-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.16/pageone.html <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.16/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times - Volume 3 Issue 16 </A> ----- The Laissez Faire City Times April 19, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 16 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next Target, the National ID Card by Sunni Maravillosa The FDIC’s "Know Your Customer" (KYC) proposal has been declared dead. Much of the credit for that goes to the Libertarian Party. They organized an education drive through traditional media and the Internet, and set up an advocacy site specifically geared to the KYC proposal. That site, www.DefendYourPrivacy.com, housed educational material, media coverage of the proposal, an e-mail link to the FDIC for convenient mailing of messages, and an online petition against the KYC proposal. The New York Times, in its March 24 article "Flood of E-Mail Credited With Halting U.S. Bank Plan," reports that 171,000 of the e-mail comments the FDIC received came from the LP’s advocacy site. That was about 83 per cent of the e-mail traffic the FDIC received on the subje ct. Also, about 140,000 individuals who visited the Defend Your Privacy site signed up to receive other privacy-related information. Congratulations to the Libertarian Party for its success in this effort. KYC was a frighteningly Orwellian proposal that needed to be soundly rejected by the American people. It’s reassuring to know that happened, but even more satisfying that it happened under the efforts of a group that is truly pro-freedom. The LP’s work on this issue shows that many individuals do still value freedom. It also demonstrates that there’s a segment of the American population that isn’t thoroughly sheepified, and will resist such intrusions into privacy. Where’s the Celebration? The Libertarian Party’s campaign also provided an opportunity to share information about the freedom philosophy to large numbers of individuals who demonstrated an openness to those ideas by visiting the Defend Your Privacy web site and signing the petition. In addition, articles such as the New York Times piece gave the LP something they have long been seeking—mainstream, positive coverage of libertarian values and actions. Imagine my surprise, then, when I browsed their web site while researching this essay, and found no mention of the KYC proposal, their petition and e-mail campaign, or the New York Times article. I then visited the Defend Your Privacy site, thinking that surely there would be lots of attention given to the LP’s success. But no… although the site does talk about the campaign’s success and has media coverage, everything was very understated. One needs to look closely at the bottom of the home page to find mention of the Libertarian Party. If I were an official in the national LP, that kind of success and coverage would be given lots of attention in all the LP literature—e-mails, web sites, and print media. Instead, it looks like everyone has packed up the tents and gone quietly home. The Defend Your Privacy site is now being used to promote privacy-protecting legislation geared to keep KYC and similar proposals from being adopted. It’s possible that I missed a lot of the fanfare…although I doubt it, as I’m on discussion lists where the LP’s press releases get regular coverage, and have friends who regularly forward LP information to me. It’s also possible that they did make a big deal out of the news when it was announced, and I visited the site too late to see the things I expected. Still, it seems to me that the kind of attention the LP received on this campaign would merit space on the web site on a long-term basis, as an example of the effectiveness of grass-roots activism in general and the LP’s in particular. In fact, I got to wondering what the Libertarian Party is doing with all those names and e-mail addresses they collected, of individuals who asked to be notified about privacy issues. Not being on that list, I have no idea if there’s been any follow-up, but it seems to me that if the LP wants keep this roller coaster of activism and outreach going, there’s a natural follow-up target already in place: the National ID card (NID). The National ID Card I did a search on the Libertarian Party web site for any reference to the NID, and was disappointed by the results. There were two mentions: one from an Alabama LP publication from 1998, and the second from the national LP, dated 1995. That’s all the LP has to show on laws—not mere proposals, but laws that have already been passed and are being put into place—that are designed to have every American citizen branded and trackable from birth, as if individuals are the government’s herd of prime cattle. The NID is an identification card that will be required of every adult citizen of the US in order to conduct routine business. The authority for the NID was granted to the federal Department of Transportation in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (passed by the so-called "Republican revolution" Congress of 1994), which created national requirements for information on both driver’s licenses and birth certificates. Supporting legislation that expands the use of the NID has also been passed, making the NID a health ID card, and requiring various information to be coded into the NID. The major piece of required information is one’s Social Security Number; other information proposed for inclusion includes fingerprints, retinal scans, genetic information, and one’s financial, medical, and criminal records. Without the NID, a person won’t be able to get a job (even changing jobs within the same company would require the NID), cash checks, buy firearms, or get medical treatment. This law makes a Social Security Number mandatory for every person living in the US—no more exemptions for religious reasons. (See the bibliography for suggested readings on the NID.) Obviously the NID is a much greater threat to privacy than the Know Your Customer proposal. However, the federal government—with help from its lapdogs, the mainstream media—has been able to avoid attention on the issue because the National IDs are cleverly disguised as state-issued driver’s licenses. In fact, the gummint has been claiming it’s a state issue, when in fact the power of the purse is being used by the feds to ensure the states’ cooperation. Why hasn’t the LP taken up this cause? I don’t know. Other freedom activists have done so (see bibliography), but they lack the resources and audience that the LP has—and the LP, fresh from its success with KYC, could smoothly switch gears on the Defend Your Privacy site to a No-NID campaign. With the 140,000 new contacts they received through the KYC work added to those already on their mailing lists, plus the other activists currently working to get the NID laws repealed, such a campaign could begin with an unprecedented surge of energy. The National ID law is a wholesale power grab that is vile and immoral—there is no authority given in the Constitution for the federal government to require any kind of identification before a person can engage in the transactions it will monitor and control through the NID, nor for the federally-approved birth certificates that will enable them to begin monitoring our children from the first days of life. Such a blatant disregard for individual privacy is particularly disgusting, and a natural target for the Libertarian Party. As with the KYC proposal, a No-NID campaign would bring the message of libertarianism to a large audience that’s primed for such information. So, national LP officials, consider this a friendly challenge. Your political party was largely responsible for killing Know Your Customer. There are a lot of individuals who are already active against the National ID, and who will probably be glad to help a larger effort. How about setting your sights on the National ID? Bibliography Fight the Fingerprint!: http://www.networkusa.org/fingerprint.shtml Grassroots Granny: http://home.earthlink.net/~idzrus/index.html I am Not a Number, by Claire Wolfe: http://laissezfaire.org/la/lacu7878.html Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act: http://www.networkusa.org/fingerprint/page2/fp-104-208-immigration.html NONID FAQ: http://home.lrt.org/lrt.nonid.faq.htm Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996: http://www.networkusa.org/fingerprint/page2/fp-104-193-responsibility.ht ml ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sunni Maravillosa is a psychologist and web mistress for the Liberty Round Table (URL http://home.lrt.org/ ). These days you can also find her in Freedom City part of another pro-freedom activity she co-founded with Don L. Tiggre, The Freedom Channel (URL http://www.evanstonwy.com/freedom ). -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 16, April 19, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar All Rights Reserved Disclaimer The Laissez Faire City Times is a private newspaper. Although it is published by a corporation domiciled within the sovereign domain of Laissez Faire City, it is not an "official organ" of the city or its founding trust. Just as the New York Times is unaffiliated with the city of New York, the City Times is only one of what may be several news publications located in, or domiciled at, Laissez Faire City proper. For information about LFC, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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