Real ID, HB 1582

[citizen_142002]

I went ahead and made a poll.

[KBCraig]

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Our+secret+identities%3a+NH+should+reject+REAL+ID+Act&articleId=1ad8598e-7b52-40b3-a288-379e4d39837b

Our secret identities: NH should reject REAL ID Act

THERE'S NOTHING quite like knowing that every bit of information needed to steal your identity is held in a massive government database accessible by thousands of government employees, from local police officers to state DMV workers to federal aviation officials to larcenous bureaucrats in Mexico. Welcome to America just two years from now, if the REAL ID Act is implemented.

New Hampshire legislators have a chance to at least try to halt this foolhardy amassing of personal data in the name of national security. They should take it. If states don't stand up and oppose this scheme, our very identities will be compromised.

The REAL ID Act is Washington's way of creating a national ID card. Proponents won't call it that, but that is exactly what it is. It would turn everyone's driver's license into an all-purpose identity card with enough personal data electronically packed in to replicate a person on paper.

Anyone with the proper scanner could access this information. It could be picked up electronically by corrupt government clerks and bureaucrats, but also by retail stores, which could then sell it. Identity thieves would have a field day. Steal a scanner, hook up with a pickpocket, and you've got instant access not only to a person's name, address and physical description, but also Social Security number and birth certificate information.

Had REAL ID simply mandated that states not issue drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants and people who could not prove who they were, that would have been fine. But this law ? passed as a rider to a defense appropriations bill, by the way ? goes much further than trying to make sure foreign terrorists don't get ID cards. It creates a highly vulnerable, massive government database of citizens' most sensitive personal information. New Hampshire would do well to oppose it officially, as House Bill 1582 would do.

Senators should pass the bill, as the House did, to show Washington that New Hampshire will not invite the federal government to electronically track our every move and keep our personal information in an unjustified and easily abused database.

[aries]

I work on weekends and my boss has made it clear I can't take any days off without being fired.

[Russell Kanning]

That is good to hear. I kept getting mixed signals.

So will I be able to get into the event with my expired non-realID CA drivers license?

[Dave Ridley]

Here's the LTE I sent to the UL

Dear folks at the Union Leader:

On Saturday, April 22 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., somewhere between 50 and 300 supporters of a courageous and inspiring piece of legislation will rally outside the State House in Concord.  House Bill 1582 would say "no" to the Federal government's hated "Real ID" scheme.

Real ID is an attempt to make you carry an expensive, Federally-approved identification card in place of your current, less-expensive driver's license.   Costs aside, the new card has the potential to track your every move and would place your personal info into a Fed database.

Fortunately, the New Hampshire House...led by Rep. Neal Kurk of Weare...has voted to *defy* Washington and keep our state out of the Real ID system.  His bill would save us millions of dollars and help preserve *your* privacy.  It may also result in unforseen hardships for each of us, for Washington will surely direct some bureaucratic retaliation our way if we do not submit.

Join us on April 22. Let our senators know if they stand firm against Washington, you will stand with them.  For details call 721.1490 or head to NHfree.com

[Russell Kanning]

Should we pick you up on the way to Concord?

[Lloyd Danforth]

Who?

[Russell Kanning]

I was thinking Nick .... are you going to be a wayward traveler?

[d_goddard]

So will I be able to get into the event with my expired non-realID CA drivers license?

You still have that old piece of Communist-era documentation?
Save it! That piece of memorabilia is gonna be worth a lot of money some day on Ebay!

[Lloyd Danforth]

Yes

[Pat McCotter]

That is good to hear. I kept getting mixed signals.

So will I be able to get into the event with my expired non-realID CA drivers license?

Ooo! It's expired. So you forgot how to drive?! You're not Russell Kanning anymore (if that is the name on the license)?

[davemincin]

Appears all the hard work from you folks is keeping us in the game.  Just my thought, but thinking all the emails, phone call, and our presence in large numbers at the hearing on the 10th, may have some Senators reconsidering their positions.

Agree that a large turn out at the demonstration again matters.

[Kat Kanning]

He's decided to change his name to Harry Tuttle.

[Russell Kanning]

It sounds like the polititians are not going to decide our fates until after the 22nd ..... so more people will  show up now.
Doesn't it seem funny begging the NH legislature to stop the feds?

[d_goddard]

Doesn't it seem funny begging the NH legislature to stop the feds?

Not at all. From what I gather, the New Hampshire government has a long tradition of telling the Feds to go stuff themselves.