Real ID Act: Internal Passports and Roadblocks

Papers, pleaseYou know, when I was a kid, there were two things we used to make fun of Communist Russia for doing. One was snitching on your neighbor and the other was handing over your papers at various checkpoints (“Ve need your papers, please” is a Nazi German variant of the same).

Well, what a strange world we now live in, where our own country is now a bubbling cesspool of squinty eyes, suspicious of every move, and soon enough — internal passports and roadblocks.

Expected to pass Tuesday in the Senate, the Real ID act is a rider bill on the larger Iraq/Afghanistan supplemental spending bill which senators are hesitant to vote against lest they be called unAmerican. So get ready for an even more ubiquitous police-state 3 years from now when this thing goes into effect, because they’re only starting to scratch the surface.

Freedom is Slavery.

UPDATE: Check out the outpouring of comments added to the faxes being sent to Senators. WOW!

A clever one “in favor” of Real ID:

I want you to vote in favor of the Real ID Act. I think we Americans have far too many freedoms and our freedom to travel without presenting ID at various checkpoints is a silly freedom anyways. I enjoy seeing our police work diligently to protect us and I would certainly feel safer if they were asking me for more identification, perhaps multiple times per day to assure I was safe from the terrorists. Maybe I can be assigned my own personal police officer if I pay some extra taxes (voluntary of course!), that is an idea you could work on.

I would love it if you could also make it so that these new IDs were a little more expensive so that there are less poor people on the freeway. They are becoming a nuisance during my daily commute and I fear they are uninsured and may get honda exhaust fumes on my new Mercedes SLK. I am also hoping you will introduce a provision that addresses the fact that the DMV employees are grossly underpaid and overworked, so you may want to mandate 15 minute breaks every hour so that they are not too tired to process the new IDs quickly.

» Justice Dept. ignores opposition, pushes ahead snitch program [Asheville Global Report]
» FAQ: How Real ID will affect you [CNET News.com]
» UnRealID.com

posted May 9th, 2005 by vforvandyke
  • http://molibertarian.tripod.com Jd

    I cannot believe it is the religous right that are for this. Obviously they have not read revelations. If we continue down this road that is where we will be at. The Republicans say commonly that God is on there side, would Jesus register with selective service, or be forced to serve in the military. The Republicans often rally against gay’s living together, but when it comes to this are silent.

  • http://www.opentorrent.org James Carter

    Well you will not have to worry about your religion. Christianity once was and always will be the religion of the slaves. I am not saying it is wron, I am merely quoting history and current direct and distract techniques.

  • http://molibertarian.blogspot.com Jd

    You are correct Christianity is the religon of slaves, whenever elected officials use it they do so for there own benefit. In England the church controled the government for a while. It didn’t work and now we have America. Talk of this national id card could have stopped a long time ago if Americans would have said no to marriage licenses after the civil war, no to selective service, and no to the social security card. I am a former conservative but when I read Michael Badnarik’s book I changed many of my views.

  • http://www.opentorrent.org James Carter

    Glad to have you JD! Now if only we could get more intelligent folks such as you instead of some of the crackpots (me) that we do have. ;-)

  • M. Pellerin

    Real I.D. is a Farce

    When you renew your driver’s license, who authenticates your proof of identity? What document forensics training did they get? In the state of New Jersey, we have six point system where certain types of bearer-specific documents are given 1 to 3 points each. When I presented my Louisiana Birth Certificate to a cute, shy twenty-something reading a book behind the counter at the Division of Motor Vehicles, she looked at it and said, `WOW’ (emphasis added) `its so big!’ I asked if she had ever seen a Louisiana Birth Certificate before and she said, `in the two years i’ve worked here, no.’ After handing her a credit union cash deposit receipt, she held it up to the light and handed it back to me after a quick glance. Then I presented my social security card and she slid it back across the counter to me after another quick glance. I was impressed with her ability to conduct a diligent forensics exam of my three forms of I.D. before taking my picture and giving me a `Real I.D.’

    When did a `Real Driver’s License’ ever force a driver to drive under the speed limit? I have nine points on my driver’s license and one hell of a heavy foot to prove it. And I earned every point I got. An accomplishment not possible without a `Real Driver’s License!’

    New Jersey has a lot of financial institutions – banks, savings and loans, credit unions, and a multitude of investment firms offering savings accounts, each of which generate and give you a statement, every time you make a deposit. My credit union has only a few thousand members, and its not even located in the county inwhich I went to renew my driver’s license. I wonder what authentication template she compared my barely legible cash deposit receipt against? When asked, she confessed that she never heard of my credit union.

    To authenticate a twenty, fifty, or hundred dollar bill, one can hold it up to a light and look for the verticle bar imbeded to the side of the off centered portrait. In examining my social security card, she didn’t even pick it up off the counter before sliding it back to me.

    So much for `Real I.D.’

    Now how many people think an alcoholic with a `Real I.D.’ is going to stop driving under the influence because they’re carrying a `Real I.D.’ in their pocket? Convince just one of the 40,000 motorists in this country who are going to lose their lives over the next twelve months on America’s highways that the `Real I.D.’ is going to diminsh the carnage on our highways, or spare one of them a trip to an early grave.

    The terrorist highjackers which gave us 9/11, couldn’t have done it without a `Real Visa’ issued by the Departments of State and Immigration and Naturalization Service. With government talent like those staffing our Department of State and I.N.S., who needs terrorists?

    You people are nuts. Stupidity remains God given, and in this country constitutionally protected!!!

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