Americans May Need Passports To Board Domestic Flights Or To Picnic In A National Park

[Nomad559]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/16/real.id
Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act.

The act, signed in 2005 as part of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill, aims to weave driver's licenses and state ID cards into a sort of national identification system by May 2008. The law sets baseline criteria for how driver's licenses will be issued and what information they must contain.

The Department of Homeland Security insists Real ID is an essential weapon in the war on terror, but privacy and civil liberties watchdogs are calling the initiative an overly intrusive measure that smacks of Big Brother.

More than half the nation's state legislatures have passed symbolic legislation denouncing the plan, and some have penned bills expressly forbidding compliance.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Your papers, please.

[defendandprotect]

13. That's why we defeated the Nazis . . . so we could import them and become them -- !!!!

[Kagemusha]

2. Welcome to the new USSR. Where are your papers, sir?

And didn't Republicans claim they were against a national ID card once upon a time?

[zehnkatzen]

4. Oh, Irony...

...people who hated the idea of National ID were among the most vocal supporters of the Republican party. Oh, fear the Democrats...They're going to make us all have a national ID.

Yeah. Good call there.

[Lint Head]

3. Isn't fascism wonderful.

:dem:

[Donnachaidh]

5. and what's the backup NOW on obtaining passports?

I've heard 6 months.

Watch the states start screaming when their tourist funds start shrinking. :rofl:

[PSPS]

6. The hallmark of a dictatorship -- internal travel documents.

[Oldenuff]

7. What....a.....crock....of...

When can we look for the Dem's to address this travesty?I don't expect much from my party on this,especially when many of them voted for it.

[seafan]

8. Chertoff: There will be repercussions for states choosing not to comply with Real ID Act.

Until they are finally driven out of office, we should expect high levels of pressure and intimidation from these thugs, to forfeit our rights of privacy.




Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says there are no plans for a federal database of drivers' information.


Federal ID plan raises privacy concerns

By Eliott C. McLaughlin
August 16, 2007

(CNN) -- Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act.

.....

Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation say the IDs and supporting databases --which Chertoff said would eventually be federally interconnected -- will infringe on privacy.
EFF says on its Web site that the information in the databases will lay the groundwork for "a wide range of surveillance activities" by government and businesses that "will be able to easily read your private information" because of the bar code required on each card.

The databases will provide a one-stop shop for identity thieves, adds the ACLU on its Web site, and the U.S. "surveillance society" and private sector will have access to the system "for the routine tracking, monitoring and regulation of individuals' movements and activities."
The civil liberties watchdog dubs the IDs "internal passports" and claims it wouldn't be long before office buildings, gas stations, toll booths, subways and buses begin accessing the system.

But Chertoff told legislators last week that DHS has no intention of creating a federal database, and Walsh, of the Heritage Foundation, said the ACLU's allegations are disingenuous.
States will be permitted to share data only when validating someone's identity, Walsh said.
"The federal government wouldn't have any greater access to driver's license information than it does today," Walsh said.
States have the right to refuse to comply with the program, he said, and they also have the right to continue issuing IDs and driver's licenses that don't meet Real ID requirements.
But, Walsh said, "any state that's refusing to implement this key recommendation by the 9/11 Commission, and whose state driver's licenses are as a result used in another terrorist attack, should be held responsible."

State reaction to Real ID has not been all negative. Four states have passed bills or resolutions expressing approval for the program, and 13 states have similar legislation pending (Several states have pending pieces of legislation both applauding and opposing Real ID).

Chertoff said there would be repercussions for states choosing not to comply.

"This is not a mandate," Chertoff said. "A state doesn't have to do this, but if the state doesn't have -- at the end of the day, at the end of the deadline -- Real ID-compliant licenses then the state cannot expect that those licenses will be accepted for federal purposes."

[RC]

10. These idiots keep forgetting who is working for who.

[yellowcanine]

16. So Cherty would punish individuals based on decisions made by their state legislatures?

Nice. Whatever happened to the damn Constitution?

[liberal N proud]

9. Don't ever tell me again that this nation isn't the new Nazi Germany

Every day this week we have had a story about government infringing on our rights.
These fuckers want to turn this nation into a total police state and are escalating the efforts to do so ahead of the 2008 elections.

I will still be surprised if we actually have elections in November of 2008.

[marmar]

11. Will the "Fingermen" be there to check for our papers?

V for fucking Vendetta, for fucking real. :argh:

[AnnieBW]

12. Bumagi, pozhalusta

Russian transliteration of "papers, please." We're becoming more the the old Soviet Union every day. And I ought to know - Russian was my major in college.

[Cha]

14. Fuck bushit and his lame

national security that couldn't even stop 9/11 with memos and clues all over the place..what did asshole do? Went on vacation.

[yellowcanine]

15. Actually I think that would likely be unconstitutional - not that Gonzo would worry about that.

Freedom of movement within the United States by law abiding citizens should be a no brainer.

[tom_paine]

17. Yes, it looks likethose of us considered alarmists and tinfoil-wearers

so many years ago, may have got it right or actually UNDERESTIMATED the final level of Bushian evil, whatever final form that will take in the decades to come...

...but now it is close enough that we can see the outlines of it's form.