I hate a lot of things. There’s a lot of things that really bug me; that
really get under my skin. But the one thing I am absolutely sick and
tired of hearing about is Senators and Congressman tacking little
provisions onto other relatively benign bills in order to get them passed.
This really pisses me off, because it’s blatently dishonest!
The latest example of this is the Real ID Act, written by one Congressman F.
James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R), of Wisconsin. This act would mandate
national ID cards for all citizens that are machine readable, with a lot of
personal information going into some big government controlled database. It’s
being tacked onto a bill giving our troops in Iraq further governmental
financial support. Now, what does a national ID card system have to do with
passing funding requests for our troops in Iraq? Nothing!
This is being voted on tomorrow. Here’s an email from my good friend
Patrick Wagstrom with a little more information about it.
Hey,
So as part of the “emergency” funding bill for the troops, Sen Stensenbrenner
of Wisconsin got the Real ID bill attached, and it passed the house. The
senate votes on it this Tuesday (TOMORROW), and Bush will certainly sign the
bill if nothing happens.
Here’s a brief overview of what’s going on:
Real ID basically mandates a national ID card. It requires that all state
drivers licenses have a uniform set of data, including biometric data and that
it be readable by a smart card and 2d barcode reader. In addition, this
information will be forwarded to a federal government database of individuals.
What’s so bad about all this? After all, we don’t have any privacy left
anyway. Well, the issue is that your information in this centralized database
becomes a requisite for all sorts of things, bank accounts, plane tickets,
social security, etc. Furthermore, it’s a centralized clearing house for the
the government to spy/black list it’s citizens. This could very realistically
turn into a massive new form of the no-fly list where individuals will not
know why they’ve been flagged. We could have thousands of second class
citizens who have no hopes of a better life because they fit a profile. What’s
worse, it could happen to you (nothing like fear mongering to make a point).
The bill has lots of other nasty provisions that do things like take away
habeus corpus for non-citizens and SUSPECTED terrorists (technically leeching
someone’s wifi access is terrorism as it’s unauthorized computer access which
is classified as computer terrorism). The fact that this was attached to a
spending authorization for the troops is horrible and it MUST be stopped.
Call your senators and let them know that you don’t support this sort of
piggybacking and that the government needs to allow open and public debate on
this issue. It’s too important to be piggybacked and rammed through in this
method.
–Patrick
I want to reiterate that this is being voted on tomorrow! This means that if
you want to speakup you need to do so now. There’s a website that you can use
to contact your seantor(s). http://www.UnRealID.com. [Note: The site
seems to be having problems right now. I tried to submit my fax but I got an
error. If it doesn’t come back up, you might have to call your Senator.]
Please take the time to speak up about this if you’re even half as irate as I
am. At the very least, even if you would support the Real ID Act, at least
tell your Senator(s) that they should read a bill before passing it, just
to make sure shenanigans like this don’t happen.
Oh, and if you’re interested, here’s what I wrote to the Washington State
Senators.
Good morning Senators Murray and Cantwell,
I am writing to voice my opposition of the Real ID Act, which is being voted
on by the Senate on Tuesday, May 10. First of all, I feel that this Act is the
first step leading to a national ID card system, not unlike that of Soviet
Russia, communist China, and Vietnam. Frankly, if I wanted to live in China, I
would move there. I would like to think that here in the US we support our
citizens’ right to privacy.
Second of all, because these cards would be the same throughout all 50 states,
and be machine readable, there is nothing preventing companies and individuals
from the private sector from reading the data on these cards and selling
citizens’ personal information to the highest bidder.
Thirdly, there is no proof that ID documents help prevent or deter terrorism.
An ID document says nothing about evil intent. Forcing our citizens to
document themselves is NOT a deterrant to terrorism; rather, it is a VICTORY
for terrorists!
Finally, and most importantly, this Act has been tacked on to another bill,
and has not been discussed or debated on the Senate floor. I believe that as
Senators, it is your responsibility to read and understand all bills before
you, and make an informed decision. The fact that the Real ID Act is
piggybacking on another bill seems to imply that the author did not feel it
could pass on its own merits. Please read and understand the Real ID Act in
its entirety, and consider the ramifications of passing this bill.
Sincerely,
Tyler W. Butler