Posted on 04/09/2007 5:30:27 PM PDT by George W. Bush
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 mandates the construction of a centralized national database to store information on American citizens.
Included in a 2005 military spending bill, the Real ID Act passed with virtually no discussion or debate in the US Congress. Heavily criticized by concerned citizens, civil liberties groups, and state government agencies, the Real ID act is opposed by over 600 organizations including the National Governors Association. Although the Real ID act was originally written as a means of improving identification security, critics argue that the act increases the risk of identity theft without providing any tangible security benefits. To make matters worse, congress vastly underestimated implementation costs and many state governments now fear that Real ID compliance is a financial impossibility. Despite this, state identification cards that don't comply with the act by the December 2009 deadline will not be accepted or considered valid at airports or federal buildings.
Idaho and Maine have already passed bills rejecting implementation of the Real ID act, and similar proposed bills are being evaluated in South Carolina and Arkansas as well as New Hampshire. ACLU state legislative department director Charlie Mitchell says that this is just the beginning of a "tidal wave of rebellion against Real ID." If enough state governments refuse to comply with the requirements of the Real ID act, it is likely that congress will have to reevaluate the entire plan. "Across the nation, local lawmakers from both parties are rejecting the federal government's demand to undermine their constituents privacy and civil liberties with a massive unfunded mandate," says Mitchell. "Congress must revisit the Real ID Act and fix this real mess."
Although the standards established by the Real ID act would make it harder for illegal immigrants to obtain fraudulent identification records, doing so would have little discernible impact on national security. When considering the potential security implications of the Real ID act, it is worth noting that the 9/11 hijackers were all legal residents with proper identification.
Meanwhile, critics worry that by facilitating the creation of a centralized database of citizen records and by requiring state identification cards to include a machine-readable mechanism, the Real ID act provides identity thieves with unprecedented access to private information.
Bump and thanks for the ping.
You don't need sophisticated ID cards that keep tabs on law-abiding Americans to fight terrorism, pal.
Perhaps you should re-read Ben Franklin's famous quote about security.
Yes, and if our beloved Constitution had not been so incredibly shredded the federal government would not dare to even think about this nonsense!
The federal government is supposed to protect us from foreign invaders and as far as I can see they have been doing a Pi$$ poor job of it. They can’t even protect our borders!
But they CAN turn every citizen of the United States into a suspect and turn them into suspected enemies. I can’t believe this is the country I grew up in, I’m so sad.
The sheer insanity of those who think a national ID will protect us from having some low level minion circumvent the process is insane.
Will there be an all seeing, all knowing ID god who will ensure the veracity of all national ID’s and applicant? Do you possibly think that who ever gets around the rules now will not be able to get around the process with a national ID?
The only thing that is sure is there will be 100% compliance on the part of the legal citizens, and continued ignoring of the process by illegals and terrorist wanna bes.
The only difference will be the government will have a national data base on the legal citizens. A government who can’t keep it’s current data bases from falling into the hands of criminals.
Prove to me that someone in the long line of those who WILL have access to the data base will NEVER leave a laptop on the plane, or sitting in an unlocked car. Or that a “broken” or old computer whose hard drive that is not wiped won’t show up at some auction or donated to some school.
Oh, and all of the above have already happened. More chances for corruption, more certainty it will happen.
What will happen when every data base is linked to the national id?
I guarantee you someone will leave a USB key drive, or a CD/DVD laying around somewhere. With a piece of it, many bright twelve year olds will be able to access much of it. A terrorist would be able to see it all.
This is a stupid law and will NOT solve anything or prevent anything. Only a fool or a delusional person ignore the reality of that. More data, in one data base, with more people (government employees and contractors) having access to it, means greater certainty it will be accessed by those who shouldn't.
Oh and forget the idea that only a criminal or and error would ignore any law pertaining to rules regulating usage of the data base. Here is proof any state level bureaucrat can chose NOT to follow rules for the security of the data base. After someone has a firearm check run that shows the person as clean that check and the record of the purchase is by law, not to be retained by the state.
The reality is it never works that way. Many if not most states keep the record of the purchaser, the application, and the purchase on record. PA is only one state who I know does so and repeatedly has IGNORED or FOUGHT requests to follow the law not to keep them on a statewide record.
It will be mush worse with a national ID. Much worse.
Yes, and it will end when a state government informs the federal government that such threats will result in the confinscation of all federal taxes revenues collected in the state, and the diversion of said federal revenue to state coffers. The federal government simply does not have the ability to deal with such a senerio. The courts certainly do not, as enforcement is a function of the executive branch.
i may be mistaken on the particulars, but i believe that the state of Vermont once made such a threat over some federal initative...and the feds backed down.
Bump!
But that was before we needed to trade fundamental things for the illusion of security.
- just needed to make a small correction.
I’m glad to see some pre-Bush FReepers on this thread. And not surprised to see Ron Paul supporters here either.
And Mohammed Atta's first flight was from Maine.
I think this is good in more ways than one. It gets the States to thinking they CAN successfully defy the Leviathan.
So long as the Feds won’t close down the border, they need to shut the hell up about any kind of ID. It ain’t their business.
Hope more of these come out of state houses around the country.
My son, who is not hispanic, was made to get his first driver's license THREE TIMES by one local center that provided many of the worst offenders.
I’m sure Ben Franklin adhered to the most draconian of laws when he visited France, then a totalitarian dictatorship.
Visa already has a national data base on a major part of the population.
Let the Vermonters go. Give the land back to New York and New England though.
Screw that...
If he did, It lended even more credence to the above quote in my post, as he saw firsthand how the tyranny of the french monarchy played out
As America’s first ambassador to France, I doubt Franklin would have had to play by the same rules as the serfs.
And, I doubt very much that Mr. Franklin would appreciate the state of things as they are becoming today.
Why? Don't you think that the Peoples Democratic Socialist Republic of New England has enough land and people to exploit?
Frankly, they're proof that even a broken clock is correct twice a day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.