Uncle Sam Has All Your Numbers
June 27, 1999
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| Uncle Sam Has All Your Numbers June 27, 1999 | ||
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Uncle Sam Has All Your Numbers from the Washington Post, June 27, 1999 with preface by Scott McDonald SCAN THIS NEWS 6/27/99 You can be sure of one thing, once the establishment news outlets finally pick up on something, it's all over but the crying. Today, nearly every major newspaper in the country is running a front page Washington Post article about the government's massive data collection system that will be used to monitor, track, and control you and your children for generations to come. The article, entitled "Uncle Sam Has All Your Numbers" describes the network of state and federal databases which catalogue information on citizens for use in locating and tracking them across state lines. This is the system that was consummated under the 1994/96 "Contract On America." Of course, none of this is new to readers of Internet-based information sources which have been alerting people about this particular Republican-established totalitarian plot for years. The question now is: What are the American People going to do about it? If you're waiting for Congress to take care of the problem for you, may your chains rest lightly upon you. If you're hoping someone else will win a court case that will relieve you of the burden -- THINK AGAIN! The courts care not about rights, liberty, or freedom, they care only about protecting the system that pays their salary and funds their retirement program. If you do not like the system described below, you basically have three options: 1) Get over your displeasure and go along with whatever you are told to do; 2) Suffer under the delusion that someone else is taking care of the problem for you while you enjoy your comfortable lifestyle; or, 3) Get involved and actively resist the tyranny! Remember singing, "My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing; Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside let freedom ring."? What principle of "liberty" incorporates a system whereby the government maintains dossiers on its citizens? What element of "freedom" provides for a government which "has our number"? Can you any longer really call this country the "land of the free" when the very government which is charged with protecting and preserving liberty destroys it? One other most very important point: Don't be fooled into debating the issue of "privacy." Protecting privacy IS NOT the issue. Blackmail artists will protect your privacy -- as long as you comply with their demands! The government is no different. The focus of the debate must be on liberty and freedom. The question must be: Does government have any right, whatsoever, to maintain databases of information about free citizens! The answer is simply NO, not in a free society! The inverse of liberty and freedom is slavery and control. Those who hold information about you control you. As long as the control proponents can succeed in centering the debate around the non-issue of "protecting privacy," they can avoid the real issue of liberty and freedom vs slavery and control. If you engage the argument about privacy -- and that is all you focus on -- what are you going to say once they achieve total control (through the information you have willingly provided to them) but yet they do a great job of keeping your information private, accessible only by authorized government agents? They'll be "protecting your privacy" alright, but you'll have no liberty left. Scott ----------------------------------------------------- Uncle Sam Has All Your Numbers http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/june99/privacy27.htm By Robert O'Harrow Jr. As part of a new and aggressive effort to track down parents who owe child support, the federal government has created a vast computerized data-monitoring system that includes all individuals with new jobs and the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and wages of nearly every working adult in the United States. Government agencies have long gathered personal information for specific reasons, such as collecting taxes. But never before have federal officials had the legal authority and technological ability to locate so many Americans found to be delinquent parents – or such potential to keep tabs on Americans accused of nothing. The system was established under a little-known part of the law overhauling welfare three years ago. It calls for all employers to quickly file reports on every person they hire and, quarterly, the wages of every worker. States regularly must report all people seeking unemployment benefits and all child-support cases. Starting next month, the system will reach further. Large banks and other financial institutions will be obligated to search for data about delinquent parents by name on behalf of the government, providing authorities with details about bank accounts, money-market mutual funds and other holdings of those parents. State officials, meanwhile, have sharply expanded the use of Social Security numbers. Congress ordered the officials to obtain the nine-digit numbers when issuing licenses – such as drivers', doctors' and outdoorsmen's – in order to revoke the licenses of delinquents. Enforcement officials say the coupling of computer technology with details about individuals' employment and financial holdings will give them an unparalleled ability to identify and locate parents who owe child support and, when necessary, withhold money from their paychecks or freeze their financial assets. "They never get away from us anymore. It's just wonderful... What you're trying to do in child support is build a box, four walls, around a person," said Brian Shea, the acting executive director of child-support enforcement in Maryland. "It has in some ways revolutionized this business." ---[snip]--- [Selected excerpts:] "Already lawmakers, federal agencies and the White House have considered expanding the permitted aims of the system to include cutting down on fraud by government contractors, improving the efficiency of the government and pinpointing debtors, such as students who default on government loans." "Officials have not publicized their ability to obtain financial information because they do not want to alert delinquents to the ability of enforcement workers to seize or freeze financial assets, according to Michael Kharfen, spokesman for the federal Administration for Children and Families, which administers the program. 'We're setting aside some of the courtesies in order to accomplish what we're trying to do,' said Kharfen, who described the network as an 'unprecedented, vast amount of information that is updated constantly.'" Connie White, the system-development manager for the Virginia division of Child Support Enforcement, said ... she believes the system is ultimately in the best interests of society. "I have problems with the Big Brother concept myself," White said. "[T]he need for people to support their children far outweighs their need for privacy." --- [balance of the Washington Post article can be found here -] ====================================================================== |
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