"Maybe we should brand all babies."

Fri Oct 19 14:14:44 EDT 2001

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To: WashingtonBulletin at topica.com
From: "National Review D.C." <nrdc at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: BAD ORACLE
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 16:43:06 +0000
Reply-To: nrdc at ix.netcom.com
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Washington Bulletin: National Review's Internet Update for
October 19, 2001
http://www.nationalreview.com

By John J. Miller and Ramesh Ponnuru

BAD ORACLE
[ID cards pick up steam.]

Word that Oracle chairman and CEO Larry Ellison met with Attorney
General John Ashcroft on Tuesday raises the prospect that the Bush
administration is contemplating the adoption of a national ID card. "We
are in the process of putting a proposal together and analyzing what it
would take to get something running in a matter of a small number of
months, like three months, 90 days," Ellison told the San Jose Mercury
News. Three weeks ago, Ellison said his company, a leader in databases,
would donate the software to the federal government.

In late September, a low-level White House spokesman denied ID cards
were on the table. Yet the idea appears to be gaining momentum: Recent
endorsers include Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), retired General
Norman Schwartzkopf, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, and Sun
Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy. Ashcroft himself refused to comment this
week on the Ellison's proposal or their meeting.

On October 8, Ellison made his case for ID cards. He essentially brushed
aside the privacy question--Americans already have lost it, he seemed to
say, so why fight something that will aid in the fight against
terrorism? The whole piece may be read at: <
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=95001336 >.

We already have argued against ID cards <
http://www.nationalreview.com/daily/nr100301.shtml >.
The case against them is compelling, and it is one that should
especially resonate among conservatives opposed to the unchecked growth
of government.

In the meantime, it would help if Ashcroft or some equally high-ranking
member of the Bush administration--perhaps even the president
himself--were to make a strong statement against national ID cards and
national systems of identification. Their current silence is troubling.

ON THE SITE
NR's John Derbyshire argues against a national ID card in our latest
issue: "In this, as in so many other things, Ronald Reagan set the
example. He did not waver in his support for Second Amendment rights
even when he himself was shot by a lunatic, regarding such an occurrence
as part of the price for living in a free society. In the same spirit,
when the subject of a national ID card, as an aid to controlling illegal
immigration, was raised during a cabinet meeting, Reagan dismissed it
with the sardonic remark: 'Maybe we should just brand all babies.' In
the present climate, one hesitates to tell that story, for fear the idea
might be taken up in all seriousness and appear a few days later as a
New York Times editorial."

A preview of his piece and much else from our November 5 issue may be
read at:
< http://www.nationalreview.com/preview/preview110501.shtml >.

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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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