Oh, no, another one of the knee jerk (emphasis on that last word) responses by our ignorant leaders. Wrong in so many ways, but what else is new? When being out-of-date and technology deficient can be so dangerous....

Posted by: Sarah on May 10, 2005 1:05 PM

It's a done deal, the senate passed it. The baddies are:

(1) It's unfunded, will cost the states $100 to $300 million. People may tell you otherwise, but NO STATE is in compliance with this law now. All will have to add the ability to be machine readable the way home security tells them.

(2) It's in some ways very vague - Home security gets to specify some of it - so it's hard to tell how bad it will be.

(3) Because it requires that all driver's licenses be machine readable the same way, EVERYone will be able to afford a reader; you'll swipe it to do everything, and info about you will be easier to track than ever before.

(4) Anyone with access to data bases on people (e.g. someone who hacks ChoicePoint) will have tons of data about you.

There's more: Some claim the goal of this legislation was to attack illegal aliens, who probably will not qualify for these driver's licenses and therefore - when they crash into you - will all be uninsured.

There's more: The law also allows the military to give far fewer contracts to small businesses, see:
http://www.freshnews.com/news/defense-west/article_23504.html

- The Precision Blogger
http://precision-blogging.blogspot.com