Hi, everybody.
I have stuff to write about my pet topic, cannabis reform, but lately there have been a variety of ugly developments that do eclipse the chronic importance of that issue.
By that, I mean if we don't address these issues of our current constitutional crisis, then we can forget having access to "the rules whereby we petition the government for a redress of the laws".
Micheal Chertoff, Mr. "Gut-Feeling" is trying (and may have already succeeded in demanding a national ID card, as if we need such a thing and as if it would solve anything more than registering YOU and your family members with the DHS.
Make the jump - this is some shit!
Because Travel Documents are like Weapons
The long and short seems to be that if YOU live in a state the opposes or refuses to be part of the National ID you will need a PASSPORT to use domestic fligts or even visit a park.
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(CNN) -- Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act.
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The act, signed in 2005 as part of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill, aims to weave driver's licenses and state ID cards into a sort of national identification system by May 2008. The law sets baseline criteria for how driver's licenses will be issued and what information they must contain.
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The Department of Homeland Security insists Real ID is an essential weapon in the war on terror, but privacy and civil liberties watchdogs are calling the initiative an overly intrusive measure that smacks of Big Brother.
Of course they say whatever and insert war on terror in anything they want.
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Many states have expressed reluctance - or outright refusal to cooperate - with the "plan". Some are totally refusing to play ball. A few do plan to cooperate but for whatever reason will likely not be meeting the May 2008 deadline.
The cards would be mandatory for all "federal purposes," which include boarding an airplane or walking into a federal building, nuclear facility or national park, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the National Conference of State Legislatures last week. Citizens in states that don't comply with the new rules will have to use passports for federal purposes.
How ya like that?
Plastic cards are the new papers do the old Cheech and chong "let me see your papers, Please" skit will have to be "Let me see your plastic card, citizen".
Oh... and get this drama from Mr. Gut Feeling:
"For terrorists, travel documents are like weapons," Chertoff said. "We do have a right and an obligation to see that those licenses reflect the identity of the person who's presenting it."
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Chertoff said the Real ID program is essential to national security because there are presently 8,000 types of identification accepted to enter the United States.
So we need to have 8001 he is apparently saying, but they aim to essentially invalidate all the others.
You'll likely still be able to buy alcohol with one of the old 8000, so no worries there. Alcohol consumption will be unmolested, but if you want to sneak that beer into Yosemite National Park, you'll have to play their game or get a passport...which is playing their game.
Fascism isn't Free
Can you say "unfunded mandate". Of course you can.
The Department of Homeland Security, which estimates state and federal costs could reach $23.1 billion over 10 years, is looking for ways to lessen the burden on states, he said. On the recent congressional front, however, Chertoff could point only to an amendment killed in the Senate last month that would've provided $300 million for the program.
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"There's going to be an irreducible expense that falls on you, and that's part of the shared responsibility," Chertoff told the state legislators.
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Bill Walsh, senior legal fellow for the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based conservative think tank that supports the Real ID Act, said states shouldn't be pushing for more federal dollars because, ultimately, that will mean more federal oversight -- and many complaints about cost coincide with complaints about the federal government overstepping its bounds.
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"They are only being asked to do what they should've already done to protect their citizens," Walsh said, blaming arcane software and policies at state motor vehicle departments for what he called "a tremendous trafficking in state driver's licenses."
The ACLU thinks it's a "Real Nightmare"
The Real ID Act of 2005 would turn our state driver’s licenses into a genuine national identity card and impose numerous new burdens on taxpayers, citizens, immigrants, and state governments – while doing nothing to protect against terrorism. As a result, it is stirring intense opposition from many groups across the political spectrum.
The link above takes you to their site which has a lot of their perspective detailed on it, which I cannot and will not regurgitate here.
More on the Real ID issue from CNET NEWS which discusses a Senate move to kill funding for the "project" but which, per the new report from CNN above, has failed to deter Chertoff and the fascists in Homeland Security from moving ahead.
The Real ID Act, which was enacted in 2005 after being glued to an emergency war spending bill, is designed to carry out a proposal suggested by the 9/11 Commission, which reported that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers had fraudulently obtained state driver's licenses. But critics argue the plan is misguided, insufficiently privacy-protective and prohibitively expensive.
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The law dictates that, starting on May 11, 2008, Americans will need a federally approved, "machine readable" ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments or take advantage of nearly any government service. Before issuing the cards, which would have to adhere to Homeland Security standards, states would be required to verify electronically that identification documents, such as birth certificates, presented by their citizens are authentic. (States that agree in advance to abide by the rules would be given until 2013 to comply.)
They apparently struck a provision that would require every applicant to be poked with a knife to ensure they are not murderous cyborgs from the future.
Ok...I made that up.
But that's more than enough, I think.
Big Brother wants more and more information on you, and wants you to show your -papers- plastic card if you want ANYTHING from your life in America.
FISA capitulation to warrantless spying, Satellite spying and passports to go to the park.
Welcome to America, Citizen.
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