Operation TIPS-TIPS: Report TIPS informants

Big Brother. The Night Watch. Now the USA is building a program where over a million Americans will act as informants about any suspicious activity they observe among their neighbours and the people they visit in a professional capacity.

Your mail carrier, your meter reader -- all can now be federal informants through the Terrorism Information and Prevention System. (TIPS) Here's a Syndey Morning Herald Article, a Washington Post editorial and DoJ response.

Not since the East German Stasi have so many people been asked to spy on their fellow citizens. With the Stasi gone, We're Number ONE! You'll be able to sign up at Citizen Corps.

To combat this menace, we've instituted Operation TIPS-TIPS. If you spot somebody you believe may be a TIPS informant, do two things:

• Mark the informant. In a subtle way, place the mark of the all-seeing eye (the eye-in-the-pyramid from the Great Seal, shown above) on their home, vehicle or person. Chalk is best, though it must be renewed. This is like Hobo Signs.
• Register them here.

Suspected TIPS Informant

Tell us a bit about yourself...

(Just kidding!)

Other Steps

Also be sure to put a "No TIPS informants" sign on your gate. Tell your gas company and delivery companies not to send an informant to your house.

Also be sure to get your new Larry Ellison National ID Card

And to understand why surveillance is bad for freedom, read my essay on why A Watched Populace Never Boils.

And if you haven't figured it out yet, the form above is a satire. Here's another. The TIPS program hasn't even started yet. If it does, perhaps the database will become real. And perhaps we should start sending letters like these to the customer service departments of the companies that will imploy TIPS informants.

This New York Times Piece is a great real-life story of why TIPS would be bad.