bamatone.net

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/198622.html

I brought this up back in March, when Brian Schweitzer, the Democratic governor of Montana, told the federal government to "go to hell" over Real ID, which critics call "an unfunded mandate that passed with no formal debate in Congress, posing threats to U.S. citizens' privacy and states' authority."

This time it's the Republican governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, chiming in. It's good to see true bipartisanship in Washington!

The feds have now extended the deadline for compliance for all 50 states, which means the Bush administration will not actually be in charge of administering this program anymore. This is good news because it gives opponents of Real ID a better chance of shooting it down.

The department [of Homeland Security] has always characterized Real ID as voluntary, but when the rules kick in, state residents won't be able to board airplanes or enter federal buildings without a compliant identification card, driver's license, or U.S. passport.

That doesn't sound too "voluntary" to me.

South Carolina is one of eight states that has passed legislation prohibiting implementation of Real ID--and it also falls into the category of states that vowed to stick by that position, Sanford said. (Ten other states have passed resolutions opposing Real ID, and two more--Arizona and Alaska--may be joining the rebellion soon.)

You might wonder how Real ID, if it's such a bad thing, was even passed in the first place. It was "glued onto an emergency Iraq war spending bill that passed unanimously in 2005." Just another bill the Bush administration slipped by us in order to continue funding the Iraq war. And anyone who voted against it would have been labled un-American for not "supporting the troops."

I sure would like to see the feds make good on their threat and deny millions of people the right to fly, as well as denying them entrance to federal buildings. That should work really well for about a day - until the riots start.