I disagree. What the govt can do FOR you can do TO you.
I vote we also mark it with a big yellow star. Perhaps that will remind him why this is not such a good idea.
Get a clue, Al, the terrorists mostly had valid IDs. Man, this boils my grits. >:O(
No such tradeoff is necessary. In Singapore, electronic road pricing has been in effect for years. You drive under a gantry, and an RF signal automatically zaps $1 off a cashcard plugged into a box on your inside windshield. You can buy the cashcard for cash (duh!) at any 7-11. Preserves total anonymity and gives you all the convenience you could want. Same deal works on public transport too.
And believe me, once you've traded off your privacy, you'll suffer a lot more inconvenience:
"Our records show you drove into Cambridge shortly before the time of the murder. You are required to come to the Harvard Police Station by noon tomorrow and explain your movements."
"optional"? Who's talking about "optional"? And what guarantee is there of no bait-and-switch (i.e. we all accept this "optional" idea for now, bowled over by Mr. Dershowitz's brilliant article, and then X years from now Sens. Feinstein and Clinton and Boxer co-sponsor a bill making it not-so "optional"....)
As a civil libertarian, I am instinctively skeptical of such tradeoffs. But ...
Why did I know that "But" was coming? These so-called "liberals" make me sick, they really do. They go around pretending to care about peoples' individual rights, but somehow they always fall down on the wrong side of them. Why is that?
It could be an effective tool for preventing terrorism,
How, exactly? I guess we'll have to take his word for it?
A national card would be uniform and difficult to forge or alter.
Of course, there is an infinite distance between "difficult" and "impossible". Things that are "difficult" (for, say, high school girls who want to get into a club) are FAR FROM "impossible" (for, say, well-funded terrorists). Thus destroying the whole rationale for the card in the first place. Well, one would think.
It would reduce the likelihood that someone could, intentionally or not, get lost in the cracks of multiple bureaucracies.
Bizarre statement. 1. Says who? 2. So? What's this got to do with "fighting terrorism"? (I thought that's what this was all about...)
The fear of an intrusive government can be addressed by setting criteria for any official who demands to see the card.
Oh yeah, that's foolproof! "Criteria"! Because after all, people in the government always obey "criteria". Or if they don't, other people in the government will force them to. Foolproof, I tell ya!
This statement is priceless, especially coming from a self-proclaimed "civil libertarian" who usually does nothing but whine and whine about how cops abuse their powers....
Finally, there is the question of the right to anonymity. I don't believe we can afford to recognize such a right in this age of terrorism.
Says the "civil libertarian"....yup, because of the calendar, we are now living in the Age of Terrorism (what, is the Age of Aquarius over already??), and now therefore, a Right has vanished. Just accept it, Mr. Dershowitz says so, and look: he's pointing at the calendar! How can you argue with that? :)
No such right is hinted at in the Constitution.
Says the "civil libertarian". Clearly he has not read the Ninth Amendment at all.
And though the Supreme Court has identified a right to privacy, privacy and anonymity are not the same.
I guess I just need a law degree to figure out how to read those darn "penumbras" correctly. Thanks for the lesson Mr. Dershowitz.
Rights are a function of experience, and our recent experiences teach that it is far too easy to be anonymous - even to create a false identity - in this large and decentralized country.
In other words, rights change over time the moment we feel less safe. I guess the prosecution will bring this up at the next trial where Dershowitz is for the defense.....
A national ID card would not prevent all threats of terrorism, but it would make it more difficult for potential terrorists to hide in open view, as many of the Sept. 11 hijackers apparently managed to do.
The reason they were able to hide in open view is not because they didn't have little ID card, numbskull (Dershowtiz, not you Pokey ;). For many of them, who were known by the FBI, it's because the government didn't simply go get 'em. Probably because that would "violate their rights", as so honorably defended by people like Dershowitz over the years....
A national ID card could actually enhance civil liberties by reducing the need for racial and ethnic stereotyping.
Ah, this is his main concern. Now I understand it all.
There would be no excuse for hassling someone merely because he belongs to a particular racial or ethnic group if he presented a card that matched his print and that permitted his name to be checked instantly against the kind of computerized criminal-history retrieval systems that are already in use.
Sounds a lot like utopia, don't it?
If there is too much personal information in the system, or if the information is being used improperly, that is a separate issue.
Oh boy, this is a whopper. "Separate issue" indeed. For now let's just rush ahead with a National ID Card; we'll trust the government not to collect too much information or use it improperly. Indeed we'll deal with that problem some other time, heck don't even bring it up, because, you guessed it - it's a "separate issue"!
The only information the card need contain is name, address, photo and print.
And that's all it will contain. They promise!
From a civil liberties perspective, I prefer a system that takes a little bit of freedom from all to one that takes a great deal of freedom and dignity from the few - especially since those few are usually from a racially or ethnically disfavored group.
A quote right up there with the best of Patrick Henry or Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin, isn't it? Almost brings tears to my eyes and makes me wanna sing "America the Beautiful" ;)
A national ID card would be much more effective in preventing terrorism
Still hasn't explained how. (Indeed, nobody has.)
A national ID card would be much more effective in preventing terrorism than profiling millions of men simply because of their appearance.
Which is his real concern (he's really starting to sound a little paranoid). Heck it doesn't have to be National ID. As long as we do something besides racial profiling, and pretend we're doing it to "fight terrorism", I'll warrant that Mr. Dershowitz would be happy and write a piece full of sophisms defending it.
We couldn't have that could we? That's the main reason why I think we need them.
So Dershowitz believes that there is a Constitutional right to privacy (i.e. Roe v Wade), but not a right to anonymity? Is he splitting hairs, or is there an important distinction? I don't think there is much distinction between privacy and anonymity in practical terms in this day and age, and so I believe he is wrong. I think is he splitting hairs.
An optional ID card may be Constitutionally legal, but in practice it won't make much of a difference to your privaxy. Whenever you cross the bridge or enter & leave the airport, your car's license number is recorded. This can be easily cross referenced to your registration, your rental car agency, or to the friend who lent you the car. There is no practical difference between those who pay cash and those who are automatically debited, beyond the convenience of being automatically recorded vs. being manually recorded.
Great, Alan. Let's apply your thinking to some areas of society, such as the homosexuals. Since they have, in your esteemed mind, no right to anonymity, we'll require all homosexuals to wear a pink triangle on their clothes at all times. You know, kind of like the yellow Star of David that they Nazis made your ancestors wear.
Now...do you STILL want to maintain your stated view on this matter? Hmmm?
I didn't think so. Now maybe you can begin to understand why we ought not to have a national "identity card". (Besides, such a thing would only allow liberals like yourself to play identity politics to an even greater degree than your kind does now.)
Read above, and enjoy.
You know, you can easily buy a green card or a drivers' license illegally. The FBI can track you via credit card. And pick you up.
Once they know who you are and where you are, the next step is control.