ThinkingBlue: Who's Being Blamed For 9-11?

WHO'S BEING BLAMED FOR 9-11?

We the People, that's who. It must be we-the-people because why then, are we being punished for it? "They", (we all know who the "they" is) haven't caught Bin Laden after 6 years of supposedly hunting him down. "They", sent our young people into an unnecessary war deluding the war they waged on the real 9-11 designers in Afghanistan. "They", depleted our liberties under the guise of The Patriot Act and Homeland Security. "They", took away so much of our National Guard, states were left without a safety net when natural disasters occurred i.e. KATRINA, which we are still being punished for with FEMA's revised Flood Maps. This little doozie is costing Me (A CARD CARRYING MEMBER OF, WE THE PEOPLE) 200 hundred dollars a month for flood insurance, added to my mortgage because the new flood maps put my house smack dab in the middle of a flood zone. Lived in a house for almost 13 years and was high and dry through La Niñas, hurricanes and a few torrential rains replete with strong tornadoes. All of a sudden "They" tell me I need flood insurance... Al-Qaeda must be having so much fun... waiting to see what punishment the heretic population in the USA are going to receive next from their own American government. I'll bet they are throwing a congratulatory party for this REAL ID Act. thinkingblue AKA: MAD AS HELL AND NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!

New security rules for driver's licenses By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer

Fri Jan 11, 1:33 AM ET

WASHINGTON -
Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure
driver's licenses in the next six years under ambitious post-9/11 security rules
to be unveiled Friday by federal officials.

The Homeland Security Department has spent years crafting the final regulations
for the REAL ID Act, a law designed to make it harder for terrorists, illegal
immigrants and con artists to get government-issued identification. The effort
once envisioned to take effect in 2008 has been pushed back in the hopes of
winning over skeptical state officials.

Even with more time, more federal help and technical advances, REAL ID still
faces stiff opposition from civil liberties groups.

To address some of those concerns, the government now plans to phase in a secure
ID initiative that Congress passed into law in 2005. Now, DHS plans a key
deadline in 2011 — when federal authorities hope all states will be in
compliance — and then further measures to be enacted three years later,
according to congressional staffers who spoke to The Associated Press on
condition of anonymity because an announcement had not yet been made. DHS
officials briefed legislative aides on the details late Thursday.

Without discussing details, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
promoted the final rules for REAL ID during a meeting Thursday with an advisory
council.

"We worked very closely with the states in terms of developing a plan that I
think will be inexpensive, reasonable to implement and produce the results," he
said. "This is a win-win. As long as people use driver's licenses to identify
themselves for whatever reason there's no reason for those licenses to be easily
counterfeited or tampered with."

In order to make the plan more appealing to cost-conscious states, federal
authorities drastically reduced the expected cost from $14.6 billion to $3.9
billion, a 73 percent decline, according to Homeland Security officials familiar
with the plan.

The American Civil Liberties Union has fiercely objected to the effort,
particularly the sharing of personal data among government agencies. The DHS and
other officials say the only way to make sure an ID is safe is to check it
against secure government data; critics like the ACLU say that creates a system
that is more likely to be infiltrated and have its personal data pilfered.

In its written objection to the law, the ACLU claims REAL ID amounts to the
"first-ever national identity card system," which "would irreparably damage the
fabric of American life."

The Sept. 11 attacks were the main motivation for the changes.

The hijacker-pilot who flew into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had a total of four
driver's licenses and ID cards from three states. The DHS, which was created in
response to the attacks, has created a slogan for REAL ID: "One driver, one
license."

By 2014, anyone seeking to board an airplane or enter a federal building would
have to present a REAL ID-compliant driver's license, with the notable exception
of those more than 50 years old, Homeland Security officials said.

The over-50 exemption was created to give states more time to get everyone new
licenses, and officials say the risk of someone in that age group being a
terrorist, illegal immigrant or con artist is much less. By 2017, even those
over 50 must have a REAL ID-compliant card to board a plane.

Among other details of the REAL ID plan:

_The traditional driver's license photograph would be taken at the beginning of
the application instead of the end so that should someone be rejected for
failure to prove identity and citizenship, the applicant's photo would be kept
on file and checked in the future if that person attempted to con the system
again.

_The cards will have three layers of security measures but will not contain
microchips as some had expected. States will be able to choose from a menu which
security measures they will put in their cards.

Over the next year, the government expects all states to begin checking both the
Social Security numbers and immigration status of license applicants.

Most states currently check Social Security numbers and about half check
immigration status. Some, like New York, Virginia, North Carolina and
California, already have implemented many of the security measures envisioned in
REAL ID. In California, for example, officials expect the only major change to
adopt the first phase would be to take the photograph at the beginning of the
application process instead of the end.

After the Social Security and immigration status checks become nationwide
practice, officials plan to move on to more expansive security checks, including
state DMV offices checking with the State Department to verify those applicants
who use passports to get a driver's license, verifying birth certificates and
checking with other states to ensure an applicant doesn't have more than one
license.

A handful of states have already signed written agreements indicating plans to
comply with REAL ID. Seventeen others, though, have passed legislation or
resolutions objecting to it, often based on concerns about the billions of
dollars such extra security is expected to cost.
____