Real ID: You won’t see this on NBC

Or CBS, or ABC or any other main stream media outlet it seems. You had to read about it on Boing Boing, or some other tech-centric media.

Real ID passes in US Senate
Privacy advocates’ efforts to stop legislation that would create a federally-approved electronic ID card failed today. A military spending bill which contained the so-called Real ID Act driver’s license reform passed unanimously in the U.S. Senate. Snip from Declan McCullagh’s report at News.com:

President Bush (…) is expected to sign the bill into law this month. Its backers, including the Bush administration, say it’s needed to stop illegal immigrants from obtaining drivers’ licenses. When the act’s mandates take effect in May 2008, Americans will be required to obtain federally approved ID cards with “machine readable technology” that abides by Department of Homeland Security specifications. Anyone without such an ID card will be effectively prohibited from traveling by air or Amtrak, opening a bank account, or entering federal buildings.

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Here’s the full article on CNET. Major change. No debate. Slipped into the ass end of some funding bill that no one will question because it would be “un-patriotic”. Lovely.—