Janine
Hansen, State President
March
12, 2007
REAL
ID –The Real National ID Card
Real
ID Act of 2005, which passed Congress hidden in a funding bill for the Iraq
War, is a mandate from the federal government to the States, which will
require them to link their record keeping systems (driver’s licenses) to
national databases. In other words, it is a National ID.
Real ID will store every driver’s personal information and a
photograph in a central database. The
specter of a National Identity card, long antithetical to liberty loving
Americans and a windfall for identity thieves, was to be implemented by March
2008.
However,
some 12 states began a revolt including Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii,
Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. Faced
with concerns over privacy issues and the huge cost (in Nevada it is expected
to cost $66 million over 4 years) Legislators balked.
Missouri
State Rep James Guest, a Republican, formed a coalition of lawmakers from 34
states to file bills that oppose or protest Real ID.
Guest said, “This is almost a frontal assault on the freedoms of
America when they require us to carry a national ID to monitor where we
are.”
Nevada Legislators Senator Nolan and Assemblyman Atkinson have
introduced a Resolution urging Congress to Repeal the REAL ID Act.
Because of the national outcry the Bush Administration has agreed to
offer an 18-month extension to states who want to delay implementation.
Although Governor Gibbons has placed in his budget an initial $30
million for implementing REAL ID, another means of opposing REAL ID is simply
for the State Legislature to refuse to fund it.
This could be accomplished in the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and
Means Committees. Interestingly,
the Federal Government recently offered to allow states to use 20% of Homeland
Security funds to help defray the costs of REAL ID.
Nevada
Eagle Forum has made opposition to REAL ID a priority for our Legislative
agenda. We have met with Nolan and Atkinson.
We will alert you when these important measures appear.
REAL
ID and the North American Union
In
November, Phyllis Schlafly organized a special training conference in
Washington D.C. with Dr. Jerry Corsi, the leading expert on the North American
Union (the combining of the US with Mexico and Canada essentially erasing our
borders and national sovereignty). 35 Eagles from around the country including
Nevada’s State Eagle Forum President Janine Hansen attended the week-long
conference. NAU is officially known as SPP—the Security and Prosperity
Partnership. www.spp.gov
Months
later, while preparing for the hour- long television show, Liberty and Justice
for All, I discovered a telltale connection between REAL ID and the North
American Union. Dr. Robert Pastor who was the author of the Panama Canal give
away (now controlled by the Chinese) is also the author of the Council on
Foreign Relations’ blue print for the North American Union.
The CFR is considered by many to be part of America’s Shadow
Government. Robert Pastor, a
professor at American University, also wrote the report of the Carter-Baker
Commission on Federal Election Reform, which calls for interoperable
databases between states and the use of REAL ID (a national ID).
Three
of the 87 recommendations made by the Commission chaired by Robert Pastor
include:
·
“The
Commission recommends that states…organize and update their lists and that
the US. Election Assistance Commission take the lead in making the lists interoperable
…between states.”
·
“…states
should require voters to present a REAL ID card at the polls.”
·
“States
should make voter registration and ID’s accessible to all eligible citizens
by using mobile offices and other means to register more voters and issue
photo ID cards.”
An article in Human Events by James Plummer on July 7, 2006 quotes Paul
Rosenzeig Dept. of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary who touted something
called the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), which is identified as
a “passport card.” This
passport card is to be required by people entering the US from Canada and
Mexico. The Government Accountability Office reported to Congress,
“that when states adopt driver’s licenses with enhanced security
features in accordance with REAL ID Act, the document should be
sufficient for land border crossings under the Travel Initiative.”
The Plummer article continues, “The REAL ID Act will force
Homeland-Security-written standards onto state drivers’ licenses and link
the state databases into a national ID system. 9/11 Commissioner Slade
Gorton testified to Congress on how machine-readable REAL ID drivers’
licenses “can be combined with other requirements, like the Western
Hemisphere Travel Initiative, for purposes like border crossing.”
One of the major purposes of the Security and Prosperity Partnership is
to create a seamless North American Union where there are no borders
interfering with trade or the movement of people.
The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative through the use of the REAL ID
will facilitate the disappearance of the American border merging us into a
trilateral Mexico-US-Canada North American Union.
For
more information on the North American Union visit www.eagleforum.org
or search the web for
Dr.
Jerry Corsi.