"Wendell Willard (R-Atlanta), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, picked up the questioning.
“Who implanted this in you?” he asked.
“Researchers with the federal government,” she said.
“And who in the federal government implanted it?” Willard asked.
“The Department of Defense.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”" Galloway
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A lot of us have been "screwed" by the Department of Defense but this is a new development. pl
And they passed the law to ban microchips being implanted into Georgia citizens after the testimony of that woman. Crazy! (I do hope she was committed for a mental evaluation afterwards).
Posted by: Jackie | 21 April 2010 at 02:10 PM
That, Colonel, was the perfect, concise point you made!
Posted by: Kim Viner | 21 April 2010 at 03:22 PM
It's possible, so it should be outlawed. Of course, the federal supremacy clause would trump the state law. The feds aren't hindered by state laws.
They already have chips in passports, and a bill is pending to establish a national ID card with "biometric" measures like retinal scans, etc. The US ID would also probably have an RFID chip, like the proposed UK national ID card.
I've seen some of the technology in Iraq - BAT-HIIDE - here's a powerpoint on that - http://fingerprint.nist.gov/standard/archived_workshops/xmlandmobileid/Presentations/Vermury-BAT-HIIDE.pdf
The truth is that Orwell didn't have enough of an imagination in thinking up the kinds of technological control of individuals which is possible.
I suspect there might be a huge database following all or some of us by MAC and IP numbers, emails and online purchases and profiling us based upon, among everything else we do online, what we write at sites like these.
Does that make me a kindred spirit to Ms. Galloway?
Posted by: Green Zone Cafe | 21 April 2010 at 03:29 PM
Dang, they really are getting intrusive, mine's in one of my teeth!!! ha ha
Aside from this latest, the Senate and most of the House seem totally divorced from the reality of what We the People expect out of them for our votes.
Posted by: BillWade | 21 April 2010 at 03:46 PM
The technology is available now. The marketing spin is that these chips are medical diagnostic tools and/or repositories for medical records.
The Orwellian uses come later.
Posted by: walrus | 21 April 2010 at 05:21 PM
Those implanted by the Defense Department are not alone. RFID's are everywhere even without any implantation, in all sorts of products and cards. Before long, the sensors on your clothes will let a random rfid reader record what you are wearing and where. Soon, some company will aggregate the locational and other information easily gleaned from RFID scans and sell it for a huge profit. Just a few examples.
http://www.rfid-weblog.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rfid_passport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver%27s_license
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_ID#Privacy
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/rfid-passports-scanned-car
http://news.cnet.com/2010-1069-980325.html
The real "insider" will be the one who can buy the decryption keys for large numbers of products.
Posted by: WP | 21 April 2010 at 05:30 PM
It's a common belief. Occasionally dodgy Iraqi's I'd meet who "trusted" me would nevertheless ask if the military hadn't secretly implanted me with a locater chip. I never told them this but i always wondered if they realized that if I could get to them it was a dead certainty the military could too (if they wanted too badly enough).
Posted by: DanM | 21 April 2010 at 05:37 PM
Pat,
Having lived in Georgia for five years before moving back to Virginia; I wish I could say that this was an aberration in exercise of democracy in Georgia; unfortunately both sides of the aisle have their crazies, some crazier than others. Remember this is the state that went to blows (literally) over which State Flag to use. Of course they decided on not use the one with the Confederate but to use one based on Confederate Flag!
Posted by: HJFJR | 21 April 2010 at 05:40 PM
Is this someones idea of a delayed April Fools joke??
Posted by: R Whitman | 21 April 2010 at 05:44 PM
Oh my. Looks like I've been protecting the wrong place with my tin foil!
Posted by: Mark Logan | 21 April 2010 at 05:45 PM
My dog has an implanted chip. I have the DVD remote pointed at him and keep hitting play but he lays on his bed, not moving, staring at me like I'm crazy. Let's try eject...
Posted by: optimax | 21 April 2010 at 05:52 PM
Peace on Earth.
Purity of Essence!
Posted by: Cold War Zoomie | 21 April 2010 at 06:15 PM
optimax
All three of mine have them. Re-wind makes them chase their tails. pl
Posted by: Patrick Lang | 21 April 2010 at 06:23 PM
It took me a while to get the tears out of my eyes after reading those last couple.
I wonder if I could get one implanted in my Lab that would just make her pay attention when I wanted?
Posted by: John Minnerath | 21 April 2010 at 06:49 PM
HJFJR
Ah, this one hits close to home.
I recently was discussing the 10th amendment to a public defender friend and he said the best argument against the 10th amendment was the Georgia Assembly.
Somewhat related: this same public defender, now in his 60’s has spent his entire legal career representing the most despised and the poor. I am reasonably sure he has represented more African Americans than anyone who blogs progressively or otherwise. And I am not talking about think tank stuff. I am talking about spending time in detention centers interviewing people charged with serious crimes. He is the real deal. He did not just read Richard Wright and decide to enlighten the world. Nor did he not work on some “justice for all” project simply to pad a resume to then work on wall street.
One of his possessions is a CSA sword handed down in his family.
Speaking of which, I see where Georgia’s Leah Sears is on President Obama’s short list to fill the USSC vacancy. Justice Sears is an African American woman. Her position on the Ga. Supreme Court is an elected one, and last time she was up for re-election, Justice Sears garnered 62 per cent of the vote state-wide, despite a very concentrated attempt by the religious right to have her thrown out of office.
She has served on the GA Supreme Court since 1992 -- the same year that LA experienced that event of progressive racial harmony known as the Rodney King riots -- an event commemorating LA justice and one that made the 1965 LA Watts riots look like a neighborhood sing along.
I lived in LA in 1992 and it sure was interesting to watch west LA progressives, during the course of three days, go from saying “Justice for all, we must enlighten the world” to buying Glocks and saying that they were going to blow the sh-t out of any “gangsters” who came onto their property. Funny how that works.
Before becoming a judge, Justice Sears worked at Alston and Bird, now one of the largest law firms in the nation, headquartered in Atlanta. A few years ago and maybe today, the managing partner was an African American. This African American man, whom I know, began his career as an detective in Detroit, attended night law school and then started practicing with what is now A and B. His role model was a white Southern man, who was a former Federal judge. This same Southern white man also played a role in Justice Sears’ career.
Justice Sears currently resides in the backwaters of Atlanta. Of course, Atlanta is considered a mecca for African Americans. And, for what it is worth, the gay community just voted Atlanta the most tolerant city in the nation. Another city in the cradle of the Confederacy --Austin TX --came in third.
Speaking of which, I see where Los Angeles ushered in the spring with a near race riot last week and the neo Nazi group hails from Detroit.
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/white-supremacists-demonstrators-square-470150.html?imw=Y
But, alas tis true about the Georgia Assembly.
Posted by: Sidney O. Smith III | 21 April 2010 at 06:51 PM
next up on the docket...a bill to prohibit guam from tipping over.
Posted by: eaken | 21 April 2010 at 07:13 PM
Col.,
Sometimes I wish the mute button would work on my dog. He thinks he's scaring awy demons at night. Luckily he understands "quiet."
Sidney O. Smith III,
I know a few African Americans who left liberal Portland, OR, and returned to the Deep South. That was where their families lived and where their hearts belonged.
Posted by: optimax | 21 April 2010 at 07:42 PM
Col. Lang:
Classic paranoid delusion. State hospitals used to be full of them. She tipped her hand when she acknowledged that there were billboards all over town that told the public what number to call to activate her chip. What's amazing is that the Georgia legislature used her as a prima facie example of why the law should be passed!
Posted by: alnval | 21 April 2010 at 07:52 PM
alnval
I like the comment about how the flag fight was resolved by taking the Confederate flag off the flag but modeling the new one on the Confederate flag. "Georgia on my mind!" pl
Posted by: Patrick Lang | 21 April 2010 at 07:55 PM
Optimax
I love Oregon. I have a cousin who is an attorney working for the State Government in Salem.
BTW, the managing partner of A and B -- the African American man I mentioned -- attended my mother's funeral several years ago. Another African American woman I grew up with was in the hospital room with me and others when my mother died. She was grief stricken.
Therein lies one of the secrets of the South or at least one tradition of the South.
But I really do love Oregon!
Posted by: Sidney O. Smith III | 21 April 2010 at 08:10 PM
Col.,
Your "re-wind" commment was the funniest thing I've read in a long time.
My two dogs don't have micro-chips. Maybe they should move to Georgia, the land of the free.
Posted by: Jackie | 21 April 2010 at 08:18 PM
Someone, with too much time on her hand, has been watching too many "V series" from 1983, 1984 and the latest one from ABC, I would assume
Posted by: The beaver | 21 April 2010 at 08:30 PM
Beaver
I dunno. My dogs seem to feel themselves oppressed, as I do over their vet bills. pl
Posted by: Patrick Lang | 21 April 2010 at 08:34 PM
Sidney,
Oregon is beautiful. It seems like every woman in Portland under 35 has a tattoo. I don't know if it's a local trend.
I asked the African Americans moving back to the South about the the racism there. They all said the same thing, "It's not like that anymore." Northerners don't understand the familial-like closeness many of both races feel for each other in the South.
Posted by: optimax | 22 April 2010 at 12:40 AM
With regard to locational tracking and RFID, aren't we giving away roughly the same information by carrying our cell phones around?
Posted by: shepherd | 22 April 2010 at 08:28 AM