February 14, 2005 4:00 AM PST
National ID cards on the way?
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way toward helping us prevent another tragedy like 9/11," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
Now the Real ID Act heads to the Senate, where its future is less certain. Senate rules make it easier for politicians to derail legislation, and an aide said Friday that Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, was concerned about portions of the bill.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on a terrorism subcommittee, said "I basically support the thrust of the bill" in an e-mail to CNET News.com on Friday. "The federal government should have the ability to issue standards that all driver's licenses and identification documents should meet."
"Spy-D" cards?
National ID cards are nothing new, of course. Many European, Asian and South American countries require their citizens to carry such documents at all times, with legal punishments in place for people caught without them. Other nations that share the English common law tradition, including Australia and New Zealand, have rejected such schemes.
A host of political, cultural and even religious concerns has prevented a national ID from being adopted in the United States, even during the tumultuous days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that ushered in the Patriot Act.
Conservatives and libertarians typically argue that a national ID card will increase the power of the government, and they fear the dehumanizing effects of laws enacted as a result. Civil liberties groups tend to worry about the administrative problems, the opportunities for criminal mischief, and the potential irreversibility of such a system.
Those long-standing concerns have become more pointed recently, thanks to the opportunity for greater tracking--as well as potentially greater security for ID documents--that technologies such as RFID provide. Though the Real ID act does not specify RFID or biometric technology, it requires that the Department of Homeland Security adopt "machine-readable technology" standards and provides broad discretion in how to do it.
An ad hoc alliance of privacy groups and technologists recently has been fighting proposals from the International Civil Aviation Organization
They say it is voluntary BUT if youi don't obtain one you will not be permitted to travel on planes or trains.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790), Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
I personally would never approve it though.
I think having a uniform standard and making sure only US citizens can obtain a license is okay, but when they talk about biometrics and RFID implants, then the government is going well beyond their boundaries and overreacting.
probably be really easy to hack, this bill is proposing to strip the
citizens of their rights and freedoms.
The reality of this proposal is scary at best. Foolish in the least.
If the FBI, and IRS (among other agencies) can spend hundreds
of millions of dollars on systems that do not work (and never
delivered), the only thing this bill does is create a GIGANTIC
opportunity of abuse at every level.
Those with the miniscule brainpower to dream this up should be
publicly flogged.
national ID as problematic. I think it does make sense. Biometric
data is not that bad. Afrer all, a fingerprint is a biometric data.
Our picture is biometric data. Our signature is also biometric
data (It determines some of the brain's locomotive abilities).
I do have a problem with RFID. RFID is a great technology. I
would like to avoid lanes at the local market or hardware store.
They do know what I buy anyways by linking my discount card or
even my credit card to what I buy anyways. I don't expect that
knowing how many eggs I buy or that I buy ham, cheese and
bread at the same time. But I do have a problem with an RFID
chip in my driver's license, containing biometric data.
The silver lining is that for bar-coded or magnetic information, I
have to give my approval for somebody to look at it (i.e.,
handing the card). With RFID, I might walk through a reader
without even knowing it. Next time, a camera will take a picture
of my eyes (in a not too far future) and link that data. It's cliché
but it so reminds me of the 'Minority Report' movie. RFID/Iris
scans. What's next? Preemptive wars? (oops. that also
happened).
We might as well put or medical records on that card and make
it useful.
This is America. We make money on inconvenience and fear, but if you don't think the innovators won't step up to the opportunity to protect rights while making a buck, think again.
The Patriot Act was to protect us and all it did was give more power to power crazed administration. It hasn't done a single thing to help us or protect us. I don't think it has even managed to help catch a real terrorist.
The DMCA was supposed to help protect consumers and make things fair for both business and consumers. Like proventing the sale of poor quality after market ink and toners for our printers especially of the ones that had anti-refill chips in them. But, all it did was cost us some free speech rights, cost us more money and allowed anyone that doesn't like what someone else says about their products to file a law suite against them for breaking in their protected copyrighted code.
It is all bunch of cr*p and this ID bull is just another example.
If they want to pass something useful how about a law that requires presidental canidates to take an IQ test so we can weed out the morons like George W Bush and one to ensure that right wing extremist nut jobs and religous freaks don't get in to office like George W. Bush.
Robert
Most of the world uses ID cards, and I know of not a single case where they have been used to track or spy on people in a way that couldn't be done without ID cards. Credit cards are much more dangerous regarding tracking people.
Public confession time citizens, on the e-pillories of individual States per Federally set and controlled standards of ?data sin.? Declan, now all those wheelies you performed on your motor monster down Sorority Row at CMU will be digitized and made part of the Federal record.
In the techno-vernacular, it will be distributed citizen data collection with centralized processing, analysis and control. The states will loose more of their already dwindling ?states rights,? and become simple data collection nodes in data-input bondage to Uncle Sammy Buck$ Big Brother. If the States no play, Uncle Sammy no pay.
With REAL ID, when you get pulled over by Boss Hogg in any of the 50 States or U.S. territories of our Grand Old Republic, Officer Hogg will know all of your ?data sins? at light-speed.
Clearly, a person?s motor vehicle violation record is a prima facie indicator of who is and isn?t a person-of-interest or a soon-to-emerge deep-cover terrorist.
The Real ID Act ?doesn?t even mention the word ?privacy,?? because the Act might just as well be called the Citizen Privacy & Liberty Eradication Act.
SAT Question for REAL ID lovers: Privacy is to REAL ID as Liberty is to ___________. I?ll ask your State of Domicile to embed your SAT ?Privacy? Score into your REAL ID driver?s license RFID chip.
Things that we lambasted them for, we are now doing or thinking of doing. Isn't nice that so many want to give up freedoms millions have died for just for the false feeling of security. We have grown into a nation of cowards. Shameful.
If W. wanted to protect us as people, he would protect our federally mandated social security numbers from identity theft and given consumers some recourse to recovering their lives after having had their identity stolen! Once again, the government benefits financially from social security paid in under your stolen number which is credited to a sub-file (not your main file) and when not collected (by illegal immigrant that paid in under your stolen number) goes into a government account. I read this on MSN opening page about a week ago.
Who exactly is our government trying to protect us from? And who will protect US from our government?
Is that still the USA as we knew them ?
Does anybody really believe a few bearded cavemens are the real target of it all ?
It that the country willing to impose "freedom" all around the world ?
I want it to include biometric data.
I want it to replace Social Security Cards, Passport, Driver's Licenses, and even my work related IDs.
I want the State's arms twisted to make it happen.
I don't agree with the Chicken Littles who think the sky will fall if we have a national ID.
I want all nations on the planet to implement this as well with the card replacing birth certificates, medical records, and shot records.
I want an ID that is the sum total of my life and is indestructible so it will be here when I am no longer around.
I want it to contain my credit information and my banking information.
I want it to replace cash, checks, etc.
always being asked for my ID, when I get on a plane or train,
when i buy booze, when I use my credit cards, when I go into
clubs, when I get pulled over, when I get a rental car, when I go
to Canada, when I go to school, hell sometimes even at the
MOVIES. I can be taken to JAIL if I don't show my drivers license
to a cop if he asks.
So my question is, when will we have to show a National ID
where we don't have to show some kind of government issued
paperwork already? And how will a National ID infringe on my
rights any more than a passport does? Having a National ID does
not mean you have to store your credit card information on it, it
does not mean that the government will be able to track your
whereabouts with it, and it won't make you any more vulnerable
to identity theft than handing a credit card to your waiter at a
restaurant.
Maybe I'm crazy, or maybe I'm not paranoid enough. Or maybe
the people who are against national ID's are the same people
who drive big trucks and vote against gas taxes in the name of
'freedom'. Who knows.
Except that a number of states are preparing to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, with California and Massachusetts leading but not alone.
The article seems to imply that "If these commonsense reforms [National ID Cards] had been in place in 2001, they would have hindered the efforts of the 9/11 terrorists". Obviously this is not the case. Had National ID Cards been in place at 9/11 the terrorist would have been issued prefectly legitimate and legal ones.
If National ID cards are imposed, terrorits will simply enter illegally. Or they will engineer/breed "clean" terrorists that can legally enter. Building a better mouse trap only temporarily catches more mice. Sure, the card might slighty alter their strategy, but no one is nieve enough to believe it would *stop* an attack? (Or are you that neive?) It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the card will have little effect on determined terrorists.
In the end all you have is a card that is poor at detering terrorism but is suprising effective at tracking the law-biding citizens of the USA. 9/11 provides some "convenient reasoning" to make people think its for their own good. So, since the card has little to do with anti-terrorism, whats the real agenda of the National ID card?
Welcome to the club. You're getting what you asked for. How's it feel?
Our commercial licenses have been federally administered since April of 1992. All our info is in a federal database. The new (and scary) part here is all the biometrics and RFID technology. It'll end when America stands up and demands an end. Not before.
Call your congressman. Call your senator. Call Pres Bush's office. Flood them with letters and e-mails. We only managed to produce about 50,000 letters from several million truckers back in the 90's... not enough. Most truckers didn't feel it'd make a difference and so they didn't bother.
I'm betting that several million PO'd Americans writing and calling would get their attention. What are you waiting for?
More Info: Feel free to visit me at...
http://www.alanburkhart.com
Click the "Privacy Rights" button in the left sidebar. There are dozens of links to additional information on RFID and other issues. There are too few people fighting this right now.
Wanna help?
- Tom DeLay's Statement is Incorrect
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by treet007
February 16, 2005 5:05 PM PST
- "If these commonsense reforms had been in place in 2001, they would have hindered the efforts of the 9/11 terrorists, and they will go a long way toward helping us prevent another tragedy like 9/11," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
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See all 140 Comments >>This is incorrect. The failures of the FAA, FBI, and CIA were the primary causes in my humble opinion. It was recently revealed that the FAA was even notified about the possible threats, but they basically did nothing.
It is true that the 9/11 Commission recommended a national ID system as part of their suite of recommendations. But I do not believe they stated the conclusion like the senator did above and that the ID would be hindered the terrorists. Too many errors and lack of oversights occurred in the federal agencies that I believe it would have not made a difference, particularly if the terrorists created a clone ID like they did with the driver's licenses.
--GIF