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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (20461)	11/20/2001 9:18:15 AM
From: Selectric II	Respond to of 59480

I don't think it's a moot point where the proponents of i.d. cards haven't made their case. Of the "bad guys" you speak of, most if not all weren't so bad that they could not have taken minimal steps to be seen as "good" and pass any screening and get any card. If there were a national i.d. card system, the "bad guys" will just change their tactics slightly. The emphasis needs to be placed on: 1) Keeping out undesirables in the first place. 2) After foreign nationals are here, monitor their status, perhaps even making them check in every once in awhile to make sure their status is as stated. These steps will: 1) Only affect and impose burdens on foreign nationals who visit here, not on innocent U.S. Citizens 2) Achieve the desired purpose, unlike national I.D. cards which will do nothing to do so; 3) Cost a tiny fraction of the misdirected national i.d. card, since you're only identifying, tracking, and monitoring a tiny fraction of people who might be possible perpetrators, rather than tens of millions of pre-schoolers, senior citizens, pacifists, Quakers, and every other demographic profile that has nothing to do with terrorism, in addition to those who do; and 4) Not invade the privacy and freedom of hundreds of millions of U.S. Citizens, with nothing to be gained. The more I think about this, the more evident a financial boondoggle and hunt for rabbits with cannons this national i.d. card becomes. The President's idea of trying foreign nationals before military tribunals scares me a lot less than a national i.d. card that all citizens are required to carry around. The justification for a national I.D. card has not been presented.