Think of it as an extension of the useless airport searches and do not fly lists, they irritate many people and take up resources that could be used to actually fight terrorists, but they also convince a lot of people that something is being done about the problem.
If the planet Mars were knocked out of its orbit and onto a collision course with earth, 75% of the people in the US would be think the Government was doing a good job of addressing the problem if it offered a tax credit for fallout shelter construction.
The information provided by Eva Luna says that the new requirement only applies to driver’s licenses that are to be acceptable as ID by federal agencies (e.g. as ID to board a plane). States are still free to issue whatever kinds of ID or licenses they want, except that if they don’t meet the federal standard, they have to be clearly marked so that they cannot be used as ID for federal purposes.
The opposition to this seems to come from two groups: people who think illegal aliens should be able to come and go as they please, live, work, and sponge off the government just like U.S. citizens, and people who are so knee-jerk libertarian that they regard their library card as the foul boot of government on their necks. Fortunately, those people are a tiny minority. Most people realize that if the government cannot or will not control the border, there has to be some reasonable means of keeping track of who is in the country legally.
I do not see how this is a step toward a national ID. This law does not expand the role of the driver’s license as generic ID. It simply regulates existing uses. Your driver’s license will still function as it always has, unless you’re an illegal alien. The only thing that will change is that illegal aliens won’t be able to use their driver’s licenses as ID for federal purposes. If states want to issue licenses to illegal aliens, they can still do so, but they’ll have to be a different color or something. That means every time an illegal alien has to use a DL as ID, the person accepting it will know he’s an illegal alien. That infuriates some people, but it tickles me pink. Maybe this will clue the general public in to the magnitude of the problem we have.
Innocent on both counts here. Centralizing information on this scale, without also putting in a plan that ensures its security, and prevents the possibility of abuse by either the government, industry, or corrupt locals is foolish. Perhaps the border states need some method of ferreting out illegals, but imposing a top down federal solution places a burden on all states, whether or not they have a problem.
Sure; it’s the Senate that still has to pass it. But I ain’t giving good odds that it won’t.
And someone on Slashdot raised an interesting point about the act: it has a requirement that the new cards be “machine-readable,” but doesn’t specify what machine-readable mechanism will be used. It’s not inconceivable, therefore, that the cards will be equipped with RFID tags, allowing anyone with an RFID reader to read them.
Now imagine a law-enforcement officer pointing an RFID reader into a crowd, and instantly knowing everyone’s personal identification information with one zap of the trigger… dunno about you, but I think that’s the kind of stuff that makes Orwell jealous.
Consider them heard of. I agree with you that this presents the same undesirable risks. I’m just as opposed to one as the other. I’m even more opposed to having multiple risks. Is that what you’re looking for?
I must be the excluded third. I’m not entirely clear on every way that this might be a bad thing, however, I know that when politicians start selling you bullshit that something’s amiss. That the idea’s being siold to “combat terrorism” tells me enough to know that someones’re trying to fuck us oversomehow- why else would they be lying? Increasing the hassle that 200mil some odd people need to get through their daily lives merely to create a minor obstacle for a doggedly determined several dozen seems like a very bad trade off. As Rumsfeld noted, we’re spending in the billions and they’re spending in the millions. If we truly are waging a generational war, these sorts of efficiency concers need to be taken into account.
Shirely, we could create just as large if not larger of a minor inconvenience for terrorists w/o inconveniencing the bulk of the US population.
Something’s not right. I’m not sure yet what it is, but I can tell something’s rotten under the floorboards.
I’d put that up there with identity thieves hacking into customer databases. At least those crimes have sentences. Legalized officials being able to track where everyone goes (just set up a bunch of RFID scanners and correlate the results) creeps me out more.
Sure, and PO’d residents can easily move to another state as a result. Moving to another country isn’t as trivial.
But if you ever go overseas with one of these, to some place where they have terrorists, RFID’s will make it much simpler for them to pick you out of a crowd.
I don’t see anything in the law that says you have to get the new ID. It seems like you could just take the “non-fed” version if you were worried about identity theft or bad cops. You could just use your passport for federal ID.
I don’t like a national ID any more than the next guy, but we’ve gotten ourselves into a situation that will soon demand it. What’s Orwellian is how the present administration not only refuses to enforce the duly enacted immigration laws, but harshly criticizes people who try to help it do so. Until that changes, we will be forced to continue compromising the rights and security of citizens in order to manage the millions of people who live here yet owe no loyalty to the United States.
Umm…I am a US citizen living in Michigan, and just renewed my drivers licence. I don’t have a photo ID other than my drivers license. Wouldn’t this be a problem? The only possible way I could get another photo ID is if I applied for a US passport. As I am a US citizen, I could get one. However, why should I have to get a passport to renew my drivers license?
I found out when renewing Michigan now requires that you state your Social Security number, but didn’t ask for verification. They also now require you state your height and weight. I did so, but they blew it. Since I think in terms of the metric system, I put down 180 cm and 140 kilograms. The stupid computer converted that to 6 feet, even though 180 cm is a little less than 5 foot, 11 inches. Thus by order of the state I live in, I am now an inch taller than I actually am.
What percentage of US citizens actually have a passport? I don’t. From what I have read, soon I will no longer be able to go to Canada. In the past, when going to Canada other than verbally stating my citizenship on the Canadian side the customs folks there just waved me to pass. From what I understand, while soon the Canadians may let me in the country, US customs will bounce me back to Canada if I don’t have a US passport. The simplest solution to this problem is that I never leave the US. I just never imagined that border crossings would become an issue because I couldn’t get back into the US. I could see why entering Canada might be a problem. After all, on that side of the border I was an alien. I just always thought on the US side it would just be “Hey, I’m a citizen here. You can’t toss me off to a foreign country.” I’ll have to just never leave the US, for fear the US won’t let me back in.
I just started a thread – – on how significant a problem “voting fraud” (ballots cast by legally ineligible voters) is in the U.S. It occurs to me this is a related issue. If you’re concerned with “voting fraud,” should you be in favor of a national ID card, which you would have to present when voting?
Such a card could, in fact, substitute for the existing voter-registration process entirely; every time you notify the relevant authorities of a change of address, you would automatically be registered to vote in your new precinct, provided you are a citizen over 18 and not otherwise ineligible (and that information could also be encoded in the main national ID card database). It would be like motor-voter but even simpler.
I’m not opposed to a national ID card, or a database of driver’s license information, but I am opposed to having to present a birth certificate to renew my DL. I vaguely remember seeing my birth certificate years ago, but I have no idea where the hell it is now. Am I just supposed to stop driving or identifying myself to federal agencies if it no longer exists when my license expires in a few years?
Your soon-to-expire license? Every time I’ve renewed my license I had to show them the current one. I’m not sure about high school students getting their first licenses, but most high schools have photo IDs so they might use them.
