National ID Cards: Should we have them? Should they contain Biometric Data? Will they Violate our Civil Liberties?

Britain is unveiling a new National ID card. This card includes an electronic chip containing biometric data of the holder, including fingerprints and digital facial images.

Question to viewers: Should we have a new National ID card in America for all Americans, Immigrants and Guest Workers containing fingerprints and digitial facial images? What about DNA? What do you think? Would these cards have a down side? Example: Infringe on our Civil Liberties? Make us a Police State? What do you think?
Britain unveils ID cards for foreign nationals
2008-09-26 05:59:46
LONDON-- Britain's Home Office unveiled on Thursday the identity cards to be issued to foreign residents in the country. The plastic wallet card shows the holder's photograph, name, date of birth, nationality and immigration status. A secure electronic chip holds their biometric details, including fingerprints, and a digital facial image, said a Home Office press release. The first cards are scheduled to be issued in November 25. Within three years all foreign nationals applying to enter or remain in Britain will be required to have a card. And by 2014, 90percent of foreign residents in Britain should have identity cards. The introduction of national identity cards for foreign residents will be followed by the first ID cards for British citizens from 2009, targeting workers in sensitive roles such as airports. One year after that, ID cards will be available to young people who want them, and from 2011, cards will be available to the general opulation. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the announcement of the cards for foreign residents shows the government is fulfilling its commitment to protect identity.

Local Mayor´s Dogs are Murdered!! WHAT IS HAPPENING TO AMERICA? ARE WE ALL LOSING OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES?

What is Happening??? Why are we ALL losing our Civil Liberties? Can the "powers that be" storm in and shoot up your dogs? Your Family? What is happening in America?!?!? Are we willingly allowing our Civil Liberties to be stolen from us?? This reminds me of Arpaio´s Racial Profiling Sweeps happening now in Maricopa County!!

Mayor wants federal probe after SWAT raids house, kills dogs (CNN) -- A Maryland mayor is asking the federal government to investigate why SWAT team members burst into his home without knocking and shot his two dogs to death in an investigation into a drug smuggling scheme. "This has been a difficult week and a half for us," Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, said Thursday. "We lost our family dogs. We did it at the hands of sheriff's deputies who burst through our front door, rifles blazing." The raid last week was led by the Prince George's County Police Department, with the sheriff's special operations team assisting, after a package of marijuana was sent to Calvo's home. Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted.
Calvo said he had just returned home from walking his two Labrador retrievers, Chase and Payton, when his mother-in-law told him a package had arrived for his wife, Trinity Tomsic. Moments later, Calvo was in his room changing for a meeting when he heard commotion downstairs.
"The door flew open," he said. "I heard gunfire shoot off. There was a brief pause and more gunfire."
Calvo said he was brought downstairs at gunpoint in his boxer shorts, handcuffed and forced onto the floor with his mother-in-law near the carcass of one of dead dogs. "I noticed my two dead dogs lying in pools of their own blood," Calvo said. Calvo said his mother-in-law is still recovering from the incident.
"She got the worst of it," Calvo said. "She was literally in the kitchen, cooking a lovely pasta dish, and they brought down the door and shot our dogs." While he was being held, Calvo said, he told police he is the town's mayor, but they didn't believe him. Berwyn Heights has its own police force, he said, but Prince George's County police did not notify the municipal authorities of their interest in his home or the package.
"They didn't know my name. All they knew was my wife's name. They matched that to the registration of the car," Calvo said. "It was that lack of communication that really led to what has really been the most traumatic experience of our lives." After the raid, arrests were made in the package interception scheme.
The incident has prompted the couple to call for a federal investigation because, they say, they don't believe police are capable of conducting an internal investigation. "They've said they've done nothing wrong," Calvo said. "I didn't sign up for this fight, but I think what we have to do now is make changes to how Prince George's County police and Prince George's County sheriff's department operate." Calvo said authorities entered his home without knocking and refused to show him a warrant when he requested one. But Prince George's County Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Taylor said legal counsel had informed her that "no-knock" warrants do not exist in Maryland. Taylor said authorities were acting on a warrant issued based on information available to them at the time. "This warrant was for permission to search the premises," she said. "The special operations team that supported us made a decision about the necessity of entry at the point of being on the scene." "No-knock" warrants have drawn criticism before. In Atlanta, Georgia, Kathryn Johnston, 92, was shot to death by police in a botched drug raid involving such a warrant in November. Taylor, a self-described dog lover, expressed sympathy for the loss of Calvo's dogs, but stopped short of apologizing for the incident.
"We've done these similar kinds of operations over and over again, to the tune of removing billions of dollars of drugs from the community and without people or animals being harmed," she said. "We don't want any of our operations to result in the injury or loss of anybody, and certainly not animals." The deputies have said they killed the two animals because they felt threatened. "I would say that the dogs presented a threat, I would imagine, to the special operations situation," Taylor said. Meanwhile, Calvo and his wife said members of the community have expressed sympathy and concern about the incident. At a news conference Thursday, Tomsic tearfully recalled a recent encounter with a neighbor who used to wave at the couple as they walked Payton and Chase. "She gave me a big hug," Tomsic said. "She said, 'If the police shot your dogs dead and did this to you, how can I trust them?' "

Gestapo Arpaio Resurrects Operation Wetback Part 2

AZ Maricopa County´s Heinous trigger happy Gestapo Sheriff Arpaio has resurrected Operation Wetback again as he Racial Profiles innocent Latino neighborhoods and towns in his area. Under the pretext of "Crime Suppression Sweeps" Sheriff Arpaio and his band of overzealous cops strip away the Civil Liberties of anyone Brown. All people of color are stopped and harrassed. A reported example: A Yaqui Indian woman (the town is half Yaqui, half Mexican) was stopped as she was walking to the protest and asked for her I.D. She has lived in Guadalupe all her life. WWB, "Walking While Brown", is considered probable cause by the Gestapo Sheriff. These deplorable sweeps are happening as we speak. Last night and today, the city of Guadalupe, AZ Mayor Rebecca Jimenez is bravely standing up to Herr Arpaio. Let´s pray for her safety throughout the face off this weekend!

The New Phoenix Times Reports:Open Rebellion: Guadalupe Mayor Rebecca Jimenez demands Sheriff Joe Arpaio cease anti-immigrant sweep.
Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 08:09:47 AM

Last night was a night of high drama as Sheriff Joe brought his illegal immigrant dragnet to the small town of Guadalupe, and the citizens and the mayor of that city demanded Joe leave. Last night around 10:30, Guadalupe Mayor Rebecca Jimenez personally presented Joe a statement to this effect in the parking lot of the Family Dollar where the MCSO was stationed. According to Jimenez, Joe accused her of inciting a riot and informed her she had 90 days to cancel Guadalupe's contract with the MCSO to provide law enforcement to the town. Jimenez and other town council members present said they would be reviewing the MCSO's contract. Jimenez's release states in part: "Sheriff Arpaio's attempt to push his own political agenda, from the State's largest municipality to the state's smallest municipality, shows that he disregards his statutory obligations to provide unbiased law enforcement to the residents of this county and should not be based on legal status. We are asking the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to cease their operation immediately."
Jimenez told me that the MCSO had informed the city that it would be doing an anti-graffiti operation and that she was promised that it would not be one of Joe's anti-illegal sweeps. If that's the case, I'd say she was a little gullible on that front considering Joe's recent activities. However, she bravely made up for this with her defiant press release and by insisting to Joe in person that he leave. This capped off an evening of spirited protest by about 200 or so demonstrators, and many drivers-by who honked their horns in agreement. While I was there, Rusty Childress' United for a Sovereign America was nowhere to be seen. People were angered by the MCSO's harassment of their fellow citizens, and many of those present had walked from their homes to be there. I think the demonstrations will be even larger today, as city leaders had initially asked residents to attend prayer vigils being held in different churches rather than protest the Sheriff on site. But obviously, all bets are off now.
The MCSO's stops were petty and pathetic. I rode along with one loosely organized group that monitors the MCSO and videotapes the traffic stops they're making. One lady was stopped and cited for "improper use of horn" (a favorite citation of the evening) because she had honked her horn in solidarity with the demonstrators. Another guy was stopped and cited for a cracked tail light right in front of his house. Still another fella was pulled over because the little light over his license plate was out. Back at the Family Dollar on Calle Guadalupe, another lady, a full-blooded Yaqui Indian (the town is half Yaqui, half Mexican) told me she was stopped as she was walking to the protest and asked for her I.D. She has lived in Guadalupe all her life. I guess WWB, Walking While Brown, is considered probable cause by the MCSO. For the Guadalupe operation alone, Sheriff Joe should have his 287g agreement with ICE jerked. That's the agreement that allows specially-trained MCSO to enforce immigration law under limited circumstances. How much more obvious can it be that Arpaio is abusing this authority and terrorizing Valley communities with these bogus and illegal anti-immigrant dragnets? When will the Feds wake up and halt Joe's reign of terror and error?

Official Language: Penalty - Learn English or GO TO JAIL! (Includes Legal Citizens!)

For all of you who promote "Official English" and who said this would never happen, here it is. A Judge has ruled "Learn English or Go To Jail!" The judge imposed this sentence on those here legally. As we move closer to a "Gestapo State," even with no standards set, the judge says, “There’s no way young kids can be hurt by knowing how to read and write the English language.”

From TimesLeader.com

Learn English or Go to Jail!
By David Weiss dweiss@timesleader.com Court Reporter, WILKES-BARRE – March 27, 2008
That’s the succinct directive Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. made as part of his sentence to four criminals on Tuesday. The defendants – Luis Reyes, Ricardo Dominguez, Kelvin Reyes-Rosario and Rafael Guzman-Mateo – all needed translators when they appeared in court to plead guilty to criminal conspiracy to commit robbery. It led to Olszewski leveling the unusual condition. He sentenced them each to four to 24 months in the county prison, but paroled three of them because they have already served at least four months. But in order for them to avoid the 24 months in prison, Olszewski ordered the men to learn to read and write the English language, earn their GED, and, within 30 days of release, get a full-time job while on parole. The defendants, who range in age from 17 to 22, are to return to court in one year with their parole officers to take an English test, according to Olszewski’s order. “If they don’t pass (the test), they’re going in for the 24 (months),” Olszewski said.

The ruling, the judge said, is supposed to help, not punish. “There’s no way young kids can be hurt by knowing how to read and write the English language,” he said. “It’s a means to helping them get a better education, getting a better job. Period.” Whether the legality of the ruling will be challenged has yet to be determined.
Attorneys Joseph Yeager and Ferris Webby, who represent the suspects, are looking at the ruling and laws before deciding whether to appeal. Neither has seen such an order in any past cases, they said. “First of all, let’s say it’s unusual,” Webby said. Webby said his role as an attorney requires him to look at the legality of the ruling, but, as a person, he knows Olszewski’s choice is good for his client, Guzman-Mateo. Guzman-Mateo realizes it, too.
“My client is happy,” Webby said. “I think it’s going to help him. It’s going to help him succeed.”
But that doesn’t make it right, said Agapito Lopez, a Latino community leader from Hazleton. He said he believes the ruling is a violation of the suspects’ rights. “I think that it’s contrary to the Constitution,” said Lopez, who stressed he is not an attorney and is speaking from a lay person’s perspective. “I don’t think that is due process. … I think this can be challenged in court.” Lopez said he will speak with attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union to see if the decision should be challenged.
Police said the four were part of a group of people that approached two men, Reese Tankalavage and Cletus Mumie, on May 29 on Locust Street and asked them if they had any marijuana. When Tankalavage and Mumie said no, the four suspects told them to empty their pockets. That’s when one of the people in the group struck Mumie in the head with a rawhide bone. Another man pulled out a gun. The group then searched the duo’s pockets before telling them it was “their block and they better not see them around there anymore,” police said.
In sentencing the four defendants on Tuesday, Olszewski gave Reyes, Dominguez and Guzman-Mateo immediate parole. Reyes-Rosario is doing jail time on an unrelated drug charge. His sentence in the robbery case will begin after he completes the drug sentence. Olszewski said the language condition he imposed on the defendants, who are resident aliens, was not something he had planned. Once he saw all the translators in court for one case, the idea dawned on him.
The decision, he said, could help cut down on extreme costs associated with the paying for translators for each court appearance. Plus, he said, one of the defendants only went to third grade; the others didn’t finish high school. Learning English will help them get their GED first, and then a job, he said. “Do you think we are going to supply you with a translator all of your life?” he asked them.
Olszewski is ready to face any flak from the ruling. “I’d like anyone to tell me that learning the English language is not a good thing,” he said. “I’d love to hear from them.” Learning the language could help the suspects, Lopez said. But it would not assure them of getting a job – that theory is merely mythical, he said.
“This is a country in which English is not the official language,” he said. “We cannot force people to learn the language.” Olszewski said the parties can ask him to reconsider the ruling within 10 days. No one, he said, objected to the ruling in court Tuesday. Olszewski is unaware of whether this condition had been previously imposed. It’s not the first creative sentence Olszewski has imposed. He regularly orders defendants to get and maintain a full-time job, but also helps them find work. He has his tipstaff, Ron Zukosky, coordinate with an employment agency to find the defendants work. The judge also has ordered young defendants who dropped out of school to return and finish school. “There’s no way young kids can be hurt by knowing how to read and write the English language.” Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.