But it's much better than the status quo.

Actually, no it isn't. It's much WORSE than the status quo. You see, an ID that meets the Real ID rules is automatically acceptable. But an ID that meets the Real ID rules is easy to steal and duplicate. The Real ID regs require identifying data to be stored on the card in some form that can be read from a distance -- but there is no requirement that the data be encrypted. Anyone with a reader can steal your data -- your identity, your entire life. You'll never even know. But when he manages to copy that data onto a counterfeit card, no one will ever be able to prove it's yours and not his -- because by law, Real ID is assumed to be correct and accurate.

To make it worse, Homeland Security agents have already caught counterfeiters with blank new US passports -- you know, the ones that have Real-ID-type data chips in them? Blank. Still in the wrappers. Ready to be programmed. So some scumbag reads the data off your Real ID card, copies it onto one of those shiny new passports, and presto -- he's got legal proof of citizenship IN YOUR NAME.

I'm all in favor of a good, accurate, unforgeable, theftproof ID method. Real ID isn't it.

All hail Fatherland Security.

If the terrorists "obtained 30 drivers licenses" as mentioned in the article and didn't make them themselves, then all that would happen is they'd get those licenses with their fake identities encoded in them on the Real ID chip.

I fail to see where this would have helped.

It's 'laissez-faire'. Do you really think that this Big Government ID system will really make it harder for Bad People to do Bad Things?

I can't believe the comments above. You people have and are still supporting President Bush's policy's. Now you aren't. WHY? Germany has individual ID cards, they are called Kin cards, due to the aftermath of destruction of WW2. And there was a good reason for that in Germany, because family's were separated, killed, etc. etc.
However we are not separated, etc. etc.

It has become the fear factor, hence homeland security. Thanks to the lefties, no profiling. I'm sure a white women, in her 80s, in a wheel chair is a threat to airlines. Same as the average American citizen, that can speak American English.

But thanks to the lefties, homeland security cannot profile someone who wears a towel on their head, dressed in a sheet. Well, which one is is closer to a terrorist? And due to the tech that is available today, almost every ID can be copied.

However this is a Xray machine that shows every part of the body. But here again the lefties are yelling discrimination. One of the reason it shows how large/small a womens breast is, how large or small a mans penis is, etc. But it shows exactly what is under your clothes. Any plastic weapon, not pickup on normal metal screener, it shows everything on your body.

I personally don't care who sees what length or size my penis is, (it's how you use it that counts) nor should a women complain about breast size (more than a mouth full is wasted).

All Americans who drive have a state approved drivers license, or a regular passport. We don't need more ID. Just use the new Xray machine's at the airport. If a person may be embarrassed for one reason or another, agree to a strip search. Simple, right?

Hmm...As a conservative who likes a smaller federal government, I'm not too hot on this idea.

But then, I'm also the same who is beginning to wish we would show our American resolve by lowering airport security some.

The REAL ID card uses an RFI chip so that data can be read from a distance, but a simple conductive sleeve around the card prevents if from being read until it's removed from the sleeve. If you are worried about someone stealing your identity, just carry your ID card is such a sleeve.

The data on the chip can be digitally signed, which prevents it from being altered without such tampering being detected. A person's photo can be part of such data, which eliminates just anyone from using your ID. Fingerprints and retina scans could also be contained in such data. The only way of stealing the identity of a person with such an ID is to first clone the person.

We all carry ID cards now, so I don't see why there's such fuss over making the ID hard to forge and nearly impossible to steal someone's identity.

It only took the feds 6+ years to address drivers licenses. Does that mean we can expect the border fence by 2108?

I just don't understand the supposed republicans who seem to be rabidly pro-big government, pro-government control of our lives, anti-states rights, anti-4th amendment--RINO's supporting authoritarian programs that Stalin and and Hitler would envy.

Do these people really believe that police-state measures are good and will make our lives more secure? Is Jayson just misguided--does he really believe that the gummint will limit itself to prosecuting terrorists and not eventually track and persecute dissidents? Or is he part of the plot?

And illegal aleins need not apply