Author's Note: Todd Fahey, a strategic writer stationed in South Korea, has served as aide to Central Intelligence Agency agent Theodore L. "Ted" Humes, Division of Slavic Languages, and to the late-Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) chief Lt. General Daniel O. Graham; to former Arizona Governor Evan Mecham (R-AZ), former Congressman John Conlan (R-AZ) and others. He is author of Wisdom's Maw: The Acid Novel (Far Gone Books, 1996) and "Al Hubbard: The Original Captain Trips" (High Times magazine, 1991), exposes of the CIA's MK-Ultra program and its influence on the Sixties' psychedelic counterculture. He is the architect of DumpMcCain.com.

Anyone who didn't see it coming, mebbe, should stay of politics, consider waiving your right to vote. A special Thank You (in advance).

A fetid wind has stalled and, like a thawed turkey sitting in an oven for a couple of weeks, sits emanating over Washington today, with calls for National ID cards. That is how convinced the string-pullers of this nation are of We The People not objecting to such a benevolent security prophylactic. We'll rush for that teat, they believe, as would any child.

And we may. I won't, but the nation (the sheeple) may . . . or, may be brought to (or [practically; legalistically]: forced to).

But as execrable as is the pretense (the ID cards, themselves) is the rapidity with which Gubm't trotted out this trial balloon, and the fact that President Bush, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and House Speaker Hastert all acknowledge the debate on-record.

(Usually, this kind of marketing ploy goes unacknowledged by its sponsors; a month or so ago, we were hearing calls for "amnesty" of upwards of 8 million Hispanic immigrants--but nobody touched that one, so foul was it.)

Apparently, the overnight Nielsen ratings are coming in for the National ID proposal, and Rummy and GWB don't see it as bad news. (A Free Political Tip: If they're commenting on a trial balloon, the subject is likely being developed for production as we speak.) Their polling data, of a Parallax View, is wrong, of course: A National ID card will distinguish George W. Bush as the Edsel of American presidents. He will be like Gerry Ford with the "Whip Inflation Now" buttons (I can see our First Golfer now, telling us to clean our plates at supper time, to stave off inflation [bloat!]). Worse than Hoover. With a National ID card, he will be barred from even visiting Mount Rushmore.

Then again, Americans are growing accustomed to feeling dirty. We knew that the institution of a "Social Security" system felt . . . unnatural, but we did it anyway; and again with the Federal Reserve System; and again with "progressive income tax."

After FDR had pulled the dollar from off of a gold standard, Nixon had no real problem eliminating a silver backing to our currency. He was, after all, "a Keyensian in economics." The wage and price control nonsense followed, and most of US did very little about it. As we probably will do very little about a National ID card.

But question, for a moment, whether such a thing (a potentially highly-intrusive, extra-Constitutional infliction upon the American citizenry) would have stopped this particular ring of Arab-Muslims from killing 7,000 people and cold-cocking New York state and city, and the "world economic community," probably to the tune of $80 billion. (That "emergency relief money," the $40 billion already promised by Congress--that's yours, and mine; so we're already halfway there.)

We already have something called a Passport. This invention very clearly identifies a person by nationality. It carries, or its carrier is given, a number and a photograph. By this, we should have known that several of those persons of Middle Eastern extraction in Tampa, Florida, who were attending flight school, were not American, had, in fact, come from Germany recently, had no plans to become American (an easy check with INS, as regards naturalization proceedings), and had no stable or long-lasting employment record in the United States.

(I'd like to b*tchslap the principals of Hall Aviation, Tampa, Florida, for their greed and aggressive ignorance.)

If a foreign Passport, apparently with no real security check, is "good enough for Gubm't work," what is it about a National ID card which might prevent the self-same thing from happening tomorrow? A man holding a foreign passport somewhere in America will still board an airliner, with whatever impliments of injury, and will tell the cowardly pilots and passengers to stand by while the move becomes you.

No. The real issue is one of Control. The Gubm't sees weakness in We The People, and they want now to capitalize. Strike while the iron is hot; if they'll accept a National ID card after this calamity, more the better. Because this URGE will never be destroyed (it is primal, animal-level brute force, much like that of the Taliban itself), it must berepulsed. Let it be known that there is nothing in producing and enforcing a National ID card that couldn't be accomplished by detaining and deporting illegal residents, then hammerlocking those residents' respective governments to a reimbursement agreement, as leveled against its next foreign aid package, for the days its citizen spent in America unlawfully. A National ID card would not have prevented Timothy McVeigh, nor would it have the actions of these monsters. In proposing the ID card, the federal government is seeking to establish Control. Presumably (again, for those thinking three steps ahead, at minimum), such a device will be equipped with a bar-code or magnetic strip or (coming soon) Digital Angel, with which anyone can discern your:

· Sex
· Blood Type
· Fingerprints
· Photograph (perhaps several angles of facial structure)
· Database of Health Records (as Congressman Ron Paul has been railing against)
· Criminal Record (nationally)
· Credit Report (TRW, as an issuing agent for the Gubm't)
· DNA (Human Genome Project . . . do it for the children)

That is, for now. With the advent of genetic engineering, the card will be implanted into one (Digital Angel bio-chip), and will render one scannable--at grocery stores, airports, government offices, anywhere. You become the BarCode. The Mark of the Beast, truly. We are not there yet, but this latest event of terror makes the sheeple gooey-kneed to such proposals. (We're almost there.)

A Republican administration should not be considering these options. We did not elect George W. Bush, only to see him yield to a proposal which will find a cheering section with the Daily Worker and National Organization for Women. A Republican administration, following the popularity and (in some quarters) reverance for Reagan, should be perforcing four (4) measures:

1) To perform an immediate survey of every non-American resident (versus simple tourist, who should, for now, go unfettered), as to their: a) address; b) employer; c) place of employment; d) desired length of residency in the USA, and e) evidence of criminality while in their home country and while as a guest of the USA.

Those with no employer, no fixed residency and no plan for continued residency in the US, and especially those with criminal offenses warranting concern or suspicion, should be deported immediately, on their government's dime.

2) To perform an immediate survey of every employer or financial guarantor of every non-citizen, for the purpose of discerning the intention of their erstwhile charge as well as the ability of the guarantor for to reimburse State or industry for potential damages incurred by said guest.

Again, if a green-card holder "goes bad," there should be some family or corporation behind him or her, for to clean up the mess; if no one is willing to vouch for or stake collateral on this person, he should not be residing in the USA.

3) To detain, forcibly if necessary, any person lacking fundamentally in immigration documents in the 50 states.

4) To deport those who, via a background check, cannot proven a legitimate reason for dwelling within the United States, and who is without employment and/or the minimum proper immigration documents. This should be standing policy for every nation, and it is in many.

Free, western-friendly South Korea requires anyone staying longer than 30 days to have some official, documented business there--be it teaching English, writing for a magazine, etc. And as soon as you hit the airport, if your visa is expired, you're going to be interrogated. You won't be harmed, but you'll have to answer for yourself. I doubt Marwan and Atta could have passed interrogative muster in Korea.

Which begs the question: Does the United States want to be destroyed? Is this some penitent Judeo-Christian guilt-wish? Are we so afraid of offending another nation, via immigration moratorium and strategic deportations, that we stand to incur suitcase nukes or vials of plutonium or anthrax in the water supply?

We're morons and deserve to be dissected and ravaged for our nutrients, if so.