The Great Depression happened because the Federal Reserve was eliminating the supply of money, Vietnam happened because some guy at the NSA screwed up the date on a transcript misinterpreted what they saw and reported an event (Gulf of Tonkin) that didn’t occur, 9/11 happened because the federal government stripped airlines of the ability to provide their own security personnel on aircraft and didn’t pony up enough cash for air marshals. Sometimes I seriously think that the anarcho-capitalists have it right.

I don’t have to tell you how easy it is to get the machines to fake a birth certificate to “prove” citizenship in say Los Angeles for example.

REAL ID can be gotten around with quite easily.

Actually I had a fraternity brother in college who made fake IDs using a license machine that a buddy of his stole from the DMV. He put himself through college for a year with his little business, although his target market was drunken college girls and not illegal immigrants or Middle Eastern terrorists. This was back in the halcyon days of the early 1990s, of course, before activities like that would bring the feds swooping down in force. Eventually he ran out of lamination cards, though, so he smashed the machine and dumped it in the lake so the cops wouldn’t find out about it and shut down our house.

Interesting guy he was, most of us figured he’d end up either being the President of the United States or land in prison for white collar crime. Last time I saw him he was off to get his medical degree at some college in the Caribbean.

From a functional standpoint, it would be interesting to study how many people have false ID’s, or none, in Louisiana, compared to other states. I’m willing to bet that the statistical numbers are higher than other states with easier ID standards.

Another interesting study would be to find out whether more or less crimes requiring ID, such as check fraud, is higher or lower in Louisiana.

Interesting story along those lines, a few years back, someone simply broke into a DMV and stole the ID making equipment to make fake drivers licenses.

“I have a friend who is the chief security officer of a multi-billion dollar company. His opinion of RealID is that it’s a complete waste of money for it’s stated objectives…”

I think your friend nailed it. When I was in Afghanistan I worked with this team sergeant who, when he wasn’t in the reserves, worked as an agent for the DEA. His assessment of government efforts against terrorists and drug traffickers after almost 20 years on the job was “We only catch the stupid ones.”

It doesn’t matter how stringent the government programs are that we deploy to stop them, the smart terrorists are eventually going to find a way around them because government can’t act as dynamically and fluidly as the terrorist groups can. And as long as our government adheres to the “solutions” that inhibit individuals from acting in their own best interests (like refusing to allow airlines to provide their own security personnel for planes or screen their own passengers) terrorists will have a much greater chance of slipping through the cracks and some will succeed in what they’re trying to do. Absolutely horrible waste of our time, effort and freedom.

“…but a great investment for managing and monitoring the activities of the law-abiding population.”

That’s the bit that really scares the hell out of me.

In fact, Louisiana’s ID requirements are tougher than REAL ID

From a functional standpoint, it would be interesting to study how many people have false ID’s, or none, in Louisiana, compared to other states. I’m willing to bet that the statistical numbers are higher than other states with easier ID standards.

Another interesting study would be to find out whether more or less crimes requiring ID, such as check fraud, is higher or lower in Louisiana.

Not that I’m suggesting such studies should be used as justification, or lack of justification. That is yet more inefficient, ineffective central planning.

Oh yeah, this is being touted as an anti-terrorism measure, yet all of the 9/11 terrorists had valid ID’s issued to them. As I understand it, few (or none?) of them would have been denied a RealID because the identities they used were not any watch lists.

I have a friend who is the chief security officer of a multi-billion dollar company. His opinion of RealID is that it’s a complete waste of money for it’s stated objectives, but a great investment for managing and monitoring the activities of the law-abiding population. Interesting perspective from someone who does security work in “the real world” where he has to deal with profit and loss and can’t just top down mandate things with no appeal or recourse.

If we’re wrong, however, and it does get fully implemented, I believe the consequences will be disastrous for us from an individual freedom perspective. The federal government should simply never be entrusted with this amount of authority because this program absolutely begs to be abused by some power-centric chief executive down the road…and it has the potential to do damage in so many ways, many of which we probably haven’t even considered. The government could essentially strip your citizenship and your ability to function legally in everyday life from you simply by denying you access to a card. That’s an unacceptable amount of authority to cede to government in a free society.

The brainiacs who’ve made air travel almost as fun as a 10-hour Coca-Cola enema have unveiled their new master plan for creating an efficient security system…federally mandated drivers licenses for everybody under the age of 50, which all states will be forced to comply with by 2011, whether they’re capable or doing so or not, if the Department of Homeland Security gets its way.

Honestly, I don’t think REAL ID will ever be implemented and here’s why; the Democrats will take complete control of the government in 2008. The new Homeland Secretary will simply extend the REAL ID requirements another 4 or 5 years and then the next Homeland Secretary will extend the REAL ID requirements another 4 or 5 years and so and so on.

Remember, this is an extension because REAL ID was supposed to go into affect in May.

Also, perhaps I’m being a bit lackadaisical about REAL ID because Louisiana was already REAL ID compliant before REAL ID already came out. (In fact, Louisiana’s ID requirements are tougher than REAL ID)

“The REAL ID Act is illegal.”

Actually, I think the word you’re looking for is unconstitutional. The REAL ID act is unconstitutional because it infringes upon states’ rights by granting the federal government power not allowed by the Constitution. The existence of the REAL ID law makes it legal. If, however, the REAL ID law was found by the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional and thrown out, yet the feds continued the program unsupported by law then it would be illegal.

That said I agree it’s a horrible program and Chertoff’s comments were absolutely incomprehensible. What a jagoff.

Fortunately, New Hampshire and a few other states have decided to just not comply at all. This will lead to some interesting problems, amongst them that the citizens of at least six states will no longer be able to fly, and the federal employees in those states will no longer be able to enter a federal building.

I just saw one of the chief criminals, Chertoff, on television, saying the only people who oppose REAL ID are terrorists, illegal aliens, and con men. In reality the only people who favor an extremely insecure ID are terrorists, illegal aliens, con men, and fools who aren’t paying attention.

Death before REAL ID.

You’re right…it’s got nothing to do with driving. That’s just the superficial justification. And it’s still a shitty security plan. The reason for the long timeline, I suspect is that a lot of states are bucking it because they either can’t afford or don’t want to shoulder the costs of compliance. It’s not going to be an inexpensive system.

This is not about driving it’s implementing the REAL ID