Always looking for ways to keep An Eye on you . . .

More from the Big Brother department: Legislation is in the works to design a standardized nationwide drivers license. So logical, so convenient, right?

The Senate version of the intelligence bill includes an amendment, passed by unanimous consent on Oct. 1, that would let the secretary of homeland security decide what documents a state would have to require before issuing a driver's license, and would also specify the data that the license would have to include for it to meet federal standards. The secretary could require the license to include fingerprints or eye prints. The provision would allow the Homeland Security Department to require use of the license, or an equivalent card issued by motor vehicle bureaus to nondrivers for identification purposes, for access to planes, trains and other modes of transportation.
...
The House's version of the intelligence bill, passed Friday, would require the states to keep all driver's license information in a linked database, for quick access. It also calls for "an integrated network of screening points that includes the nation's border security system, transportation system and critical infrastructure facilities that the secretary determines need to be protected against terrorist attack."

Uh, can anybody say, "controlling the flow of citizens within their own country"??
Civil liberties experts are practically speechless.

(via Pacific Views)

Update: of course, the Pentagon won't be satisfied until they're spying on everyone all the time. I just couldn't find these ideas more reassuring. [uh, what's that quote there at the bottom of the right column of this blog?]