Real ID. Real Scary.

As the joke goes, you're not paranoid if they're really watching you. And guess what? Every year, they gain a little more control over your data, your life — and then, emboldened, they watch you a little closer.

Mark Morford's anguished diatribe-cum-postmortem on Congress passing the Real ID Act reads like Winston Smith's secret diary, but without any of the fun parts. The thing is, this is not fiction. This happened right here under our noses, just the other week, in the U.S. of A.

Well, now we've done it. Congress just passed it and Dubya has promised to sign it [done, RvB] and the Homeland Security Department is giddier than Mel Gibson in a nail factory over it and marketers nationwide are salivating at the groin at the prospect of it, and the next big step toward America becoming an even more delightfully paranoid and draconian Big Brother wonderland has now officially been taken. It's called Real ID. It is, in short, a new and genetically mutated type of driver's license for all Americans, replacing your current license and replacing your Social Security card and replacing your sense of well-being and privacy and humanity and part of a new, uniform, deeply sinister, national uniform card system whereby every person living and breathing in these paranoid and tense times shall henceforth be much more traceable and watchable given how we will all soon be required by law to carry this super-deluxe computerized ID card with us at all times, packed as it will be with more personal, digitized info about you than even your mother knows.

What does the new law mean? It mandates a National I.D. Card by another name. Among other ominous things,

[It] require[s] everyone to hand over not one, not two, but fully four types of documentation to renew their driver's license, such as a photo ID, a birth certificate, proof that their Social Security number is legit and something that validates their home address, like a phone bill. DMV employees will then have to verify the documents against giant teeming federal databases and store the documents and a digital photo of you in a database. Isn't that fun? Doesn't that sound gratifying? What's more, the card's design plan includes multiple openings for the Homeland Security Department to add on whatever features they deem necessary, with or without your knowledge, consent or who the hell cares what you think because we do what we want now please shut the hell up and quit asking questions. Computer (RFID) microchip? Likely. Digital fingerprint? Sure. Political affiliation? You bet.

Meanwhile, Bush-worshipping conservatives continue to insist that the ACLU — never more needed than in times like these — is an "enemy of the state," and that civil liberties are for commies. John Lopez of No Treason sets the record straight.

Comments

[MikeT]

I'm a libertarian myself and have little love for the ACLU. For every time that the ACLU defends a real civil liberty, it attacks one at least as often. That's the reason why I give my money to libertarian groups like the Institute for Justice and not the ACLU.

[Kyle]

I'm a libertarian, and I like the ACLU about 70% of the time. They've clearly decided that they're not going to defend gun rights, but they do a pretty good job with the rest. Sometimes they go overboard (ala Gray Davis recall election), but I'm generally glad to have them around.