Big Brother

The federal government's effort to give us all a national ID card has died, at least for the time being. The Real ID Act was supposed to be in force May 11, but all 50 states and the District of Columbia were given extensions to comply. That's despite action on the part of 17 state legislatures to say they won't approve the law, even if the federal government foots the bill.

The bill would require states to issue a common identification for drivers licenses and other forms of identification. The information would then be passed up to the federal government for use by Homeland Security officials.

The idea was opposed not only by the ACLU, but also by state legislators who saw the single database as the perfect target for those practicing identity theft.

Such opposition has pushed the original deadline back to Dec. 31, 2009. But states can request an extension from Homeland Security, to be compliant by 2011. States don't need to issue Real ID's for residents over 50 until 2017-- nine years after the original deadline.

Hopefully this bad idea will die a quiet death like so many fear-induced activities that took place after 9/11.

Now it's time to get to work on dismantling the so-called Patriot Act.

    -- Jim Grinstead