Hey Big Brother

Hey big brother, as soon as you arrive
You better, get in touch with the people, big brother
Better get them on your side, big brother
And keep them satisfied

Welcome to the beat of the city street
Walk on now and don't be shy
Take a closer look at the people you meet
And notice the fear in their eyes
watching the time passing by.....

Focus your eye on the filthy sky
Just as far as you can see
Everybody's getting kinda tired of waiting
Cause nobody wants to cry
And nobody wants to die....

Now that you've got the picture
What you going to do?

Hey big brother, I know you're out there somewhere
If we don't get our thing together, big brother will be watching us
He ain't gonna get me, are you gonna let him get you?
He'll never get me, he'll never get me, no

Big brother's coming
No he'll never get me, no no no no...

-Rare Earth

That may turn out to be wishful thinking [thanks Noah]:

Homeland Security officials released long-delayed guidelines that turn state-issued identification cards into de facto internal passports Thursday, estimating the changes will cost states and individuals $23 billion over 10 years...

"Raising the security standards on driver's licenses establishes another layer of protection to prevent terrorists from obtaining and using fake documents to plan or carry out an attack," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a press release.

The 162 pages of proposed rules (.pdf) require:

* Applicants must present a valid passport, certified birth certificate, green card or other valid visa documents to get a license and states must check all other states' databases to ensure the person doesn't have a license from another state.
* States must use a card stock that glows under ultraviolet light, and check digits, hologramlike images and secret markers.
* Identity documents must expire before eight years and must include legal name, date of birth, gender, digital photo, home address and a signature. States can propose ways to let judges, police officers and victims of domestic violence keep their addresses off the cards. There are no religious exemptions for veils or scarves for photos.
* States must keep copies of all documents, such as birth certificates, Social Security cards and utility bills, for seven to 10 years...

However, many difficult questions, such as how state databases will be linked or how homeless people can get identity documents, were left unanswered by the proposed rules. Citizens of states that don't abide by the guidelines will not be able to enter federal courthouses or use their identity cards to board a commercial flight.

Sophia Cope, a staff attorney at the centrist Center for Democracy and Technology, says the rules only mention privacy once.

"The Real ID Act does not include language that lets DHS prescribe privacy requirements, so there are no privacy regulations related to exchange of personal information between the states, none about skimming of the data on the magnetic stripe, and no limits on use of information by the feds," Cope said.

The Real ID Act, slipped into an emergency federal funding bill without hearings, originally required states to begin issuing the ID documents by May 2008...

So that's how the Rethuglicans are going to throw the 2008 $election. No National ID, no vote!