Come on, fork em over..
Since the Soviet Union was still around as recently as 1989, it would seem that comparisions to that system would be much more timely and relevant than comparisons to a system that was crushed over fifty-five years ago.
I don't know why Bush would even give Larry Ellison the time of day. The man is a big-time clintonoid of the worst kind. The last thing we need is to feed his wallet.
1) Nobody can be required to carry anything--just ain't constitutional, and gazillions of people would refuse, not to mention that any card is forgeable, so verification would always rest with some sort of computer database anyway.
2) A database would serve to distinguish citizens from non-citizens, and would consist ONLY of some reliable lifelong biometric record (possibly DNA) and an ID# for ease in locating/arranging the records. No name, no date of birth, absolutely no way for someone to use the database to identify individuals.
3) A phone line-based system, like the one now used for verifying credit cards, would enable anyone -- employers, airline security personnel, sellers of bulk ammonium nitrate, police, aviation schools, etc. -- to ascertain whether an individual's biometric is or is not in the database; i.e. to ascertain whether or not the individual is a citizen.
4) Absolute prohibition (with huge criminal penalties) on database searchers using a system which is capable of recording the biometric data (as that would enable matching of biometric data to other identifying information such as name, in transactions such as employment, or purchases by credit card or check, and thus enable the compiling of a identifying database of some portion of the citizenry).
5) Duplicate records would be held at the state level (state of birth or residence at naturalization, and at the individual's option state(s) of subsequent residence, and/or county of residence). This provides a check on federal meddling or incompetence in which individuals might either deliberately or accidentally be "de-citizenized", as it would be provided that any conflict between state and federal records is automatically ruled in favor of the individual.
This system would enable near-instantaneous confirmation of whether a person is or is not a citizen, without identifying the individual in question either to the questioner or to the maintainers of the database. This in turn would enable authorities and sensitive businesses to treat citizens and non-citizens differently, which it is currently impossible to do on a routine basis. If a person's citizenship can be determined quickly and non-intrusively, this would enable citizens to bypass closer scrutiny while applying higher standards of scrutiny to non-citizens. This wouldn't catch the Timothy McVeighs, but it would catch foreign terrorists, foreign drug runners, and illegal immigrants. It could also be helpful to citizens who look and/or sound "foreign", by providing a quick way to establish citizenship in situations where they may be suspected of being illegal immigrants, causing employers to fear hiring them, etc.
I see little point in even maintaining the concept of citizenship, if there's no practical way to determine who is or isn't one.
Would you do business with traitor John Walker?
Wake up! Stop playing by their rules.
But statements coming out of the White House have been non-committal -- of the were keeping all options open variety.
In a world of law abiding citizens -- people that don't initiate force -- they have nothing to hide. The parasitical elite -- the most destructive users of the initiation of force, fraud and coercion -- have that to hide. They have to hide their true parasitical colors. They do it by an array of illusions. But illusions are just that. All illusions eventually collapse when the the spotlight of honesty and wide-scope accounting is shinned on them.
While past performance is not a guarantee of future performance, it is a ten times more likely to be an accurate gauge for what a politician will do than a politician that merely proclaims what he or she will do.
Make it mandatory that every politician show their government ID when purchasing any good or service. After all, we are their employer and they our employees. The People are the master.
The ostracism matrix database. A database that gives an objective rating of each politicians past performance. How often did the congressperson vote in favor of a law that violates the constitution or bill of rights? How often did the politician violate his or her oath of office to the people and the constitution? Each politician has a value destruction rating.
Just think what it could do to with the instant ability to monitor and cut off access to transportation or services for a variety of disobedient or questionable people.
Picture this. A politician or bureaucrat is at the check out counter and must show his government employee ID. The sales clerk checks it against the ostracism database and says, "Sir, you have a triple AAA value destruction rating. Get out of here now. We don't sell to parasites or value destroyers."
Just as consumers rely heavily on the track record of past performance when they buy a car or chose a contractor to build a house even more scrutiny of past performance should be applied to electing politicians. The best track records of past performance are that of the businessman. Either they deliver as their track record shows or they get out-competed.
Value Destroyers versus Value Producers
If civilization had to chose between business/science and government/bureaucracy, eliminating the other, which is the better choice?
The first thing civilization must have is business/science. It's what the family needs so that its members can live creative, productive, happy lives. Business/science can survive, even thrive without government/bureaucracy.
Government/bureaucracy cannot survive without business/science. In general, business/science and family is the host and government/bureaucracy is a parasite.
Aside from that, keep valid government services that protect individual rights and property. Military defense, FBI, CIA, police and courts. With the rest of government striped away those few valid services would be several fold more efficient and effective than they are today.
Underwriters Laboratory is a private sector business that has to compete in a capitalist market. Underwriters laboratory is a good example of success where government fails.
Any government agency that is a value to the people and society could better serve the people by being in the private sector where competition demands maximum performance.
Wake up! We are the host. They are the parasites. We don't need them. They need us.
TONIGHT...
...put the blasted Rose Bowl game on MUTE for a while and join AnnaZ and Mercuria for A Very Unspun New Year!!
Our guest line-up includes:
Heidi Maher - If you haven't been reading about her husband Ted, who has now been imprisoned in Monaco for two years under the most suspicious circumstances, click HERE and bone up before the show!
David Keene - Chairman of the American Conservative Union, who will be talking about the upcoming CPAC shindig!
Sean Finnegan - columnist for Mercurial Times and Sierra Times, who will be rapping with us about Klamath, issues of freedom, and what it's like to work in Mercuria's on-line scribbler sweat shop!
That's TONIGHT - JANUARY 3, 2002, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. PST - on UNSPUN WITH AnnaZ!!
We will be taking calls (but don't even bother trying while we have a guest on the air)...
1-866-RADIOFR!!!