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A National ID Card By Any Other Name

By Jeralyn, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 06:34:22 PM EST
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Radly Balko, via Arthur at Light of Reason and Instapundit:

On walking, quacking, swimming, and crapping like a duck...

Rep. David Dreier's new bill will not create a new national identification card.

Oh sure, it will add a magnetic identification strip and identifying photo to your existing Social Security card, and you'll be required to present the new card for identification any time you want to apply for a new job. At that point, your prospective employer would then check the identification listed on your card against a national database which identifies eligible employees.

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    A National ID Card By Any Other Name | 11 comments (11 topical)
    Re: A National ID Card By Any Other Name (none / 0) (#1)
    by scarshapedstar on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 07:07:29 PM EST
    Thank god for small-government right-wingers..

    Re: A National ID Card By Any Other Name (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 07:09:06 PM EST
    To offset fears of government intrusion, the card would be clearly marked, "This is not a national ID card," Dreier said. quack, quack indeed. The real question comes now: Should we just move to national I.D. cards already and forget the verbal foreplay? I'm waiting in vain for an honest debate in Congress.

    Re: A National ID Card By Any Other Name (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 08:11:15 PM EST
    I expect libertarians to post things without setting aside a few days to start thinking, but I'd hope that "liberals" would do a little more digging in order to understand the background. Dreier probably intends this to fail. From "Dreier race illustrates cautionary tale on immigration policy": Tucked into last week's otherwise predictable California election results lay a cautionary tale about the election year's most uncovered issue: illegal immigration. Republican Rep. David Dreier, the 24-year Los Angeles-area veteran who chairs the powerful House Rules committee, won re-election to his House seat with just under 54 percent of the vote, down from 64 percent in 2002. His Democratic opponent, Cynthia Matthews, won almost 43 percent of the vote, despite spending just over $31,000 in her campaign, compared to more than $900,000 spent by Dreier. A Libertarian candidate won 3.5 percent of the vote. The close result - his closest since 1980 - was because of Political Human Sacrifice.

    Re: A National ID Card By Any Other Name (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 09:17:45 PM EST
    Do you have a car? if yes you have a nation I.D.

    Re: A National ID Card By Any Other Name (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 09:27:28 PM EST
    Question: How is this different from the national standards for state drivers licenses and birth certificates that have already been passed? I guess it wouldn't have your SSN printed on it. I don't see any reason why the national database it would be linked to wouldn't have your employment eligibility on it. Given that, Lonewacko is probably right about Dreier.

    Re: A National ID Card By Any Other Name (none / 0) (#6)
    by Beck on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 09:38:21 PM EST
    I don't have a problem with a national ID card. Whether my identity card is issued by the state (drivers license) or by the federal government, I need one. Besides driving, I need it to cash checks, buy beer, enter bars, etc. The problem occurs when the card is used to track my activities. If I have to swipe the card to board a train, cash a check, enter a stadium, buy beer, etc, and those card swipes are stored in a database, that's when I have a problem.

    Re: A National ID Card By Any Other Name (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 09:39:37 PM EST
    Will Dreier's card be marked "GRH" for Gay Repuglican Hipocrite?

    Re: A National ID Card By Any Other Name (none / 0) (#8)
    by pigwiggle on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 07:24:11 AM EST
    I have to do this now. So they use a mag in place of the number. How is this different?

    Re: A National ID Card By Any Other Name (none / 0) (#9)
    by kdog on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 08:45:17 AM EST
    I fear it's far too late to do anything about this. It's either you supply "your papers" upon request by the gov't or employers, or drop out of society. I remeber somebody saying the gov't already snuck a national ID past us when we weren't paying attn.

    Re: A National ID Card By Any Other Name (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 09:08:19 AM EST
    Thanks Fred, so we don't need to worry about this, huh? Cause things can't get worse? Sheesh.

    Re: A National ID Card By Any Other Name (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 02:14:17 PM EST
    Fred Dawes at January 26, 2005 10:17 PM "Do you have a car? if yes you have a nation I.D." the issue is pretty much defacto, link the various state dl db's and your national. TX already has the magnetic strip, and have been several places that have equipment to read the strips. like the post said its a done deal.

    A National ID Card By Any Other Name | 11 comments (11 topical)