Thursday, May 12, 2005
NATIONAL ID
From the UK Register, "Congress Passes Gestapo ID Legislation":
House and Senate Republicans have rammed through the so-called Real ID Act - a legislative Trojan horse that lets the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) dictate drivers' license standards to the states - by attaching it to a $76 billion military spending package for Iraq that no one in the Senate dared oppose....
it will give the federal government long-sought control over the movements of Americans, which is exactly what about half of its boosters had in mind. It will also make life more difficult for undocumented immigrants, which the remaining boosters had in mind.
Within two years' time, state ID cards and driver's licenses will have to satisfy federal standards. The new cards must feature anti-counterfeiting measures and machine readable elements (i.e., RFID) approved by DHS, and anything else that DHS thinks would be useful. The language is open-ended, meaning that DHS can issue new requirements as it sees fit, whenever some new gimmick for invading the privacy of citizens captures its imagination.
