Maine revolts against digital U.S. ID card

[deadparrot]

BOSTON (Reuters) - Maine lawmakers on Thursday became the first in the nation to demand repeal of a federal law tightening identification requirements for drivers' licenses, a post-September 11 security measure that states say will cost them billions of dollars to administer.

Maine lawmakers passed a resolution urging repeal of the Real ID Act, which would create a national digital identification system by 2008. The lawmakers said it would cost Maine about $185 million, fail to boost security and put people at greater risk of identity theft.

Maine's resolution is the strongest stand yet by a state against the law, which Congress passed in May 2004 and gave states three years to implement. Similar repeal measures are pending in eight other states.

"We cannot be spending millions of state dollars on an initiative that does more harm to our state than good," said Maine's House Majority leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat, in a statement that called it a "massive unfunded federal mandate."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/usa_idcard_dc

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Yay Maine! Go you cranky Yanks! nt

[fightthegoodfightnow]

2. Bravo

Bravo Maine.

[donheld]

11. welcome to DU fightthegoodfightnow

:hi:

[midnight]

3. Sounds like someone is awake at the switch. It seems as though

there is no oversight into any of our rights to privacy. I for one find this over the top.

[bigluckyfeet]

4. This is Just Another Means

of controlling and tracking the people,terrorism is used as an excuse to do it.

[Divine Discontent]

7. exactly!

and I'm proud of Maine lawmakers for being alert, and saying NO!

every state where the dems have majority should already be doing the same thing!

big brother gov?, we're not interested!



www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- antibush prodem stickers/shirts

[Redneck Socialist]

5. Yea Maine!

My state initially opposed it as well, but then the puke dominated legislature caved. :-(

[Old and In the Way]

6. Hannah is Chellie Pingree's daughter.....head of Common Cause

Obviously, a lot of Common Sense, too. Pretty strange how the Republican Party, the former Party of privacy and individual rights, is so willing to surrender these same principles now. Really, anyone know what a Republican stands for today?

[MaineDem]

9. This had bipartisan support.

It passed 34-0 in the Senate and 137-4 in the House of Representatives.

The four nay votes were Duprey, Jacobsen, Plummer, and Robinson... all Republicans, of course.

[Old and In the Way]

10. It damn well should be bi-partisan!

Everyone losses when Big Brother knows more about you than you do. That Duprey is a real piece of work. Thanks for the details.....I'm really surprised there's any Republican in the USA that would sign up for this POS legislation.

:hi:

[primavera]

14. There weren't many Repukes at the national level...

... that wanted REAL ID in the first place. If you will recall, Sensenbrenner tried to get it into the legislation implementing the 9/11 Commission's recommendations back in fall 2004 and failed miserably. It was his insistence upon inclusion of his REAL ID gestapo provisions that held up passage of the 9/11 Commission recommendations bill for months before he finally caved and withdrew it under pressure. But then once the elections were over, when everyone's attention was exhausted and diverted, the Repuke leadership re-inserted it into a must-pass appropriations bill for the troops which no one dared vote against or delay, under special closed rules drafted by the Repuke-dominated House rules committee, which prohibited floor debate on the REAL ID provisions, and it got passed into law. But make no mistake, only a tiny handful of legislators, even among Repukes, ever supported REAL ID - the vast majority have always thought it was a nightmare. It's really an amazing testimony to how much a small handful of radicals in leadership positions can bend and twist the rules to get stuff passed into law even in the teeth of broad opposition.

[Vidar]

8. Thank you, Maine.

[Gormy Cuss]

12. The state motto: I lead.

Dirigo!
I hope this is a case of leadership emulated by other states.

[jpak]

13. Beat me to it - Finest Kind!

n/t

[dragonlady]

15. A security expert's take on the Real ID

The REAL ID Act requires driver's licenses to include a "common machine-readable technology." This will, of course, make identity theft easier. Assume that this information will be collected by bars and other businesses, and that it will be resold to companies like ChoicePoint and Acxiom. It actually doesn't matter how well the states and federal government protect the data on driver's licenses, as there will be parallel commercial databases with the same information.

Even worse, the same specification for RFID chips embedded in passports includes details about embedding RFID chips in driver's licenses. I expect the federal government will require states to do this, with all of the associated security problems (e.g., surreptitious access)....

REAL ID also prohibits states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens. This makes no sense, and will only result in these illegal aliens driving without licenses -- which isn't going to help anyone's security. (This is an interesting insecurity, and is a direct result of trying to take a document that is a specific permission to drive an automobile, and turning it into a general identification device.)...

And the wackiest thing is that none of this is required. In October 2004, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 was signed into law. That law included stronger security measures for driver's licenses, the security measures recommended by the 9/11 Commission Report. That's already done. It's already law.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/05/real_id.html

Also: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/10/real_id_and_ide.html

The comments on these blog entries are also very interesting.

[AdHocSolver]

16. A few comments on why Real ID is worse than useless.

The more information that is spread around about a person, the easier it is to steal. All computer systems are hackable. Microsoft has been hacked, the Department of Defense has been hacked, almost every corporation has been hacked, and anyone who has received a virus has been hacked.

Years ago, when most corporate and government computing was done on mainframes, companies were regularly hacked, BUT all the databases were separate and there was little communication between them. Data thieves would have to really work hard to profile any person or entity, and it required considerable expertise. Today, with almost every computer on the Internet and many systems using standardized client/server software (frequently from ever-so-vulnerable Microsoft), it requires much less technical skill and provides ever greater opportunity for data thieves to steal your personal information.

The technology is readily available to duplicate a Real ID card. The data is easily stolen. The only value of Real ID is to harass honest citizens. Actually, another function is to distract Americans from the fact that our airports are not secure, our ports are not secure, and this whole business is to falsely convince the public that the Republicans are doing something or even CARE about our security.

[CanonRay]

17. Luv them Yankees!