Your future under Real ID

If you want to know what the future under Real ID could look like, look at Arizona.

Businesses are under heavy pressure to use E-Verify to check the legal residency status of all employees. Those twice caught hiring illegal immigrants are shut down for good.

U.S. citizens have been thrown out of their jobs because Social Security didn't have them registered as citizens. The welfare state and the police state have converged in the same agency.

People stopped for traffic violations are questioned about their citizenship status, especially if they look Hispanic.

Arizona has created an immigration enforcement force which conducts sweeps in ethnic neighborhoods.

Naturally, this crackdown has strengthened the hand of human smuggling rings and hurt businesses that cater to immigrants, legal or illegal.

Imagine this as your future, in your neighborhood.

More discrepancies with Sequoia voting machines

Ed Felten has discovered additional discrepancies in New Jersey vote totals as recorded by Sequoia's machines.

Next Real ID showdown: December 31, 2009

The Department of Homeland Security has proven to be mostly a paper tiger. Even Maine's surrender was only symbolic; the governor promised to introduce legislation. No states will be subject to sanctions this year under the Real ID Act, but DHS is still demanding compliance by December 31, 2009. That time is conveniently almost a year before the next national election, so the federal government may get tougher in its attempt to impose a national ID on Americans. On the other hand, there will be a new president and some turnover in Congress by then.

Bush and DHS are hoping that Real ID will fade away as an issue in this election. But if its opponents keep the issue alive, then whoever gets elected will face pressure to back off. The real danger is that Congress and the next president will "fix" the problem by spending large amounts of taxpayer money on it, thus appeasing those who care only about "unfunded mandates," not about liberty.

Maine governor yields on Real ID

There is a fresh report from Maine Today (JavaScript required to view anything):

Gov. John E. Baldacci learned today from the Department of Homeland Security that Maine has been granted an extension to the May 11 implementation deadline for the Real ID Act of 2005.
 
Earlier today, Baldacci responded to a March 31 letter from DHS that asked Maine to take certain steps to improve the security of its driver’s license before an extension would be granted. In his letter to DHS, Baldacci agreed to all the requirements.
 
“I have an obligation to make sure that state government acts in the best interest of all the people of Maine,” Baldacci said. “I believe the requests made by the Department of Homeland Security are reasonable, and I will use the resources at my disposal to make sure they are implemented. I look forward to continuing to work with the Legislature and secretary of state on these important issues.”

DHS had been left with no credibility at all after giving in to Montana, New Hampshire, and South Carolina on Real ID, but somehow managed to bludgeon Gov. Baldacci into letting the feds escape a complete rout.

Interesting--the first few paragraphs of the article changed while I was writing this. Here's the new version:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has given Maine an 11th-hour extension on complying with the federal Real ID law, according to Gov. John Baldacci.
 
That means Mainers will not face added hurdles when they try to board airplanes or enter federal buildings.
 
The federal government granted the extension after Baldacci sent a letter to Secretary Michael Chertoff today promising to introduce legislation addressing the federal government's concerns.
 
Among other things, the governor's legislation would require that Maine only issue drivers' licenses to applicants who can prove that they are legal residents of the United States. Maine currently has no residency requirement for people seeking a state driver's license.

DHS issues ultimatum to Maine

The Real ID story has taken a new twist. After pretending that Montana, New Hampshire, and South Carolina had requested extensions for implementing Real ID, in the face of the clear fact that they hadn't, Homeland Security has turned around and issued an ultimatum to Maine. If Maine doesn't "comply" in some unspecified way with Real ID, then all Maine residents who don't have passports will be barred from federal buildings and will be made to go through secondary screening at airports.

I've been unable to figure out Homeland Security's intentions or plans so far, so I won't claim to understand what's going on here. Perhaps this is one last bluff before DHS fold ignominiously. Perhaps it's got some hidden methods of "persuasion" to use on key Maine politicians. Perhaps the administration's strategy is to focus its punishment on one small state, figuring the political consequences will be less than punishing four states in widely scattered parts of the country. Perhaps DHS has noticed that the government's trained media are nicely cooperating. For instance, the UPI article I cited conveniently omits the fact that DHS invented non-existent requests for extensions from the three other states in order to grant them, merely saying that they "have received extensions." (Wired News was less cooperative.)

The game isn't over yet, and the opposition holds the bigger guns.

DHS capitulates to South Carolina

DHS has capitulated to South Carolina on Real ID. I believe this leaves only Maine.

I'd draw an analogy to Fort Sumter, but we all remember what happened later. Besides, this revolt is to free us, not to maintain slavery.

Deutsche Telekom trademarks the color magenta

I'd think this was an April Fool's joke, but Engadget specifically says it isn't. Deutsche Telekom, the owners of T-Mobile, has demanded that Engadget stop using the color magenta on its website, because "Deutsche Telekom and its whole group, including the T-Mobile companies worldwide, have been using the color magenta as a company identifier and core branding element for many years. The company therefore holds trademark protection for the use of this color..."

This takes trademark insanity to new depths.

April 1 requiring a higher level of confirmation than usual, I've looked for other places that have picked up the story. There are a few, such as Tech.Blorge.com, but at the moment I don't see any high-profile tech news sites carrying the story. If it is a joke, Engadget isn't playing fair by denying that it is one, but I'd still like more confirmation. If it's true, Deutsche Telekom is going to be the laughing stock of the Internet this week.

Update: This was not an isolated incident. Deutsche Telekom has previously gone after Compello, a Dutch company, for using the color magenta in its website. It appears that Deutsche Telekom really believes it can own a color.

Fitna back up on LiveLeak

Fitna is back up on LiveLeak, with the following statement:

On the 28th of March LiveLeak.com was left with no other choice but to remove the film "fitna" from our servers following serious threats to our staff and their families. Since that time we have worked constantly on upgrading all security measures thus offering better protection for our staff and families. With these measures in place we have decided to once more make this video live on our site. We will not be pressured into censoring material which is legal and within our rules. We apologise for the removal and the delay in getting it back, but when you run a website you don't consider that some people would be insecure enough to threaten our lives simply because they do not like the content of a video we neither produced nor endorsed but merely hosted.

Good for them.

New Hampshire stands up to feds, wins!

I'm happy to find that I was wrong about the outcome of the confrontation between DHS and New Hampshire over Real ID. Homeland Security has capitulated, saying that it won't impose sanctions on New Hampshire residents on May 11. To cover itself, DHS has said that a couple of simple security features in new NH driver's licenses constitute compliance. These features, according to boston.com, consist of "a unique New Hampshire laminate and month and year of birth hidden in the Old Man of the Mountain logo."

By no stretch of the imagination do these constitute participation in a national database or use of biometric data, which is what Real ID requires. Nor has New Hampshire requested an extension, as DHS had demanded. Homeland Security is simply putting a fig leaf on its defeat. Maine and South Carolina remain under the threat of sanctions against their populations, but it's hard to imagine that DHS isn't currently drafting excuses explaining that they've really qualified for an extension too.

The federal government tried to bully the nation, and for once it lost. But if this hadn't been an election year, things might have been quite different.

Adobe attempts IP scam

Ars Technica reports that Adobe attempted to insert terms of service for its Web-based "Photoshop Express" that would grant Adobe free republication rights to anything uploaded:

Use of Your Content. Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

There was enough of an uproar from users that Adobe has already pulled this language. But even the fact that they made the attempt is a good reason not to use their site.