Welcome to Call to Decision
Subject: Chertoff Winks on REAL I.D.???
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 13:55:04 -0400
Hello:
RE: Chertoff's devilish play to mandate "The Mark for
"Buying &
Selling"
Chertoff winks in his game of collection and supply of Biometric
Data (Electronic I.D.), while handing off his football to the
"regulated"
private sector under his control. We need legislation like
yesterday to
stop the enforced collection of biometrics as replacements to time
clock
punch cards in the work place, automatic credit/debit for
paycheques etc,
etc. THIS TOUCHDOWN PASS MUST BE STOPPED! This is Fascism in fast
forward when you merge the following two web pages.
1)
http://www.secureidnews.com/news/2008/03/09/private-sector-to-collect-biometrics-for-uk-id-card-plan/
Governments, used to get the Biometric ball rolling, are now
handing
it to the real culprits, the Banks and their Commercial
"Clients" better
known as Mammon.
Rev 13:17 "And the NO MAN might buy or sell save he that had
the
Mark ... "
2) http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9909928-38.html?tag=nefd.lede
April 2, 2008 6:52 PM PDT
Homeland Security blinks on Real ID: No hassles on May 11
WASHINGTON--In the long-running Real ID staring match, the U.S.
Department
of Homeland Security ended up being the first to blink.
Homeland Security announced Wednesday that all 50 states and the
District of
Columbia will be technically Real ID-compliant by the May 11, 2008
deadline--even though many states actually have rejected the
concept and
have zero plans to embrace a national ID card.
This means Americans will face no new hassles when using their
drivers
licenses to enter federal buildings or fly on airplanes starting
on May 11.
That's a good thing.
But the way this turned out is so odd it's worth repeating. States
including
New Hampshire, Maine, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Washington, and
Montana have
enacted laws saying "hell no we'll never comply with Real
ID." And Homeland
Security officials carefully ignored those public votes of
condemnation,
instead pretending that those states really intend to acquiesce by
the next
major deadline of December 31, 2009. (See our special report on
Real ID from
earlier this year.)
"Now they've got 18 months to actually finish the process of
being able to
issue the cards that will meet the requirements," Homeland
Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff told a small group of reporters and
bloggers here
on Wednesday. "We will have to watch this because the one
thing that will be
important is for a state not to be dilatory in completing the
process."
That may have been a more serious threat a few years ago, when
Chertoff was
beginning his defense of the Real ID Act, which became law as part
of a
must-pass tsunami relief and Iraq emergency appropriations bill in
2005.
Now, however, state officials realize that Homeland Security is
more likely
to back down than not. The first sign of this came when the agency
decided
to treat a request for an extension past May 11 as a formal
agreement to
comply with all Real ID rules. The second came when Homeland
Security
retreated to its fallback position: even a symbolic gesture on the
part of a
governor amounted to full compliance.
A good example of this dynamic is what happened in the last few
days
involving Maine, a state that has rejected Real ID in no uncertain
terms,
and was the only will-have-trouble-at-airports state as of this
morning. Its
legislation approved last year says that it "refuses to
implement the Real
ID Act and thereby protest the treatment by Congress and the
president of
the states as agents of the federal government."
Maine nevertheless asked the feds not to penalize its travelers.
Stewart
Baker, Homeland Security assistant secretary for policy, replied
in a letter
that if Maine "is prepared to commit" to embracing Real
ID by 5 p.m. on
April 2, "we will grant an extension conditioned upon
performance of these
commitments." (The commitments Baker requested include using
a Homeland
Security identity verification system, using facial recognition
technology
so someone can't get two licenses, and so on.)
In response, Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat, wrote back to Baker
saying in
part:
I will seek legislation to halt Maine's current practice of
issuing
licenses to those not present lawfully in the United States.
I will submit legislation, which includes a funding source and
appropriations, that will adopt three changes in Maine's licensing
processes:
Maine will enter into an agreement with USCIS and utilize the
Systematic
Alien Verification for Entitlements Program to verify DHS
documents
presented by non-citizens.
Maine will begin capturing and maintaining photographs of each
individual
applying for a license or state identification card, even if no
license is
issued.
It worked. Maine got a green check mark, and its licenses will
continue to
be valid for federal purposes after May 11--even though Baldacci
was, for
the most part, merely promising to introduce legislation. And the
Maine
legislators, who soundly rebuked the Bush administration by nearly
unanimous
votes last year, will be the ones to vote on it.
Last month, Montana took a similar approach. Its governor, Brian
Schweitzer,
a Democrat, has repeatedly denounced Real ID and even called on
his
counterparts (PDF) in other states to oppose it. But Homeland
Security
dutifully accepted a relatively hostile letter from
Schweitzer--saying he
will never "authorize implementation of the Real ID
Act"--as good enough.
Now that the May 11 deadline has become effectively meaningless,
the next
major deadline is December 31, 2009, at which point Homeland
Security
currently says it will require "certification that the state
has achieved
the benchmarks set forth in the Material Compliance
Checklist."
In political terms, that's a long time--and a new presidential
administration--away. Some opponents of Real ID are already
predicting that
no state will actually comply with the deadline, or,
alternatively, the next
administration will find a way to quietly dispose of Real ID
without much
fanfare.
"DHS is not in power here," said Jim Harper, the
director of information
policy studies at the free-market Cato Institute. "The states
are in power.
DHS has done all it could, but from a position of weakness...DHS
put the
best face it could on its capitulation to states with backbone. A
lot more
states will recognize that they own this issue, they control this
debate."
News.com's Anne Broache contributed to this report from
Washington, D.C.
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