Anything here that scares anyone?

http://www.openmarket.org/2008/05/23/fingerprint-registry-in-housing-bill/

I fail to see how fingerprinting loan originators will solve any issues. Hopefully this bill fails.

I agree.

This kind of data collection needs to have a clear goal and process in place to achieve it, or it's just adding to the data clutter we don't need.

It's an invasion of privacy. Just ask Brandon Mayfield about fingerprints in databases...

I'm wondering what motivated it. Chris Dodd is fairly well routed in common sense. His name on it, along with Senator Shelby is surprising.

Everyone has been worried about Bush listening in on foreign phone calls which really doesn't mean much of anything, but meantime there has been a creeping wave of erasing privacy in many other areas within this country.

Maybe it's a side effect of sarbanes oxley. (however you spell that)

So, it's getting passed because blanket acceptance of the idea is already a reality.

Context is important with this stuff though.

I think I'll just e-mail Dodd and see what he says.

I’m not surprised. At every turn, the government is trying to find ways for us to deposit our DNA with a government agency. Pretty soon, in order to do business with the government, you’ll have to hand over a sample of DNA. By their definition of “doing business”, this might mean something as benign as receiving federal student aid, social security, getting a passport or using the US Postal Service. Can you imagine an agency responsible for managing the DNA of 300,000,000 people? I’d love to see a defense lawyer talk in a court case about procedures surrounding the collection of 300,000,000 such samples without cross contamination.

I’m sure if given the opportunity, states might collect DNA samples and then sell the results to insurance companies, just like vital statistics information. With tighter state budgets, it leaves one to wonder…

Deane_johnson:
Anything here that scares anyone?

Your side driving this bubba, your side. Hell yes it's scary, but the cons will use "fighting terrorists" for any reason to spy on you.

Aok, Chris Dodd is a Democrat.

And he's a good one, but he might have fucked this one up. He's gonna hear about it too, if that's the case.

This is what good Democrats do. Yeah, we bitch and moan and our elected representatives hear all of it and we generally get better legislation out of it.

If that's not happening, we run more and better Democrats. We don't just keep excusing shitty party members because they are Democrats. That's what Republicans do and we all know what happens when too many people vote Republican.

Keep in mind the fuck up to solid legislation ratio is far better with Democrats than it is for Republicans right now, and for a good long time running.

Before pictures were used in drivers’ licenses, some states required licensed drivers to provide at least one finger print for its database. Not that I agree with government adding to its finger print database, but it isn't too surprising. And given the whole 9/11 situation and George W. Bush's response to it, collecting information about all of us isn't to far of the mark. He wanted to create a huge database which included information about what people read. That was to be directed by former Iran-Contra felon overturned on appeal Admiral John Poindexter. But that was scrapped because of public opposition – and in part that John Poindexter was going to be running the operation. Not sure if it was a part of Donald Rumsfeld's neo-con driven internal Pentagon Intelligence Office, run by boy dimwit Douglas Feith. Thank godness it was later shut down because of its lack of credibility with anyone with half a brain.

The new Oregon ID cards are using facial recognition photopraphy. Who knows how that could be abused...

Invasion of privacy is reason enough to not be for something like this. But, as usual, I am curious about how something like this could be abused. In a very literal sense.

Someone take me through a likely scenario. I can think of a few on my own, but they feel unlikely. Of course, if this is a " splippery slope " argument, then I can weigh that too. Sometimes I feel smart. Other times I don't have a handle on as much as I like to think I do.

I'm trying to keep my own bias' in check so I can look at this openly. But I gotta say, like Vit noted, I fail to see how loan originators' fingerprints will do anything.

And, in a weird way, this is another prime example of The Bush administration over-reaching for something that smacks of a civil liberty violation and it will get crushed. I've tried to say this before, but never been able to fully articulate it; Bush and Co. do this weird thing. They act like they want so much control and power and they really don't seem to care who knows it. While I feel that's a tactical mistake, I am eternally grateful for their brazen ability to just kind of stomp on things and be the bull in the china shop. I've mentioned before that I believe that things, if Bush and Cheney were left to their own devices, would smash and grab things to a degree that could have put us in a MUCH more scary position. I mean, imagine if Bush got everything he wanted. You could count on him to wholly fuck it up and not be able to execute it. The upside to that is that is exposes him for what it is. No matter what it actually is. All his mistakes are shown SO bare. Another upside is that we get off relatively lucky in that we have a President ( or, more likely, a Vice President ) that simply cannot execute any of their more sinister desires. Not for lack of trying - but for lack of ability. And I don't think I can over-state this; It's awe inspiring to see whatever the opposite of The Midas Touch is, in action. ANOTHER upside is that it sharpens us, as citizens, to future attempts at eroding civil liberties. It's beautiful. Perfect. You can COUNT on it to get fucked up before it gets implemented so we can avoid it and learn a lesson. How rare an opportunity to see it, in action, in real world time, and get to voice our disgust for it. Until now, it had always been " War Games " scenarios that hadn't been tested like it has now.

The downside, of course, is that we even have an administration that attempts to do stuff like this. But frankly, there are times in which I feel we take some of our liberties for granted. Consider how lucky we are that we have Bush in there to remind us how fortunate we are without ever getting to the point where we have to fight the fight that would take place 5 steps from now. They can't even fully bake the idea much less serve it out. It's awesome. The sheer ineptitude is stunning. But OH SO valuable to watch and pay attention to.

Finally, I know there have been mistakes and liberties trampled on that have been executed. ( executive orders that supercede congress - anyone ever looked into those? Pretty amazing stuff was being done in the ramp up to Iraq. And Gitmo. I cannot honestly put Iraq in this category. Others can and will. I'm not today ). We've talked about probably every single one of them here at one time or another. But I do believe that it COULD have been worse if our current Administration was left to go unchecked.

Sorry for the ramble. But it's something I have been grateful about for a long time and this was a good example of why.