Protect Your Freedom with a National ID Card

With states and citizens objecting, the Congress and the Bush Administration have moved ahead to require a national identification card — abandoning decades of opposition to such a system on civil liberties grounds. I testified against this proposal when it was first made in the immediate aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. What is truly remarkable is that the REAL ID has become little more than an excuse to do something that the Bush Administration has been trying to do for years: create interlocking databases on citizens.

What is particularly galling is that the card has been watered down to reduce costs for the states. So that main selling point — a micro chip — has been removed. This is one of the reason that the card programs has been reduced in cost by roughly 75 percent from $14.6 billion to $3.9 billion. Now anyone born after 1964 (I missed the cut-off thankfully) will have to get a new REAL ID to get into federal buildings or to fly.

  Jonathan Turley

Because we know that terrorists cannot get us any other way than to have a valid ID - excuse me - REAL ID, they aren’t concerned with anything other than federal buildings or something that can only be penetrated by flying a plane into it, and they can’t forge IDs.

The real purpose of the card program was to get Congress to allow the Administration to allow the use of a massive data bank system checking and monitoring citizens. Private information on citizens will now be passed from agency to agency. The Administration has long sought what is called “total transparency.”

For everyone besides the Administration itself.

REAL ID.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Guns and Money: Where Does It Go?

In Afghanistan. Courtesy of our good friends DynCorp and Blackwater. To the tune of $28.4 million in money and U.S. government-issued property, including armored cars and guns. That's a little more than 20 percent of the government property held by those two companies.

And just for fun, DynCorp also bought millions of dollars worth of pick-up trucks and motorcycles on the taxpayers' account.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Don't Diss the White House

New signs are posted around the White House indicating a new strict enforcement of the dress code, the Washington Post reported Thursday. The code applies to all visitors and staff members, including tourists.

Some tourists are finding the strict clothing restrictions at the White House un-American.

The forbidden items include jeans, sneakers, mini-skirts, t-shirts, tank tops and absolutely no flip flops.

  CBS

I don't see why tourists are expected to show respect for the institution when BushCo shows no respect for the Constitution that created it.

And isn't it just like them to regulate the superficial while trashing the meaningful?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

"In statesmanship get the formalities right, never mind about the moralities." --Mark Twain

Huh?

The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

  The Gavel

Well, that's a surprise to me. He's got his picture on the WH government page with the rest of them. And his office is linked on the government page listing the executive branch offices.

Rahm Emanuel says, if it's true, then the Big Dick should vacate the premises and return the money.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Rahm Emanuel via TPM Cafe