Department of Education

[Note: This article was co-written with my wife who helped both with the research and the writing]

In Part One of my Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12 coverage I discussed the implementation of this Bush decree, how intrusive it is, and how refusal to give the government a blanket waiver to investigate your life could prevent you from receiving an ID card that will allow you to get into your place of work. In it I introduced the two possible forms that a person would have to fill out to get their ID: Form 85 (intrusive) and Form 85p (even more intrusive). In Part One I focused on statements made by Professor Robert Nelson, Senior Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). But I also pointed out that this is not academic. It affects my wife.

I have discussed this more with my wife to get her personal view. At first I was a little relieved: she would probably only have to fill out Form 85. That still means she has to sign a blanket waiver that would allow the government to investigate her if they want for whatever reason, but at least it isn’t Form 85p which requires even more waivers of one’s rights.

But my wife then drew my particular attention to one aspect of the implementation of Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12. It is something called the Suitability Matrix, which all NASA employees (and probably all government employees) from janitor to student to professor have to undergo. In Part One, all discussion of Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12 involved a “voluntary” signing away of one’s rights in order to get an ID card. But the Suitability Matrix goes much, much further. And it is already in place.

“Yeah, that's it. Just relax.
Have another drink, few more pretzels, little more MSG.
Turn on those Dallas Cowboys on your TV.
Lock your doors. Close your mind.
It's time for the two-minute warning.

Welcome to 1984
Are you ready for the third world war?!?
You too will meet the secret police
They'll draft you and they'll jail your niece”

--Dead Kennedys, "We've Got a Bigger Problem Now”

Have you been PERSONALLY affected by the Bush Administration’s erosion of our Constitutional Rights? Well, now my family is coming face to face with a direct assault on the Bill of Rights, an assault on my wife’s rights. This assault comes directly from Bush with no input from Congress whatsoever.

Homeland Security Presidential Directive Number 12…

This Presidential Directive is all about choice, or so they say. One of those twisted, Orwellian “choices” that isn’t a choice. My wife’s choice is she can either sign over to the Federal Government the right to investigate every aspect of her life (including fingerprinting, credit check, medical records, character references, etc.) or she can “voluntarily” choose to not be allowed entry into the building wherein she works. The choice is hers. The rights that are being lost are those of every single American citizen.