Susan Podziba couldn’t enter a federal building near Washington this month because her driver’s license revealed an unacceptable home state: Massachusetts.
Bay State residents can no longer use their driver’s licenses to get inside some government agencies because the state is one of nine that have not signed on to a federal law called REAL ID. If nothing changes, they will even lose the ability to display their licenses to board a plane.
The REAL ID measure presses states to verify citizenship and update security standards when they issue licenses. Congress intended the act to prevent terrorists who arrive in the country illegally from boarding planes. But officials in Massachusetts and elsewhere have balked at a program they contend costs millions, raises privacy concerns, and infringes on states’ rights.States face no direct penalty other than the frustration of their citizens.
Some restrictions — such as the one that kept Podziba, a public policy mediator from Brookline, out of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — began in late July.
“It was bizarre, and then I really felt embarrassed,” Podziba said. “It was like wow, I am a US citizen and suddenly my Massachusetts ID isn’t good enough?”
She ended up conducting the high-level meeting in a cafeteria outside the security gate.
Apparently they haven’t established the massive database for identifying all persons as suspected terrorists.
This is why I am proud to be an American. It is because of states like Massachusetts and my home state, Washington, that are fighting the good fight. If foreign countries had fought FATCA the way some states had fought Real ID we wouldn’t be in this mess today. Maybe Gov Deval Patrick can loan Harper his pair if he can spare them for awhile. I am proud of some individual Canadians like Brockers but not of Canada as a country.
Here is the problem in a nutshell – the US does not have an ‘official’ national ID card as many countries do. Rather, it gets effectively to the same place using state driver’s licenses and state ID cards, that are all linked to SSN’s and to data bases controlled by the FBI and other agencies (NCIC etc etc). The stated objective of the Real ID program was to make all of these state ID and driver’s licenses have a minimum standard for security etc. Interestingly, the US Passport Card, is on its face a national ID card. Having a national ID card (with full biometric data) in my country of residence is actually quite helpful in doing a lot of things – the US is seeking to get there using state issued documents. Personally, I don’t have an issue with a national ID card – believe me the USG gets us 99% there without admitting it anyway. What I have an issue with is CBT and FATCA – and the stupidity of this Administration and the Dictacrats that can’t see the forest from the trees.
My home state is also Massachusetts. This is the same non-sense the federal government uses to enforce federal laws through sanctions. When the feds wanted to increase the drinking age to 21 they sanctioned states that didn’t conform by withholding federal highway funds.
Enforcement through sanctions sound familiar?
Wow, I didn’t realize we had so many Massachusetts natives.
FYI, Massachusetts is my home state and it is John Richardson’s home state too.
Mass can be a rebellious little state as the Tea Party ship proves.
me too, me too, I’m from Mass, too! 🙂
To Mark Twain: the massive databases in the US (like Lexis-Nexis) are there in large part because there is no national ID. If the identity of tax refund applicants and welfare applicants cannot be conclusively established at the outset (because first class identity documents do not exist), one has to use massive databases to detect multiple submissions and other discrepancies through data mining techniques. Also, the social security number was used as a database key in multiple instances because there was no personal ID.
To Dash 1729: Are you proud that America leads the world in identity theft? In my new home country Germany there is virtually no identity theft. A personal ID (passport for foreigners) is required to open a bank account. Bank clerks demand such a document and are not satisfied with anything less. The latest version of the personal ID also contains a digital certificate which can be used (when the system gets going) to establish a digital identity instead of the stupid userid/password combination, thus helping to prevent internet fraud.
If you’re Canadian, imagine for a moment what would happen if the Government of Canada ever started to require Canadians to show a passport to gain entry into a federal building in Canada that is supposed to provide services to Canadian taxpayers. Or started telling Canadians residing in any province in particular that their provincial driver’s license wasn’t acceptable ID to get into the building, but a driver’s license from another province would be OK. Never mind threatening that a driver’s license from certain provinces wouldn’t get you on board an aircraft to fly from A to B when both A and B are in Canada and there are no stop-overs or overflights into US airspace or territory.
Not gonna happen. Can you imagine?
I can hardly believe that the US, with its long tradition of “states’ rights” written into its constitution and into the minds of a lot of Americans, is doing this and people aren’t in an uproar down there about it. Boy have Americans changed since the decades ago that I lived there … and not for the better IMO. Subdued by their own federal government. Pathetic.
I’ve done my little bit to stir the pot, by forwarding the link to that Boston Globe article to family members who live in a couple of states that are not exactly Obama-friendly. We’ll see what hits the fan. And yes I rubbed their noses into the fact that something like that is utterly unthinkable in Canada. In spite of what some deluded Yanks think about Canada being a “socialist” country because we have a health care system that doesn’t require you to be filthy rich to afford decent health care and won’t bankrupt you if you do get sick and aren’t rich.
I live in IL and until recently the state issued a ”FOID Card”( firearm owners Identification) I have always owned firearms and always had a FOID Card. The State Police invesigate you and If you are clean, they issue it with your photo.
I was in Oakland CA and the sign clearly said to present a ”government issued identification card” I knew they meant Drivers Lic, but that isn’t what they said, so I presented my FOID card. The small person with an IQ to match said it wouldn’t do so I found another gov issued card and finally the small person said ”we only accept a drivers lic. So I forked it over with the comment that I had not understood what they wanted.
She took it and ran me thru the ringer before passing me thru as if I had done a gravely stupid thing, so in parting I said Oh, you should get that sign corrected and with a smile walked on.
Government and most of those who have the ”make work” jobs are really inefficient and grossly dumb.
@M66
My take would be that we can’t really have it both ways. If we want to resist and limit the power of the US central government–something which I think is out of control both domestically when it comes to Real ID and the Patriot Act and internationally eg FATCA–we can’t then go running to the feds the first time we have a problem we want them to solve–eg identity theft. In any event if it is indeed true that the USA “leads” in identity theft I would think it is because there is too much information about Americans easily available online. I can find out a great deal about my fellow Americans online–probably too much. It is slightly harder to find out info about Canadians. Don’t know about Germans.
It might be more accurate to say I am proud to be a Washingtonian as opposed to being proud to being an American. I’m a believer in civil liberties and we Washingtonians have taken other steps in recent years to support civil liberties–for example on lesbian/gay rights and marijuana–that I also support.