The Real ID Act passed the Senate on May 10, 2005, and was signed into law by President George Bush with a compliance date for State DMVs of May 11, 2008. Most Americans have staunchly and consistently opposed any kind of a national ID card each time it had previously been considered. But Congress approved the Act, tucked largely out of sight inside an emergency war spending and tsunami relief bill. This stealth passage of the Real ID Act shocked and angered many Americans, especially those who remembered Congress' own assurances when creating the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with language actually written into the US Homeland Security Act of 2002, that "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the development of a national identification system or card."

Now in 2008, after nearly three years of incessant fear-mongering and challenges to opponents' patriotism, the public is still outraged, and resistance is swelling. Seven states have now enacted binding legislation to stop Real ID (Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Washington), with Oklahoma on the verge of being the eighth. Fourteen more states have passed resolutions in at least one chamber registering their dissent, and similar efforts have been introduced in 11 more.

The American Policy Center has issued many warnings of the serious threats to public and national security this liberty-smothering law, and ultimately wealth-suppressing law brings to bear on the American public.

The public comment period has come and went. All 50 state governors notified DHS Secretary Chertoff, President Bush, and all 535 members of Congress they opposed the Act, at least as written, for a variety of reasons. Despite the strong negative reaction, whether from average citizens, state agencies, or members of Congress, on January 11, 2008, Secretary Chertoff released his department's final Real ID regulations, which can be read here: Part 1, and Part 2

Secretary Chertoff says he's heard the concerns, rectified many shortcomings of the Real ID Act, and is now offering states an 18-month (with the option of an additional 18-month) extension period within which to comply (by demonstrating material compliance with the core requirements of the Act). Additionally, only those born after December 1, 1964, will have to have their current Driver License re-issued. The rest of us can choose to keep our current DL, so that by December 1, 2017, all 245 million Americans that hold either a State issued Driver License or ID card will be compliant. Encouraging news, right? After all, any delay is a victory.

Secretary Chertoff has taken some hits. On January 18, 2008, Montana's Governor, Brian Schweitzer (D), invited the governors of 17 other states to join Montana in all-out rebellion against the Real ID Act. The Montana Bill states in part:

"The legislature finds that the enactment into law by the U.S. congress of the REAL ID Act of 2005, as part of Public Law 109-13, is inimical to the security and well-being of the people of Montana, will cause unneeded expense and inconvenience to those people, and was adopted by the U.S. congress in violation of the principles of federalism contained in the 10th amendment to the U.S. constitution.

(2) The state of Montana will not participate in the implementation of the REAL ID Act of 2005. The department, including the motor vehicle division of the department, is directed not to implement the provisions of the REAL ID Act of 2005 and to report to the governor any attempt by agencies or agents of the U.S. department of homeland security to secure the implementation of the REAL ID Act of 2005 through the operations of that division and department."

Schweitzer's letter went out to the governors of Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington.

A piqued Chertoff snapped that opponents of the Act needed to "grow up." He further warned that, as of May 11, 2oo8, anyone not presenting a Real ID-compliant state, or federal, ID at an airport will be subject to a complete pat down, screening of their carry-on luggage, and possibly will not be allowed on a commercial airplane.

Governor Schweitzer wants Congress to show some leadership and enact alternative legislation to stop Real ID, while re-instating the commission working on driver's license rules before the Act assigned DHS sole authority to set the rules. He took "great offense at this notion we should all simply 'grow up'," saying Chertoff's remarks "reflect DHS continued disrespect for the serious and legitimate concerns of our citizens."

Laura Keehner, a DHS spokeswoman, said DHS has no intention of backing down. Her comments indicated a department policy of trying to turn States' citizens against their governors, stating failure to comply "will mean real consequences for (a rebel state's) citizens starting in May if their leadership chooses not to comply." Keehner suggested that patted-down citizens will turn their wrath on their state leadership, rather than the federal government.

Secretary Chertoff has also hinted the Real ID card will soon be used for a wide variety of purposes not specifically detailed in the Real ID Act, stating DHS will do nothing to prevent non-government private parties from requiring the ID card. So you could soon be required to have a Real ID card to obtain or hold a job, open a bank account, enter a school, receive medical care, purchase a gun, or a virtually unlimited host of unrelated purposes. Eventually, once smart chips are incorporated, these ID cards will contain your entire life history - not just identification, but birth, school, employment, medical, financial, purchase and travel records.

Incredibly, Secretary Chertoff has no plans for encrypt the stored data on these cards, leaving unprotected the very personal records and access to the financial assets of 245 million Americans. The Real ID Act does not require DHS to secure the records they create or link to. Thus, this national web-like database will provide easy, one-stop shopping for identity thieves, swollen beyond recognition as not only state and national government agencies input and share data, but the private sector accesses the system for routine tracking, monitoring, and regulation of everyday Americans' every move and activity. These ID cards will truly be "internal passports," utilized by the federal government to determine where and how you will be allowed to travel, whether within your own state, or within your own country. Do you really want Big Brother making these decisions for you? Do you want to be tracked in office buildings, subways, or on buses?

Governor Schweitzer has demonstrated great leadership. The Real ID Act will impose rules that threaten the privacy, security and freedom of 245 million Americans. This Act is, as was so aptly stated by the New Hampshire legislature, "contrary and repugnant" to state and federal constitutions. We must all demand other state governors follow suit. We must call Secretary Chertoff's bluff! Follow the spirit of Governor Schweitzer's command to his fellow Montanans - report demands by any federal employee that you produce a Real ID card to your elected state and federal representatives. Complain loudly! Complain in your own best interest, and that of your children. The Real ID Act is fatally flawed, and will soon result in massive litigation. That litigation will be funded, in all phases, by your tax dollars!

Rebellion against the Real ID Act goes far beyond simple defiance of an unpopular public program. Our national roots, our heritage, the very foundation of America springs from a profound understanding that the power of our federal government must be limited - restricted to certain enumerated powers. We have allowed, as a society, and as individuals, the usurpation of much of our liberty and freedom of choice. We're already allowing ourselves to be video taped in private, and on public roads and within public facilities. When is enough, enough? The United Kingdom has one video camera in place for every 14 people in the whole country. Video cameras do NOTHING to increase security; they merely assist the police with later identification of the perpetrators of whatever horror or crime HAS ALREADY BEEN COMMITTED.

Likewise, improved, so-called tamper-proof identity documents that cannot be counterfeited (Oh, really!) will do little, if anything, to secure our borders, and they will DO NOTHING to protect you from a suicide bomber. After all, most potential suicide bombers are already in country, may well have been born and raised here, and will not have a history of this criminal activity. We need to get real, people, and DUMP THE REAL ID ACT!

ACTION NEEDED

Contact your State Governor. You will find their name and contact information here :

Tell your Governor:

• S/he must defend your state's sovereignty, and the police powers granted by your state constitution, and acknowledged by the U.S. Constitution.

• S/he should oppose imposition of the Real ID Act on the state's citizens.

• S/he must not waste the state's precious, and limited, financial resources on the fatally-flawed Real ID Act.

• S/he will bear the full wrath of the state's voters if those voters are betrayed, and forced like slaves into acceptance of this arguably unconstitutional, and very dangerous program.

Contact your State Legislators. You will find their names and contact information here :

Tell your Legislator:

• S/he must defend your state's sovereignty, and the police powers granted by your state constitution, and acknowledged by the U.S. Constitution.

• S/he should oppose imposition of the Real ID Act on the state's citizens.

• S/he must not waste the state's precious, and limited, financial resources on the fatally-flawed Real ID Act.

• S/he will bear the full wrath of the state's voters if those voters are betrayed, and forced like slaves into acceptance of this arguably unconstitutional, and very dangerous program.

Contact your U.S. Representative. Call the House Switchboard at (202) 225-3121. Tell the Operator your Congressman's name, or the city and state where you live, and you will be connected.

Email: Click to Email

Ground mail:

Office of Congressman (Name)
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Tell your Representative:

• Congress mandated in the U.S. Homeland Security Act of 2002 that "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the development of a national identification system or card."

• Congress is over-reaching its authority by dictating to state Governors and state motor vehicle departments requirements for state-issued driver licenses and identification cards.

• Congress is exposing precious, and limited, tax dollars to fund a fatally-flawed program that is arguably unconstitutional, and that will be the subject of massive, taxpayer-funded, litigation.

Contact your U.S. Senator. Call the Senate Switchboard at (202) 224-2131. Tell the Operator who your Senator is, or what state you live in, and you will be connected.

Email:Click to Email

Ground mail:

Office of Senator (Name)
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Tell your Senator:

• Congress mandated in the U.S. Homeland Security Act of 2002 that "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the development of a national identification system or card."

• Congress is over-reaching its authority by dictating to state Governors and state motor vehicle departments requirements for state-issued driver licenses and identification cards.

• Congress is exposing precious, and limited, tax dollars to fund a fatally-flawed program that is arguably unconstitutional, and that will be the subject of massive, taxpayer-funded, litigation.

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More heat needed to kill Polar Bear listing!

The Department of the Interior and its Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are still on task to trample on your rights, drive up your cost of living, and regulate virtually every aspect of your life. The proposed USFWS Polar Bear listing is the most overreaching regulatory action, with little or no scientific evidence to back it up, I can remember. This listing will harm almost every American, by impacting energy prices and availability, access to secure jobs, the cost of living for your family, and more - you'll lose your freedom of choice over virtually every aspect of your life. Remember, this listing will send GLOBAL warming regulations at you, as dictated by climate change alarmists. You must keep up the heat to kill this listing!

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne intends to declare the polar bear a threatened species within the next week or so. But since President Bush did not mention any concern over polar bears in his State of the Union Address (your voice is being heard!), as expected, you can expect environmentalists to lividly increase their pressure on Secretary Kempthorne, and President Bush, to take immediate action.

Once the Polar Bear is listed, USFWS will claim authority under the ESA to control any activity that might, hypothetically add to global warming. USFWS has a longstanding, well-earned reputation for trampling rights of landowners. You DO NOT WANT USFWS exercising the "precautionary principle" over every American, whether or not they own land or their home, based solely on computer models and conjecture.

Certainly the tremendous impacts on every day living will outrage your fellow countrymen; they might even mobilize to overturn the listing. But you've seen how difficult and costly it is to get any species delisted. Please invest your time now; otherwise, it will take a great investment of time, money and energy in the future to undo this travesty. PLEASE keep the heat on until we get this proposed listing killed. It's up to you to make sure this doesn't happen. But you have to act IMMEDIATELY.

ACTION TO TAKE

Contact President Bush. Tell him:

• Thank you for not stating concern over the Polar Bear in your State of the Union Address.

• Order Secretary Kempthorne to reconsider any plans to list polar bears as threatened, because

• Polar Bears are not now, or likely to be in the foreseeable future, threatened or endangered throughout their entire range, as required for listing under the ESA.

Contact info for President Bush - Ph. (202) 456-1111, Fax (202) 456-2461

email: comments@whitehouse.gov,
or ground mail:

President George Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington D.C., 20500

Below is additional contact information for White House staffers. Contact them, and ask them to report your comments to President Bush. This will significantly increase the impact your voice will have.

Joshua Bolton - Chief of Staff
(202) 456-6798 - Fax: (202) 456-0192
joshua_b._bolton@who.eop.gov

Patrick Aylward - Director, Office of the Chief of Staff
(202) 456-6798 - Fax: (202) 456-0192
patrick_s._aylward@who.eop.gov

Edward Gillespie - WH Communications
(202) 456-7910 - Fax: (202) 456-1539
edward_w._gillespie@who.eop.gov

Cynthia Bergman - Communications
(202) 456-2777 - Fax: (202) 456-2505
cynthia_l._bergman@who.eop.gov

Joseph Hagin - Assistant to the President
(202) 456-6798 - Fax: (202) 456-1907
joseph_w._hagin@who.eop.gov

Emily Willeford - Office of Deputy Chief
(202) 456-2450 - Fax: (202) 456-1907
emily_willeford@who.eop.gov

Fred Fielding - White House Counsel
(202) 456-2632 - Fax: (202) 456-6279
fred_f._fielding@who.eop.gov

Contact Secretary Kempthorne. Tell him:

• You have no legal, factual or scientific basis for declaring that polar bears are threatened or endangered. Under the ESA, a species is "threatened" if it is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Total polar bear population is about 22,000 animals.

• There is no danger to arctic habitats, and no evidence of imminent threat to polar bears.

• Computer models, hype, headlines and pressure tactics are not evidence.

• We will not tolerate your trampling on our energy and economic rights, sending our cost of living into the stratosphere, and putting bureaucrats and radical environmentalists in charge of our lives.

• Temperatures in Alaska have ranged from +100 (Fort Yukon, 1915) down to -80 (Prospect Creek, 1976). Any analysis beginning in 1975 will likely show a warming trend upward from a very cold period. The polar bears survived both and will continue to do just fine.

Contact info for Secretary Kempthorne - (202) 208-3100, no fax given

email: dirk_kempthorne@ios.doi.gov,
or ground mail:

Secretary Dirk Kempthorne
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington DC 20240

You may have better luck by calling, faxing and e-mailing his key staff people:

Brian Waidmann
(202) 208- 7351 - Fax: Same as above
brian_waidmann@ios.doi.gov

Douglas Domenech
(202) 208-7351 - Fax: Same as above
douglas_domenech@ios.doi.gov

Kristen Sabella
(202) 208-7351 - Fax: Same as above
kristen_sabella@ios.doi.gov

Patricia Connally
(202) 208-3290 - Fax: Same as above
patricia_connally@ios.doi.gov

Lynn Scarlett
(202) 208 4203 - Fax: Same as above
lynn_scarlett@ios.doi.gov

Contact your Congressmen. Tell them:

• This proposal is insane; there is no legal, factual or scientific basis for it.

• Tell President Bush and Secretary Kempthorne they need to scrap this idea - and do their homework on the Endangered Species Act, the true state of polar bear populations, the history of warming and cooling in the Arctic, and the impact that this decision would have on jobs, prices and lives.

• Any elected official who doesn't oppose the listing of the Polar Bear will be held accountable on November 4.

• According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) average Alaskan temperatures are NOT climbing. By selecting the 1975-2000 warming period, alarmists were able to project a trend that - if it continued - would lead to catastrophic Arctic warming. But this is junk science at its worst.

• Polar bear populations are NOT declining throughout their range; total population is about 22,000.

• Dr. Mitchell Taylor, a biologist with the government of Nunavut, in Canada's Northwest Territory, says "polar bears are not going extinct" and do not even "appear to be affected" at the present time. The Nunavut government still allows hunters to kill up to 500 polar bears a year, to preserve other wildlife species that the bears feed on, and generate revenue. According to Taylor, of the 13 polar bear populations in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number.

Contact info for your Congressman - Call the House Switchboard at (202) 225-3121. Tell the Operator your Congressman's name, or the city and state where you live, and you will be connected.

Email: Click to Email

Ground mail:

Office of Congressman (Name)
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Contact info for your Senator - Call the Senate Switchboard at (202) 224-2131. Tell the Operator who your Senator is, or what state you live in, and you will be connected.

Email: Click to Email

Ground mail:

Office of Senator (Name)
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

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BRAND NEW!!!

Tom DeWeese's Blog "DeWeese's Daily Dose" is a daily journal of the latest issues facing our nation. Tom posts articles, quotes, and his daily thoughts. And you can post your comments too! Go to this address, http://tomdeweese.blogspot.com/ ,to start blogging with Tom DeWeese!

Here's is Tom's blog from Friday, February 8, 2008

U.S. Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists
Disputed Man-made Global Warming Claims in 2007

Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two-dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called "consensus" on man-made global warming. (click on title to see article) These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore. Here are a few of their comments:

"Even if the concentration of 'greenhouse gases' doubles, man would not perceive the temperature impact." Oleg Sorochtin of the Institute of Oceanology at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"I find the Doomsday picture Al Gore is painting - a six-meter sea level rise, 15 times the (UN IPCC) number entirely without merit. I protest vigorously the idea that the climate reacts like a home heating system to a changed setting of the thermostat; just turn the dial and the desired temperature will soon be reached.""The hypothesis that solar variability and not human activity is warming the oceans goes a long way to explain the puzzling idea that the Earth's surface may be warming while the atmosphere is not. The (greenhouse-gas) hypothesis does not do this. The Public is not well served by this constant drumbeat of false alarms fed by computer models manipulated by advocates." David Wojick, expert reviewer for UN International Panel on Climate Change.

"The media is promoting an unprecedented hyping related to global warming. The media and many scientists are ignoring very important facts that point to a natural variation in the climate system as the cause of the recent global warming." Chief Meteorologist Eugene Hackbart of the Metsul Meteorologia Weather Center in Sao Leopoldo-Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

"There is no need to be worried. It is very interesting to study (climate change) but there is no need to be worried." Anton Uriate, a professor of physical geography at the University of the Basque Country, Spain.