New Passport Rules Create Potential For Abuse

The U.S. State Department has finally approved its final plan to require that even American citizens' passports contain "biometric" data. Biometric passports contain a tiny electronic chip and an antenna, from which personal information may be read. The State Department says that only a digital photo and other "usual" passport information will be contained on the chip. However, as with Wal-Mart and other retailers who already use the chip for tracking purposes, there is really no way for the average person to have any idea what information can be found on these chips.

Looking to other collectors of personal information, including the credit bureaus, one can easily imagine the following information conceivably being found on the chips:

Social Security Number
Address
Previous addresses
Date/City of Birth
Mother's Maiden Name
Employer and employment history
Bank Account information
Net worth
Real Estate holdings
Stock portfolio details
Legal judgements
Credit history
Sexual preference
Hobbies and interests
Military/Veteran status
Medical history
Academic history
Membership in various clubs, organizations, etc.
Political affiliation
Religious affiliation
Products bought
Places traveled
Anything else about the passport holder....

It is important to keep a few things in mind while this program is being implemented:

1. The U.S. Constitution does not guarantee citizens the right to personal privacy. Nor does the Constitution specifically prohibit the use of personal information to harm, control, manipulate, or intimidate U.S. citizens. (Because the U.S. Founders never conceived of a time where personal information alone could or would be used as a weapon, and current elected officials have utterly failed in their responsibility to amend the Constitution to reflect technological and societal changes that have turned personal information into a weapon).

2. Federal laws related to privacy are filled with legal loop-holes that actually make it easier for many government agencies to legal invade your privacy.

3. The Bush administration has repeatedly shown contempt for the very concept of personal privacy, or for any form of protection from having personal information used against citizens. Instead, it has diligently sought to establish autocratic control over personal information with such fascist legislation such as the incomprehensibly misnamed U.S. Patriot Act.

4. There is absolutely no way for any U.S. citizen to know for certain what information is contained in a biometric passport's chip, how or when that information may be updated, or the uses to which that information may be put, or by whom.

5. Biometric passports contain all this information despite the fact that absolutely nothing has changed regarding the supposed function of a passport--to facilitate international travel among citizens of various countries. A citizen stands on U.S. soil, takes one step forward, and is on Canadian soil. The passport tells U.S. and Canadian authorities that the citizen took took this step. So what information is contained on a chip, but not stamped on the passport itself, that has any relevance to this function?

6. Because the American economy is melting down as American jobs are shipped overseas, many debtors prisoners are attempting to travel or move overseas in an attempt to earn money to repay their debts, and to escape collections terrorism in the United States. The American Debtors Prison is a technological system that allows collections terrorists to legally stalk debtors anywhere they travel or move within U.S. borders. By potentially storing any and all personal information about U.S. citizens, biometric passports create the potential for allowing financial institutions to stalk American debtors anywhere in the world, further interfering with their ability to repay their debts.

I am not suggesting a grand conspiracy with respect to biometric passports, despite the Bush administration's clear lust for total control. However, each of us has made "contingency" plans in our lives, just in case we need them later. Corporations store documents that may never have any purpose unless they one day need those documents to support a lawsuit, for example. If no lawsuit occurs, that information is useless and benign, and just sits there. But if a lawsuit is filed, that information immediately becomes a powerful weapon to be "used against you in a court of law". Collection agencies and financial institutions do this all the time. What is to stop the U.S. government from gathering and storing personal information about U.S. citizens on their own passports--as a contingency in case that information can ever be used to serve someone else's purpose? This question becomes relevant when you realize that financial institutions already effectively control the U.S. government through aggressive lobbying, "campaign contributions", and personal/family relationships among the small percentage of Americans who control the vast majority of power and wealth in the United States.

At the very least, biometric passports are an affront to personal dignity, and a step backward for human civilization. The United States was founded because immigrants were free to travel to North America, free to establish a new home wherever and whenever they wished, and free to work hard to earn the money they needed to repay their debts and buy back their independence from creditors. Biometric passports serve no purpose that is not already served by orindary passports, in terms of travel facilitation, yet they introduce the potential for wide range of industries and government agencies to use personal information as a weapon, "at a time and place of our choosing", as President Bush would say.

History has shown that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." History has also shown that people never realize that power exists only as potential until power is exercised--that is, until it is too late. It is time for Americans to begin connecting the dots here....

All the best,
Paul

Ford Demands "Sacrifices" -- From Everyone Else

Ford Motor Company Chairman and CEO Willaim Clay Ford, Jr. has announced that Ford's stategic plan for the future includes "significant plan closings" and job losses.

Says Mr. Ford: "This is not a sacrifice that we will ask only the UAW and its membership to bear.... There will be sacrifices asked of people throughout our company, from top to bottom, in these very difficult circumstances, and we will reduce structure as well as jobs."

Translation: Thousands--possibly tens of thousands--of working people are about to lose their jobs as Ford Motor Company "sacrifices" them to the God of commerce. Those former Ford workers who have debts (mortgages, car loans, student loans, etc.) will be left with no means to repay those debts, and they will have six months to find a way to make regular payments again before being "written off" as uncollectable by their creditors, and their families cast into the American Debtors Prison, through no fault of their own.

In case you are concerned about William Clay Ford, Jr. and his family during this crisis, I can assure you that they will be just fine. According to Executive Paywatch, Mr. Ford received more than $22 million in compensation in 2004 alone (Click here for details). That is more than 350 times the average annual salary of an autoworker.

However, given that his utter mismanagement of the company he inherited is about to throw the very workers who made him rich into unemployment, poverty and debtors imprisonment, I find myself more concerned with those autoworkers who are about to be thrown into the American Debtors Prison.

All the best,
Paul

Nagin's "Bold Leadership" To Further Impoverish The Poor

"Now is the time for us to think out of the box. Now is the time for some bold leadership, some decisive leadership," says New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, regarding efforts to jump-start the New Orleans economy.

And just what is Nagin's proposed "out of the box" solution to help some 500,000 impoverished, jobless, homeless and desperate New Orleans residents?

Casinos.

That's right. Nagin's solution to poverty in New Orleans is to offer what has recently become a half-million strong population of third-world American citizens the opportunity to blow all the aid money they've received at a casino, in a desperate attempt to come up with enough cash to rebuild their lives.

Of course, the only ones who could conceivably benefit from this solution are the casino operators and the New Orleans government, which would enjoy enormous tax revenue from such a plan. That kind of economic recovery would make Mayor Nagin a real hero, according to the way that politicians gauge "success".

For many years now, incompetent politicians have relied on state lotteries and casino gambling to "jump-start" local economies, and the results have always been the same: casino operators grow incredibly rich, increasing the gap between rich and poor even further, while desperate wage-earning human beings lose what little savings they have left.

Casinos are a microcosm of the "Trickle Down Theory", which has consistently proven since World War II to trickle wealth upward, where it becomes concentrated in the hands of a few while the masses generally become poorer and burdened with debt. Like the massive multinational corporations that arose from trickle-down economics, casinos have the appearance of luxury and busy activity, but nothing truly productive is ever accomplished--except for more appearance of luxury and activity, while the rich get richer and poor get poorer.

Wake up, Mayor Nagin. Hurricane Katrina was not a dream or a television show; it was a real live natural disaster. And New Orleans' residents need a mayor who can conceive of a real solution that addresses their real needs.

Update: Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has refused to put New Orleans casino gambling on the legislative agenda for Hurricane Katrina recovery discussions, on the principle that gambling should not be the basis of economic development in New Orleans. Kudos to Gov. Blanco for recognizing the obvious, and for seeking to provide New Orleans residents with an economy that will make them money, rather than take their money.

All the best,
Paul

Capitol One Sinks To A New Low

I didn't think it was possible, but Capitol One has sunk to a new low of human depravity. One of the debtors prisoners I work with has supplied me with undeniable proof in the form of a collection letter.

First, let's get one thing out of the way. The independent and undisputed authority on English usage, Webster's Dictionary, defines the term "sleazy" as follows:

"Sleazy. Adj. marked by low character or quality."

This most certainly describes what you are about to read. In fact, "low character" is undeniably generous in this case.

The debtors prisoner in question has an unpaid debt to a completely different bank, and that debt is several years old. The original lender wrote the debt off as "uncollectable" years ago, then sold it to Capitol One to collect this debt anyway, despite presumably having told the IRS it was "uncollectable" when requesting tax breaks for their supposed loss, so many years ago.

Capitol One, in turn, engaged the services of yet another collection agency, which calls itself "The Westmoreland Agency", to contact the debtor directly. Creating a chain of associations, affiliations, and subsidiaries confounds all attempts to hold Capitol One directly responsible for any unconscionable or illegal collections practices, violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or potentially criminal behavior on the part of collection agents. (Question: Just as a thought experiment, ask yourself why would an honest, law-abiding company need to protect itself like this?).

This "Westmoreland Agency" (if that really is its name), then sent this debtors prisoner the most unconscionable collections letter that I have ever seen: At first glance, the letter appears to be a free credit card--not a credit card offer, but the letter actually has a plastic VISA card attached to it.

Closer examination of the letter reveals that this is actually a $20 "gift card", which of course must be activated by calling a toll-free number and providing verification of the debtor's identity (and presumably, his location, employer, and any other personal information the collection agent can glean from the conversation).

To send a debtors prisoner a plastic card emblazoned with the VISA logo as a "gift" is about as tasteful as sending an Auschwitz survivor a Hallmark card for Hitler's birthday. And yes, the debtor confirmed that the original debt was on a VISA card.

The back side of this "gift offer" contains a full page of confusing, incomprehensible legalese disclaimers which, when translated into English, basically says that debtors "voluntarily" agree to send themselves up a creek without a paddle if they call the telephone number to activate their gift cards. As required by law, the following disclaimer is present--on the back side of this generous offer: "...this communication is from a debt collector, and it and others from us are an attempt to collect a debt. Any information obtained will be used for that purpose." Interesting that they didn't make this incredibly important announcement more prominent, and on the front page, considering the enormous relevance this information has to the recipient.

But here is the kicker: This debtor has not repaid the debt yet because he has been homeless for the past decade. And why was he rendered homeless in the first place? Because the original creditor wrote this very same debt off as uncollectable while he struggled to pay it off under adverse conditions years ago, throwing him into the American Debtors Prison. Although he has worked full-time ever since, he can no longer even rent habitable housing because of his credit report, and likewise cannot obtain professional employment with a salary capable of repaying the debt. (This is a defining characteristic of the American Debtors Prison itself). It is interesting to note that the debtor has refused to file for bankruptcy for all these years, however, precisely because he wants to repay his debts.

Okay, I lied. Here is the real kicker: The VISA card attached to this collections letter says "Go Shopping" on it. Happy Birthday, Adolph.

If you dig even deeper into the slime of this letter, you'll find fine print that says, among other things, "But there is no obligation - even if you're unable to set up payment arrangements at this time, the gift card is yours! all you have to do is activate it. Call now."

Make no mistake about it--calling now and making contact with this collection agency would open this debtor up to a world of pain that would make his current homelessness seem like a vacation at Club Med.

But wait, believe it or not, there's even more. This "gift offer" is accompanied by a four-page "Terms and Conditions" document, which is also written in incomprehensible legalese. Not only that, but a quick translation reveals that under several conditions, there is actually a COST to the debtor associated with using this card.

This is the crap this poor debtor found in his mailbox--six pages of manipulative rhetoric, none of which he ever requested to be burdened with, and coming from a company that he had never once borrowed money from or had any association with. Meanwhile, he has struggled for nearly a decade in homelessness to save enough money to repay the creditor he actually borrowed money from in full--the very same company that "wrote him off" as a deadbeat.

The name "Capitol One" has arisen time and time again in my research of unconscionable lending and collections practices. But with this particular collections tactic, they have sunk to depths that make me question whether the employees of Capitol One really qualify as part of the human species.

All the best,
Paul