California asks for Real ID extension, but won't promise to comply
Threat Level reports that the head of California's DMV explained that just because his state filed for two-year extension to comply with the Department of Homeland Security's worse-than-useless yet mandatory Real ID program, that should not been seen as "a commitment to implement Real ID, rather it will allow us to fully evaluate the impact of the final regulations and precede with necessary policy deliberations prior to a final decision on compliance."
Even so, the filing of the application was enough to get Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff to pull out his special green crayon from a locked and booby-trapped desk drawer and use it to color California on his cute little map of states that won't have to suffer the special indignities he's designed for citizens of states that still believe in the idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
States have until March 31 to request a two-year extension, and DHS had said before Thursday it won't grant Real ID extensions to states who don't commit to implementing the rules in the future.LinkCalifornians that would meant enduring the same fate facing citizens of South Carolina, Maine, Montana and New Hampshire.
They would have needed to dig out their passport, if they had one, every time they boarded a plane, or go through an extra level of TSA screening at airport metal detectors. Los Angeles and San Francisco airports could have had security lines stretching to the Sierras.
Californians without passports would also have been barred from buying certain medicine, entering federal court buildings or getting help at the Social Security Administration, unless they have a passport.
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That will last just until someone is actually denied access to a federal courthouse.
Yeah, I have a sneaking suspicion that this will ultimately fail on constitutional grounds. God bless my home state of Montana and its fed-hating populace for their stubbornness!
So they are buying time, waiting for the administration to change. It's the smart move but I wish more states would give DHS the finger and not file.
looks like Washington State filed - even though they are already offering (ie. pushing, making available) an "enhanced" driver's license. the first in the nation I think... supposedly in anticipation of the upcoming 2010 winter olympics in B.C. to facilitate safe and speedy processing at the border, or something like that
the RFID company Verichip corp offers implantable chips for babies already, but i suppose that's old news by now
http://www.verichipcorp.com/content/solutions/infant_protection
"Californians without passports would also have been barred... unless they have a passport."
This is exactly the kind of trickery I've come to expect from the DHS. Go Montana.
Maine didn't ask for an extension because we do not intend to comply. We'll see how much the govt will push. Of course this means that we will not be able to fly. But, given the indignities I endured the last time I flew, maybe that is a good thing.
Next they'll be saying that we can't walk through the woods into Canada.
I, for one, welcome our current paranoid overlords.
Looks like it's time to become a dental floss tycoon.
Is this going to end up working like the EU's "Schengen" countries? Will I be able to "freely pass" from state to state so long as I am willing to have the proper "visa" (read:PAPERS, SHOW US YOUR PAPERS)?
In re: just the headline of this article (and I don't say this very often), bravo California.
It will be an interesting situation when a defendant in a federal trial is denied admittance to the court house because he/she doesn't have a passport.
"Do you have papers?"
"No, but I have my Real ID."
"Very well. Be careful as the roads are mined."
If only East Germany had had the technology to make those annoying border crossings easier.
Fuck the DHS!
This crap really needs to stop! Any 12 yr old will have the necessary tools to break this I.D. Not to mention our economy is tanking, the billions that are taken away to pay for this lunacy could be better spent on a W.P.A. style program! Boondoggles and morons
@8 ... or a mental toss flycoon? I might be movin to Montana soon.
So New Hampshire (population 1.3 million) files an extension but then says that they won't comply anyway, and they are denied the extension. Then California (population 36.5 million) files an extension and says that they won't comply anyway, and are granted the extension.
Once again, the government tramples on the little guy.
Montana, New Hampshire, and Maine abut "the longest unguarded border in the world." Their citizens in border areas are used to crossing back and forth, and they're ticked at the prospect of having to produce a passport to go to their only local grocery, or having ambulances stopped for a full-scale Customs check on the way to the ER.
Wow, I had forgot that Maine was one of the four states to fight this. It actually makes me proud to be from some a dinky state.
I'm starting to get confused here. We are expecting the Dems to win the next election, right? Or are we expecting a major terrorist strike and marshal law? How is this ramping up of the police state supposed to survive a change of regime to the Dems? What am I missing?