Thread: ALIPAC: NC DMV drops the sinister hologram

DMV drops the sinister hologram

Submitted by BruceSiceloff on 10/21/2008 - 20:41

Tags: Crosstown Traffic | NC DMV | Real ID

The state Division of Motor Vehicles has stopped decorating driver’s licenses with a silvery hologram that was designed as a nationwide security tool — and derided as the symbol of an anti-American plot.

The foil stamp features the shimmering images of an automobile and a globe centered on North America. It appears on the flip side of 4.6 million licenses issued since December 2006.

It was conceived by a national group of motor vehicle officials for possible use as a tool to mark the authenticity of licenses issued in each state. North Carolina was the only state to use it, in what DMV calls a pilot program.

U.S. homeland security officials decided not to take the hologram nationwide, so North Carolina stopped putting it on new licenses this week. The two-year experiment cost the state $1.5 million.

“What this hologram was supposed to do was to show that this was an official document of a state DMV,â€

State stops using DMV hologram
Some saw link to anti-American plot

Bruce Siceloff, Staff Writer

The state Division of Motor Vehicles has stopped decorating driver's licenses with a silvery hologram that was designed as a nationwide security tool, but was feared as a symbol of an anti-American plot.

The foil stamp features the shimmering images of an automobile and a globe centered on North America. It appears on the flip side of 4.6 million licenses issued since December 2006. It was conceived by a national group of motor vehicle officials for possible use as an authenticating mark. North Carolina was the only state to use it, in what DMV calls a pilot program.

U.S. homeland security officials decided not to take the hologram nationwide, so North Carolina stopped putting it on new licenses this week.

The two-year experiment cost the state $1.5 million.

"What this hologram was supposed to do was to show that this was an official document of a state DMV," said DMV spokeswoman Marge Howell. "That was the idea in the first place, to put them on all licenses across the country to help law enforcement officers readily identify them."

The hologram was linked last year with a purported scheme to erase national borders, flood the land with illegal immigrants and create something critics call a North American Union.

William Gheen of Raleigh, president of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, said the DMV hologram resembled the logo of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. He said the group promotes a speedier flow of goods and people across the continent.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul has criticized the partnership as an "unholy alliance" of business and government leaders seeking to undermine U.S. sovereignty.

Gheen also objected to the DMV hologram as part of the federal government's "Real ID" effort -- a security program that includes digital face recognition and other identification technology. He said the foil stamp gave DMV the ability to add microchips that emit radio tracking signals.

"We believe illegal immigration can be reversed without subjecting law-abiding Americans to this kind of Big Brother ID tracking," Gheen said.

"We're pleased to see this potential tracking device removed from the licenses. We hope to see North Carolina withdraw from the Real ID program."

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1263891.html

He said the foil stamp gave DMV the ability to add microchips that emit radio tracking signals.

I never said this. I said that the manufacturer of the metal logos has stated their patch is designed to be compatible with RFID (Radio Frequency ID)

To my understanding of RFID it is not a "microchip" and the metal foil does not "emit" radio signals, therefore I would have never said this.

Here is how RFID works.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID

How harmful do you folks feel this misquote is? Does it make me sound crazy like I think my license is a radio transmitter?

I did not claim RFID transmits. I said RFID can be scanned at a distance by radio waves.

W

I am thrilled !!! I must confess my driver's license expired one year ago and I have refused to get it renewed.

This is one step in the right direction, now they could save millions if they stopped storing our biometric images in the databases along with our documents.

I honestly wouldn't worry too much about the misquote, even though it would be worth a letter to the editor clarifying your position.
Yes it is an insult by the national panel that decided on this design to include foreign countries into the hologram. It would have been better to include the eagle or the flag as the symbol.
Cars these days have monitors that can track every move, and some intersections have cameras. There is software and a guy with a laptop that can grab the transmission when you swipe your credit card, while he sits in his car in the parking lot. ATMs can be fixed to grab your financial information. And the FBI has the technology to track you through your cell phone:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-150467.html

William wrote:

We hope to see North Carolina withdraw from the Real ID program."

Question, who is the "we" you're referring to? I thought, in respect to our allies that support Real ID, ALIPAC wasn't going to take an official position on the issue.

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-3661--0-0.html