Real ID "What do you think about it?"

[trekgeezer]

Real ID is a program DHS (Homeland Security) wants to implement  to make drivers licenses into National ID cards. I can see the point of making the DMV verify who someone is before issuing a license to them, but I do have concerns over a national ID card (reminds me too much of the Soviet Union). 

If you weren't aware, if this is implemented and you live in a state that doesn't comply (several have past laws saying they won't), you will have to present your passport to enter any federal building or board a flight (even domestic).  My own state (Arkansas) doesn't require you to produce a birth certificate to get one.  In fact, when I moved back here in '96 you could actually have use your SSN as your drivers license number.

Apparently though, my wife and I will be exempt for a while because of our age.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321925,00.html

[odinn7]

I've heard about this before and I'll be honest...it makes me nervous. I think the government is doing a little too much and getting away with too many things in the name of fighting terrorism...it's like as long as they can claim that what they're doing is being done to fight terrorism, they can do anything at all. I'm not liking this very much.

[asimpson2006]

I've heard about this before and I'll be honest...it makes me nervous. I think the government is doing a little too much and getting away with too many things in the name of fighting terrorism...it's like as long as they can claim that what they're doing is being done to fight terrorism, they can do anything at all. I'm not liking this very much.

You can thank the Patriot Act for that Odinn7.  Personally I don't care for it either.  The government gets more and more power all the time, and as long as this can be claimed to be done for "fighting terrorism" it will most likely be passed.

[lester1/2jr]

if they are worried about terrorism they shuold stop bombing muslim countries, not turn america into a dictatorship.


whatever the state wants from me they can suck it.  no and no

[BeyondTheGrave]

You know some of the stuff their talking about producing a passport is already happening. I remember when I went to a bank to get something and the DMV to get my permit they wanted my "passport". I never left the country and was born here and the made my life tough. Especially the bank. I gave them my Drivers Licence and my student ID and they said that wasn't good enough.

If their forcing me to get a passport no doubt they will eventually force this National ID thing which is just B.S. or their going to make it into something were its like you don't have to get it but its going to make every day life alot harder.

[AndyC]

I don't like to toss around words like 'fascism' but one of its main characteristics is using fear of some enemy (internal, external, real or imaginary) to justify tighter control over the population.

I'm not suggesting that's what's happening, but it shares some similarities. Of course, there is the question of whether any fascist country got that way entirely by design. I'm sure that crazy guy with the little mustache thought everything he did was for people's own good - all the way down the slippery slope.

Hmmm, I come off sounding far less right-of-centre and far more liberal than I actually am. Really, I find Al Gore scarier than George W. in a lot of ways. Still, it makes you think.

[Mofo Rising]

The Mark of the Beast! National ID cards! Nude conspiracies! Lyndon LaRouche was right!

All Simpsons references aside, yes it is worrying. I was once told point blank by a police officer that I had to produce identification. Seeing as I was involved in the dangerous business of walking down the street to get breakfast, I'm sure I agree with him. I was also told that I needed to update my address with the DMV within a certain time period of moving. I don't own a vehicle or have a driver's license, so I'm not sure why the DMV needs to know where I live, but who am I to question things?

As long as the borders are locked at predetermined checkpoints to passport carrying citizens and the TSA is protecting us all from terrorist five-year-olds and parched throats, who would ever worry about a national ID scheme? It's not like government agencies routinely lose entire databases of personal information.

While I disagree wholeheartedly with an enforced national ID scheme, I also believe that it is a question that will never go away. It's not whether or not it will pass, but when. If not this administration/Congress/Senate, maybe the next; and it will just as likely be a "liberal" decision as a "conservative" one. (Of course, whichever side does end up passing the law will be decried by the other, that's just the nature of the Beast.)

[CheezeFlixz]

I've got no problem with it, then again I'm a vintage 1963 model.

[Shadow]

Wonderful. Like I needed more hoops to jump through. I have a commercial driver's license and drive a fuel tanker truck for a living. The last time I had to renew my license, I had to go through this whole new process of fingerprinting and background checks  - at a cost of 100 extra bucks on my end. And why? Because of the worry over terrorists getting a license with a hazmat endorsement on it and then using it to get a fuel truck and blow something up.

[Dennis]

Even though I think it's a bad idea I have no objection to a using my DL # as a national ID, but requiring this won't stop terrorists, won't even stop illegal immigrants. The people this is supposed to catch are just going to get fake IDs. Right now in Los Angeles, if you have the money you can get a complete new identity, SSN  with  payment records, driver's license with DMV record, birth certificate, high school and college diplomas, IRS records, basically a complete new life story, all this thanks to computers and the way they're used to keep records. Of course this new ID won't hold up under intense scrutiny but the government is not going to have the time to check everyone thoroughly so they're not going to catch the bad guys with this, what this is going to do is start making people angry,  when enough people are angry about it the government will have to change the law, that's the way our system works. We move like a pendulum from left to right, not staying in any one spot very long, as long as we keep an eye on them and let our representatives in the government know whether we like or don't like what they're doing we'll be alright. This is what you must do to live in a democracy.
 

[indianasmith]

I've got mixed emotions.  Any measure they can take that makes it harder for terrorists and illegal aliens to fake driver's licenses and ID's is a good thing, but the whole national ID card is a bit Big Brother-ish.  I do like the idea of requiring a picture ID in order to vote - it will cut way down on voter fraud.  I mean, I can't write a check anywhere without showing ID, so why should I be able to walk in and vote for the President of the United States without proving that I have the legal right to do so.

[CheezeFlixz]

...  I do like the idea of requiring a picture ID in order to vote - it will cut way down on voter fraud.  I mean, I can't write a check anywhere without showing ID, so why should I be able to walk in and vote for the President of the United States without proving that I have the legal right to do so.

What I find interesting is the ACLU and the DNC oppose Voter ID's, they claim they will disenfranchise the poor and minorities. As the the case in Indiana were it cost $15 to get the voter ID. They claim this causes an undo hardship on them as they will not be able to get to the DMV to get the ID nor will they be able to afford the $15 dollar fee ... my question is if they can't make it to the DMV to get the ID, then how are they going to get to the polling station to vote? I bet if the so called poor had to get to the welfare office to apply for benefits they'd find a way. And as far as the $15 goes, that's BS I work on a lot of government and HUD housing, they can afford $15. I've been in very few and I mean a hand full of Section 8 and project housing where they didn't have a computer with internet, cable, large or big screen TV with 5.1 surround sound, plenty of food and nice rides ... yeah being on entitlements in this country really sucks. Who know a National ID might, just might cut down on the billions upon billions of welfare and SS fraud is addition to illegals.

I was working a a house last week, and the resident was whining about the $25 fee to renew your 4 year drivers license in KY, that they could not afford that kind of money ... I said, pointing to an item in the house "Really, then how did you afford the $45 bottle of Crown Royal?" The conversation ended.

It's about choices, plan and simple.

[indianasmith]

Cheeze, you are my hero! 

You know, for all the rhetoric about us losing our freedoms and the fear of terrorists being used as an umbrella to slowly turn us into a fascist state, there are two things we need to remember:

1.  Terrorists have declared war not only on the U.S., but on every value that free societies treasure.  The goal of the Islamists is the destruction of 3000 years of Western Civilization.  They killed 3000 people on 9/11, and have killed hundreds in Europe and thousands in Israel.

2.  There has not been a single successful terrorists attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.  Could it be . . . just possibly . . . that the Patriot Act and some of the other Bush policies have . . . (shudder) . . . WORKED? 

Think about it.

[lester1/2jr]

1.  Terrorists have declared war not only on the U.S., but on every value that free societies treasure.  The goal of the Islamists is the destruction of 3000 years of Western Civilization.  They killed 3000 people on 9/11, and have killed hundreds in Europe and thousands in Israel.

they don't want to kill 3000 years of whatever, they want us to stop bombing them and overthrowing their democratically elected leaders.  They have been on the swame planet as us for thuosands of years and till we started going over there taknig their oil we never had a problem with them.

2.  There has not been a single successful terrorists attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.  Could it be . . . just possibly . . . that the Patriot Act and some of the other Bush policies have . . . (shudder) . . . WORKED?

there had only been one before that, in 1993.  after 9/11 we were simply more prepared for a possible attack.   




conservatism is conservatism.  you are either for small government or you aren't!  no excuses

[indianasmith]

Sorry, Lester, but have you seen the photos (confirmed on SNOPES.COM, BTW) of radical Islamists carrying banners that say "Death to those who insult Islam", "Europe is a cancer, Islam is the Answer", "Behead the infidels".  Just last year, when Pope Benedict remarked (accurately) that Islam's history is filled with violence, Muslims in Africa protested by shooting a 62 year old nun who was a medical missionary in the back, and torching a Christian girls' school.  Look what Islamists did to Afghanistan when they were allowed free reign there - total suppression of all freedom of expression and religion.  Their goal is to conquer the whole world with their faith, and to exterminate all Jews and Christians, period!  Denying it won't make it cease to be true.

(BTW, I do recognize this is not true of ALL, or even MOST, Muslims.  But if, as most sources say, even 10% of the world's Muslims are of the radical Islamist bent, that is an army of about 125 million - more men than Hitler ever commanded.  The jihadists are NOT innocent victims - they are evil incarnate.  I wish you could see that!)

Conservatism, BTW, is about more than the size of government.  The size of government is dictated by the size and needs of the country and by the will of its citizens.  Conservatism is about preserving and maintaining our precious historic legacies and traditions - like freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of dissent.  All of which our enemies wish to end forever.

You need to get over your obssession with the dollar signs and realize that there is such a thing as real good and evil in this world.