Real ID

Georgia started doing this a few years ago, but I had bought an 8 year driver's license and wasn't minded to go back before it was necessary. My next one will be a Real ID, though. I just applied for it last week. It's actually no more painful to get than the standard ID, which required nearly as much documentation. In North Carolina, which offers both a Real ID and a non-Real driver's license option, it's just as onerous to obtain the one as the other. You might as well get the Real one, if you're eligible for it.

4 comments:

E Hines said...

From the link in OP: “divide us all into documented and undocumented.”

Yeah, and? What's your point, Ulin?

Eric Hines

Eric Blair said...

I suggest a passport. I've had one for 30 years now.

Grim said...

I have a passport, which is about halfway to needing to be renewed again. If you travel out of the country even occasionally by air, I recommend joining the Global Entry program.

Tom said...

There is a lot of opposition to Real ID here in OK for some of the same reasons the ACLU lists. To summarize the relevant points from:

1. It's costly and it won't achieve its goal, e.g., it would not have stopped the 9/11 hijackers.
2. It enables surveillance & monitoring of citizens.
3. It requires a database of all Americans. (Opponents oppose requiring registration of all firearms as well.)
4. It functions as a kind of "internal passport" that can be used to monitor citizens' movements inside the US.

Many of the people opposed are libertarian types who were in the Tea Party movement here.

I haven't really thought about it that much, but I see their point, particularly when it comes to the ways businesses may come to use it.