Jarla

Jarla's Journal

June 26, 2013

11% of Americans don't have a Photo I.D. Isn't that a problem?

After yesterday's SCOTUS decision on the VRA, I started wondering how many Americans don't have Photo I.D. I came across some pretty sobering statistics from a 2006 telephone survey conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice. Here are a few tidbits from their report:

--As many as 11% of United States citizens – more than 21 million* individuals – do not have government-issued photo identification.

--As many as 7% of United States citizens – 13 million individuals* – do not have ready access to citizenship documents.

--At least 12% of voting-age American citizens earning less than $25,000 per year do not have a readily available U.S. passport, naturalization document, or birth certificate.

--Many of those who possess ready documentation of their citizenship do not have documentation that reflects their current name. For example, only 66% of voting-age women with ready access to any proof of citizenship have a document with current legal name.

--18% of American citizens age 65 and above do not have current government-issued photo ID

--25% of African-American voting-age citizens have no current government-issued photo ID, compared to 8% of white voting-age citizens. This amounts to more than 5.5 million* adult African-American citizens without photo identification.

--16% of Hispanic voting-age citizens have no current government-issued photo ID

--At at least 15% of voting-age American citizens earning less than $35,000 per year do not have a valid government-issued photo ID.

--10% of voting-age citizens who have current photo ID do not have photo ID with both their current address and their current legal name. This is especially true for young adults.

*Numbers reflect 2000 census data

Keep in mind that this study was conducted as a telephone survey, and telephone surveys, by their nature, tend to under-represent the poor because the poor are less likely to have access to a working phone. Thus, the percentage of Americans without photo ID is quite likely higher than the figures reported here. (Also, this survey was done in 2006, before the economy totally crashed.) Plus, this survey only included U.S. citizens and not other types of U.S. residents.

Isn't this a problem?!

Besides concerns about voter ID laws, the lack of valid photo identification makes it very difficult to do many things in life, such as applying for a job, opening a bank account, receiving health-care, applying for state benefits, taking the GED, applying for a library card, etc.

And getting a government-issued photo ID is not an easy process, even under the best of circumstances. I've done it four times in the last ten years (2 states and 2 passports), so I speak from experience. In order to get photo identification, I've had to reorder my lost birth certificate (which required certain documents to prove my identity), and I've had to change my name on my social security card after getting married (which required a marriage certificate).

It takes money, time, access to transportation, some kind of proof of your existence, and a permanent address to do these things!

June 24, 2013

Assange Conference Call: We are aware of where Edward Snowden is

Assange said he knows where Snowden is and "his spirits are high":

The current status of Mr Snowden and Ms [Sarah] Harrrison [of Wikileaks, who travelled with him from Hong Kong]: both are healthy and safe and they are in contact with their legal team. I can’t give further information as to their whereabouts or present circumstances other than to say that the matter is in hand.

Assange added:

We are aware of where Edward Snowden is. He is in a safe place and his spirits are high. Due to the bellicose threats coming from the US administration we cannot go into further detail at this time.

Unfortunately we cannot reveal what country he is in at this time.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/24/edward-snowden-booked-on-plane-from-moscow-to-havana-live-coverage

June 16, 2013

PRISM: It sounds like the NSA is wiretapping the fiber optic cables of Google, Yahoo, etc. UPSTREAM

This appears to be the conclusion reached by computer security experts Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte in episode 408 of their podcast Security Now (Originally posted by Roco T. in this thread )

You get as close to Google as you can. You get on the router that is feeding Google, and you clone all of the data. And that's exactly - and that's why it's called PRISM is that now, at this bandwidth level, they're using fiber optic cables, so it splits the light. The power drops by 50% down each of the splits because the power of the light has been split, but that's - there's still plenty. And so it's going to be received easily by the other end. And then it goes off to this secret room controlled by the NSA.

Basically, they are suggesting that the NSA is making copies of all of the data that we send out over the Internet to Google before it reaches Google's servers. This data includes emails, instant messages, web search requests, etc. Much of it is not encrypted. The NSA then stores all of this copied data on its own computers.

This would mean that Google, Yahoo, etc. were probably telling the truth when they claimed that they knew nothing about PRISM.

I suspect that this also means that the government does not need to give Google a search warrant in order to collect this data, since the data isn't exactly Google's "property" until it reaches Google's servers.

So how is the collection of this data being regulated? Does the government need a search warrant to look through the copied, unencrypted data that it has stored on its own computers?

Profile Information

Name: Jill
Gender: Female
Hometown: NY State then Chicago
Current location: Ohio
Member since: Sun Jun 16, 2013, 09:22 AM
Number of posts: 156