty organizations were opposed to this “National ID”? The original Real ID was supposed to be a way for states to have uniformity in the ID process because it mandated a certain kind of ID. There were many organizations who were opposed to the concept.
I was not too fond of the whole thing because it was another intrusion of the government. The government laid out a list of items that were required for a license to meet the Real ID standard. All well and good but it added additional cost to states for the licenses. This cost was not paid for by the federal government and the states were going to pass them on to the people receiving the licenses. The cost of one of these was reported to be over $100.
Real ID went by the wayside and now the feds want something called the Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL) which sounds nice enough but it has a Radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip in it.
Janet Napolitano opposed the Real ID when she was Governor of Arizona but now that she is in charge of Homeland Security she is in favor of the RFID embedded devices. The difference is, they are saying that we are not doing Real ID and instead going to “enhanced” driver’s licenses. The enhancement is the RFID and that is the change from Real ID.
For those who do not know, and RFID is a little electronic device that sends out an infra red signal that can be read. How it is powered (active or passive) is another issue but they all work the same. Some stores and been embedding them in products so shopping carts can be pushed past a reader and all items charged to the customer. They have a purpose but making people carry them is not a good one.
Several years ago RFIDs could be read from nearly 70 feet. I am certain it is farther by now but 70 feet is problematic enough. Suppose the police start equipping cars with an RFID reader. They could then drive around reading who is in a car and if someone they happen to have a warrant for or who is wanted for any reason is detected they could then manufacture a reason to stop the car.
Suppose you wanted to attend a gun show, pro or anti government rally, church, synagogue or mosque, and the government wanted to know who was attending these places. What would stop them from sending an operative in with a reader to get a list of who was there? People at gun shows could be placed on a list of gun owners (or potential gun owners), people at a rally or protest could be listed and placed on some type of watch list. People who attend certain religious services could be singled out for one reason or another. The government can require an EDL to buy a gun and then use the information to create a database of gun owners.
Banks and other businesses could put RFID readers near the entrance and then obtain information about who has entered. It could be used for a number of things. However, the most disturbing would be a government that decided to put RFID readers all over town to track movements of people.
Sound far fetched? There are over 20,000 closed circuit cameras in England and Chicago wants one on every street corner. How far away would the reader be?
I will not get one of these unless I absolutely have to and then I would never remove my license from my vehicle. I have other identification that will get me anywhere my license will so I could leave it in the car. It is also possible to wrap RFIDs in aluminum foil and keep the signal from getting out though this is not a 100% fix. There are companies that sell wallets that block RFID transmission. The moonbats could just carry theirs under their tin foil hats…
Sounds like a minor issue but the government is too intrusive as it is and with Obama and his desire to make this a Socialist country the government will become more intrusive. Makes me wonder why Napolitano changed her mind and why the civil liberties organizations are not all up in arms.
Silly me, Bush was the one taking our liberties. The Real ID under him was oppressive but now that The Evil Won is in, they have nothing to worry about…
I guess it won’t be too long into the future before government is implanting these in children as they are born. That is assuming the liberals actually let them be born…
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Tags: big brother, enhanced driver's license, Obama, real id, rfid, socialism