WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 4, 2007
States Buck Fed Plan For National ID
Citing Privacy Concerns, $11B Cost, A Dozen States Oppose Real ID Law; Congress May Repeal
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One goal of Real ID is to unify states' disparate licensing rules and make it harder to fraudulently obtain a card. But Real ID will also be required for other purposes — for example, airport screeners won't let you board a plane without one. (CBS)
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The Maine Legislature on Jan. 26 overwhelmingly passed a resolution objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law sets a national standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases.
Within a week of Maine's action, lawmakers in Georgia, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington state also balked at Real ID. They are expected soon to pass laws or adopt resolutions declining to participate in the federal identification network.
"It's the whole privacy thing," said Matt Sundeen, a transportation analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. "A lot of legislators are concerned about privacy issues and the cost. It's an estimated $11 billion implementation cost."
The law's supporters say it is needed to prevent terrorists and illegal immigrants from getting fake identification cards.
States will have to comply by May 2008. If they do not, driver's licenses that fall short of Real ID's standards cannot be used to board an airplane or enter a federal building or open some bank accounts.
The law was introduced as a rider to a military spending bill in 2005 by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.).
About a dozen states have active legislation against Real ID, including Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.
Missouri state Rep. James Guest, a Republican, formed a coalition of lawmakers from 34 states to file bills that oppose or protest Real ID.
"This is almost a frontal assault on the freedoms of America when they require us to carry a national ID to monitor where we are," Guest said in an interview Saturday. "That's going too far."
Guest introduced a resolution last week opposing Real ID and said he expects it quickly to pass the Legislature. "This does nothing to stop terrorism," he said. "Don't burden the American people with this requirement to carry this ID."
Though most states oppose the law, some such as Indiana and Maryland are looking to comply with Real ID, Sundeen said.
The issue may be moot for states if Congress takes action.
Republican Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire, along with Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, filed a bill last year to repeal the law. Sununu expects similar legislation will be introduced soon.
"The federal government should not be in charge of defining and issuing drivers' licenses," Sununu said in a statement.
Privacy advocates say a national driver's license will promote identity theft.
Barry Steinhardt, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, said the Real ID ordered by Congress would require a digital photo and probably a fingerprint on each driver's license or state-issued ID card. That, he said, will make it more valuable to identity thieves because the ID card will be accepted as much more than a driving credential.
"It's going to be a honey pot out there that's going to be irresistible to identity thieves," Steinhardt said.
An identity thief, he said, could buy a Real ID from a rogue motor vehicle department employee with is own photo and fingerprint on it.
"The victim is never going to be able to undo this," Steinhardt said.
Other criticisms include:
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See all 69 CommentsI often wonder what our veterans of WWII, the Korean and Vietnam wars, who fought to preserve our freedom and democracy, are thinking about how things are heading now?!
Posted by walt1944 at 02:05 PM : Feb 04, 2007
As a Vietnam vet this is NOT what any vet, even the ones being wasted in vain in Iraq, had in mind when we joined.
Posted by Reel-Crazy at 02:10 PM : Feb 04, 2007
Bar-codes hell! They'll probably tattoo us like their idols the Nazi's did to the Jews. Sit down and roll up your sleeve for your own personal number on your forearm.
I don't think that's going too far, it'll happen eventually out of necessity. Maybe we should break up into provinces like Canada.
It's good to see that a few states are waking-up to this, "This is almost a frontal assault on the freedoms of America when they require us to carry a national ID to monitor where we are." Now if they would just work to repeal the UnPatriot Acts, the NAFTA Super Highway BS, the North American Union treason, and the Open Borders by 2010 insanity. I mean, why, if you're waging a war on Terror, would you open the Borders?
http://www.jbs.org/nau
Then there's this little jewel;
http://infowars.net/articles/february2007/010207Yoo.htm
Anyone that still approves of Bush after becoming aware of this approved atrocity doesn't deserve to be walking the streets of America, much less holding a Public Office.
Stop the insanity, Impeach TODAY!
Ron Paul '08
A national identification card does three things against the Constitution, it labels us as property, which is against the 13th Amendment, it removes our inalienable rights, including the freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You cannot have your privacy, your freedom to pursue life as you appreciate it, if you've got the US government watching your every move.
I have enough problems with the wiretap procedures that are going on regardless of our protests. But what they propose here is just putting us on the equivalent of a continent wide prison system. Tracking every one of us as though we were felons on monitoring devices. Thank you, unlike ten to fifteen percent of this country's population, I obey the laws, the ordinances and more to the best of my ability. This identity card implies that all of those in America are untrustworthy. I'm sorry, that's taking government bodies and their controls just too far.
a national ID card is a problem only to illegal aliens and to the corporations who currently provide such services. This lobby group is trying to scare people about a national ID. I would much rather have my ID controlled by the federal government, where I have the right to vote, than by the current system which is fraud and profit and allows illegal aliens to thrive with a wink.
yall are being hoodwinked by the Hispanic lobby.
is how the congress wants to blows the people's taxes/money on this as it is a step towards the Nazis of Hitler's day. That was before I was born. I was told all growing up how lucky I am to to live in this nation and that this IS the greatist nation in the world and the like. It is the rudeist. I feel that we have lost the freedoms that we once held so dear. It does saddens me. When will this madess stop and who will have pay the price of freedoms that G W Bush has taken from us. I am in my 50s so I DO feel that the govt can't be trusted nor Pres Bush. Thany
Posted by SharnCedar at 03:48 PM : Feb 04, 2007
And you've been had by the neocons. Sure you're not Cheney or Rove (the new Goering and Goebbels)?
Posted by SharnCedar
Right. The John Birch Society, Alex Jones, etc. are the Hispanic lobby. The National ID is just another in a long list of attacks against our Freedoms and the Constitution. I say it's way past time WE shout, NO MORE!
http://www.jbs.org/node/861
Ron Paul '08
It's no more a privacy intrusion than your current state ID is - this will harm only criminals.
Posted by SusanHelit at 04:14 PM : Feb 04, 2007
The goal of a national ID card is not to correct these problems. It is so the government knows where everyone of it's people is 24-7 and that is none of their DAM*NED business! That's the privacy violation! Yes we do have other problems and turning the US into a fascist state will certainly solve some of them, but the price is way way way too high!
Good. Our representatives had better stand up on their hind legs, on this issue.
It is simply unrealistic, for example, to expect state drivers' license offices to be experts on immigration laws.
If the Federal government wants something, they they should appropriate the money and pass the laws to make it happen. Unfunded Congressional mandates rank right up there with the sort of Congressional blackmail that brought us the 55mph speed limit and the highest drinking age on the planet as attacks on the federalist principles enshrined in the US Constitution.
Praise the Lord for Maine - now if I can get few of our benevolent guv'mint officials here in The Republic to hitch our horses to this wagon...
to save everyone, they whipped the Nazi dictator.
Posted by Hermit22 at 05:00 PM : Feb 04, 2007
That would make the beast George W. Bush. Sounds about right.
Posted by mike19955 at 05:12 PM : Feb 04, 2007
Now, why does that sound so familiar? Oh, yeah:
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein F|hrer!" -- Adolph Hitler
I agree with you, SharnCedar, it's time we use govt. to protect us from corporate exploitation which is out of control. The IRS and census bureau already knows everything about us.
THIS IS FASCISM. SCREW OUR GOVERNMENT.
THERE'S ALWAYS SOME STUPID FEAR USED TO TAKE OUR RIGHTS AWAY.
1984 Orwell. It's already HERE.
Posted by antoniorego
This is nonsense. Not to mention the fact that a National ID is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. The only thing this will accomplish is to severely invade our privacy even further, enlarge the already too restrictive Federal Gov, and cost Billions. Read the Constitution about the separation between States and the Federal Gov. The Constitution was constructed to prevent an all empowering Fed. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely. Our Fore Fathers knew that because it's been the same throughout history. Try studying a little History.
"One overriding point has been forgotten, Criminals don't obey laws! As with gun control, national ID cards will only affect law-abiding citizens. Do we really believe a terrorist bent on murder is going to dutifully obtain a federal ID card? Do we believe that people who openly flout our immigration laws will nonetheless respect our ID requirements? Any ID card can be forged, any federal agency or state DMV is susceptible to corruption. Criminals can and will obtain national ID cards, or operate without them. National ID cards will be used to track the law-abiding masses, not criminals."
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2005/tst050905.htm
Ron Paul '08
The original yellow article accuses the Real ID of failing to solve the terrorism problem, on the grounds that almost anyone, including a legitimate US citizen could be a terrorist. True, if interesting. Fact is, most terrorist who threaten us are not.
It also echoes claims that it could make the ID theft problem more difficult to solve if corrupt officials issue IDs with the photos and prints of criminals. Of course, no scheme that involves humans is proof against corruption, but it sure beats our current system in which dozens of copies of a person's SS number with different state DL's are often circulating, since each Real ID must be registered with the federal computers.
As for the cost and difficulty to the states, boo-hoo: Get over it. We need this badly.
And if you hate G. W., feel free to do so: I'm no fan of his myself. But that doesn't mean that everything that his administration proposes bears the mark of the devil!
Posted by maccmcf
Please elaborate on why we need this badly.
1984 Orwell. It's already HERE.
Posted by fascistusa at 08:58 PM : Feb 04, 2007
Our rights are being sacrificed now with identity theft, credit score discrimination, marketing scams, refi ripoffs, and insurance fraud. We have no rights left and you know what, it's the federal govt. that needs to save us from corporate exploitation.
are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who
regard the preservation of freedom as the basic
purpose of their daily life and who are willing to
consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom."
- President John F. Kennedy
http://www.a-human-right.com/effective.html
You're asking the wolf to protect you from the shark and unless you can fly the wolf will get you first...
The way to have good and safe government, is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent to. Let the national government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the State governments with the civil rights, laws, police, and administration of what concerns the State generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each ward direct the interests within itself. It is by dividing and subdividing these republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations, until it ends in the administration of every man%u2019s farm by himself; by placing under every one what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best. What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body."
--Thomas Jefferson
I won't uh, do you no harm
I just want to know about your different lives
On this here people farm
I heard some of you got your families
Living in cages tall and cold
And some just stay there and dust away
Past the age of old.
Is this true ?
Please let me talk to you.
~Jimi Hendrix
I've heard the same junk about the speed limit (first step to taking away our cars), social security, national healthcare (both were supposedly schemes to number us and violate privacy), heck, just about any governmental anything, we hear the same chorus. I'll be afraid when someone gives a real reason.
Posted by SusanHelit at 01:36 AM : Feb 05, 2007
Because this time it's being done by Bush and Cheney who have already said that the president doesn't have to obey the law. Bush has already "authorized" spying on Americans without a warrant, which is a crime he doesn't have the power to do, but proudly says he did it and would do it again. Just because we've given the government various powers over us doesn't mean we should hand them complete power as if they're farmer and we're just the cattle to be slaughtered. Esp these particular farmers.
~ Thomas Jefferson
"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is now controlled by it's system of credit. We are no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."
~ Woodrow Wilson
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
~ Henry Ford
"Military men are just dumb stupid animals, to be used as pawns in Foreign Policy."
~ Henry Kissinger
"If the American people knew what we had done, they would chase us down the street with pitchforks..."
~ George H.W. Bush
"The Constitution is just a ******* piece of paper."
~ George W. Bush Nov 2005
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4312730277175242198&q=freedom+to fascism&hl=en
What does it take before you realize that the Federal Government has Mutated into the very Beast that our Founding Fathers tried to protect us from? They just keep whittling away at our Rights, and the Constitution, much like the frog in the slowly heating pot. Wake-Up.
Ron Paul '08
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