With Obama, Big Brother Is Watching You
by Big Dog on Mar 1, 2009 at 14:21 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
“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.”
Let me remind you it was so-called “radical environmentalists” and vegetarians being watched by the Bush administration so I think both sides of the spectrum have a bone to pick with this kind of idiotic technology advancements. I for one would protest such a ridiculous standardization but I’ll assume it’s all just ghost stories until I see something more tangible.
But Bush did also watch Quakers, those radicals!
I don’t discount that both sides have a bone to pick. Real ID did not have the RFID (I still did not like it) but the ACLU and all the other noise makers were up in arms. Where are they now?
I don’t know what you consider a ghost story. The legislation for the ID is in place and now DHS has decided the EDL is the way to go. Napolitano is in favor of it.
How much more does there need to be before it is no longer a ghost to you?
I don’t have problems with officials that have a need to watch a group. If a protest group (from any side) has caused problems then they should be watched. It needs to have an official and substantiated reason. Do we know why they were watching Quakers or if it is even substantiated? Is this another Plame story? I mean, was it a ghost story?
What are the particulars. If there was no good reason than it is wrong.
RFID is easily defeated.
One should also keep in mind that it was the left that howled over alleged violations of privacy with wire taps and such.
Bush could not break wind without some people crying about intrusion.
Obama was a big opponent of this kind of intrusion but now…
The government is preparing the way for the “Mark of the Beast” explained in the bible. Christians had better wake up and those who don’t have a relationship with the Lord had better yield to him if you want to see heaven. This is no joke. The government will eventually take complete control of us. Obama’s arrogance on TV the other night when he said “he was ready for a fight” to get his way also enforces this.
Oh yeah! I knew you wouldn’t let me down on this one, Babs.
Looks like I’m on the highway to hell yet again, according to your expert opinion. Yeah baby!
I’ll consider it less of a ghost story when it’s actual legislation to be voted on. You say the legislation is “in place” but what does that even mean? If I was scared over every piece of legislation that doesn’t even make it out of committee I’d be a wreck.
They already have legislation for Real ID and the article indicates that DHS can make a rule saying that you must have the EDL to get on a plane and states will have to comply or their people cannot fly. Like most legislation, it is probably loose enough to make it what they want.
RFID uses RF, not IR. In the context you are using, active and passive is very important. You would have to use active RFID for any information to be read more than several inches, perhaps a couple of feet. “Active” means the RFID chip would have to utilize its own power supply independent of the RFID reader. In a passive RFID the chip is powered by the electromagnetic field of the reader, and it does not require its own power supply.
To use real world examples, the transponder one would use in their car to automatically pay tolls uses an active RFID chip. It has a battery and it can be read from long distances. A pass card that gets you in the front door of a secured area when you wave it in front of the reader uses a passive RFID chip. The security devices that are used to prevent shoplifting in retail stores use passive RFID. To read an RFID from 70 feet, it would have to be active and have a relatively large battery, making it impractical for a drivers license.
You are right, I believe I said infra red but did not mean that. I am no expert but I have read that the newer ones can be stimulated from greater distances.
Regardless, they would still present a problem.
Thanks for shedding more light on RFID technology.
Babs- please tell us more about the gubment “preparing the way for the mark of the beast”. Sounds like a devilish scheme.
I still don’t like the idea of an EDL but, at the risk of harsh comments, believe we should have some sort of national id to weed out and get rid of illegals. Perhaps this chip would be harder to emulate and therefore make these ids harder to fake. That would be almost worth losing a tad of my security in liberty. But no one will use it that way – they’ll find out who’s driving the speeding cars and send you a ticket in the mail. Very creepy!!