One Login to Rule them All

Statists constantly tell us that we need a huge government to protect us from business monopolies. But they fail to notice that The State is the biggest, baddest monopoly of them all, as well as a major reason why some companies grow so monstrously large.

Just consider the recent economic crisis. The politicians have raged against the banks, but government bailouts, regulations, and shot-gun mergers, have caused the banking industry to become more concentrated rather than less. This is standard operating procedure. Politicians and bureaucrats constantly speak with a forked tongue:

• They claim they’re protecting “the little guy” from “the fat cats,” when in reality
• The State actually works for the fat cats (though in an unreliable Mafia kind of way).

A huge part of the business of politics involves conferring subsidies and special protections on favored companies and industries, making many of them near (or actual) monopolies that also happen to be “too big to fail.” Now here comes the latest example of monopoly creation by The State:

The Feds want to monopolize the user names and passwords that you employ on the Internet!

The so-called Department of Homeland Security, in cooperation with major corporations like Microsoft, has drafted what they call a “National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace”.

That sounds ominous, and it is. Will you be a “trusted entity,” or a distrusted one?

Of course, the Federal Statists claim that this “strategy” is for your own good. It’s supposed to protect you from identity theft, but it also exempts companies like Microsoft from the burden of creating safe products, while laying yet another brick in the wall of an embryonic police state.

President Bush and the Republicans started this criminal game of monopoly by passing the REAL ID Act, and by tapping all international U.S. phone and Internet communications without a warrant. Now President Obama and the Democrats are giving us NO CHANGE in any of these polices. Instead, they’re working hard to make things worse. This so-called “trusted entities strategy” is the latest example. And here’s more bad news.

The “strategy” was unveiled practically on the eve of our 4th of July (ironic), and the deadline for public comment was set for July 19th. You were on holiday. Congress was out of session for half of the comment period as well. This strikes us as a deliberate attempt to avoid scrutiny.

After that deadline Congress will likely defer to the Department of Homeland Security, because of their supposed expertise, and the wheels of bureaucracy will begin to grind you into assimilation. Next stop, one Internet password for you, imposed and controlled by The State. Is this what you want? If not, please act now. Two things are needed…

FIRST, we need to make our presence felt at the DHS comments page. Here is what I wrote, on the DHS comments page, under the headline, “NSTIC Should Have a 90 Day Comment Period”:

You unveiled the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace scheme practically on the eve of the July 4th holiday, when few would be paying attention, and then set an early deadline of July 19th for public comments. Did you want only a little, or perhaps no public scrutiny of this plan? Were you disinterested in public comments? You can disabuse me of these concerns by immediately extending the comment period to 90 days. At least that much time is required for public review of such a far reaching plan.

Your action is SIMPLE: VOTE FOR my statement, and while you’re there:

1. “Like” my statement on your Facebook page and/or Tweet it, and if you can, please
2. Consider leaving a firm, but polite remark in the Comments section, beneath my statement, demonstrating your support

Registration at their site is required, but you can comment anonymously.

OUR GOAL is to get this comment ranked the highest on the page! . . . by a wide margin!

Right now, the favored companies are stuffing the ballot box, and they may even vote our idea down, so we need everyone — we need YOU.

SECOND, call your elected officials and send Congress a letter opposing the REAL ID Act and the Pass Act, while adding in your personal comments that you also object to this DHS scheme.

You can borrow from or copy my sample letter:

I also object to the DHS scheme called a “National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace.” DHS snuck-out this plan right before the July 4th holiday, and then only allowed until the 19th for public comment. Please represent me by calling the DHS and asking them to extend the comment period to 90 days. Creating a monopoly identity system for the Internet is a very serious and frightening thing. It deserves serious scrutiny and time for debate. Please represent me in this matter.

Remember, first vote for my comment the DHS feedback page.

And then, use DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System to send a letter to Congress, call, and/or write your own letters to Congress.

Please forward this to others and get them to take action too. Remember, July 19th is Monday!

Jim Babka, President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.