National ID–I told you so

Real ID Act (National ID cards with a different name) are a
waste of time and money as well as being a source of high risk to
liberty.  A year ago I wrote about the flaws that would show up.  Now the AP has an ‘exclusive’ on the story of the problems the states are having:

AP Exclusive: National ID, State Nightmare

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN AP Technology Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

An anti-terrorism law creating a national standard for all driver’s
licenses by 2008 isn’t just upsetting civil libertarians and
immigration rights activists.

State motor vehicle officials nationwide who will have to carry out the
Real ID Act say its authors grossly underestimated its logistical,
technological and financial demands.

In a comprehensive survey obtained by The Associated Press and in
follow-up interviews, officials cast doubt on the states’ ability to
comply with the law on time and fretted that it will be a budget buster.

“It
is just flat out impossible and unrealistic to meet the prescriptive
provisions of this law by 2008,” Betty Serian, a deputy secretary of
the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said in an interview.

In a comprehensive survey obtained by The Associated Press and in
follow-up interviews, officials cast doubt on the states’ ability to
comply with the law on time and fretted that it will be a budget buster.

“It is just flat out impossible and unrealistic to meet the
prescriptive provisions of this law by 2008,” Betty Serian, a deputy
secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said in an
interview.

“If you take any one of these things individually, you see a
significant problem,” Steinhardt said. “There are literally hundreds of
these problems embedded in Real ID, and the statute doesn’t give you a
way out. It’s black and white. No exceptions, no reality check.

“In many respects it’s a statute that ignores reality.”

Like I said in my post from last year.  It’s as
if the congress critters had tried to legislate that PI equals
3.0.  They are out of touch with reality.

Share

2 thoughts on “National ID–I told you so

  1. The constitution isn’t even a strong suggestion. It’s irrelevent in todays politics. We have two choices. 1) Try to slowly work our way back to the limited government it demanded; or 2) Revolution.

    I’m actively working on 1) and keeping my options open should 2) be required.

    What I wish the Alito hearings would have covered was questions like, “Can you tell me where in the constitution the Federal government obtains the power to create and fund the Department of Education/Commerce/Energy/Transportation/etc.?” That would be a nice starting point. But we have left the enumerated powers concept so far behind that deep space telescopes couldn’t see it.

Comments are closed.