more on Read it and prepare to stand on LONG LONG lines -- Senate Backs Measure to Tighten ID Requirements

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Levine <johnl () iecc com>
Date: May 11, 2005 8:35:56 PM EDT
To: Ari Ollikainen <Ari () OLTECO com>
Cc: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Read it and prepare to stand on LONG LONG  
lines -- Senate Backs Measure to Tighten ID Requirements


>     As an exercise in critical thinking, I suggest you attempt to
>     discover ANY terminology from the REAL-ID act (HR.418) which
>     equates to "authentic copy of their birth certificate" for
>     driver's license renewal [ see 202(c) et al]:

Well, let's take a look:


> (1) IN GENERAL- To meet the requirements of this section, a State
> shall require, at a minimum, presentation and verification of the
> following information before issuing a driver's license or
> identification card to a person:


> (B) Documentation showing the person's date of birth.

I see that it says "presentation and verification of the following
information before issuing a driver's license."

The important word is verification.  Birth certificates come in a
zillion different forms and styles.  I have the one that the City of
New York gave my parents when I was born 51 years ago.  It's a fragile
white-on-black photostat of a page in a book, and if you look
carefully you can still see the impression of a seal.  My mother's is
a letter from the Town of Bethel VT starting "Dear Cousin Ginny,
According to the records here in the Town of Bethel, you were born
..."  A friend of mine who was born in Morocco while his father was
working for an engineering firm has a birth certificate entirely in
French.  (He's lucky it's not in Arabic.)

I don't know what verification is supposed to mean, nor, I suspect,
does anyone else, but that's clearly what the authentic copy of a
birth certificate refers to.  It is also obvious that no DMV clerk can
possibly know what all of the valid birth certficates look like, so
they will spend endless hours on the phone calling the issuing
departments to see whether the piece of paper they are looking at
corresponds to an original.  Maybe if you have a passport, that also
counts as documentation of date of birth, but now how are they
supposed to verify the passport?  Is it enough to look at it and know
what a passport is supposed to look like?  Do they have to call the
State Department, give them the passport number, and describe the
person in the picture?

I feel fortunate that my driver's license isn't up for renewal until
2012, because I figure that it's unlikely to take more than about
three months after this stupid law goes into effect in 2007 for the
screaming from the voters to get loud enough that it'll be repealed.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl () iecc com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for  
Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor
"More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly.


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/