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if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act. The act, signed in 2005 as part of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill, aims to weave driver's licenses and state ID cards into a sort of national identification system by May 2008. The law sets baseline criteria for how driver's licenses will be issued and what information they must contain. ... More than half the nation's state legislatures have passed or proposed legislation denouncing the plan and some have penned bills expressly forbidding compliance.

Several states have begun making arrangements for the new requirements -- four have passed legislation applauding the measure -- but even they may have trouble meeting the act's deadline. The cards would be mandatory for all "federal purposes," which include boarding an airplane or walking into a federal building, nuclear facility or national park Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the National Conference of State Legislatures last week. Citizens in states that don't comply with the new rules will have to use passports for federal purposes.

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We knew it was only a matter of time before the government started trying to track us by implanting computer chips in our bodies. And where do you start highly suspicious, Big Brother-esque projects like this? The Pentagon and our Armed forces, of course. Scarily enough, we're not talking about some conspiracy theory, or some black ops experiment -- this is for real, and the Pentagon has already awarded the first contract. It's a $1.6 million contract, to be exact, and it's with Clemson University's Center for Bioelectronics, Biosensors and Biochips (C3B). The mandate? To develop the chip that the armed forces hope will save lives by giving them instant access to, and constant tracking of, soldiers' vital medical signs and data on the battlefield.

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NEW YORK (AP)-In a new test program, Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey plans to implant patients suffering from chronic diseases with a microchip that will give emergency room staff access to their medical information and help avoid costly or serious medical errors, the insurer said on Friday. Horizon plans to announce on Monday that it is teaming up with Hackensack University Medical Center in a pilot program where 280 patients regularly treated at the hospital will be implanted with a chip containing a code.

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Originally posted by leadb:
So... am I the only one this 'Real ID' act was a 'surprise' to?

A couple years ago, I went into the Rocky Mountain national part while on a business trip. Didn't think anything about them asking to see my driver's license on the way in. Never considered the question... should a pedestrian wish to enter the national park, could they be denied entrance simply because they didn't have a drivers' license? This is getting creepy.

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Thank you for your inquiry.

The only time we ask for identification at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace
National Historic Site is when you write a check for purchases made in the
bookstore or if you purchase an America the Beautiful Pass. If you plan to
camp at parks with campgrounds, you will need identification but not to
just to merely enter the park. Law enforcement personnel may also ask for
identification while you are in the park. The type of identification
would be what you normally use in other situations (driver's license or
passport/picture identification). If you know specifically which parks you
plan to visit, please check with each one individually. Minors must be
accompanied by an adult at all times.

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Originally posted by canttakesky:
On a completely tangential note, I just gave birth to our third child, whose middle name is Nathan. Can you say fanboy? Of course, no one else will be any wiser, except for folks on this board.

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Originally posted by SoupCatcher:
Our beautiful baby girl was born on the 3rd (first child for both of us).

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Originally posted by SoupCatcher:
Our beautiful baby girl was born on the 3rd (first child for both of us).

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