Nation ID Card

[SteelPH]

What's all the fuss with the Real ID Act about?
President Bush is expected to sign an $82 billion military spending bill soon that will, in part, create electronically readable, federally approved ID cards for Americans. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the package--which includes the Real ID Act--on Thursday.

What does that mean for me?
Starting three years from now, if you live or work in the United States, you'll need a federally approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments, or take advantage of nearly any government service. Practically speaking, your driver's license likely will have to be reissued to meet federal standards.

The Real ID Act hands the Department of Homeland Security the power to set these standards and determine whether state drivers' licenses and other ID cards pass muster. Only ID cards approved by Homeland Security can be accepted "for any official purpose" by the feds.

http://news.com.com/FAQ+How+Real+ID+will+affect+you/2100-1028_3-5697111.html

Slipped into an appropriations bill, passed without any debate. Read the rest of the article for the details, but effective May of 2008 the US will have a national ID card, standards to be determined by Homeland Security. For those who thought "Never in America!" well guess what, you were wrong. Now open your freaking eyes!

[Graf Zahl]

Guess what? The rest of the civilized world has had something like that for ages. So who cares?

[Submerge]

I guess I'll just get my ID card and get on with my life. whatever.

[NiGHTMARE]

you'll need a federally approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments, or take advantage of nearly any government service.

Uh, surely you need some form of ID to do all those at the moment anyway? If not, identity theft must be running rampant in the U.S.

[VinceDSS]

They use either their driving licence, social security card or passport...

I was actually surprised that they don't have ID cards like most countries...

[Job]

Submerge said:

I guess I'll just get my ID card and get on with my life. whatever.

Yeah, I don't know what the big deal is. It's not like they're inserting tracking devices into our flesh. A person could argue that this a slippery slope but I'd rather wait and see if there's more indicators instead of pulling a Chicken Little.

[Amaster]

The big deal is that it interferes with state bodies. I mean it's not a big brother situation. But it removes a little bit of power from the states. Also, according to an article I read about this, it's going to be expensive and the states will be required to pay for it, despite having perfectly adequate ID systems in place already.

[Sharessa]

This is completely retarded. How is this any better than driver's liscences/military ID?

[fodders]

All of the hijackers had valid proof of identity, ID cards wouldn't have altered 911 one jot.

[deathbringer]

"I joined UKIP to save the Classic Cars, i stayed to stop the ID cards"

[Job]

fodders said:

All of the hijackers had valid proof of identity, ID cards wouldn't have altered 911 one jot.

Yeah, good point. Why do the people who passed the bill think that these ID cards will magically be incapable of being falsely created or entered in a database, etc?

[Bloodshedder]

The biggest problem is the lack of personal information controls set up in the States. The cards will be required to have a common, machine-readable format, which could possibly mean that any place that requires ID for entry, sale, or something else, can just scan your card, collect all your personal information, and sell it to the highest bidder. I've also heard rumors of some people wanting RFID chips in these cards as well, which is another can of worms.

[NiGHTMARE]

Bloodshedder said:

any place that requires ID for entry, sale, or something else, can just scan your card, collect all your personal information, and sell it to the highest bidder.

This has the benefit that if you find out about it, you can promptly proceed to sue them for a crap load of money. Well, at least I assume you could do that in the States - you certainly could here in the UK :).

[Scuba Steve]

Graf Zahl said:

Guess what? The rest of the civilized world has had something like that for ages. So who cares?

The rest of the civilized world ins't a collection of states, each with their own individual powers and rights.

[NiGHTMARE]

Europe is well on its way, however. Though if the top EU brass get their way, individual states won't exactly have much power or many rights once the EU is done with them.

[Use]

Well luckily we're still free to leave at any time.

[Sharessa]

Not really. Have you tried leaving the country recently?

[m0l0t0v]

Here in the Netherlands everone from the age of 14 has to be able to indentify him/herself at all time since januari. If you're not carrying a valid ID you'll get fined.

We were told this was done to fight terrorism and were ensured the new law would not be abused.
In reality the police only use it to hassle kids on the street and search for illegal immigrants. In the first month alone the police abused the law 3000 times.

ID's suck. Sure they are needed, but when I need to have one to show I have the right to walk on a Dutch street you're crossing the line.

Luckily for the US, you don't have a president who is known to abuse laws.
:-P

[NiGHTMARE]

m0l0t0v said:

Luckily for the US, you don't have a president who is known to abuse laws.
:-P

Ermmm....

[TheDarkArchon]

Tony Blair NOT abusing laws. That's news to me.

[Haloless0320]

The Bush Family=corrupt
Have you seen the gas prices lately?You know fuckin carter put a damn boycott on gas and wouldnt buy any til they lower the prices.The only reason why Bush doesnt do that is cause he's getting a profit from it,Damn oil tycoon's
The US is just gonna become more and more like a police state.Yeah...ID cards might not seem harmful now until they start abusing the power(Like they have everything else)Just another step towards total Control if you ask me.Before we know it,it will be like big brother.

[TheDarkArchon]

Haloless0320 said:

The Bush Family=corrupt
Have you seen the gas prices lately?

OMG!! You have to pay JUST OVER $2 A GALLON, where as over here the cost in about the same for a litre.[/pissedmode]

[Haloless0320]

TheDarkArchon said:

OMG!! You have to pay JUST OVER $2 A GALLON, where as over here the cost in about the same for a litre.[/pissedmode]

Yeah,and for the longest time we didnt have to pay $2 for a damn gallon of gas.

[Job]

TheDarkArchon said:

OMG!! You have to pay JUST OVER $2 A GALLON, where as over here the cost in about the same for a litre.[/pissedmode]

I'm confident that you as a society, at least, either have higher wages to compensate for the cost of fuel...or at least a better-developed public transit system. Also, we're in an economic slump so boo hoo for us (the US).

[Haloless0320]

Job said:

I'm confident that you as a society, at least, either have higher wages to compensate for the cost of fuel...or at least a better-developed public transit system. Also, we're in an economic slump so boo hoo for us (the US).

Damn...good point.Sorry about the bitching thing.
Guess its more of the point i have to drive 20 min to get to work and School so yeah.Need a better paying job too...Pizza Hut pay is Shit.

[Job]

Haloless0320 said:

Damn...good point.Sorry about the bitching thing.
Guess its more of the point i have to drive 20 min to get to work and School so yeah.Need a better paying job too...Pizza Hut pay is Shit.

Heh. Actually, I was defending your statement to some extent. The situation in terms of overall pay, economy, public transit and so on has to be considered differently in the effect made on fuel prices in the US versus Europe.

[Sharessa]

Well fopr one thing, America doesn't really even HAVE public transit. Any time someone tries to do anything about that it gets rejected by congress or the tax payers or it just gets horribly botched (like the monorail project they're working on in Seattle...blech).

[Gokuma]

http://www.shadowwar.0catch.com/100ways.htm Hopefully much of this will still be effective.

[AirRaid]

I love how paranoid most americans are.

[kristus]

You voted for bush, you get what you deserve.