Natonal ID Cards are a solution looking for a problem.

National ID Cards: Analysis and commentary by Bruce Schneier of Counterpane Internet Security.

Natonal ID Cards won't stop terrorism.

HR 418 – A National ID Bill Masquerading as Immigration Reform.
The REAL ID Act establishes a national ID card by mandating that states include certain minimum identification standards on driver's licenses. It contains no limits on the government's power to impose additional standards. Indeed, it gives authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to unilaterally add requirements as he sees fit. Supporters claim it is not a national ID because it is voluntary. However, any state that opts out will automatically make non-persons out of its citizens. The citizens of that state will be unable to have any dealings with the federal government because their ID will not be accepted. They will not be able to fly or to take a train. In essence, in the eyes of the federal government they will cease to exist. It is absurd to call this voluntary.

Your papers please…. Each American already has a national ID card — it's called a Social Security card. The use of Social Security numbers for identification purposes was somewhat limited until 1962, when the Internal Revenue Service co-opted it for official taxpayer identification. Ten years later, the notice "For Social Security Purposes — Not For Identification" was removed from Social Security cards. Currently, SSNs are the most frequently used identifier in the U.S. They're required for credit and banking relations, employee files, academic records, licenses and certifications, medical records and health-insurance accounts, passports, and phone and utility accounts.

The National Loss-of-Freedoms Card. HR 418, a massively unconstitutional and un-American disaster for our freedom, just passed the House of Representatives. It does nothing to stem the flow of illegal aliens. Instead, HR 418 will establish a national ID card [and, among other things] re-define "terrorism" in broad new terms that could include members of firearms rights and anti-abortion groups or other such groups as determined by whoever is in power at the time.

Real ID's, Real Dangers. Have you ever wondered what good it does when they look at your driver's license at the airport? Let me assure you, as a former bureaucrat partly responsible for the 1996 decision to create a photo-ID requirement, it no longer does any good whatsoever. The ID check is not done by federal officers but by the same kind of minimum-wage rent-a-cops who were doing the inspection of carry-on luggage before 9/11.

Forced National ID is the Gateway to Forced Implanted Bio Chips. Last week the House of Representatives passed an unconstitutional piece of legislation which will force all Americans to accept a national ID/driver's license. Those who refuse to accept this card will not be able to fly, take the train and one day you will be unable to travel the roads and streets without "your papers, please!"

Reject the National ID Card. Washington politicians are once again seriously considering imposing a national identification card — and it may well become law before the end of the 108th Congress. The much-hailed 9/11 Commission report released in July recommends a federal identification card and, worse, a "larger network of screening points" inside the United States. Does this mean we are to have "screening points" inside our country where American citizens will be required to "show their papers" to government officials? It certainly sounds that way!
A national ID card will have huge costs and few, if any, benefits.
Automatic registration for the draft: The Texas DPS is going to automatically register 18 to 26 year old males with the US Selective Service (military draft) when they apply for or renew a Texas driver's license.

Editor's Note: This raises some important questions. How many state agencies use their leverage to gather information for federal agencies? And what other agencies will begin using this technique?

Random demands to see ID cards tend to make people resentful of the police.

Risks of National Identity (NID) Cards: We must distinguish between the apparent identity claimed by an NID and the actual identity of an individual, and consider the underlying technology of NID cards and the infrastructures supporting those cards. It's instructive to consider the problems of passports and drivers' licenses. These supposedly unique IDs are often forged. Rings of phony ID creators abound, for purposes including both crime and terrorism. Every attempt thus far at hardening ID cards against forgery has been compromised.

Originally posted by Echo2
1. Each American already has a national ID card — it's called a Social Security card. Currently, SSNs are the most frequently used identifier in the U.S.

2. Have you ever wondered what good it does when they look at your driver's license at the airport? Let me assure you.....it no longer does any good whatsoever. The ID check is not done by federal officers but by the same kind of minimum-wage rent-a-cops who were doing the inspection of carry-on luggage before 9/11.

If a driver's license isn't good ID, then certainly a SS card isn't.

The bill that just passed the house leaves the door open for bio-signetures.

We all know how well the government does at delivering the mail and taking care of our money in the SS system. I really do not want them to have a single database that has all my identificational numbers in it. They would either fuck it up or sell it.

I personally hate the idea of a National ID card, but I do think that in the future, many people will voluntarily have data chips implanted that can be read by a remote reader. The advantages for crime reduction may very well lead the Government to press for making it mandatory.

Future technology will undoubtedly make it more desirable to have a chip implanted. Add a few sensors to the gizmo and you can tie the implant to any other computer or network. For someone with the right data chip, locks could be opened, automobiles operated, accounts accessed and any number of other things controlled. Money would be uneccessary, which would tend to eliminate a lot of crimes. Imagine a device implanted in your head that was tied to the GPS System, the local cell phone network, all the scanners where you shop, your desktop at home and work, and could communicate with the devices in other people's heads. We'll be there someday.

The problem I forsee with implanting chips is the same one that works on credit cards now. There are criminals who use a card reader in a laptop case or briefcase. The brush up against wallets ot purses and can read the cards inside. Later the make up a forged duplicate. Something similair could be done with implanted chips, in an even higher tech version of identity theft.

Echo, I don't think that a national ID card would be such a bad idea. The only problem I could foresee is that it would be not too practical with a 300 million population.

In Spain we had such a ID card since at least the 50s (it might be older, I don't exactly know the year). The ID is voluntary up to 14 years old when it becames mandatory for all Spanish citizens. Without that ID card you cannot get a driving license, a SS number, a passport, enrol at the university, vote, open a bank account, and many other burocratic things.The ID number is in our fiscal, education and driving records. 15 years ago they made mandatory to show the ID card upon request of any police officer and it is used to identify a person in case of accident, traffic violations, crimes...as when you get your ID card for the first time, they take the finger prints (which is included in the civil registration records).

It looks a kind of Big Brother thing, but it has helped to fight against ETA. Many ETA members were caught due to discrepancies between the ID card they show to police officers and the records the police has (most ETA members carry a false ID). For that you ought to have a very good IT system and a centralised database (which it might be difficult for 300 million).

I'm against it in theory. The reality is that it already exists.

I'm against it in theory.

But the reality is that the Powers-That-Be already possesss such an incredible degree of control and dominance over the gullible masses ---i.e., their manner of thinking, their opinions, their mental constructs--- that I.D. cards are the least of the sheep's worries.

From another article on this subject at http://news.com.com/FAQ+How+Real+ID+will+affect+you/2100-1028_3-5697111.html?part=rss&tag=5697111&subj=news

Is this a national ID card?
It depends on whom you ask. Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program, says: "It's going to result in everyone, from the 7-Eleven store to the bank and airlines, demanding to see the ID card. They're going to scan it in. They're going to have all the data on it from the front of the card...It's going to be not just a national ID card but a national database."

At the moment, state driver's licenses aren't easy for bars, banks, airlines and so on to swipe through card readers because they're not uniform; some may have barcodes but no magnetic stripes, for instance, and some may lack both. Steinhardt predicts the federalized IDs will be a gold mine for government agencies and marketers. Also, he notes that the Supreme Court ruled last year that police can demand to see ID from law-abiding U.S. citizens.

Ok... so here's my concern. WHERE is my information going? WHO has access to it and WHAT IF my information inadvertently gets mixed up with an individual who purchased supplies to produce methamphetimine, or a bomb or something? Who's to say that my word isn't going to be worth a shot in hell at my defense? Or, what if, one week I buy 3 pkgs of batteries. The next month, I buy Sudafed... you see where I'm going? I don't wanna be harassed by the coppers for buying things that I need because they fall into their "drug making category". This is just an example.

Next, we'll have to scan these cards into our own computers so that the government will be able to monitor every fucking thing we do!! Into the pay phones, or cell phones or house phones, etc.

AND -- on edit -- it's a sneaky ass way to pass something like this thru an emergency military spending bill. If you vote against it, the rightwingers will say you're voting AGAINST helping the troops. If you vote for it, lefties will proclaim you're aiding the downslide of America. It's a no win situation.