Posted on 01/22/2008 12:28:56 PM PST by BGHater
Welcome to Amerika. With its recent issuance of rules for implementing the “Real ID” law - the requirement that states issue driver’s licenses according to federal dictates and link the information to a nationwide database - the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken another page from the Soviets’ playbook. Stalin required Russian citizens to carry an internal passport ostensibly because “counterrevolutionaries” posed a threat. Amerikans will be required to show their papers to prove they aren’t terrorists or illegal immigrants.
Because an internal passport is the hallmark of totalitarianism, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff is trying to play Americans for fools. He insists that Real ID, which must meet federal standards and be used for federal purposes, is not a federal identity card because the states will be the issuing agents. That‘s like your employer trying to convince you he has no control over your salary because the checks come through the payroll department.
Seventeen states have passed legislation or resolutions opposing Real ID, and 19 other states have such actions pending because they recognize what Congress did not: If this law is actually implemented, it will mean the end of privacy and freedom.
That is inevitable because the amount of information required to be imbedded on the card will increase, as will the places where its presentation is required. Congress originally suggested that the card would be necessary to enter federal buildings, board commercial aircraft, open a bank account, or access nuclear power plants - but allowed expansions “for any other purposes that the [DHS[ Secretary shall determine.” Secretary Michael Chertoff already has added entry to national parks to the list.
And don’t forget that Congress foolishly gave the Secret Service authority to control national events such as Super Bowls and presidential inaugurations. Merely to watch a football game, Amerikans will have to show their papers.
Privacy will be non-existent because the DHS dictates that identity cards must have bar codes readable by common technology. So not only will tens of thousands of government employees have access to your Social Security number, date of birth, residential address, etc., but every private facility that requires you to present ID will capture that information as well. Identify theft will be child’s play.
Perhaps the most alarming aspect of Real ID is that it transfers to the government ultimate control over citizens’ movements. The ID card of a citizen not in good standing could have a hold put on it, just like a credit card can. If your ID card is declined, you will be unable to travel, access your money, get a job, enter buildings, or go about the basic routines of life until you have restored favor with your government.
Think that’s hyperbole? Driver’s licenses already are used for such purposes. In Texas, a driver's license can be suspended for failure to provide requested medical information to the government. In Florida, a license can be revoked for "an immoral act in which a motor vehicle was used." Wisconsin residents can lose their driver's licenses for failure to pay library fines, shovel the snow off their sidewalk, or trim a tree overhanging a neighbor's property. Montana residents are not allowed to drive if they default on college loans. Many states punish those who fail to pay child support, taxes, court judgments, or parking fines by revoking their driver's licenses.
Effectively "grounding" adults is cheaper than sending them to jail, and a national ID card linked to a central database would allow the government to be all that more efficient. Want to board a plane in North Carolina? Not until you pay those library fines in Wisconsin.
The real travesty is that it is all for nothing because it won’t make anyone safer. Establishing someone’s identity does not reveal their intent. In a pathetically vapid defense of Real ID, Chertoff asks, “Should banks cash checks from people who cannot prove who they are? Should parents hire baby-sitters they know nothing about? Should airlines let passengers on board without validating their identity?”
Well, knowing that the babysitter is, in fact, Suzy Smith, says nothing about her skill with children. A bank needs to know whether a check is good, not the bearer’s immigration status. Knowing a traveler’s Social Security number doesn’t tell an airport screener whether the individual is carrying a bomb.
National identity cards don’t make anyone safer; they only make citizens less free. Real ID is a real bad law that Congress ought to repeal. Real soon.
Examiner Columnist Melanie Scarborough lives in Alexandria.
That is a pretty big "provision." That is the whole point.
Can I take my own money across the border? Sort of, when I was a kid, one could sell his own house and take all the money to Mexico, and retire.
A few years back, when we all became suspected drug runners, congress decided I could only take $10,000 out of the country without jumping through major hoops.
Last I heard it's down to $5,000.
Now, if I sell my house in California, and take that cash with me on a drive to set up my new life in, say, Georgia, and any podunk cop pulls me over for "Driving with out-of-state plates" his little Podunk PD can confiscate all that money and the car because simply having that much cash is prima facie evidence that it's drug money.
Of course, I can fight them in court, and with luck in 5 or 10 years I'll get my car and money back, less legal costs, and without interest.
Yeah, I'm a whole lot freer than my parents were.
That’s why you should have it converted to a bank certified check in your name.
ping
I agree about the cash-movement complaint you have — not that it has anything to do with what we’re talking about.
>> Yeah, I’m a whole lot freer than my parents were.
I didn’t say you were freer. I said the particular change of vernacular that you anecdotally cited (”Hey — nobody says, ‘its a free country’ when I ask if I can sit down!”) wasn’t useful evidence that you’re less free.
H
I have thought a lot about this because there is some valid reason for concern about abuse of a national id card. Still, I cannot get too worked up about the Real ID thing. Real ID seems like a pretty rational balance between the threat of terrorism and the threat of government control of individuals.
LOL, almost true!
Each state has a DB and any LEO can access those DB's through a centralize computer system.
Really no difference!
It's still a $10,000 and there are no major hoops, just 1 simple form.
Oh? Does that magically make it not drug money?
There are crooks working WITHIN state driver’s license bureaus who knowingly issue real IDs to people presenting false names, sometimes giving them multiple false identities.
Since the corrupt states refuse to act and permit their IDs to be compromised, the State is using the power of big government to put us all under the State’s thumb.
In truth, we should either be able to fly without an ID at all or be required to show a passport. But everyone is fearful of being asked for a passport for domestic travel. This is no different. You are fooling youself if you think driver’s licenses are secure or that asking for a RealID isn’t akin to asking for passports.
Meanwhile there are 20+million people illegally here who are exempt. The citizen sheeple are the only ones this applies to.
And the corruption in government office continues.
I don’t read articles by people who think they are making a cogent point by spelling the name of our nation with a ‘k’.
I have found that they are neither as original nor thoughtful as they would like to think they are, and can be ignored without issue.
So we’re not concerned about present uses of DNA sampling for identification, but about possible future abuses.
That’s easily handled. Pass a law prohibiting use of DNA from a suspect for any purpose other than identification.
When used for ID there is no essential difference from fingerprinting.
Any LEO IN THAT STATE--but not any LEO from ANY state.
"Really no difference!"
Sorry, but I don't believe that. Why do we suddenly need "REAL ID", when we didn't during WWII, or the "Cold War". The need to identify "bad guys" was as acute then as it is today, yet no such ideas were promulgated.
>> Any LEO IN THAT STATE—but not any LEO from ANY state.
That doesn’t answer the question as to why I should be concerned about the federal government accessing information that the state government already has access to — in this case, government is government. They’re integrating databases for more comprehensive searches ... I see no problem with that.
>> Why do we suddenly need “REAL ID”, when we didn’t during WWII, or the “Cold War”. The need to identify “bad guys” was as acute then as it is today, yet no such ideas were promulgated.
With respect — no it wasn’t. Communists and Nazis weren’t threatening terrorist acts against civilians on American soil. There was certainly infiltration of operatives and sympathizers — but this is entirely different. Additionally, illegal immigration is a wholly different problem requiring a wholly different solution.
H
Most recently within the past month or so.
It seems like nobody thinks it's a free country anymore.
ID requirements are neither unreasonable nor particularly intrusive.
They aren’t NOW but they certainly will be with what is being proposed.
I have no problem showing a picture id but I have a huge problem with having a card scanned and linked to some data base somewhere. Especially if its someone like a bank who has no need for access to such information.
How about grocery stores who want to scan your id...no problem with that? And they will because they can.
If not, welcome to the new age. I have a real problem with it.
No, any LEO in any state, as long as he has need to know, which covers 99% of any LEO in any state!
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