National ID card very much alive
OK, here's Ron Paul's "signature issue" — handed to him on a silver platter by the Department of Fatherland Security.
The department is planning a dog-and-pony-show news conference today to take the wraps off the national ID card . Of course, that's not what they're calling it. Rather, it's the final regulations to implement the "Real ID Act" — a one-size-fits-all requirement for state driver's licenses. Rumors of its death, reported here a couple of months ago, appear greatly exaggerated:
By May 2011, the program to tighten national standards for driver's
licenses would require motorists born after Dec. 1, 1964, to submit a
digital photograph upon application, a birth certificate or similar
proof of identity, and a statement on penalty of perjury that
information provided on applications was true, they said. Other changes
would take effect in 2014.Drivers older than 50 would have until 2018 to meet the new license
requirements, according to sources who spoke on the condition of
anonymity before today's announcement by the Department of Homeland Security.DHS revised its ID plan after states and civil libertarians criticized
draft regulations, issued last March and setting a 2013 deadline, as
unworkable and threatening to Americans' privacy by creating a de facto
national ID for 245 million U.S. drivers. Seventeen states have passed
legislation opposing or opting out of the program.
This was the lead story for the top-of-the-hour newscast on the big news/talk station here in Baltimore at eight o'clock this morning, so I'm guessing this will get a lot of establishment media play today, with some input from opponents like the ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center. But who in the political arena will take a bold stand against this program? Actually, one already has. The question is whether Ron Paul's campaign team will be nimble enough to take advantage.
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