In 2004, well below most people’s radar, the FDA approved the implantation of VeriChip and other forms of RFID chip in human beings. While “chipping” is a lifesaver for pets, there is a certain “squicky” factor about implanting chips in human beings.

It was very stupid of the Dems to not hang the FDA decision around George W. Bush’s neck. After all, “chipping” was the method used to enable the Mark of the Beast in the “Left Behind” series of bestselling books. Bush has been wrapping himself in the Bible now for his entire presidency. Why we didn’t put leaflets about “Bush Administration approves Mark of the Beast” under windshield wipers of cars at Evangelical megachurches is beyond me.

We missed that opportunity. Here’s another we cannot miss in 2008. I’ll explain after the flip.

State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) got SB 362 passed on Thursday. The bill bans the involuntary implantation of RFID chips by employers. This is not Sci-fi the bill is talking about, or even “Left Behind.” There is an Ohio firm that mandated that certain key employees be “chipped” as a condition of employment. Yes, that happened in red-state Ohio.

The people who voted AGAINST SB 362 in the California State Senate were, to a man, all members of the California State Senate Republican caucus. Here are the names:
Ackerman
Cogdill
Cox
Dutton
Harman
Margett
McClintock(!)
Runner
Wyland

Here’s the list of members of the California State Senate Republican caucus: (Nays on SB 362 bolded)
Aanestad, Sam (4)
Ackerman, Dick (33)
Ashburn, Roy (18)
Battin, Jim (37)
Cogdill, Dave (14)
Cox, Dave (1)
Denham, Jeff (12)
Dutton, Bob (31)
Harman, Tom (35)
Hollingsworth, Dennis (36)
Maldonado, Abel (15)
Margett, Bob (29)
McClintock, Tom (19)
Runner, George (17)
Wyland, Mark (38)

I’m willing to bet that the people who voted Nay on this bill in the Assembly were also all Rethugs.

Now then…how many of these guys are up for reelection in 2008?

One of the things that should be front and center on our “to-do” list, along with putting a Democratic President in the White House and turning Congress bluer, is to turn the State Legislature 75% blue. Give the State Legislature the sledgehammer it needs to keep Schwarzenegger pinned down and needing to make big compromises with the legislature to make the government work.

This is one thing we can do, if we cannot make Religious Right-wing voters in this state vote Democratic, to at least make them stay home in disgust or vote for a third party candidate (American Independent, maybe?) who will split the GOP vote in California.

We need to make the Evangelical Protestant Christian voter aware that THEIR local State Senator (and/or Assemblyperson as the case may be) had an opportunity to BAN THE MARK OF THE BEAST FROM CALIFORNIA COMMERCE. He (all the State Senators who voted thusly are men) had an opportunity to make it difficult for the prophecies in Revelation Chapter 13 to come true in the Golden State. And your state legislator VOTED IT DOWN. A vote against SB 362 was A VOTE FOR THE MARK OF THE BEAST.

It doesn’t matter if you believe it. I, for one, am not a believer. However, I think we can all agree that allowing an employer to “chip” their employees, no matter if they are “key people” or not, doesn’t pass the sniff test. Actually I’d rather have seen an outright ban on all implantation of RFID, except by prescription by a qualified doctor with a specialty in neurology and/or gerontology. The only legitimate reason for “chipping” a human being would be if they are an Alzheimers’ patient with a propensity to wander. And even in those cases an ankle or wrist bracelet with the chip embedded in the bracelet would be a better way to go.

This is a way we can perhaps sway a demographic of voters who would be otherwise unpersuadable. And maybe this might go a ways towards a veto-proof majority in the California Legislature.

And no, this is not snark. I’m serious.