Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Big Brother Week: REAL ID ACT AND STATES' RIGHTS

This is part two of the ThePete.Com's Big Brother Week series. This one talks about the homogenization of something almost every adult in America carries and why its homogenization is a bad thing. Ready? Here we go! So, waaaay back in 2001, on the eleventh day of September, something very big and scary happened in New York City. Perhaps you're familiar with 911. if not, you probably haven't attended any Republican rallies since then. Ha. Anyway, so one of the myriad big brothery laws that the USG passed post-911 was the Real ID Act. He can [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR00418:|read all about it] at The Library of Congress website (http://LOC.gov). In short, here's the official description of what this law is to do:
To establish and rapidly implement regulations for State driver's license and identification document security standards, to prevent terrorists from abusing the asylum laws of the United States, to unify terrorism-related grounds for inadmissibility and removal, and to ensure expeditious construction of the San Diego border fence.
Wow--if that's not big brothery enough for you, I don't know what is! OK, now those of you non-believers may wonder just what the big deal is here. What could be wrong with making it easier to "prevent terrorists from abusing the asylum laws of the United States?" Well, let's assume for a moment that our beloved United States Government (USG) is not perfect. I know--hard to believe, but, please, for the sake of argument, let's just say it is. What this law does is say that every state in the union must adopt the same standards--standards established by the USG. You can probably see where I'm taking this. So, now that the law is passed (it is, this isn't hypothetical) every state must adopt the USG's guidelines for how to design and handle their drivers' licenses. However, what if the guidelines from the USG are not good guidelines? What if they're flawed or vulnerable to weakness? One of the proposed changes to IDs is to include an RFID chip into each ID card. The pro-argument says that this will allow a lot more info to stored on the card. The catch is, RFID chips are about as secure as a prostitute's chastity belt. With $100 and the nearest Radio Shack I could build a device that could steal all the data on an RFID chip and encode it to a new RFID chip, thus stealing your identity. I wouldn't even need to see your card, I could read the data from a couple feet away in most cases. Sure, you could use a wallet that shields your RFID chip from being read, but I could just wait until you were about to pay for something. When you pull your wallet out, BUZZ! There goes my scanner. Now, the Real ID Act doesn't allow for states to veto any of the requirements of the law. This is essentially our government (big brother) forcing every state to adopt flawed plans. Seems pretty lame, huh? So, why would our government want to put our personal identities (and therefore our finances and therefore even our lives) in danger? That's a question to ask your leaders. In fact, some states aren't even bothering to ask--they're putting their foot (feet?) down to say no way. Check out this cutting from [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070126/pl_nm/usa_idcard_dc_1|a January 25, 2007 article] from Reuters.Com available at News.Yahoo.Com:
Maine lawmakers on Thursday became the first in the nation to demand repeal of a federal law tightening identification requirements for drivers' licenses, a post-September 11 security measure that states say will cost them billions of dollars to administer. Maine lawmakers passed a resolution urging repeal of the Real ID Act, which would create a national digital identification system by 2008. The lawmakers said it would cost Maine about $185 million, fail to boost security and put people at greater risk of identity theft. Maine's resolution is the strongest stand yet by a state against the law, which Congress passed in May 2004 and gave states three years to implement. Similar repeal measures are pending in eight other states.
So, there ya have it! The USG is trying to tell the states what to do. Another time this kind of disagreement happened it resulted in the Civil War. Let's hope big brother the US Government comes to its senses and repeals the Real ID Act. OK, stop by tomorrow for DAY TWO of ThePete.Com's Big Brother Week when I'll be going into how big brother tactics are being used to make sure the press plays along with the Bush 43 Administration's plans for Iran. They're actually putting journalists in jail for not cooperating. Don't believe me? Check out tomorrow's post or to get all hardcore, check your local PBS listings for the first episode of Frontline's new documentary miniseries "News War" which premieres tonight. You can also check out their special preview page here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/preview/ This is all for real, people. I'm not making this up. I really wish I were.

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