back to article Real ID law to receive makeover under Obama

A law requiring US citizens to present federally mandated ID cards for "official purposes" such as boarding a plane is likely to be shaken down at the door under the US Department of Homeland Security's new secretary, Janet Napolitano. The ex-governor of Arizona, tapped as chief homeland spook by Obama in January, has been …

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  1. Inachu
    Flame

    Maryland will not go REAL ID until 2010

    Maryland is doing this because they are Illegal friendly toward local businesses.

  2. Eddy Ito
    Thumb Down

    This is change?

    Makeover 101; Wash mud off pig, add lipstick.

    I've said it before, I'll say it again. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

    Simple truisms of life in Bizarro world; Pols are smarter than the rest of us. RFIDs are secure and can't be cloned. The Nanny State knows best. Big Brother will take care of you.

    Only the last one is also true in reality but the meaning changes somewhat.

  3. Jeremy
    Black Helicopters

    "myriad of uses"

    It's already happening. A machine readable driver's license is already a requirement to venture beyond the lobby of my step-kid's schools. Don't have one? "You'll have to fill in this lengthy form then, sir." They're moving towards the card being mandatory in the future. All down to "will somebody PLEASE think of the CHILDREN!", of course.

    On the one hand, REAL ID requires one to have an approved drivers license in an ever increasing variety of circumstances but on the other, it makes it harder to get one. There are several categories of [legal] immigrants, K-1 fiancé's in particular, who can find it damn near impossible to get a driver's license until about 9-12 months of entry due to another REAL ID 'improvement' which requires non-citizens to have a federal issued ID (e.g. a greencard or work permit) to get a drivers license in most states.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Spot on Eddy...

    .... on of the more realistic, grounded and sensible comments to this story, which like so many others in a similar vein, will ultimately get lost in the deluge of moronic tinfoil hat-tard comments, from those too stupid (but who like to think they are way, way too smart) to see the way things really are. More power to you, Eddy, whoever you may be ;)

  6. John Smith Gold badge
    Stop

    Does this feel like a Nanny state to you?

    Proper Nannies are trained child care specialists who nurture and support their charges with the *aim* of producing socialised well balenced memebers of society

    This nanny is more like some boozed up old slattern who'll take 20 or 30 bucks off you and park "The brats" in front of the TV while she works her way through a pint or two of the hard stuff.

    Call it a Stalker state. Call it a police state. Don't call it a Nanny state.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Osama

    You'd think by now they would have caught him. All they have to do is make more laws like this and then follow the trail of laughter all the way back to his cave.

    The most powerful country in the world is still in a paranoid panic because of some assholes with box cutters eight years ago.

  8. Jason Haas
    Flame

    Another winning law from Jim Sensenbrenner

    Oh, F-Jim makes me sad some people in Wisconsin elect guys like him to Congress. Sensenbrenner has been there for decades, and rarely veered from his right-wing stance on most anything, except maybe to go further to the right, as with the Real ID act he introduced. it got shot down time and time again until it was finally attached to an Iraq War spending bill -- and who'd vote against the troops? It's a lesser known legacy of the Bush regime that deserves to get thrown on the heap.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    more mindless stupidity

    Let's see. To get your Real-ID drivers license you need (1) a birth ceritificate (any one can get a copy of one any time, any where) and some "official" piece of paper, like say, a phone bill which came to your home (that is you and your address on that bill, isn't it?). Well, that just proved a lot didn't it....you could show up with two pieces of paper that say you're joe shmoe and now you have "official" id....even if your real name is Osama and you shaved off your beard and gave up your head covering. . MORONS

    It's all a house of cards...a sham.... (not to mention another criminally stupid waste of taxpayer dollars.

  10. Paul George
    Dead Vulture

    I've often wondered what willhappen...

    ... if my state has a non-complying license, and I'm summoned to appear at a federal court or IRS office and the thug ^d^d^d^d guard at the door can't let me in by federal law.

    Kafka anyone?

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