Another dot - but I don't know what it's connected to.

[FloridaPat]

Everything the gov't does anymore is scary. This will connect to something bad down the line.



"Sometimes it’s the small abuses scurrying below radar that reveal how profoundly the Bush administration has changed America in the name of national security. Buried within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is a regulation that bars most public access to birth and death certificates for 70 to 100 years. In much of the country, these records have long been invaluable tools for activists, lawyers, and reporters to uncover patterns of illness and pollution that officials miss or ignore.

The draft lays out how some 60,000 already strapped town and county offices must keep the birth and death records under lock and key and report all document requests to Washington. Individuals who show up in person will still be able to obtain their own birth certificates, and in some cases, the birth and death records of an immediate relative; and “legitimate” research institutions may be able to access files. But reporters and activists won’t be allowed to fish through records; many family members looking for genetic clues will be out of luck; and people wanting to trace adoptions will dead-end. If you are homeless and need your own birth certificate, forget it: no address, no service.

Some of state officials around the country are questioning whether the new regulations themselves illegally tread on states’ rights. But the feds have been coy. Richard McCoy, public health statistic chief in Vermont, one of the nation’s 14 open records states, says, “No state is mandated to meet the regs. However if they don’t, then residents of that state will not be able to access any federal services, including social security and passports. States have no choice.”

Meanwhile, the quiet clampdown on vital records is part of a growing consolidation of information at the federal level. “That information will dovetail with the Real ID Act of 2005,” says Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Real ID cards are the other shoe that is scheduled to drop in three years.” That act, signed into law last May, establishes national standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards, and centralizes the information into a database."

[silverweb]

1. Link please?

I'd like to read the whole article.

[FloridaPat]

2. Link

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2488/

[silverweb]

4. Thanks!

:hi:

[yellowdogmi]

3. Combined with the KBR detention camps this

is a scary new wrinkle. I am now putting on my tinfoil hat and hiding under the table for the rest of the night. :tinfoilhat:

[havocmom]

5. As the fascists start demanding we carry papers, some of us won't be able

to produce them. I have a photo copy of my birth certificate. For some things NOW I need a CERTIFIED copy. Hmmm, how many boomers in my shoes? And what changes in store soon which will leave us with no access to paperwork which will probably be demanded in order for us to...? Vote, collect pensions? Hmmm, heck of a way to take care of the SS shortfall created by GOP raids on the trust fund.

I don't think a lot of folks would be able to get to the county of their birth to get certified copies in person... You are right, it's a dot and a damned big one to disenfranchise citizens, which they are surely planning to do. Without rights (due to paperwork requirements they probably have in the chute) the masses will be much easier to deal with.

Maybe it is my particularly black mood this evening, but I have been watching for a long time now, knowing disenfranchisement for many would be coming.

[Pryderi]

6. Maybe the Bush family doesn't want any more books like Kitty Kelley's

[upi402]

7. will this affect folks trying to leave the country?

[neweurope]

8. Maybe. As far as I know you need a certified birth certificate

if you want to settle down in Germany

-----------------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[upi402]

9. ...to get a passport you should have a birth certificate

I heard that America's wealthy are buying real estate in Germany lately. Is it going fascist again -uh, too?

[neweurope]

10. Corporations rule the Western world. US corporations

most of all. All of Europe have - mostly under pressure from the US and also under the impression of the "terrorist attacks" at London and Madrid - been "modifying" civil liberties...


------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Skidmore]

11. I think they are trying to get Real ID in place in a sneaky way.

When it comes down to it, I believe they know that most people will reject a national identification card, so they do what they always do when confronted with public dissent, sneak it in the backdoor.

[H2O Man]

12. It sounds like it might

be part of an effort to make "identity theft" more difficult. In and of itself, that is not a bad thing. Yet because of the nature of our federal government, we should always be aware of the potential to abuse anything and everything.

But, for example, I have access to the vital statistics, including the SSNs, of about three dozen people with the same first and last name as myself, but with different middle names. This includes dates of birth, marraige, and in many cases death. That information could allow me to pass myself off as other than me in any of the lower 48 states I wanted to drive to. Now, that is just a simple example, which may not sound like much. But in an age of computers and bloated bureaucracy, a person can pass as numerous other people without going further than a key board.

[upi402]

13. good point. and I don't trust the pols in power now at all

They're tightening up the Canadian border with the new ID law. It's a camel's nose under the tent under the guise of fighting terror.
The 2004 rule would necessitate getting a passport for many Americans who travel to Canada.
23% of Americans have a passport
100% of the 9-11 terrorists had a passport.

[H2O Man]

14. Your statistics

speak very loudly.