CNN:
Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act.
The act, signed in 2005 as part of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill, aims to weave driver’s licenses and state ID cards into a sort of [“sort of”???] national identification system by May 2008. The law sets baseline criteria for how driver’s licenses will be issued and what information they must contain.
The Real ID Act repealed a provision in the 9/11 Commission Implementation Act calling for state and federal officials to examine security standards for driver’s licenses.
It called instead for states to begin issuing new federal licenses, lasting no longer than eight years, by May 11, 2008, unless they are granted an extension.
It also requires all 245 million license and state ID holders to visit their local departments of motor vehicles and apply for a Real ID by 2013. Applicants must bring a photo ID, birth certificate, proof of Social Security number and proof of residence, and states must maintain and protect massive databases housing the information.
Many states have revolted. The governors of Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Washington have signed bills refusing to comply with the act. Six others have passed bills and/or resolutions expressing opposition, and 15 have similar legislation pending.
Though the NCSL says most states’ opposition stems from the lack of funding, some states cited other reasons for resisting the initiative.
New Hampshire passed a House bill opposing the program and calling Real ID “contrary and repugnant” to the state and federal constitutions. A Colorado House resolution dismissed Real ID by expressing support for the war on terror but “not at the expense of essential civil rights and liberties of citizens of this country.”
EFF says on its Web site that the information in the databases will lay the groundwork for “a wide range of surveillance activities” by government and businesses that “will be able to easily read your private information” because of the bar code required on each card.
The databases will provide a one-stop shop for identity thieves, adds the ACLU on its Web site, and the U.S. “surveillance society” and private sector will have access to the system “for the routine tracking, monitoring and regulation of individuals’ movements and activities.”
One of the states that doesn’t see a real good reason to pay $200 million to buy a hackable system that will destroy liberty is Maine.
Maine’s Tom Allen opposes RealID. Kudos to him.
Susan Collins is for it.
I hope Allen beats her like a gong on this.
NOTE (Via Sideshow (Pandagon)).
Front page
Ron Paul or Fascism: That may actually be the choice
http://ronpaul2008.com/
http://dailypaul.com/
A collage of clips and quotes, titled “Stop Dreaming” (8 min 46 sec):
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%2…
The full 65 minute interview/Q&A session with Dr. Paul at Google headquarters from a few weeks ago. Note that, as always, Paul answers extemporaneous questions in full, intelligently, without notes, and without evading the issues:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCM_wQy4Y…
Youtube’s current list of Ron Paul video:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_qu…
Google Video’s list:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%2…
Wrong connective, a.c.
You meant to use “and”, right?
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
Unconstitutional Real ID
I think Real ID is unconstitutional because:
It infringes on the 10th amendment’s right of the states to exclusive use of powers not delegated to the federal government (i.e. which includes driver licensing). Although the law purports to make Real ID compliance optional for the states by providing the alternative of no federal acceptance if the state doesn’t comply, more close reading reveals that state compliance is considered mandatory by this federal law and “non-acceptance for federal official purposes” is imposed as a penalty on the state’s residents if the state does not comply. Under this scenario, I think the law exceeds the federal government’s constitutional authority.
It is reassuring that there are some states getting ready to stand up to it, though it is not clear if or when one of them will take the issue to the Supreme Court. Would be better if Congress just undid the law before that has to happen.
Ron Paul has a lot of "friends"
and some of them are “wacko”:
Hmmm. I wonder if generally well educated Dr. Paul would agree with JBS founder Robert Welch that Dwight David Eisenhower was a life-long commie stooge?
“To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.”:
the bass are in the lilies.
*
Every damn election cycle
one of these complete whacko flakes wanders in from some god-forsaken hinterland (sorry Sarah, Ruth) and gets airtime to be charmingly sociopathic. This is Rue Paul, whoopsie, Ron Paul’s fifteen minute turn at the StarMobile Merry-Go-Round.
Used to go to Bircher meetings back in the 60’s because you honestly can’t buy entertainment value like that at any price and they were so deliriously happy to have “young people” showing up that they’d fawn over us like we were rock stars. Hopelessly exquisitely funny theater experience when you’re young and broke and stoned.
While sorting through the home library recently came across my memento copy of Phyllis Schlafly’s A Choice, Not An Echo received for good attendance at the East Bay John Birch Society meetings in 1965. (I earned it, I’m keeping it.) There were two FBI guys who also sat through all those meetings and more while sober and to their credit they bitched about the idiocy to each other sotto voce the whole time. Not every government operative is a dick.
Ah, the memories. Wait a minute, where the hell did I put my car keys?
'S OK, Bringiton, Ron Paul's an Import too
— from Pittsburgh, who evidently just decided to hang out his shingle when he finished being a flight surgeon.
— and W, as we all know, is a Connecticut/Maine product, with an Ivy League edumacation to boot.
—- but maybe the Toyota truck factory in San Antonio will turn out to be a good thing for Texas.
Third time’s supposed to be a charm, y’know.
Rue Paul
Hey, what’s that? Some street in Paris?
No, but seriously, I wish these Republicans would straighten themselves out.
First Guiliana.
Now this.
It’s enough to make you despair of what’s happening to the country, isn’t it?
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan