Monday, May 15, 2006

Nice little bonus from the immigration panic


Well Bush gave his immigration speech and I didn't listen to it, because the man makes me ill on direct exposure. Don't miss CNN's broadcast of his rehearsal at Crooks and Liars though, if you can get the page to load.

However I did notice this smidgen in the NY Times transcript:

"A key part of [the temporary worker] system should be a new identification card for every legal foreign worker. This card should use biometric technology, such as digital fingerprints, to make it tamper-proof. A tamper-proof card would help us enforce the law ..."

So what follows from this? Some musings:

So you want a job? Show me your card.

You are brown and you don't have one -- we'll have to deport you.

Oh, you say you are a citizen? Well, then everyone better have a card.

See, those brown people, they made you all get identity cards.

Well, yes, those ID cards fit well in the latest NSA, 24/7, all-seeing seamless surveillance culture.. You want us to protect you from brown people and terrorists, don't you? Don't you?

Hey, buddy, you know we'll take care of you....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This card should use biometric technology, such as digital fingerprints, to make it tamper-proof.

Uh, immigrants already have cards with 'digital fingerprints', if by that he meant digitised fingerprints. And as Carlos Mencia pointed out, until you create biometric IDs for citizens, it's easier to pretend to be a US citizen if you're without papers.

Zak said...

Hmm so you oppose ID checks in totality? Although I don't oppose ID cards in principle I doubt they work as a long term deterrence and yes they can be prone to abuse..