YOUR PAPERS, PLEASE …Is coming national ID 'mark of the beast'?

WND ^ | May 5 06 | Ron Strom

[churchillbuff]

Is the national ID card the next step toward the imposition of the biblical "mark of the beast" Christians believe will be required to buy and sell during the Last Days?

That's the contention of a growing group of believers who are working to turn back the approval of the Real ID Act by Congress last year. Public Law 109-13 requires the national ID portion of the plan go into effect by May 2008.

"There is a prophecy in the Bible that foretells a time when every person will be required to have a mark or a number, without which he or she will not be able to participate in the economy," states the Christian website NoNationalID.com. "The prophecy is 2,000 years old, but it has been impossible for it to come to pass until now. With the invention of the computer and the Internet, this prophecy of buying and selling, using a number, can now be implemented at any time. Has the time for the fulfillment of this prophecy arrived?"

The site asks visitors to sign an online petition vowing not to vote for any candidate who does not commit to repealing the Real ID Act.

The goal, states the site, which is sponsored by Endtime Ministries, is to get 100,000 signatures on the petition.

On the site is a link to purchase a DVD entitled "666 – How Close? Will the National ID Become the Mark of the Beast?"

Americans choosing not to carry a national ID, the site warns, will be prohibited from driving a car, boarding a plane, train or bus, entering any federal building, opening a bank account, or possibly from holding a job.

"This is probably our last chance to head off the mechanism before it is actually implemented as the mark," states the site in the FAQ section. "It truly may be now or never."

The Real ID Act requires states to participate in a federal data-sharing program when issuing driver's licenses, making those licenses de facto national ID cards.

Touted as a tool of the war on terrorism, the ID card provision of the law, which also includes border-security measures, has attracted the most negative attention.

After May 11, 2008, "a federal agency may not accept, for any official purpose, a driver's license or identification card issued by a State to any person unless the State is meeting the requirements" specified in the Real ID Act. While states can issue non-federal ID cards, they would not be accepted by the Transportation Security Administration for travel purposes, grounding those who don't carry federally approved cards.

The data required to be included in each card are, among other things, the person's full legal name, date of birth, gender, driver's license number, a digital photo, the person's address and machine-readable technology so the information can be ready easily by government or banking personnel.

Each state must agree to share the data on the cards with every other state.

Supporters of the law say it does not require a "national" ID card because each state issues its own cards, not the federal government. But detractors note the cards are virtual national IDs since the federal law has dictated what data must be included and that each state must share its database with the others.

The New Hampshire Senate yesterday voted to reject a bill to rebel against the Real ID system and not participate in a pilot program for which the state had been tapped. The state House of Representatives passed the measure last month, but the Senate instead voted to study the driver's license requirements.

U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., is urging his home state to give Real ID a try, saying it's needed to keep terrorists and illegal aliens from entering the country.

According to the Manchester Union Leader, Gregg argues that New Hampshire residents will find it difficult to get on airplanes or enter federal buildings if New Hampshire doesn't embrace Real ID.

Groups opposed to the Real ID Act are making strange bedfellows, with Christians like those running NoNationalID.com fighting on the same side with the American Civil Liberties Union, which sponsors the website RealNightmare.org.

The ACLU site decries the fact that a motor vehicles department staff person will be required to ask for immigration-status papers from those applying for driver's licenses.

"REAL ID will inevitably cause discrimination against U.S. citizens who may 'look' or 'sound' foreign to a DMV bureaucrat," states the site. "REAL ID requires DMV employees to decide whether someone is a citizen or foreigner before issuing a driver's license. The law demands that DMV bureaucrats distinguish among citizens, permanent resident immigrants and other non-citizens in deciding who is eligible for a license and what type of license may be issued.

"Based on past experience when similar requirements were imposed on employers, widespread discrimination resulted against citizens who 'looked' or 'sounded' foreign."

The civil-liberties group also slams a requirement of the law that some immigrants be issued a temporary "tier-two" license that has a prominent expiration date.

U.S. governors also have come out against the law, saying it is a huge unfunded mandate imposed on the nation's states.

The National Conference of State Legislatures is equally opposed to the Real ID Act, saying, "Federal legislators and rule makers are negating state driver's license security efforts, imposing difficult-to-comply-with mandates and limiting their flexibility to address new concerns as they arise. In other words, decades of state experience is being substituted for a 'command and control regime' from a level of government that has no driver's license regulatory experience."

Endtime Ministries' Irvin Baxter, a radio host, believes the national ID is a precursor to the forced embedding of radio-frequency chips under the skin.

Baxter told the Concord, N.H., Monitor: "That's where we are headed right now. The prophecy states that you will have to receive a mark on your hand or in your forehead."

[BlueStateDepression]

Is the congress tasked by the constitution with forming the laws of this land? Yes or No?

[Doctor Stochastic]

Being rather unmutual about all this, aren't we? Perhaps you need some time in a reeducation spa.

[rattrap]

You never told me if you enjoyed all the articles on the "virtually unforgeable" $20 bill?

Are you ready to admit "virtually unforgeable" is a silly thing to say?

[BlueStateDepression]

Right on Sinkspur and as I said to another poster I think that those so against a functioning ID are against personal responsibility being that a real ID would abd should be used as a tool to hold people accountable for what it is they do.

[sinkspur]

As for identity theft? Well, this is what happens in a credit and plastic-happy society. If people lived within their means and used only cash instead of whipping out that Visa, they wouldn't have that problem, now....would they?

Economic ludditism at its finest.

[sinkspur]

No.

[melancton]

Care to explain a bit more? I am not understanding what you mean by that comment.

You said that a national ID is "the government's way of recognizing our individuality." Couldn't the same be said of anything the government does that singles out individuals?

The constitution stipulates that elected officials shall form the laws of this nation in our congress. Are you saying the SS# is a ciolation of the contitution? Is a driver license a violation of a state or our national constitution? Furthermore is your bank account ro your FR ID somehow a violation of your rights? C'mon now, surely you can do better than that eh?

The SS# is a violation of the Constitution. Can you show me where in the Constitution the federal government is authorized to assign such numbers to the citizenry? Can you show me where in the Constitution the federal government is authorized to set up a socialist system of wealth redistribution like Social Security in the first place?

How exactly would this "weeding out" take place and who the hell thinks that people will stand for it? I suppose the possability that you pose in the abstract is considered by you to be a fact that has already happened. WHAT IF simply isn't enough, do you have anything else?

How should I know how it would take place? The point is that I would rather not take the "wait and see" approach.

As for the people not standing for it? Your support for a national ID is proof that some people are more than willing to stand for it.     

[Crispus Attucks Patriot]

I fear the government creating a database and dossier on its citizens. I fear them using it to track where I go, what I do, how fast I drive, etc.

Its a threat to my liberty and it restricts my freedom of movement, or could be used to do so.

Its nobody's business, least of all the government's, where I go, what I do, or how much money I make.

[Leatherneck_MT]

Well I've never been one to vacilate between 2 positions. I know where my freedom comes from and God never required an ID card. :)

Only Men do that, and only then because they want to control you.

I refuse to be controlled.

[BlueStateDepression]

You can already get a drivers license and/or a state ID card from every state. These already act as defacto national ID's.

False. There is no minimum standard. Also some states are willing to issue these id's to folks that are not from this nation. This amounts to usurping the power of the federal government to handle international treaties. Immigration falls into that category right? I do agree that the REAL ID would in effect turn state licensing into a national ID by affording minimum standards.

[Crispus Attucks Patriot]

Yes, it is.

But if they expand the power of the government beyond trhe 19, its the courts' job to void the law.

[Doctor Stochastic]

I suppose one could just get a handful of these cards and use whichever one is convenient.

[Leatherneck_MT]

aye that they could. Which then forces the Government to tell us "Well this isn't working, so we have another plan. We're going to implant this RFID into your wrist. Don't worry, we're the Government. We're here to help you."

[NapkinUser]

"These whack jobs are going to get us all killed."

What irrational fear-mongering.

"We're all going to die without a national idea!"

BS.

[sinkspur]

Now because of that and some alleged "patriot" act, I should have to get a National ID card?

Please explain to me how this makes logical sense.

So, don't get one. And when you're refused a job because you don't have an ID, you can decide whether it makes logical sense.

[BlueStateDepression]

States can issue at a minimum stadard. There your argument is removed so what is your problem with it now?

Do you disagree that states overstep their authority when they offer licensing to foreigners? I should hope you do!

MY ID theft was the result of a woman calling herself "juanita robertson" using MY SS# as the one given to an employer for working here illegally. That has ZERO to do with credit cards and plastic happy society. I was only about 12 years old when I found out about this. (IE my first paper route that required the use of my SS#) Care to try again?

[Doctor Stochastic]

P.K. Dick's book (from about 50 years ago) "Solar Lottery" is an amusing story of operating under an ID card state.

What they can make, I can fake. (This is NOT an offer.)

[Leatherneck_MT]

No sinky, you didn't answer my question.

How does this make logical sense?

[Leatherneck_MT]

lol ok I won't consider it as one :)

[BlueStateDepression]

it's the Government that is at fault for not enforcing the laws.

Please explain to me how the government is supposed to ID those that are here Illegally when folks claim it is a voilation of their rights to be ID'd?????????? How can you ID someone without an ID??????

Let's here the alternative solution that qualifies the opposition to a Real ID.