Last week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The legislation would require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2.

The measure the committee passed states that “an individual may not engage in the business of a loan originator without first … obtaining a unique identifier.” To obtain this “identifier,” an individual is required to “furnish” to the newly created Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry “information concerning the applicant’s identity, including fingerprints for submission” to the FBI and other government agencies…

The amendment adopted the fingerprint provisions in a section called the “S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act.” The fingerprints will be part of what the amendment calls “a comprehensive licensing and supervisory database.”

So, uh, what gets included next? Voter ID? School lunch program?

Thanks, Marc




  1. McCullough says:

    Turning up the heat to slow boil.

  2. DavidtheDuke says:

    Yes. Those are next.

  3. lou says:

    WTF ? Are you sure you don’t need a DNA sample ?

  4. andy says:

    relax guys – this is only required until getting chipped becomes mandatory

  5. brian t says:

    What, no “what have you got to hide?” comment yet?

    The “real solution” is for people to stop committing crimes, stop doing stupid things, stop demanding things from the government – in short, make government unnecessary. As long as we keep giving governments reasons to keep track of us, we can expect to be treated like cattle. IMHO, of course.

  6. edwinrogers says:

    In Soviet Russia, take fingers, not prints.

  7. bobbo says:

    This crowd is too hip. Except maybe for #5–brian==what set of conditions are you thinking of that would “make government unnecessary?”

    THIS thread is about being able to identify people, privacy vs anonymity. Its NOT about what happens after Global Warming and the Human Population falls into the mere 1000’s as Misanthropic Scott so fervently looks forward to.

  8. pagon says:

    Yeah, right! If people stopped committing crimes governments will stop taking away freedom? Get real!

    Read a book. Try George Orwell for a start.

    Governments take away freedom because nobody stops them from doing it. Any government!

    If we weren’t a nation of sheep we’d soon put a stop to it.

    But we are sheep. Baaaah

  9. ECA says:

    OK,
    When we start treating our Gov officials with the SAME popularity as we treat MOVIE STARS..

    With Camera men and Photog’s on them EVERY MINUTE of EVERY DAY…

    THEN I will agree to this.

  10. ECA says:

    What do law makers do after they have made all the laws??
    What would you do to keep your job? when you can do nothing else?
    Fiddle around with the laws and do NOTHING.

  11. The Pirate says:

    Since I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to require my fingerprints.

  12. Sea Lawyer says:

    I love it. Soon you won’t even be able to lend somebody your own money without getting federal permission first.

  13. andy says:

    once the money supply is chipped, the fed won’t have to be notified of anything if you buy your pal a beer, let alone lend him a fiver

  14. Cap'nKangaroo says:

    what leads you to believe the government will be able to connect all these various databases. surely not past performance. i predict 20 years from now a large defense contractor will have worked on integrating and combining the fingerprint databases for 10 years, the project will be horribly overbudget and still be “5” years from completion. numerious legislative hearings will have been held and our fine elected representatives will blather about the waste and delay.

  15. ECA says:

    iF WE COULD watcH GOV OFFICIALS and the other departments as well as we watch Celebrities, we could clean up waste in the gov, and HAVE PROOF..

    The problem–ITS AGAISNT THE LAW.

  16. Uncle Patso says:

    # 16 Cap’nKangaroo said:

    i predict 20 years from now a large defense contractor will have worked on integrating and combining the fingerprint databases for 10 years, the project will be horribly overbudget and still be “5″ years from completion. numerious legislative hearings will have been held and our fine elected representatives will blather about the waste and delay.
    —–

    Then SkyNet will wake up and we will all be DOOMED!

    Seriously, though, I hope now that someone has noticed this will get a thorough airing and the House version of the bill will drop this part. I’ve met people in this field who would rather quit and drive a taxi than submit their fingerprints and I’d feel sorry for their kids. (I was going to say drive a bus, but I thought if anyone already has to submit to fingerprinting it’s bus drivers.)

  17. andy says:

    the concern is obviously the inevitable failure and resource sink-hole of any such database, such as the asinine “no fly list” that has protected americans from jack squat since it was implemented

  18. OOOOPS says:

    What about finger printing for welfare?

  19. floyd says:

    Getting back to the point: maybe this was made a law because of thousands of fraudulent mortgages (son was caught up in one of these, the “normal payment” paid high interest but nothing on principal. He refinanced once he figured it out).

  20. john says:

    The masses are too busy, eyes stuck on the tube waiting for the next season of LOST to start (no pun intended ;)or disillusioned by the concept of the American dream, wherein lies the plethora of wealth power and opportunities. The American dream is a big lie based on free market economy which leads to exploiting other countries and their resources. It’s a lazy ass concept and a cowardly one. We have to go crap all over other countries and wipe out their democracies to attain our romantically spoken of so called American dream here at home through global free market economics. Like Chile in the 70s or Irak in the present, the neoliberal agenda of free market economics is not changing. It’s only getting more sophisticated and efficient by the minute. There is no stopping the elite from pushing on forward and polarizing the gap between rich and poor. They don’t give a shit on how much you’ll be paying in gas heating bills next year, or how much it’s going to cost you to feed your family. Their concern is profit, not democracy. Their operations are very mechanical and moral ethics are not included in this machinery. The fact is that these people are gaining more and more control over everyone of us with huge investments in new technology and by the time they’re done and satisfied, we’ll might have all missed the boat to revolution because we were all to busy watching American Idol just like crack becomes priority to the user. So to all my fellow middle and lower class , get ready for hard times!

  21. Hanes says:

    Hey bush terrorists-fingerprint this!

    Isn`t it funny how the real terrorists-your “american government”-treats everyone else like terrorists and the worst part is that the american sheeple continue to fall for it in the name of “national security” and swallow whatever they`re told to hook, line and sinker. You really are one braindead, stupid populace.

    Welcome to the ussa.

  22. REVOLUTION is the Solution!!!

  23. Winston Smith says:

    “Workers who cut up pineapples eventually have no fingerprints, this being due to the action of the proteolytic enzyme, bromelain, dissolving them.”

    😉

  24. ECA says:

    22,
    true, but do the Masses GET TO VOTE ON IT??
    Nope.

  25. escapefrombushistan says:

    Lamp posts are taking on a whole new meaning for me. The traitors just passed a bill allowing for all newborns in the U.S. to have a sample of their DNA taken and stored by the U.S. government. Research can be done on this DNA and parents to not have to be informed. There should be a law passed that does not allow unrelated laws being attached to certain bills up for approval in both houses, such as amnesty bills being snuck into bills for funding for the Iraq debacle. This type of thing is downright traitorous on the part of our so called “representatives.”


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