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.
it's an incredibly dangerous increase in government intrusion into our privacy.
Stating a fact isn't condecension.
"But they didn’t. Thus — with the absence of suicide bombers and no hijackers using airplanes as weapons against civilian targets ... they’re clearly not the same.
The reason they didn't is that they were caught, arrested, and some of them executed WITHOUT any need for putting everyone's information into a centralized database.
"....you failed to respond to my observation that it remains a poor idea to fight a current conflict with outdated security tactics.
And you know that the security tactics are outdated how??
"Regardless of whether the Islamic terrorists are tactically identical to the Nazis ... you cannot fight a new war with old tactics and expect to win. Enemies adapt to security — so we must continually adapt security to the enemies.
Maybe, but REAL ID and a central database with the biometric ID data of every human in the USA is not the way to do. It's MUCH too dangerous. And I suspect it is a violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
"Which civil liberties are curtailed by an ID? This sounds like the phantom curtailment of civil liberties that liberals SWEAR is occurring due to the PATRIOT Act."
It isn't the ID card that's the problem---the problem is that centralized database. Which is a point all you "I've got nothing to hide" types always keep ducking."
I do not disagree. However, disengaging the government from our lives is a lot like cancer surgery. Even though it’s necessary, and the cancer will eventually kill you anyway, when it’s entwined with vital organs the removal must be done very carefully to avoid killing the patient on the table. Just because something is bad doesn’t make it easy to get rid of.
Given the apparent mood in the country among the electorate, I suspect we’re actually heading for a period of going in the opposite direction. You and I agree, but we’re two votes out of 200M or whatever the number is.
>> Stating a fact isn’t condecension.
Assuming those that disagree MUST be less educated than you IS condescension.
>> The reason they didn’t is that they were caught, arrested, and some of them executed WITHOUT any need for putting everyone’s information into a centralized database.
Nonsense — the reason they didn’t is there weren’t Nazi suicide bombers during WWII (a fact you noted yourself just a single post ago).
>> And you know that the security tactics are outdated how??
Lets assume you’re right about the Nazi’s seeking to use hijacked planes as weapons against civilian targets ... you stated they were stopped an executed. The 9-11 hijackers were not stopped. This would certainly be evidence that security may need an overhaul, as it appears enemies have figured out how to circumvent the security measures that supposedly stopped the Nazi hijackers.
>> It isn’t the ID card that’s the problem-—the problem is that centralized database.
Centralizing information that various government agencies already have is not an infringement on individual rights — it is streamlining bureaucracy.
Nor is gathering information regarding activities which occur in public — i.e. grocery store purchases (an example you used previously, I believe) are not private information ... it is information related to an activity done in public, and in plain sight of possible government officials.
I heard the same outcy from liberals about the Justice Dept. supposedly asking for public library book checkout information and/or bookstore purchases ... there is simply no right to privacy regarding this information (especially books checked out from a government-run library).
H
Nothing about this ID system tracks people’s whereabouts.
...and while we’re on that topic: I’ve been curious about this for some time... what makes you think that the government would ever care where people are physically located at every minute? Even a totally fascist state? How useful is that, really? I mean, considering the immensity of the data management and data mining operation, they’d scarcely have computer resources to do anything else. And... for what? To make really cool display screens with little dots on them so they can click on the dots and follow people?
If I were the dictator, I just don’t see why I’d care. There’s way more practical and old fashioned ways to control people and get them to do what you want. None of which, by the way, have anything to do with a better quality ID system.
This is just trying to raise the many varied state ID standards to something more uniform and reliable.
That's weird, I do it everyday at work!
and sadly the msm tells you how i feel and vice versa while setting the playing field up to annoint some slick d@@k professional politician to enrich themselves at our expense.
universal tracking of joe citizen just allows the masters to eyeball those 'red flag' sheep that wander too far from the herd. Been to a gun show lately, bought any 'survival' gear at the local sporting goods store, attended an event hosted by a conservative group, you may need re-education camping for the security of the country...
thats the only real use for this ID, illegals could be shipped as captured, IF there was a fence. Real criminal could be swiftly and severely punished and removed from society, but law 'enforcement' doesnt have the manpower to hand out tickets and chase truly evil predators. This gives rise to the masters needing these predators among us to justify all the 'authority' they must grant themselvesad naseum.
I really dont think its conspiracy paranoia as much as plain truth that man is naturally inclined towards evil and goverments are awsome vehicles to acquire powerful positions...
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