Tort of Intrusion

President Bush has signed an $82 billion military spending bill that was overwhelmingly supported by the House of Represenatives that will, assist to create electronically readable, federally approved ID cards for Americans (the Real ID Act).. The concept, which is stated to be the barinchild of Wisconsin Rep. Sensenbrenner is outlined primarily as an anti-immigration measure. It would require State drivers' licenses and other such documents to meet federal ID standards established by the Department of Homeland Security. It is supposed to help immigration because it will prohibit states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens (as if illegal aliens won’t drive if they do not have a licenses – laughable politics as usual).

In three years from nowall U. S. citizens and anyone in the country will need a federally approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, and make use of any government service. One form of information contained on the card is"common machine-readable technology" that Homeland Security will decide on. It will also have "physical security features designed to prevent counterfeiting, or any other fraudulent activity. I take this to imply that biometric information such as retinal scans, fingerprints, DNA data and radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking will be on the card. It seems to be a waste of money first on several levels. First passports alrady have/contain radio frequency identification chips embedded in them. Then there are estimates that it may cost $120 million bills that could actually (God forbid) be employed for real security.

My concern is that the legislation REAL ID will pass because it was attached to legislation that funds military action in Iraq, which means that it basically was accepted and pushed on the people without hearings or debate anywhere. To aid salt to the wound, reports have suggested that production of the card and associated data will be outsourced to a private corporation. Reports also suggest that DHS head Michael Chertoff personally ordered this option to be chosen, which in essecence outsurce State and Constitutional rights from state DMVs to a private corporation. All that is accomplished is that the federal government supercedes states powers and states’ systems for issuing driver's licenses.

The there is the uncanny question in my mind as to why I have not heard anything about REAL ID in the newspapers or on television anywhere? Where is the open discussion on the side of liberty? All this does is help to establish an Orewllian Police State since in October 2004 the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act became law and established and put in place new security measures for driver's licenses as recommended by the 9/11 Commission Report. Welcome to the inevitable, a National ID is coming and honestly, none of this is required nor does it increase homeland security or illegal immigration. As such, this is a tort of intrusion I cannot live with.