In TN., "Your Papers Please........

[dotymed]

My Short History

I moved "home" to TN. last year from Indiana, my birthplace as an "Army-Brat." I moved to Indiana over 20 years ago and joined the Carpenters Union. I had attended College in Tn., during which time, I was also a residential carpenter who had "topped out" at $12 an hour.

As a commercial/industrial Union carpenter in IN., I earned $30 an hour and great benefits. I helped raise 4 children and enjoyed (what I consider) a middle-class life.

Present day

I now live in Tn. with my 14 y.o. son. I have medical problems (still have temporary disabled health insurance through Union), Thank God. I notice that the residential carpenters here still "top out" at $12 an hour and little has changed, except the size of the town.

Yesterday, I went to "Murphy Oil" (Wal-Mart gas station) to get a pack of cigarettes (I know...), and they carded me. I look my fifty years. They proceeded to scan my drivers license into their cash register, they explained it was now S.O.P. no matter your age. Wow, a lot of information going somewhere I thought. She (cashier) mentioned a new camera recording sales....

Last night my brother called me from a bar that he frequents and told me that he had the $40 he had borrowed. I went there before he spent it..
When I walked in a young man carded me (a first there) and told me that a new camera was watching the entrance, they had to card everyone. I looked, there was the camera, in this dive.

President Obama was here last week (Ft. Campbell) to thank the troops. Now we have this new "S.O.P." everywhere, complete with cameras and scanning machines for your drivers license that record (seemingly) your every move.

Is this happening yet in other states? I do not see the difference between this and having to show "your papers" everywhere you go. Except this technology enables the information to be stored and shared.

This is definitely not the America I grew up in. Nor is it the America that I envisioned for my children. Are we prisoners? I guarantee you that Choicepoint Inc. gets this information too. They are a dangerous company that almost ruined my career in the '90's because they (falsely) reported me as a convicted felon.

So this is what Amerika has come to? If so, it may well be too late to for us to "take to the streets and demand change."

What is the next step? Will we be disappeared? Incarcerated? Black-Listed? I don't know. I think that if there is any way to live "off the grid" and it may be impossible, then after my son starts his own life, that is what I will do. Just think, yesterday I was also informed that my first grandchild had been conceived.......What a day......

[woo me with science]

1. The KMART here wants your ID for every purchase.

I have stopped going there.

[earthside]

9. Even if you are paying cash? n/t

[woo me with science]

15. It was a debit card, for which I had the PIN.

Guess I shouldn't have said every purchase.

Home Depot here requests a phone number for every purchase, including cash. You just have to decline to give it. They will then warn you that you can't return something without a receipt. I tell them I expected that anyway.

[earthside]

16. Okay.

I was worried there for a moment. If it gets so that it takes an ID to spend cash, well, we really will be living in a complete totalitarian state.

[dotymed]

20. In Tn., I use cash.

They scan my drivers license.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. off topic but, I wonder why did you move back to TN?

:shrug:

[dotymed]

6. lol,

I have medical problems (still have temporary disabled health insurance through Union), Thank God.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

13. never mind,

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Sign in the Winn Dixie store here which sells cigs and alcohol:

All people under 40 must show proof of age.

Under 40????????

The Winn Dixie is one of those "card" stores that over charges you unless you have a shopping card with them, i which case they overcharge you less.
They have not yet forced shoppers to provide correct name and address on the card application form, so my dog is now the owner of the card, at a previous address.
I have stopped using the debit card at Winn Dixie.

Had to show my license to get car tags last week, tho. Apparently giving them the registration form was not enough.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. Try using your passport

When stores get that kind of intrusive, especially when I was just passing through, I would use my passport. Makes for all sorts of fun since few places can scan them.

[femrap]

8. that's a very good idea. nt

[izquierdista]

5. Land of the free

When I go traveling, that is what I notice, the freedoms everywhere else that they hate us for here. I don't think I have ever seen anyone buying alcoholic beverages carded, except in the U.S. Outside the U.S. the discretion to sell or not sell seems to be left to the discretion of the store clerk or cashier.

There are also a lot fewer signs. Maybe that is because they have to stick to internationally recognized pictograph type signs, but even for speed limits, there are only two, one in towns, and one outside of towns (oh, and another one for the super fast expressways). The United States, on the other hand, has no lack of signs: speed limits change depending on the size and traffic of the road, signs for what days and what times parking is allowed, signs warning you not to litter, signs warning you that the radar is watching, signs warning you of schools, hospitals, pedestrians, deer, and slow vehicles entering. I suppose Americans are spoiled by freeways and have to be constantly reminded out of their normal 70mph while yakking on the cell phone.

When I return from my travels abroad, it sure feels like coming home -- mom and dad watching 24/7 to make sure you don't get out of line.

[dotymed]

7. A service economy,

usually based on "the good ol' boy" system. A few profit directly, others (Few) labor to make and hang signs....it goes back centuries....

[Diclotican]

12. izquierdista

izquierdista

Or it can be, that most of the rest of the world, have rather strict laws when it came to show pictures, and signs all over the place.. In most of Europe, we do have a history to preserve, and even a single sign in wrong place, can ruin a whole city many times.. And the last couple of decades, the laws in many country's have been to clean up sign and pictures where it dosen't "belong" in the same way...

You have it the same way, in US Too, in some places with historic interst... Just maybe not in the same way as in Europe?

I don't know about the rest of Europe, but in Norway we have a law, that state that under the age of 18 we are not allowed to drink alcohol (whats fine with me) and under the age of 25 have to show that we are over the legal limit of 18. To buy beers.. Over the age of 21, we can more or less buy whatever we want.. Even tho strong liquer and so one is controlled by a monopoly, where the STATE own.. Its called Vinmonopolet, and it there to regulate the use of alcohol over a surten limit... And Again it works in Norway at least... It is also the case in Sweden, where the name of the controlling organ is Systembolaget...

Diclotican

[femrap]

10. I'm in

Ohio....so far, I only have to show my Driver's License when I buy those 'Sinus Pills' that people make Meth with.

On occasion, when I buy wine a young snot will say: "Oh, you're too young to buy that." I'm 60. All this results in is my being reminded that I'm no longer young. I'm old and this little snot is patronizing me. I give the clerk a lesson. Ask for the manager and ask if male patrons are told they're too young to buy wine.

I'd prefer they ask for my ID and just shut their piehole. But if cameras start to show up, I'm paying with cash and wearing a disguise. Maybe I should go in 'drag.'

Someone is TN is making a lot of money installing those cameras....someone's brother of a particular Politician is my bet.

Are ALL the bars installed with cameras?? Or just the dives?

[Fly by night]

11. No, the next step here in TN is to criticize the Rethug Secretary of State on a blog and, ...

... a few days later, to receive a visit by two armed TN Bureau of Investigation agents investigating a "terrorist (that would be me) threat against a government official (that would be the teabag-less SOS, "Too Tall" Tre Hargett)."

Fortunately, it took the two agents less than five minutes to realize they had been sent on an unsuccessful attempt to politically intimidate me. The lead agent's reponse: "I haven't been in law enforcement for 30 years to become anyone's Gestapo now."

For more information, see these DU threads:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5908269

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5919415

And this related piece in the Nashville Scene:

http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2009/06/25/what-kind-of-buffoons-are-running-the-secretary-of-states-office-now

I wonder if those two agents are still employed, now that the Fourth Reich rules the home of Andrew Jackson.

[dotymed]

21. here, it is all

"Obama's fault." He wants government in every part of our life....."
Even the cashiers spread that....

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

25. From The Nashville Scene:

"New Republican Secretary of State Tre Hargett and his little hillbilly sidekick, elections coordinator Mark Goins, are getting off to a fantastic start, aren't they? Faced with a collection of earnest do-gooders with the audacious demand that we count every election ballot, Hargett and Goins are behaving like a couple of thugs."

Sounds like Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife have been crossed with Tony Soprano.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2009/06/25/what-kind-of-buffoons-are-running-the-secretary-of-states-office-now

[Fly by night]

27. Since Hargett (Sheriff Taylor) and Goins (Deputy Fife) are both teabag-less, ...

... I guess you could say they are already sopranos.

[dkf]

14. Carded when buying wine, when using my credit card,

When taking money out at the bank, when voting, when notarizing forms, when borrowing blockbuster videos.

Beats me how people go through life without a picture id.

[mwooldri]

17. Technically for us Perm Residents we need our "green card" with us at all times.

So "Ihre Papiere Sie bitte" is something to be expected at all times by me.

How to confuse people who are asked for identification when conducting a business transaction? Dead easy: I just hand over my I-551 over to the person requesting identification. Questions get asked by them - "Can we accept this as ID?" Of course! It's a federally issued ID. Yes I have a drivers license and under normal circumstances that is what I give them. However there are those times I can't find my drivers license so my "green card" has to do.

[Randy_P]

18. Can't have them goddam Kentuckians sneakin' over the border!

Seriously tho, kick & rec. And good luck, sir.

[southernyankeebelle]

19. I live in Tn also. Funny they passed a law that allows you to carry a gun. I wonder do they card

you when you walk into a bar? I bet not. Yes am 63 yrs old and when I buy smokes or beer for my husband they card me also. You know they will miss the trees for the forrest. Its freakin overload.

[dotymed]

22. I remember when it was a "Class X" felony to have a firearm

anywhere they sold alcohol (stores too). Now you can "carry" in a bar...that is stupid.

[Speck Tater]

23. One radical solution I've considered is to...

... show my papers one last time at the border on my way out.

[Fire1]

24. AMEN!!! n/t

[Fuddnik]

26. I just booked a cruise for November.

They said they would be e-mailing us a bunch of paperwork for Homeland Security in July, and to complete it as soon as possible. If we wait to fill it out at the ship, we "might miss the departure of our ship".

I can barely wait to see this shit.