Free Republic

Local toll road activist Terri Hall, the Spring Branch home schooling mom who's campaign against toll roads made her WOAI's San Antonian of the Year for 2007,. is taking her populist campaign nationwide. Hall is among the speakers for Saturday's 'Freedom March,' in Washington DC, organized by supporters of former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, and designed to keep alive his message of smaller government and vigilance against encroaching government power. "They wanted someone to speak about the Trans Texas Corridor, and what's happening here, and the eminent domain abuses, and how all these toll roads are tied to corporate...

Madison, WI - If you're irked by long waits at the Division of Motor Vehicles, brace yourself. Things could get worse.The state Department of Transportation is asking legislators to approve a funding package today that includes $3.7 million to remodel DMV service centers — much of it to go toward expanding the waiting areas of four centers. Also included in the package is $1.4 million to install or upgrade take-a-number systems at 33 centers because drivers will soon have to make two trips from the waiting area to the service counter. In all, the department is asking lawmakers to release...

Nevada Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign today announced the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded more than $2.8 million to Nevada under the 2008 REAL ID Demonstration Grant Program.  Nevada is one of four states receiving funds for partnering with the lead hub state, Missouri, for pilot implementation and verification testing.This program is designed to standardize drivers’ licenses and protect against fraud and identity theft.  These funds will be used to help the Department of Motor Vehicles enhance the integrity of driver’s licenses and ID cards, their issuance and security. “I am pleased...

This Real ID stuff is really ominous. Are you sure that you can prove that you are who you are? Do you have all of your documents in order? If not, well, who knows? You may not be able to board a plane, you may not be able to get a driver's license or passport. You may not be able to leave the country. If you discover that Real ID is a bad idea, you may not be able to undo it, because you may not be able to vote! I have a friend who grew up in a communist...

The argument was so obvious it hardly needed repeating: We would all be safer if we had a better ID card. A good, hard-to-forge national ID is a no-brainer (or so the argument goes), and it's ridiculous that a modern country such as the United States doesn't have one. One result of this line of thinking is the planned Real ID Act, which forces all states to conform to common and more stringent rules for issuing driver's licenses. But security is always a tradeoff; it must be balanced with the cost. We all do this intuitively. Few of us walk...

WASHINGTON - Homeland security officials on Friday hinted at a possible face-saving deal to end their standoff with a handful of states over new driver's license rules — a dispute that, left unresolved, could cause big air travel headaches. For weeks, the Homeland Security Department has been headed toward a showdown with some states over a law called Real ID, which would require new security measures for state-issued driver's licenses. Yet a late Good Friday letter from a top DHS official suggested Washington may be backing away from a messy fight. South Carolina, Maine and Montana are the only states...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MrVup9Dl4U For over twenty years, "Patriot Pastor" Garrett Lear has strode the halls of New Hampshire's legislature...serving as a voice for his faith and his Revolutionary War ancestors. Today he talks with us about Real ID, the liberty deficit among Christians and his colorful outfit. Pastor Lear's church is in Wakefield, New Hampshire. What do *you* think? Is Real ID the Mark of the Beast? A precursor to it? A bad thing? A good thing?

Editor's note: A May deadline looms as just one flash point in a political showdown between Homeland Security and states that oppose Real ID demands. This is the third in a four-part series examining the confrontation. No television, no wedding or family photographs, and definitely no image of herself on her driver's license: That was the devout Christian life that Nebraska resident Frances Quaring was trying to lead. Which is why, after the state of Nebraska rejected her request for a license-without-a-photograph in the mid-1980s, Quaring sued the state in a landmark case that ended up at the U.S. Supreme...

Q: What about buying firearms? That's an open question. Homeland Security last month refused to rule out requiring Real ID for firearm purchases in the future. When asked about requiring Real ID to buy a firearm, Homeland Security replied: "DHS will continue to consider additional ways in which a Real ID license can or should be used and will implement any changes to the definition of 'official purpose' or determinations regarding additional uses for Real ID consistent with applicable laws and regulatory requirements. DHS does not agree that it must seek the approval of Congress as a prerequisite to changing...

What sort of trouble does this technology enable? Technology can be a Good Thing but that doesn't mean we should fall over the bar-stool implementing new technology -- "just because it's there" We need to ask the question: What sort of trouble does this new technology enable?" before we proceed.

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley told lawmakers yesterday he hopes a Democrat will win the presidential election this fall, which will save him from implementing a federal law that allows only U.S. citizens to receive driver's licenses. "I was very pleased," said Sen. Jennie M. Forehand, Montgomery Democrat, who attended the Women's Legislative Caucus breakfast where Mr. O'Malley made the statement. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, said he is primarily concerned about the cost of the program, known as the Real ID Act, after saying last month he would implement the law by Jan. 1, 2010. Supporters of the federal program...

Republican Debate the other night - YouTube Rudy Guiliani: We should develop a tamper proof ID card" "and if you got the tamper proof ID card, then you'd be allowed to work, pay taxes, get online, become a citizen, follow the rules...."

Just heard McCain say he will secure the border and institute a temporary worker program using biometrics Don't these politicians realize that once you institute biometrics for one group eventually everyone gets tagged? What is his position on ReadID?

Real ID and Reality by: Amanda Busse, January 23, 2008 The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has conceded in its battle with state officials to implement secure state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards as part of the REAL ID Act of 2005. DHS recently announced plans for a 73 percent reduction in the cost of putting the identification system in place, and an $80-million grant to assist in the procedure. The reduction brings costs down from an original estimate of $14.6 billion to $3.9 billion. The REAL ID laws were a top a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission after...

American politicians are elected periodically to make sure that America remains a free and independent nation. But, based on recent national television reports and recent magazine articles, apparently some of America’s elected officials are attempting to destroy the greatest nation in the world from inside its own borders. If they succeed, the citizens of the United States will lose some of their rights, freedoms, and, of course, their national sovereignty. What is the rationale for doing away with the national sovereignty of the United States? Basically, it is to form a North American Union similar to the European Union. According...

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...

It appears Maryland will sit out the state rebellion against the federal Real ID program. Gov. Martin O'Malley's announcement last week that the Motor Vehicle Administration will comply with the costly and controversial program is unfortunate but not entirely unexpected. As recently as last month, MVA officials had been floating the idea of a two-tiered approach to driver's licenses that would create one that met federal security standards and one that didn't require so-called proof of legal presence. But no doubt the negative reaction given New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's similar proposal (from which he eventually backed down) had something...

"We have a saying in this business: 'Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.'" Thus spake security consultant Ed Giorgio in a widely-quoted New Yorker article on the US intelligence community's plans to vacuum up and sift through everything that flies across the wires. But Giorgio is wrong—catastrophically wrong. The story of Fidencio Estrada, a drug runner who bribed Florida Customs agent Rafael Pacheco to (among other things) access multiple federal law enforcement databases on his behalf, suggests that when it comes to the government collecting data on innocent civilians for law enforcement purposes, privacy and security are essentially the...

Despite the announced delayed implementation, Maine politicians are speaking out against the REAL ID Act of 2005. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued regulations for the act last week, including giving states until 2017 to comply. Under the original language, states would have had to be in compliance by May. The Department also announced that starting in 2017, old driver’s licenses won’t get people into federal buildings or onto airplanes – a slap in the face to Maine and a handful of other states that have passed resolutions barring their participation in a national identification program. Driver’s licenses would...

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration hit the brakes Friday on a controversial law requiring Americans to carry tamper-proof driver's licenses, delaying its final implementation by five years, until 2017. A number of states have balked at the law, objecting to it largely over cost and privacy concerns. But under the administration's new edict, states that continue to fight compliance with the law face a penalty: Their residents will be forbidden from using driver's licenses to board airplanes or enter federal buildings as of May 11 of this year.

Millions of air travelers may find going through airport security much more complicated this spring, as the Bush administration heads toward a showdown with state governments over post-Sept. 11 rules for new driver's licenses. By May, the dispute could leave millions of people unable to use their licenses to board planes, but privacy advocates called that a hollow threat by federal officials. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was unveiling final details of the REAL ID Act's rules on Friday, said that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek...

The Homeland Security Department today released the 284-page final rule for implementing the Real ID Act that would standardize the handling of personal information for driver’s licenses. The release of the long-awaited final implementation regulations — the law was passed in 2005 — is expected to spur contracting activity on the program after months of uncertainty as federal officials were crafting the rule. (snip) The final rule also requires a 2-Dimensional Bar Code Machine Readable Zone, which DHS said is already used by 46 jurisdictions. Under the Real ID Act of 2005, states must meet new rules for collecting, verifying,...

WASHINGTON - Residents of at least 17 states are suddenly stuck in the middle of a brewing fight between the Bush administration and state governments over post-Sept. 11 security rules for driver's licenses — a dispute that in just a few months could leave millions of people unable to use their licenses to board planes or enter federal buildings. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek a waiver indicating they want more time to comply with the REAL ID Act's new...

WASHINGTON — Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver's licenses in the next six years under ambitious post-9/11 security rules to be unveiled Friday by federal officials. The Homeland Security Department has spent years crafting the final regulations for the REAL ID Act, a law designed to make it harder for terrorists, illegal immigrants and con artists to get government-issued identification. The effort once envisioned to take effect in 2008 has been pushed back in the hopes of winning over skeptical state officials.

Last month, New York State Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced that the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) would reverse a post-9/11 policy by the Pataki administration to deny a driver’s license to anyone who could not prove legal status – immediately prompting at least a dozen county clerks who operate DMV offices as agents of the state to announce they would flout the new rules.To combat identity fraud, all but eight states – HI, ME, MD, MI, NM, OR, UT and WA – require drivers to prove legal status to obtain driver’s licenses.Spitzer did an about-face only after the state’s...

One of the more clever country song titles I ever heard was If the Phone Don’t Ring, You’ll Know It’s Me.That’s something like the predicament of searchers after the menace of voter fraud, who can’t seem to find much of it. The New York Times today reports that “scant evidence� exists of a significant problem.Voter fraud is the idea that individuals might vote multiple times, in multiple jurisdictions, or despite not being qualified. This is distinct from election fraud, which is corruption of broader voting or vote-counting processes. While voter fraud (and/or voter error) certainly happens, it is apparently on...

September 22, 2007 -- ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer announced yesterday that illegal immigrants will get driver's licenses - but at a cost to legal citizens because they'll now be useless as airport ID. Spitzer said the state would no longer require a Social Security number or proof that a person is not eligible for such a number in order to qualify for a driver's license. That change clashes with the 2005 REAL ID law passed by Congress that states require, among other things, a Social Security number in order to get a license. States have until December 2009 to be...

In an Executive Order titled Establishing the President's Board on Safeguarding American's Civil Liberties released on August 27, 2004, the following statement regarding government obligation to ensure privacy to Americans is made: "The United States Government has a solemn obligation, and shall continue fully, to protect the legal rights of all Americans, including freedoms, civil liberties, and information privacy guaranteed by Federal law, in the effective performance of national security and homeland security functions." The above statement was used by Jim Harper, Director of Information Studies with the Libertarian Cato Institute, at a hearing presented before the Senate Committee on...

The U.S. Senate definitively rejected President George Bush's immigration bill on Thursday, just hours after senators expressed deep misgivings with portions that would have expanded the use of a national ID card. Because the procedural vote was 46 to 53, with 60 votes needed to advance the immigration legislation, the proposal is likely to remain dead for the rest of the year. Privacy advocates were quick to claim that a vote against Real ID cards the previous evening doomed the bill. Wednesday's vote showed that senators were willing to delete the portion of the labyrinthine immigration bill that would require...

There is more proof of fraud within the proposed ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007.’ Native born and naturalized employees will be required to show — as proof of legal status — their employers either a “United States passport or a driver’s license or identity card issued by a State, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or an outlying possession of the United States that satisfies the requirements of the ‘Real ID Act of 2005.’” (see Title III). Yet no state or territory requires a person to show proof of citizenship to obtain a driver’s license or identification card....

Four states have passed laws that reject federal rules regarding a national identification system. This casts serious doubt on the future of the 2005 Real ID Act that goes into effect in December 2009. New Hampshire and Oklahoma joined Montana and Washington state in the passage of statutes that refute guidelines set forth in the Act. However, these actions could eventually lead to drivers licenses issued in these states to not be accepted as official identification when boarding airplanes or accessing federal buildings. In addition to these four states, members of the Idaho legislature intentionally left out money in...

  Exclusive:  The Real Deal On Real I Dby Joan Harrold MessnerDate: June 1, 2007   The ACLU is waging a legal war against Real ID legislation designed to create a safety barrier protecting all law-abiding Americans. FSM Contributing Editor Joan Harrold Messner makes a compelling argument that most Americans agree with the Real ID. How about you?   The Real Deal On Real I D   By Joan Harrold Messner   Terrorists, counterfeiters, murderers, identity thieves, underage drinkers, deadbeat dads, illegal voters, drunk drivers and serial criminal drivers ALL can use multiple driving licenses to escape detection.  A secure...

Senator Ted Kennedy and the anti-gun zealots who wrote the bill just couldn't resist the temptation to get their hands on our guns. They have included language that GOA has been able to defeat in the past. When Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced these anti-gun provisions in 1998, the GOA grassroots were able to convince seven senator cosponsors to pull their names from Hatch's bill. The current language in the amnesty bill is only slightly different from Hatch's original language almost 10 years ago, but it would essentially do the same thing -- threaten every gun store in America. In...

Liberty vs. Totalitarianism, Clinton-Style Monitoring by I.D. and Database Two of the principal mechanisms by which the rulers of 20th century police states maintained their control over their people were the file and the internal passport. These governments kept a cumulative file (called the dangan in Communist China) on every individual's performance and attitudes from school years through adult employment. Citizens carried an internal passport or "papers" that had to be presented to the authorities for permission to travel within the country, to take up residence in another city, or to apply for a new job. These two methods...

I've written about the U.S. national ID card -- REAL ID -- extensively... The Department of Homeland Security has published draft rules regarding REAL ID, and are requesting comments. Comments are due today, by 5:00 PM Eastern Time. Please, please, please, go to this Privacy Coalition site and submit your comments. The DHS has been making a big deal about the fact that so few people are commenting, and we need to prove them wrong. This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on REAL ID (info -- and eventually a video -- here[...]); I was one of the witnesses...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is going to have a Town Hall Meeting in California on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007. This meeting is scheduled for 10AM to 2PM PDT, which is 12PM to 4PM CDT. It will broadcast over TV, radio and the Internet. State Rep. Jim Guest of Missouri , is the head of a 32 state coalition to stop REAL ID. DHS’s purpose of this meeting is to stop the growing opposition to the REAL ID ACT of 2005. We believe that DHS will GLUT the audience, phone lines and emails with “favorable questions” about REAL ID....

An especially expensive and ill-conceived federal initiative has managed to unite red and blue states; lawmakers as ideologically far apart as Sens. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and John Sununu, R-N.H.; and organizations ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Cato Institute. At issue is the 2005 Real ID Act, which requires every state to replace all driver's licenses by 2013 with ones including an individual's name, address, date of birth, gender, signature, driver's license number, a digital photograph and features to prevent counterfeiting. Under the act, those licenses only could be issued after the state had verified a form...

HELENA - Gov. Brian Schweitzer said "no, nope, no way, hell no" Tuesday to national driver's licenses, signing into law a bill supporters say is one of the strongest rejections to the federal plan. The move means the state won't comply with the Real ID Act, a federal law that sets a national standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases. Though several states have either passed or are considering resolutions or bills against the act, Montana is the first state to outright deny its implementation, according to the American Civil Liberties Union....

More state governments defy congress and reject Real ID By Ryan Paul | Published: April 09, 2007 - 03:43PM CT The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted last week to block implementation of the federal government's controversial Real ID act. Since New Hampshire Governor John Lynch does not intend to veto the Real ID rejection bill, it will pass if approved by the state senate. Characterized by New Hampshire Representative Sherman Packard as "the worst piece of blackmail to come out of the federal government," the Real ID Act creates a set of uniform standards for state-issued ID cards, and...

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff visited Seattle on Friday to help Gov. Christine Gregoire kick off a pilot program that will allow Washington state residents to use a security-enhanced driver's license, rather than a passport, to travel to and from Canada. Chertoff predicted the new licenses will help meet the department's dual goals of enhancing security and reducing wait-times at the border. In a wide-ranging discussion with The Seattle Times editorial board after the event, Chertoff spoke repeatedly of his agency's efforts to balance competing demands. On issues ranging from port security to air travel to home-grown terrorism, Chertoff described...

(Will new requirement for driver's licenses create unsafe roads and second-class citizens?) Laws requiring motorists to prove they are in the country legally to get a driver's license will force immigrant workers further underground, make roads more dangerous and inconvenience all drivers, local workers' rights advocates say.A state law goes into effect April 1, requiring proof of legal presence in the United States before a driver's license or state ID card is issued. The new law will put Wisconsin in compliance with the federal REAL ID law, which requires states to adopt a legal presence requirement by May 2008. Civil...

JEFFERSON CITY — A dire, apocalyptic prophecy in the Bible's Book of Revelation is getting a new audience: state legislators. Several evangelical Christian groups say the federal Real ID Act, which will standardize state drivers licenses and link them to corresponding national ID numbers by 2009, represents the "mark of the beast," the devilish number 666 that is attached to the godless. The nearly 2,000-year-old passage is referenced along with the prophetic locusts, plagues, oceans of blood and rivers of fire found in the Bible. Soon after, according to scripture, the antichrist takes control of the world and Jesus Christ...

House Communications - News Home News Releases Speeches Legislative Monitor Photos Audio Clips Video Programs Staff 3/15 - Missouri House Votes to Reject Real ID Requirements - 3/15/2007 Jefferson City - The Missouri House this week passed a resolution objecting to the Federal Real ID Act of 2005. The legislation (HCR 20), sponsored by Rep. Jim Guest, R-King City, was approved by a vote of 146-4. The federal act was part of a homeland security bill signed by President Bush in 2005 and is scheduled to go into effect May 2008. If implemented as scheduled, it would require you to...

The federal government has released long-awaited draft regulations creating a national standard for driver's licenses, but left California and other states to deal with the emotional issue of illegal immigrants. The Real ID Act regulations -- which will require all 23 million California drivers to go in person to Department of Motor Vehicles offices -- do not prohibit states from issuing licenses to illegal immigrants. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who previously said the state would wait until the regulations were issued before grappling with the issue, now wants to wait until the federal government enacts an immigration overhaul. The release...

Banks and other businesses are to be sold access to personal information stored on the Government's ID cards database. Ministers want to raise hundreds of millions towards the £540million a year cost of running the controversial scheme. The Government is already facing a backlash over charging people £93 each for an ID card - which will contain 49 different pieces of personal data. Now ministers are planning to charge companies around 60p a time to check details held on the giant "big brother" database. They hope for up to 770million "verifications" each year. The data which banks, financial institutions and...

Excerpt - LITTLE ROCK --As state legislators line up against the U.S. government's attempt to standardize driver's licenses nationwide, some believe it is a beastly plot that will draw the world closer to the apocalypse. Their inspiration: a magazine dedicated to biblical prophecy. Their fear: national ID numbers given to residents are the mark of the beast, the 666 from the Book of Revelation. "The ramifications are horrendous," said Sen. Ruth Whitaker, whose resolution opposing the Real ID Act of 2005 has passed the Arkansas Senate. "If there is anything akin to Nazi Germany, it is this act." ~ snip...

Driver’s licenses across the country are going high-tech, with invisible features to stop identity thieves scheming to commit credit card fraud or just hoping to buy a beer before turning 21. Almost half of the states now use specialized technology to make driver’s licenses more secure, spelling an end to the days when the most personal information they carried was a driver’s name, age and weight. In November, Iowa became the latest state to adopt biometric facial-recognition technology to defend against identity theft. It joins Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas and West Virginia in using computer software to digitally map an applicant’s...

Something I came across on the radio quite by accident, I don't know if any of you have done any digging on this but definately a check on this. The REAL ID Act of 2005 is Division B of an act of the United States Congress entitled Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-13, 119 Stat. 231 (May 11, 2005)[1]. This legislation is intended to deter terrorism by: Establishing the national standards for state-issued driver's licenses and non-driver's identification cards;

WASHINGTON | A revolt against a national driver’s license, begun in Maine last month, is quickly spreading to other states.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, lawmakers in Georgia, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington state also balked at Real ID.“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...