National ID Card redux

[beagledave]

I posted a similar thread a few weeks about this. But the landscape may have changed a bit.

Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle…has proposed a national ID card, with a thumbprint digitally stored. he has offered to donate the software needed to manage the database.

Apparently the idea is gaining some momentum, and from some unusual sources as well. Among those signing on to the idea are Diane Feinstein (senator, California and chair of the subcommittee on terrorism), Alan Dershowitz (civil rights lawyer and Harvard prof), and (maybe less surprising) Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf. The idea is being forwarded to John Ashcroft
It would be voluntary for U.S. citizens (those not choosing the card would undergo a more rigorous airport screening), but mandatory for foreign visitors.

Full story found here

It sounds like this is moving from idle speculation to a serious policy proposal.

Dershowitz thinks that the civil libertarians will “come around” on this…whats your take?

[armedmonkey]

It could be implemented without infringing on civil liberties, but will it? The idea makes me a bit nervous, but I agree with the idea that it would reduce racial profiling. We are almost to this point with driver’s licenses anyway. I guess I’m sitting on the fence.

Call me cynical an bizarre, but this amuses me: Larry Ellison says this about donating the neede software

I don't think the government has any trouble paying for the labor associated with the software,'' he said. I made this offer not because the government can’t afford to pay for the software, but because I shut up the critics who were saying, `Gee, Larry Ellison wants to build a national database because he wants to sell more databases,’ which is pretty cynical and bizarre. What’s in it for me is the same thing that’s in it for you: a safer America.’’

but,

Ellison said that if he does donate the software, maintenance and upgrades won’t be free.

hmmmmmmmm
-Beeblebrox

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…trailing his fingers along the edge of an incomprehensible computer bank, he reached out and pressed an invitingly large red button on a nearby panel. The panel lit up with the words ‘Please do not press this button again’.