Fast Track to Tyranny: The REAL ID Act of 2005 10.03.07‏

Posted by Brian McLain on 10.04.2007

Papers, please. The REAL ID Act of 2005 is set to go into effect May of 2008 and is set for enforcement for the end of 2009. Today, Brian McLain will get into the meat and potatoes of this questionable legislation that is supposedly going to protect us from further terrorist attacks, but in reality removes sovereignty from the States and its Citizens and creates headaches for the population at the very least, and create a true nightmare at the very worst.

Good day to all of you great 411mania readers out there and thank you for taking time out of your busy day to look my way. I am the Angry Scotsman, Brian McLain continuing with my allegedly award winning series on the disastrous legislation and actions of the federal government post 9-11 that is simply chock full of Republic and Liberty destroying goodness. Of the past articles, I had laid out the despicable legislation of the USA PATRIOT Act and Patriot Act II, detailed the foundation being set for martial law to be declared in the United States in the John Warner Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 and the Military Commissions Act, and NSPD 51 which basically removes congress from the mix in the eyes of the presidency and lays groundwork for any president, present or future, to declare themselves Caesar. Today, I will get into some more meat and potatoes of questionable legislation that is supposedly going to protect us from further terrorist attacks, but in reality removes sovereignty from the States and its Citizens and creates headaches for the population at the very least, and create a true nightmare at the very worst. "I need to see your papers, please."

First things first, please take time to Google the words: Clinton Echelon. This is actually a pre-9/11 issue so it will not necessarily be reviewed within the body of this series, however the information found regarding these particular words is quite fascinating.

Further I would highly recommend taking a quick look on Youtube for a series of videos called America: Freedom to Fascism. The series of videos is very interesting and it raises many questions on where the country might be heading. Now on to the article:

So what is this REAL ID? The REAL ID is a required form of national identification set to go into enforcement at the end of 2009. If you live or work within the United States (unless you are an undocumented worker, of course. Then you can get by without), you will be required to show your federal identification card to board and airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security checks, or any slew of federally mandated and regulated programs. This could mean anything from student loan qualification to qualification of hire at a place of work. The REAL ID Act of 2005 has been sold to those who have even heard of it as a method of national security and a recommendation put out by the fraud 911 Commission, since the alleged hijackers of the planes carried valid forms of state identification. Again, the States are being lambasted as not knowing how to run things and being the root cause of problems, so further power being taken from the states is the solution proposed.

However, even though this act was considered in the interest of national security and a necessary implementation for the safety of American Citizens and residents, it was known that it would never pass both the House and Senate because of the stigma that national identification cards hold with it. Nazi German was a huge fan of its unification cards and promoted them in Austria with great exuberance after drawing them into the empire, and shortly thereafter introduced the "J-stamp" which classified certain individuals as Jews. Rwanda adopted their national identification system from their days as a Belgian colony, which also carried an ethnicity classification as part of the required information. This made genocide very efficient in most cases, as all one had to do is approach a roadblock and have the classification "Tutsi" on their license to be shot dead. With such a stigma, the House bill went stagnant and died. However the act was brought back from the dead and Representative James Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin Republican, decided to attach this bill as a rider onto the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, the Global War on Terror and Tsunami Relief Act (HR 1268), which virtually guaranteed passage. Honestly, folks, this is the way it's been working. A congressional representative can introduce legislation tomorrow that could declare war on Iran, Sweden and Spain and it would pass with flying colors if they attached to a bill meant to help homeless puppies. No legislature in their right mind would vote against such a proposal. Could you imagine the headlines?! Senator Clinton votes against homeless puppies! Heartless wench! But I digress.

But there is no way that such information as color, ethnicity, religion, and so on could be considered viable on an identification card in the United States right? It's uncertain, really and the language of the act really leaves that all in the hands of Homeland Security. Let's take a quick look at the act, shall we? The language of the act, like others before it, is very important.

Title II, Section 201, Subsection 4: The definition of Secretary is the Secretary of Homeland Security

Section 202, Subsection 2: "The Secretary shall determine whether a State is meeting the requirements of this section based on certifications made by the State to the Secretary. Such certifications shall be made at such times and in such manner as the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of Transportation, may prescribe by regulation". Essentially this enables the Secretary of Homeland Security to set requirements and set up deadlines for such changes to take place at any time.

Section 202, Subsection b: Lists the MINIMUM requirements of the initial identification cards, including many things that probably already available on your current driver's license such as legal name, address, id number, etc. However subjection 9 lists "A common machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements". This has been a point of concern to many, as Secretary of Homeland Security has full control over what such technology might be. The most likely of these technologies is call the RFID chip, or Radio-Frequency Identification chips, already implemented in US passports. Within this chip may contain any information that the Department of Homeland Security may find relevant, especially the information one must provide in order to get one of these REAL ID cards.

Section 202, Subsection d, subsection 2: Requires paper copies of all information gathered during the validation process to be held for at least 7 years, and digital images of said copies to be held for at least 10.

Section 202, Subsection d, subsection 8: Requires that in order to receive a valid card, one must be subject to a security background check. Being an occasional worker at the United States Postal Service let me tell you how such a security check may be prescribed. First, you fill out forms, lots of them, detailing your current residence, past residence of up to 10 years or longer, any aliases or maiden names, etc. Then from that point you are taken back to be fingerprinted like the common criminal that you could potentially be. From there you are told to go to an approved facility to take a drug test, and yes this is still listed as part of the security background check. Is this actually what will happen? That's been given to the Secretary of Homeland Security to decide.

While the act gives the Secretary of Homeland Security the ability to issue grants (Section 204) to states in aiding the implementation of the REAL ID Act, this hold little power since the Executive branch does not hold the power of the purse and leaves the States to responsibility of covering billions of dollars in costs. Further, the language of the bill provides the Department of Homeland Security the ability to change their requirements of State's uniform Ids at any time, which would mean more time in line at the DMV for Citizens and even more cost to the States for refinement of their systems. The measure will also convert DMVs into immigration centers, as the requirement of obtaining a REAL ID is to be a legal resident or Citizen of the United States and require DMVs to bare the burden and cost of actually checking the backgrounds of every individual to verify their residency status and criminal background. Per the language of the act, any legal resident may be refused a REAL ID if even a charge of assault has been placed on their criminal record. So far to date, 33 states have already passed legislation requesting the congress to repeal the act and officially refusing to take part in implementation, primarily due to the cost required. Some states, such as South Carolina and Maine have passed legislation questioning the legitimacy the REAL ID act and condemn it as an attack on the State's sovereign powers guaranteed by the 10th Amendment of the Constitution.



I began my own crusade against the legislation and have received some support from legislative officials. If you are a like minded individual who resides in a state that has not yet started fighting against this act I would highly recommend you write your legislators and tell them to say no to implementation. This is a rare opportunity for the States to pull rank on the federal government and it would be a pleasure to see every state in the US come together and capsize this ship before it has the chance to do irreparable damage to the Republic.

I have a few ideas for topics to write on for the next part of the series, but for now I will keep those a secret for, you know, national security reasons. Take care everyone and see you next week.