Just say no to Real ID and human implanted RFID

So it is strange to see a couple of different viewpoints on this subject, considering I have not really delved into this in the recent past, but here goes:

I read in the Stamford Advocate this editorial written by Froma Harrop:

Let the Central Intelligence Agency summary of its failings before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks be a lesson to everyone — above all, politicians. Today's missed opportunities — for example, promoting a secure form of ID — could haunt them tomorrow.

Congress forced the release of the 2005 document against the agency's wishes. In it, the CIA's inspector general recommended that former Director George Tenet and other top officials be punished for neglecting to draw up a smart plan against al-Qaida. The previous CIA director, Porter Goss, opposed disciplining them because it "would send the wrong message to our junior officers about taking risks."

Unfortunately, not taking risks was one of the CIA's major failings. Former counterterrorism czar Richard A. Clarke wrote in his book "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror" that risk aversion was a big reason why top managers at the CIA did not forcefully go after al-Qaida before Sept. 11....

Now a private consultant, Clarke recently criticized the widespread efforts to frustrate Real ID, the 2005 federal law that pushes states to create secure driver's licenses. Without such solid identification, he wrote, "potential terrorists here illegally can easily use phony licenses or, in many states, get real ones issued to them, along with credit cards and all of the other papers needed to blend into our society."

Politicians of both parties have latched onto a misguided populist revolt against these secure driver's licenses, and they may rue the day they did. You need just one terrorist waving a fake driver's license at airport security on his way to committing mayhem, and public opposition to Real ID will vanish.

Accountability is a good thing, and there's no reason why it should stop at the CIA. The administration's lame response to the pre-Sept. 11 threat remains open for inspection. And elected officials should know that voters could hold them accountable for failing to support something as simple as a sound ID card.

As a strict libertarian, it is not the feds responsibility to track this information and keep it in a national identity tracking database. This is absolutely not an effective counter-terrorism solution. The Real ID proposals will still be administered by the local DMV's and anyone paying attention recently knows that is often quite easy to get false identification.

A more secure licensing system and one tracked at the federal level will do more to restrict my civil liberties than protect us from terrorists. Perhaps the DHS should be more concerned about prevent fraudulent activities from occurring, that allow bad guys to get fake ID in the first place, rather than trying to keep track of the 80-95% of the law abiding citizens. Why the government always tries to focus their efforts on cataloging the many, rather than focusing efforts on the few remains a mystery to me.

You can help stop the ReadID initiative by going here or read about the initiatives here.

Someone at work sent this link around and I tend to agree with the opinions posted. Even as a parent of three children, I don't think I would ever stick a GPS devise into my children to track their activities and locations. I guess under some circumstances (mental deficiencies?) I might, but what happens when the wrong people (the government) get control of the homing devise. Then it one more level of civil liberties which has been eliminated and takes us closer to a country that I no longer recognize.