No, we only take Real IDs, not fake ones

The Real ID Act hooked itself up to an $82 billion military spending bill that Bush is going to be signing soon. The house passed. The senate passed. Did anyone really doubt whether it was going to happen? “Oh, but if we try to fight the Real ID by not voting for the military spending bill then we’ll just be such party poopers,” the Dems perhaps defend themselves.

Except for a few. Robert Wexler, a Dem from Florida is one of those who voted against it in the house.

Republican James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin is the one who bonded Real ID with H.R. 1268, the emergency supplemental appropriations conference report. The House Repubs said, in effect, “You want increased funding for military personnel, want to be a good guy and increase death gratuities and life insurance benefits for active duty troopers, and support tsunami aid? Real ID is along for the ride.”

Dems should have said no anyway. Just like Dems should have said no to to the Patriot Act and a number of things that have gone on, like invading Iraq. Just like Dems should have said no to the bankruptcy hiwayman act.

REAL ID removes the right of judicial review -including habeas corpus – for people fleeing persecution, undermines the privacy rights of even native-born Americans, burdens the states with
complex and unfunded ID requirements, makes it harder for battered women to hide from their abusers, scapegoats the immigrant community and does nothing to address the actual problem of border security and enforcement in the United States…In December 2004, Congress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which implemented the core recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Despite the fact that our government has barely begun to implement this important legislation, the REAL ID Act would delete key security-related provisions in the Intelligence Reform Act that had the overwhelming support of both parties in the House and Senate.

Source: House approves Real ID Act, One Democrat’s Objections

So to Thomas we go! 225 republicans voted yes and 3 no. 143 Dems for and 54 no.

The no votes were:
Abercrombie
Baldwin
Becerra
Blumenauer
Capuano
Carson
Clay
Coble
Conyers
Davis (IL)
Delahunt
Duncan
Farr
Filner
Frank (MA)
Gordon
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hinchey
Holt
Honda
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jones (OH)
Kucinich
Lee
Lewis (GA)
Maloney
Markey
McCollum (MN)
McDermott
McGovern
McKinney
Meehan
Meeks (NY)
Miller, George
Napolitano
Oberstar
Olver
Owens
Pallone
Pastor
Paul
Payne
Rangel
Sánchez, Linda T.
Sanders
Schakowsky
Serrano
Stark
Thompson (CA)
Tierney
Towns
Velázquez
Waters
Watt
Weiner
Wexler
Woolsey

The Senate said yes, yes, yes, yes, yes all the way home.

Here is a list of the more than 600 organizations who opposed Real ID.

Here is an easy list of the organizations that supported Real ID:
Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License
Numbers USA

What is NumbersUSA? IRC’s Right Web (exposing the architecture of power that’s changing our world) gives in Numbers USA’s profile the info that Numbers USA says they are “pro-environment, pro-worker, pro-liberty and pro-immigrant.” Hmm. Ok. Roy Beck, former journalist, is executive director. On the board are Tom McOwen and C. Gary Gerst. The Southern Poverty Law Center gives John Tanton of Social Contract Press as playing a key role with immigration restrictionist organizations. He was a founding member.

CNET has an article on the Real ID. FAQ: How Real ID will affect you.

In 3 years one will need the Homeland Security Real ID card to take an airplane, open a bank account and collect social security. And, if it has anything to do with the government, whatever service, you will need the ID, that goes without saying.

Cnet says we’ll be getting our Real ID through our state DMV and will probably take the place of the driver’s license. Well, if this is the case, aren’t we going to have a major crunch in 3 years time with everyone running to get their Real ID? The process is going to be much more involved as you will need a “photo identity document”, a document showing birth date and address, you will need to prove your SS number is what you claim it to be, you’ll have to prove you’re a US citizen. And then…and then…the DMV is going to have to verify all your documents are legitimate, digitize them, store them permanently and must verify your SS number with the SS administration.

I read that one also will have to pick up one’s ID. So your trip for your ID will most likely involve two trips, if not more (oops, can’t get to you today; no, can’t accept this as proof of address etc.). Wonder how they’re going to handle home-bound, hospital-bound, nursing home-bound individuals and their ability to get benefits if they’re not able to hop on down to the local DMV for their Real ID?

Is there anyone, anyone out there whose local DMV is prepared for this? Anyone? Show of hands? Imagine yourself standing in line standing in line standing in line at your local DMV. Standing in line some more. Imagine standing in line at your local DMV and imagine the faith you have in them to do this and not screw it up.

The cards need to be electronically readable. The options are magnetic strip, enhanced bar code or a radio frequency identification chip. Probably the RFID chip.

Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s technology and liberty program, says: “It’s going to result in everyone, from the 7-Eleven store to the bank and airlines, demanding to see the ID card. They’re going to scan it in. They’re going to have all the data on it from the front of the card…It’s going to be not just a national ID card but a national database.”

Ooo, how hi tech!

I can tell you this. Just like Californians who were pursuing banning RFID tech in state IDs before the Real ID became real, I don’t want RFID handing over my vitals to an ID thief who can easily lift your data with a reader device that can be purchased for less than $500. But magnetic strips can go bad and that’s just what I’d want to find out at the airport, that my Real ID’s magnetic strip was no longer working.

Now what’s my problem with all this other than the fact in many ways I’m an old dog and new tricks like this are like a bed of nails scraping over a chalkboard? Cnet’s FAQ gives somewhat how it will affect you. I suspect just a teeny tiny intsy bit of how it will affect you. Because in cooperation with the Patriot Act I have this feeling that things stand a chance of getting nasty fast. My natural paranoia showing through. My distrust of Homeland Security USA. When teachers who protest at Bush campaign rally are arrested for no reason at all and stripsearched (pure humiliation tactics here at home, and charges were later dropped), when the US is fattening Wackenhut’s pockets with prisoners and detainees and refugees and psychiatric patients, when no one is accountable for torture in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, when not finding WMDs in Iraq means nothing, when the Feds want to read your library card, well then yes I do indeed think that the Real ID could be conveniently used to severely impact dissent. (I’ve got this accumulative effect thing going that makes me real cynical as far as what is said to be versus what actually is.)

But, because, ‘yknow, that is being alarmist of me, let’s not worry about that right now.

I’ve got other more mundane worries–aside from ID thieves trolling checkout counters and lifting data.

I know CNet shows Bill Gates’ sample Belgium electronic ID card in I guess an explarary show of techy solidarity.

Bill Gates is not your ordinary screwed-over, screw-up US citizen. Never mind every Federal “I’ll get you and your little dog too” scenario I can come up with, I’m talking about the simple bug in the system or I don’t care if you remain without an identity for the rest of our life federal or state employee or federally-contracted employee. If something goes wrong for Bill Gates, Bill Gates’ personal assistant makes a phone call and it’s taken care of. He’s not your run-of-the-mill citizen who faces untold woes with their card being stolen with their wallet, whose RFID chip is going to go bad, who is going to have a simple change of address screw up the whole works because someone enters them as living on 123 Bloop Street instead of 132 Blop Street. I’m talking about endless hassles and run-arounds and people dropping responsibility and no one caring you are running around with zip identity. Why? Because the way things are and have been I count on whatever could possibly go wrong to go wrong.

I have zero faith in smooth sailing. I have total faith in thousands of identity disasters.

A question I have, something I’ve not come across yet, is how this pertains to children. So, you can’t get on a plane without your Real ID. Are they going to play the movie theater game of “how old do I look”? Say you show up with a 14 year old who looks 18. Is the 14 year old going to need a Real ID?

John Gilmore is one of those who has intentionally gone the route of no ID. He writes, “I don’t have one, precisely because I want to be the canary in the coal mine. I want to know how many rights an honest, hard-working, un-documented person still has. The only way to find out is to live that way. I’ll tell you what I’ve learned. ”

One of the things he has learned, of course, is you don’t fly without it.

He is suing Gonzales.

Meet John Gilmore. He’s a 49 year-old philanthropist who lives in San Francisco, California. Through a lot of hard work (and a little luck), John made his fortune as a programmer and entrepreneur in the software industry. Whereas most people in his position would have moved to a tropical island and lived a life of luxury, John chose to use his fortune to protect and defend the US Constitution.

On the 4th of July 2002, John Gilmore, American citizen, decided to take a trip from one part of the United States of America to another. He went to Oakland International Airport — ticket in hand — and was told he had to produce his ID if he wanted to travel. He asked to see the law demanding he show his ‘papers’ and was told after a time that the law was secret and no, he wouldn’t be allowed to read it.

He hasn’t flown in his own country since.

On the 16th of August 2004, John Gilmore filed his case before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. At stake is nothing less than the right of Americans to travel anonymously in their own country — and the exposure of ‘secret law’ for what it is: an abomination.

“Real ID. What could be the harm? It’s just for stopping terrorists.””

As mentioned, 600 organizations opposed Real ID. That’s a fair number worried, nervous individuals.