Last Chance to Stop National ID by Rep. Ron Paul

http://www.antiwar.com/paul/?articleid=5887


May 10, 2005 Last Chance to Stop National ID
by Rep. Ron Paul
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a spending bill last week that contains provisions establishing a national ID card, and the Senate is poised to approve the measure in the next few days. This week marks the American public's last chance to convince their senators they don't want to live in a nation that demands papers from its citizens as they go about their lives.

Absent a political miracle in the Senate, within two years every American will need a conforming national ID card to participate in ordinary activities. This REAL ID Act establishes a massive, centrally coordinated database of highly personal information about American citizens: at a minimum their name, date of birth, place of residence, Social Security number, and physical characteristics. The legislation also grants open-ended authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to require biometric information on IDs in the future. This means your harmless looking driver's license could contain a retina scan, fingerprints, DNA information, or radio frequency technology.

Think this sounds farfetched? Read the REAL ID Act, HR 418, for yourself. Its text is available on the Library of Congress Web site. A careful reading also reveals that states will be required to participate in the "Driver's License Agreement," which was crafted by DMV lobbyists years ago. This agreement creates a massive database of sensitive information on American citizens that can be shared with Canada and Mexico!

Terrorism is the excuse given for virtually every new power grab by the federal government, and the national ID is no exception. But federal agencies have tried to create a national ID for years, long before the 9/11 attacks. In fact, a 1996 bill sought to do exactly what the REAL ID Act does: transform state drivers' licenses into de facto national ID cards. At the time, Congress was flooded with calls by angry constituents, and the bill ultimately died.

Proponents of the REAL ID Act continue to make the preposterous claim that the bill does not establish a national ID card. This is dangerous and insulting nonsense. Let's get the facts straight: The REAL ID Act transforms state motor vehicle departments into agents of the federal government. Nationalizing standards for drivers' licenses and birth certificates in a federal bill creates a national ID system, pure and simple. Having the name of your particular state on the ID is meaningless window dressing.

Federally imposed standards for drivers' licenses and birth certificates make a mockery of federalism and the 10th amendment. While states technically are not forced to accept the federal standards, any refusal to comply would mean their residents could not get a job, receive Social Security, or travel by plane. So rather than imposing a direct mandate on the states, the federal government is blackmailing them into complying with federal dictates.

One overriding point has been forgotten: Criminals don't obey laws! As with gun control, national ID cards will only affect law-abiding citizens. Do we really believe a terrorist bent on murder is going to dutifully obtain a federal ID card? Do we believe that people who openly flout our immigration laws will nonetheless respect our ID requirements? Any ID card can be forged; any federal agency or state DMV is susceptible to corruption. Criminals can and will obtain national ID cards, or operate without them. National ID cards will be used to track the law-abiding masses, not criminals.

Dear CASPIAN members and subscribers:

On Tuesday (tomorrow), the Senate will vote on the national ID. A
website set up to take your comments and fax the same your your Senators
is here:

http://www.unrealid.com/

Time is of the essence. Please take a moment to object by visiting the
above site and click on the "comments" bar at the top of the page where
you can send an automatic fax to your senator. It appears that 4 or 5
objections are going on per second.

Your letter doesn't have to be fancy -- just a line or two will do.

US Congressional Switchboard Toll-free Numbers for those who also want
to call.
1-877-762-8762
1-866-808-0065

In freedom,
Katherine Albrecht, CASPIAN

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Here's more information from Bill Scannell, the website's creator.

Citizen:

We have less than 24 hours to stop Real ID from becoming a Real National
ID. Do we really want to have the same ID system as Communist China? I
think not.

The US Senate is scheduled to vote this Tuesday on the Real ID Act.
They've never debated the bill. Most of them haven't even bothered to
read it. Nevertheless, they're going to pass it: unless we do something
to stop them.

Take immediate action:

http://www.unRealID.com

Real ID is a very, very real national identification card.

This isn't going to be easy, but we need to put the Senate on notice
that if they vote for Real ID, they're voting in favor of a National ID
Card.

All the best,

Bill Scannell

··· --- ··· ··· --- ···
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin

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CASPIAN: Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering
Opposing supermarket "loyalty" cards and other retail surveillance
schemes since 1999

http://www.spychips.com/
http://www.nocards.org/

You're welcome to duplicate and distribute this message to others who
may find it of interest.

================================================== ===================

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[align=left]Senate Passes Real ID: National ID Card On Its Way[/align]

[align=left]U.S. Newswire | May 11 2005[/align]

[align=left]The Senate has passed the Real ID bill, creating a backdoor national ID card. After weeks of activism directed towards them senators knew the full scale of this horror but voted for it 100-0 anyway. [/align]

[align=left]To: National Desk [/align]

Contact: Jeff Lungren or Terry Shawn, 202-225-2492, both of the Committee on the Judiciary; Web: http://judiciary.house.gov/

WASHINGTON, May 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.), the author of the REAL ID Act (H.R. 418), issued the following statement following today's Senate passage of the supplemental appropriations conference report that included the REAL ID Act:

"The REAL ID is vital to preventing foreign terrorists from hiding in plain sight while conducting their operations and planning attacks. By targeting terrorist travel, the REAL ID will assist in our War on Terror efforts to disrupt terrorist operations and help secure our borders.

"I am grateful for the White House's strong support of this border security legislation. In addition, Senators Frist, McConnell, Santorum, Specter, Kyl, Sessions, Brownback, DeWine, and Cornyn were among those very helpful in shepherding this legislation through the Senate and I wish to thank them."

The truth is that Real ID does nothing to protect the borders and everything towards creating a national ID card.

Visit CASPIAN's UnRealID.com website to take action now!

FLASHBACK: The Real ID card: the machine readable you

FLASHBACK: Your Papers Please! National ID Cards Coming

FLASHBACK: Urgent action needed on REAL ID Act

FLASHBACK: HR 418- A National ID Bill Masquerading as Immigration Reform by Ron Paul

FLASHBACK: Real ID Act is a Trojan horse

FLASHBACK: National ID cards on the way?

http://www.unrealid.com/

Papers Please!

Real ID = National ID Card

This Tuesday, the US Senate is scheduled to vote on the implementation of a national ID card system. The Real ID Act is nothing less than a Real National ID Act. The only thing left to the individual states is to decide which pretty picture they will choose to put on the card: everything else will be controlled by Washington DC bureaucrats.

The Real ID Act has never been debated on the US Senate floor. They've never talked about it in any committee. Heck, most of them haven't even read it! Yet they're planning to vote on it on Tuesday, no questions asked.

In order to make a single irresponsible Congressman with totalitarian leanings happy, the Senate leadership let him write the bill and then slipped it into a another bill, one that would keep our fighting men and women taken care of in Iraq and Afghanistan. Supporting our troops means making sure they come home to a free nation, not a surveillance state.

>> Take action now!