Free Republic

Not long ago, Americans feared and ridiculed the police states cursing too many parts of the world. We worried that they might one day conquer us despite their poverty and general misery even as we mocked their totalitarian tactics — especially their “Papers, please” mentality.  Indeed, being forced to prove one’s identity to a bureaucrat on demand, having to carry and produce documents with personal information for his approval — or condemnation — seemed especially horrifying. One of our classic films, Casablanca, revolved around the deadly hassles of obtaining or forging such papers under the Nazis; episodes of Mission Impossible...

Not long ago, Americans feared and ridiculed the police states cursing too many parts of the world. We worried that they might one day conquer us despite their poverty and general misery even as we mocked their totalitarian tactics — especially their “Papers, please” mentality. Indeed, being forced to prove one’s identity to a bureaucrat on demand, having to carry and produce documents with personal information for his approval — or condemnation — seemed especially horrifying. One of our classic films, Casablanca, revolved around the deadly hassles of obtaining or forging such papers under the Nazis; episodes of Mission Impossible...

REAL ID or Pass by: Anthony Kang, July 24, 2009 In 2005, REAL ID was enacted in direct response of, and to comply with the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. 18 of the 19 hijackers who took part in the September 11th attacks obtained numerous driver’s licenses and state identifications (many of them duplicates), thereby convincing the Commission of a long overdue, stricter and stringent identification standards. “Americans understand today that the 9/11 hijackers obtained 30 drivers licenses and ID’s, and used 364 aliases,” said former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff upon releasing a finalized 2008 REAL ID report. “For...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wants Congress to roll back the stringent and “needlessly expensive” post 9/11 driver license requirements designed to keep licenses and state issued identification out of the hands of terrorists. More than two dozen states already have rebelled against implementing the Real ID Act of 2005, either by rejecting participation or passing resolutions opposing the mandate to tighten security and identity verification by 2017. “States agree that Real ID is too rigid and needlessly expensive in mandating how states meet security goals,” Napolitano said in testimony prepared for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental...

 THE REAL ID ACT 2005 AND THE WOLF DRESSED IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING A.K.A.: THE PASS ACT - S.1261 - - - News Video follows article - - - I have spent the last few days burning up the phone lines discussing the newly proposed “PASS Act”. I have had conversations with organizations around the country about the PASS Act. I have also spoke with staff committee people and others in Washington D.C. about the PASS Act. Both the ACLU and the ACLJ are opposing the Real ID Act and the PASS Act. (The ACLU and the ACLJ are the...

The 9/11 Commission made the case that state driver's licenses need to become a more secure cre­dential. Congress acted--twice, passing laws to establish national standards. Now this common-sense initiative is under attack and may never be implemented. Congress and the Administration must act decisively to make the REAL ID program a reality. They need a strategy that encourages states with the capac­ity to implement REAL ID to do so quickly, demonstrating its viabil­ity and value. Once REAL ID is underway, momentum will build for other states to join; their citi­zens will not want to be left out of a...

Missouri lawmakers on Wednesday voted to direct the State Department of Revenue to not comply with federal driver’s license requirements. By a vote of 32-0 the State Senate has approved HB 361 - legislation that would have Missouri join a dozen other states in rejecting the federal government REAL ID Act of 2005 requiring states to conform to a federal standard for driver’s licenses or identification cards. Having previously been approved by the House, the bill now goes to Governor Jay Nixon. The federal Real ID Act, passed in 2005, requires states to collect and verify certain information about applicants...

Wouldn't allow DHS to single-handedly override federal laws A bill introduced in Congress would overturn the ability of the Department of Homeland Security to override as many as 35 federal laws to allow the agency to build fences and physical barriers along the United States-Mexico border. A similar bill was introduced in 2007 by U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., who along with nine co-sponsors introduced the latest proposed legislation. The purpose of the Border Security and Responsibility Act of 2009 is to provide “the highest protection possible from the effects of unauthorized immigration, human and drug smuggling, and border enforcement...

Privacy advocates are issuing warnings about a new radio chip plan that ultimately could provide electronic identification for every adult in the U.S. and allow agents to compile attendance lists at anti-government rallies simply by walking through the assembly. The proposal, which has earned the support of Janet Napolitano, the newly chosen chief of the Department of Homeland Security , would embed radio chips in driver's licenses, or "enhanced driver's licenses." "Enhanced driver's licenses give confidence that the person holding the card is the person who is supposed to be holding the card, and it's less elaborate than REAL ID,"...

Local activists were scheduled to hold a press conference Wednesday in front of the State Capitol to kick off a 100-day campaign against local, state and federal laws that target immigrant communities."We're going to be working very hard during these 100 days to keep pushing things on every single level, the federal, state and local, to change the things we need to change," said Alex Gillis, co-founder of the Immigrant Workers Union. The press conference will be at the State Street entrance of the Capitol building at 5 p.m. The local 100-days campaign will run in conjunction with other efforts...

If you haven’t gotten it by now, here’s some grim news: Obama and his appointees are trying to destroy everything they don’t like about our America and that’s almost everything. On May 11, 2005, George Bush signed the REAL ID Act of 2005. It was supposed to control the flow of illegal aliens and terrorists pouring over our borders. Its main feature was tamper proof state driver’s licenses which could only be obtained by American citizens and legal aliens. Obama is trying to kill REAL ID. His new Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is absolutely opposed to REAL ID. Only...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The leader of a movement against national driver’s licenses promoted legislation Tuesday that would prompt a showdown between the states and the federal government. While some lawmakers alluded to fears of the Federal Real ID Act of 2005 as conspiracy theories, state Rep. Jim Guest, R-King City, warned that requirements that could come down from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would put Missourians’ identities at risk, pointing to easily scannable biometric technology. “We do not need Big Brother watching us and knowing where we are,” Mr. Guest said. *SNIP* Also Tuesday, Mr. Guest proposed a...

The folks at Mythbusters can say "I told you so" now that Japanese authorities have found a 51-year old woman slipping in and out of the country by using a piece of tape to defeat fingerprint scanners. The seemingly simple exploit raises questions about expensive border security systems -- and about the usefulness of the biometric data the federal government wants to incorporate into drivers licenses with its controversial Real ID scheme. The unnamed South Korean bar hostess, whose real fingerprints were on file as that of an illegal alien, bypassed her listing in the database with tape supplied by...

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....