05/18/05

During the Vietnam War, people protested the draft and U.S. policy in Vietnam by burning draft cards. It was a symbolic gesture -- a way of refusing to be counted as a citizen willing to fight a morally dubious battle, a way to avoid becoming a statistic in the graveyards of the cold war. As of last week, we have a new card to burn. I'm talking about the new driver's licenses and ID cards ushered into existence by the passage of Rep. James Sensenbrenner's Real ID Act, which zoomed through the House and Senate without debate by piggybacking on an appropriations bill. It mandates that all licenses include a digital photo, as well as 'machine-readable technology with defined minimum data elements.' In other words: your license will include some kind of tech -- probably a magnetic stripe or radio frequency identification (RFID) chip -- containing all your personal information...

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/22043/

from AlterNet, by Annalee Newitz


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp