Posted by John Berlau
While
pretty steep, $25 billion of our tax dollars isn't
the only thing many Americans could lose in the just-unveiled GSE bailout bill
likely being voted on later today in the House of Representatives. They could
lose valuable liberties as well. Despite opposition from a bipartisan
coalition including the American Civil Liberties Union and the
American Conservative Union, the bill just now being e-mailed around House
offices includes the Senate bill's mandatory fingerprint registry. Legions of
ordinary Americans working in the banking, mortgage and real estate industries
would have to send their fingerprints to the feds for continuous "tracking."
In
language virtually identical to that in the Senate bill that passed earlier
this month, the House bill — which I received via e-mail but could not find
online — requires any "loan originator" to "furnish" to the
newly created Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry
"information concerning the applicant's identity, including
fingerprints," that will be sent to the FBI and other government agencies.
"Loan originator" is defined broadly as anyone who "takes a
residential loan application; and offers or negotiates terms of a residential
mortgage loan for compensation or gain." Real estate agents are also
covered if they receive any type of compensation from "originators."
In
other words, people who are our friends and neighbors who did nothing fraudulent
or irresponsible would have to submit their fingerprint for tracking to a giant
federal database. As I have said before in the Wall Street Journal and other places, this
measure would probably not subject to fingerprinting the Angelo Mozilos who
designed these loans. Rather, it would affect hundreds of thousands of ordinary
employees in the mortgage and real estate industry, including many part-time
and clerical workers.
It
is in times of national emergencies that measures infringing on privacy and
civil liberties are advocated — and sometimes rushed through without even being
discussed — even if they turn out to do little to solve the problem at hand.
Then, when the emergency is over, the liberty-stealing measures remain.
The
current crisis at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and banks is being characterized as a
national emergency, and not surprisingly, political leaders are demanding that
war-like financial measures be enacted. But we can't let the rationale of a
financial crisis bring on unwarranted intrusion on our liberties any more than
we can let the justification of national security do so.
There
is no reason why the House must include the Senate's fingerprint mandate in its
bill. Even in a crisis, the burden should not be on privacy advocates defending
the liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights to explain why a privacy-invading
measure shouldn't be enacted. Rather, proponents of the measure should bear the
burden of explaining why the current crisis justifies something that infringes
on their liberties.
Show
us the evidence that fingerprinting would have lessened the damage at Fannie,
Freddie, and now-insolvent banks! The proponents can't and they won't, because
there probably is none.
Some
good news is that in addition to bipartisan coalition that has risen up against
the fingerprint mandate, there has been some excellent news coverage of the
mandate and the coalition against it. Check out these articles from Washington Post
syndicated columnist Ken Harney, the Tampa Tribune, CNET, CNSNews, and WorldNetDaily.
I
usually don't call on Open Market readers to call their members of Congress.
But this is such a blatant outrage that it might be worth giving your elected
Senator or Representative a piece of your mind. The Capitol Switchboard number
is (202) 224-3121, and the operators can connect you to any member of Congress.
Let your fingers do the walking, before Congress makes you send the feds your
prints.
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“You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,” he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. “We may have a recession; we haven’t had one yet.”
“We have sort of become a nation of whiners,” he said. “You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline” despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.
Amazing. It's just in our heads.The U.S. Conference of Mayors is holding its annual meeting
from June 20-24 in
Ask your Mayor to sign on to the resolution. Below is a sample letter you can modify and send. If your mayor has already co-sponsored the resolution, please thank him/her.
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Mayor x,
The U.S. Conference of Mayors will be holding its annual
meeting June 20-24, 2008 in
A military conflict between the
I urge you to sign onto this important resolution and
register your support for diplomacy to prevent war with
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
RESOLUTION
OPPOSING MILITARY INTERVENTION IN