Repeal Real ID NOW!!
This should be at the top of the list. Get this Orwellian nightmare out of our lives ASAP!! From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
The federal government is trying to force states to turn your drivers license into a national ID. Unless you tell your state legislator to push back, the Real ID Act will create grave dangers to privacy and impose massive financial burdens without improving national security in the least.
Signed into law in May 2005 without meaningful debate, the Real ID Act states that drivers licenses will only be accepted for "federal purposes"—like accessing planes, trains, national parks, and court houses—if they conform to certain uniform standards. The law also requires a vast national database linking all of the ID records together.
Once the IDs and database are in place, their uses will inevitably expand to facilitate a wide range of surveillance activities. Remember, the Social Security number started innocuously enough, but it has become a prerequisite for a host of government services and been coopted by private companies to create massive databases of personal information. A national ID poses similar dangers; for example, because "common machine-readable technology" will be required on every ID, the government and businesses will be able to easily read your private information off the cards in myriad contexts.
Real ID won't just cost you your privacy. The federal government didn't give the states funds to implement the law and overcome its many administrative burdens, so the billions of dollars in costs will be passed down to you in the form of increased DMV fees or taxes.
And what will you get in return? Not improved national security, because IDs do nothing to stop those who haven't already been identified as threats, and wrongdoers will still be able to create fake documents. In fact, the IDs and database will simply create an irresistible target for identity thieves.
It's not too late to fight back—state legislators can still resist implementing the Real ID Act and force Congress' hand. Learn more about Real ID through the links below, and tell your representatives to oppose the Real ID Act.
News articles and an action item linked at the EFF page.
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Let me get this straight.....
Let's say a person is required to identify himself/herself, that is, to prove that he/she is a citizen of the US before getting the Real ID drivers license/ID card. Then, that would cut down on the ILLEGAL ALIENS running around here violating the laws of just about every country on the face of this Earth. So, that means I don't have to support any more ILLEGAL ALIENS? Sounds like a good idea to me. The population of illegal aliens in this country puts a drag on health care system, educational services and the tax system. Why is my tax money being use to violate US and international law?
There are lots of my fellow citizens who are unemployed. They can use the money spent of ILLEGAL ALIENS to live through this recession/depression. As far as a violation of privacy, that was taken care of by the so-called "Patriot" Act. Our Congress gave up all of our rights and are in no big hurry to replace them. Not even habeus corpus. Privacy is only guarateed to the rich and powerful.
I pay my taxes every week and I obey the law. When I was overseas, I had to obey the laws of the nation I was living in.
I have no problem with the state using any of that money to enforce Real ID. NO problem at all. We can afford corporate welfare. Just cut them off for a while to impliment the law.
So, let ME get this
So, let ME get this straight: you are willing to give up even more of your Constitutional rights, rather than work on getting them back? Does that about sum it up?
It seems that your pure hatred of "illegal aliens" has skewed your reasoning. In case you have forgotten, it is greedy American corporations and citizens who make it possible for the "illegals" to work in this country. Not to mention, when that doesn't work these same "Americans" will outsource your job to a firm in an "alien" country.
Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater...
Let's see about our rights being reinstated...
WE haven't gotten back the Constitutional rights the bu$h regime has taken away from us. Where is your outrage over that issue?
I've already said before, bringing up issues about ILLEGAL aliens tends to get some people's panties all wadded up and then start crying about my "hatred". You don't know squat about me or my "hatred". You must be a conservanazi lover.
The simple fact that laws aren't being enforced is part of the problem. Go after employers. Fine them to the max. Make the ILLEGAL aliens abide by the laws too.
Your reasoning is skewed by your love of the conservanazi republikans.
Throw out the ILLEGAL aliens and fine the people who hire them. That will solve lots of problems including the million or so ILLEGAL alien felons running around this country commiting more crimes.
BTW, write Obama and your conservanazi friends in Congress and see if we can get OUR Constitutional rights back.
Don't let your love of the conservanazis get in the way of the law.
"When Fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag carrying a cross." Sinclair Lewis
Aside from the fact that I
Aside from the fact that I didn't stoop to name-calling, and am not full of vitriol, we appear to be in agreement about the need to go after the real culprits: those who hire "illegal" aliens. And, the first sentence of my previous reply to you stated our need to regain the civil freedoms that were repressed by the Dubya/Cheney/Rove Republican neoconservatives, and to NOT give up even more of them.
As for the actual topic of this thread, I neither need, nor want, the government tracking my (or your) every move, or any American citizen's movements, name, and personal information being stored in some "big brother" central database. I do not want to be placed in the position of having to prove that I am an American citizen, in my own country, at every turn because of the paranoia brought on by people like Dubya and Cheney. Driver's Licenses are issued by the various States, and the Federal Government now wants to turn them into Federal Identification cards, and track their use nationwide by American citizens.
If the government has "concerns" about an individual, the onus should be on the government to prove that they are not a citizen (which is fairly easy to do if they have "probable cause") and NOT the other way around. Get it? American citizens are Constituionally entitled to privacy, and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. "Show me your papers," sounds very Hitler-esque, and very un-American.
You are the one who turned this privacy-rights issue into an "illegal alien" diatribe, which was nowhere to be found in the original blog post, and is not really germane to the basic privacy rights of Americans. Do you really believe that unconstitutionally registering, and tracking, a potential 300 million people is the best way to find the 1-2% of those who may be here illegally? Think through the logic, and do the math.
Your statement that I "don't know squat" about you is wrong, as I recall some of your other over-the-top, and similar, vitriolic rants on Democrats.com. Pointing out your obvious hatred and anger, is not name-calling, but an observation based on what you write, and have written.
To address your childish "love of conservanazis" comments, I will just chalk them up to your ignorance of the facts, and the inability to rationally communicate without blindly striking out in anger, and resorting to "strawmen" arguments. The supposed anonymity of the Internet brings out this "dark side" persona of some people, who would never act this way in a face-to-face encounter, and I assume you are one of those.
Because you profess to be a Democrat, I also assume that you are a nice guy -- when your short fuse is not lit.
LOL! You must be joking Doug.
Doug,
For years you've enjoyed slave labor from these illegals. Cheap produce, etc. (Although the illegal employer kept the lion's share).
Putting that aside however, even if you killed every illegal in this Nation, it would still not register as an economic blimp compared to the insanity that conservative economics has brought.
It's a nothing issue that Repugs bring up to throw people off track about where the cash has gone.
However:
Don't fall for it regardless if 100 illegal aliens are outside your door making your personal life miserable. Don't go by anecdotal evidence, look up the actual numbers.
And by the way, all of the above remains true, even if a far left winger starts crying crocodile tears over illegal aliens, and THAT pisses you off. Get it? It does not matter if Left Wingers state something stupid. It does not matter if Right Wingers state a particular truth like, "people should immigrate legally". NO DUH.
Questions about economic priorities rely on NUMBERS.
Jim
P.S. Have you ever read any of the thousands of posts Bill has written over the years, railing against Conservanazis?
A thank you to our Illegal Slaves who brought this Nation...
...dirt cheap produce, construction, etc. over the last decade or so.
Yes, it ain't the way it ought to be:
But the above did not happen.
And now that the "slaves" have put out, what era do we find ourselves in? Why it's the Repug, look at those filthy "slaves" (former or current employees actually!)
It use to be Holy Repug Writ that you had to be a "Commie" to be for folks standing up for good wages. It remained the era of Holy Business for so long:
And now the Conservative elements get to keep the coins from broken backs picking the fields.
They get to keep the new wing on their house.
And best of all, the conservative elements in us all gets to scream a big FUCK YOU to our former slaves.
Jim
P.S. Anybody who breathlessly brings up particular illegal alien thugs, as a counter example to the amazing work done by the many others, might consider their logic BEFORE posting. And yes, one could argue that a thank you for some, might encourage others. A thank you however is still needed, and it's what makes us Americans rather than dog eat dog puppets. A thank you also acts as a counter to the FUCK YOUS and this at least puts Repugs on notice that we are not following the shiny object once again. Follow the money folks.