Dean is going downhill so fast you think he would have seen the cliff before he ran off of it. Thank you HP, that was an eye-opener.

I'd give up the internet before I gave into that. Who would maintain all the records? The government? If they needed to come up with A SINGLE GOOD idea to tax the web other than "we need to tax this", here it is.

They (interested parties) would find a way to hack the system, spoof IDs, copy other folk's IDs and in general make a mockery of the system.

What will be really scary is if the future holds something like the crap they had in Minority Report with the retinal scanners everywhere.

Welcome to the year 2049 I am 00987-0076-0876b known as MajicWalrus. I would like a standard meal selection 1.


But seriously, these plans don't sound possible, for the simple fact of refitting all computers in use today with this ID card technology would be not only very tedious, expensive, and difficult. Also there's the issue of strapping a card to everyone on in the country, which might be easier to do in theory... But I really don't see people submitting to being assigned a card. Some people the gun totin' kind will simply not allow it, people like me who are paranoid will automatically assume Dean is the anti-christ and then defect and start a resistance, and the rest of the folks who do get the cards get to be OverLord Dean's minions.

Do you know where I may purchase some?

"Some people the gun totin' kind will simply not allow it" - I hope this isn't a knock on gun owners!

Nah, I wasn't even thinking of Hollowpoint..

But honestly, most of the backward rednecked hunters that live around here would just as soon start WW3 with the government then let them ID them.

Third paragraph:

Fifteen months before Dean said he would seek the presidency,
15 months? Jesus, that would put it at early 2002. That's right after 9/11 and more than a few (elected) people were actually suggesting this program at the time. Oh yeah, and the PATRIOT ACT wasn't fully felt yet either. So to insinuate that this makes him some big bad privacy boogeyman is ludicrious, considering the way he's trashed Ashcroft and the PATRIOT ACT. I've never liked McCullagh, and this shows why...when you are this desperate for dirt, you need to find a new topic.

Never mind the fact that people can CHANGE THEIR MIND ON A STANCE. Shit, name me a politician who hasn't flip flopped on an issue at least once and I'll show you someone who isn't a politician.

We're talking less than a year and a half ago- NOT exactly ancient history; I have belly button lint older than that. And please- do tell me who else was suggesting that computer makers be required to install card readers, and internet users be forced to log on with a national ID card- I'd really like to know. The Patriot Act will almost certainly not affect you or I... this most certainly would.

And if he came to his senses and realized this was a stupid idea, why not say so- he was given the chance. In any case, for anyone- pre or post 9/1-1 to suggest such a radical Big Brother solution deserves serious scrutiny.

Sorry to shed a bad light on your hero Burn, but face it- the fact he proposed such an idea is troubling to say the least.

OK, 15 months before he announced his candidacy, so it's over a year and a half... no matter- still recent.

And "dirt" would be if he smoked pot in college or got a DWI 25 years ago. This is a fairly recent public speech by a public official concerning his stance on public policy.

And who am I kidding- I thoroughly enjoy raining on your parade where Dean is concerned :)

And had Bush made the same proposal 15 months before his presidency, it would be held against him as well. Welcome to politics. He said it, he proposed it, he has to live with it even if he backtracked on it, just like every other candidate. Dean is already behind Kerry, this will bury him with the ignorant (He wants to ID us all!) voters.

Here is a another, more burn friendly version.

[link]

So there we have it: Dean wasn't advocating a national ID card, nor was he blithely inviting smart card vendors to breach citizens' privacy even further. However, it was remarkably ill-advised of him to advocate locking down the PC "at the edge of the network" without examining the implications for the consumer, or even the software industry.

Only that wouldn't be a story now if it hadn't been for the techno-utopian pundits getting carried away with an almost religious belief in power "at the edge of the network".

There is always two sides, but this mud-slinging probably isn't republican you now, this is probably dems looking to keep Dean out of it.

Most of the people of this nation don't want a system like that! I certainly don't want everyone to know what I'm surfing. There is so much room for error or misinterpretation on a system like that...so much would go wrong.

Most of the people of this nation don't want a system like that! I certainly don't want everyone to know what I'm surfing. There is so much room for error or misinterpretation on a system like that...so much would go wrong.

Most of the people of this nation don't want a system like that! I certainly don't want everyone to know what I'm surfing. There is so much room for error or misinterpretation on a system like that...so much would go wrong.

Most of the people of this nation don't want a system like that! I certainly don't want everyone to know what I'm surfing. There is so much room for error or misinterpretation on a system like that...so much would go wrong.

4x's? All I did was click on something in the "last 48 hours of action" box and then hit the back button once.

Is there anyway of preventing this? I feel like an idiot.

Dean wasn't advocating a national ID card? Well, I suppose technically not, though he suggested making state ID's conform to a national standard where in effect they become a national ID. The author is being generous, suggesting Dean was just naive. OK, that's comforting.

The article also suggests that he was speaking at the hest of his campaign manager, who owned stock in a leading card-reader company. Oh, so he's beholden to the special interests he's always railing against. I get it.

From the same article, which clearly has a pro-Dean slant:

"We must move to smarter license cards that carry secure digital information that can be universally read at vital checkpoints."

Dean describes privacy as an "urban myth"

Open PCs are dangerous, Dean argued

Remember kids, Big Brother Dean loves you and wants you to be happy.

Of course it has a pro-Dean slant, thats why I called it "Burn friendly" :) Same article, different writer.