OPFOR: A/K/A The Republicans

The GOP is hammering liberty

OPFOR is a term used in the military for Opposing Force, or the enemy. I’ve come to the conclusion that the Republicans are indeed OPFOR on REAL ID and liberty issues in general. Why? Consider:

Here’s her amendment:

Florida Senate - 2011                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. CS for SB 1150
                                Barcode 493476

                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION
                    Senate             .             House
                  Comm: RCS            .
                  03/30/2011           .

       —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

       —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
       The Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability
       (Flores) recommended the following:

    1         Senate Substitute for Amendment (528984) (with title
    2  amendment)
    3
    4         Between lines 2121 and 2122
    5  insert:
    6         Section 53.?Section 322.145, Florida Statutes, is created
    7  to read:
    8         322.145?Electronic authentication of licenses.—
    9         (1)?Any driver’s license issued on or after July 1, 2012,
   10  must contain a means of electronic authentication, which
   11  conforms to a recognized standard for such authentication, such
   12  as public key infrastructure, symmetric key algorithms, security
   13  tokens, mediametrics, or biometrics. Electronic authentication
   14  capabilities must not interfere with or change the driver’s
   15  license format or topology.
   16         (2)?The department shall provide, at the applicant’s option
   17  and at the time a license is issued, a security token that can
   18  be electronically authenticated through a personal computer. The
   19  token must also conform to one of the standards provided
   20  subsection (1).
   21         (3)?The department shall negotiate a new contract with the
   22  vendor selected to implement the electronic authentication
   23  feature which provides that the vendor pay all costs of
   24  implementing the system. This contract must not conflict with
   25  current contractual arrangements for the issuance of driver’s
   26  licenses.
   27
   28  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   29         And the title is amended as follows:
   30         Delete line 188
   31  and insert:
   32         department; creating s. 322.145, F.S.; requiring the
   33         Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to
   34         implement a system providing for the electronic
   35         authentication of driver’s licenses; providing
   36         criteria for a token for security authenticity;
   37         requiring that the department contract for
   38         implementation of the electronic verification;
   39         amending s. 322.20, F.S., relating to

It’s unclear to me if this amendment passed, since I was not there for the vote, and I have yet to see the committee substitute (CS) bill. I’m hoping it didn’t, but the fact that it made it as an amendment (when our numerous efforts to repeal then amend REAL ID out of our law all fell on deaf ears) is really troubling. It has become very apparent to me the Republicans in our legislature do not want to do away with REAL ID. They actually want to increase it.

Much has been written about RFID. Suffice it to say, it is an insecure means to place your personal data (such as what is on your driver’s license) onto. If in doubt, read this Daily Mail news story from 2009. It reports that a hacker cracked England’s RFID system in 12 minutes and changed the data.He also added a message that would be visible to any police officer or security official who scanned the card: ‘I am a terrorist – shoot on sight.’

We are following in the footsteps of England (whom as some may recall we obtained our initial liberty in the 1700′s) in traffic cameras, and now it looks like we’re doing so on a national ID as well.

Then there’s that new contract. New contract means new spending. Smaller government? Living within our means? The Governor is asking state employees to take a 5% pay cut, as well as cutting many positions, yet we can afford stuff like this?

Now let’s consider some other state laws we have courtesy of the Republicans here in Florida:

• SB 550 in 2010 is a/k/a the Septic Tank law. This law mandated inspections at your expense even though there was no indication your system was causing a problem. It padded the pockets of the several septic tank companies on this state, many of which spoke against the repeal bill (SB 168) this year. I wonder why? Follow the money.
• HB 325 (2010) is a/k/a the red light camera bill. Touted by proponents as a “safety” bill, this is one step closer to allowing machines to operate our society. A camera takes a picture of a violation, it is sent to a private (and sometimes foreign) company for processing. It is then sent to the local government, where a human looks at the picture, and then if warranted, a ticket is mailed to the owner of the vehicle. The state has shifted the burden of proving who was driving (as they must do with everything except parking or toll tickets) from themselves to the owner of the vehicle. Then there’s the millions of dollars involved, and the gravy train of funds for cities and counties with no oversight as to where they are spent. I’ve written 3 posts on the camera subject on my other site. Start here for the first one and work forwards.

I thought the Republicans were the party of smaller government? In each of the above scenarios, the government’s power has grown, spending has increased, and our liberties have shrunk. ALL of the above are due solely to Republicans.

Now more than ever, we need liberty minded people in office that can do more than provide lip service to our rules that the government must follow. These would primarily be our state and federal constitutions. These documents are the main things that stand between us as citizens and outright (as opposed to stealth) Tyranny. It is money that keeps career politicians like Sensenbrenner in office for over 39 years. Money buys exposure. Exposure gets you votes. Can this cycle be broken or are we irretrievably headed to what is written in Revelation 13 verse 16 & 17?:

He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

When one considers the unlimited authority given the Secretary of Homeland Security in the REAL ID Act for the use of a federal ID, it is becoming more and more plausible.

When I began this mission about a year ago, I thought most citizens would agree that this was a bad thing, and liberty-minded politicians would help to right the ship. Apparently this is not the case, although when people take a few minutes and listen to my information  they tend to agree with me on these issues. In the instant gratification short attention span society in which we live, most appear very willing to trade liberty for temporary security. Where is Ben Franklin when we need him? Speaking of Ben, it’s time we told these enemies of liberty to go fly a kite. We’ll find someone else to take their place in our upcoming elections. By the way, if you feel about the Republicans as I do, please join their party. We can do what a few men did in the 1770′s and escape from tyranny yet again.

About Paul Henry

Paul has a law enforcement background, having served as a Florida Deputy Sheriff and State Trooper for over 25 years until he retired. His last 5 years were in criminal investigations, where he investigated numerous ID Theft and driver license fraud cases. The Florida Highway Patrol is a division of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, as is the Division of Driver Licenses, so Paul has a great deal of experience with the way Florida issued drivers licenses, and what is needed to combat fraud.

View all posts by Paul Henry →

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 1st, 2011 at 2:42 pm. It is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.