Revamping Your Drivers License - TIME

Image by clappstar via Flickrhttp://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1059044-1,00.html
Let's dispense with the mythology right up front. A driver's license has never been just about driving. When the first ones were issued in the early 1900s, the idea was to collect fees, not to test driving skills. More recently, revoking licenses became a way to punish people who didn't pay child support or, in Wisconsin, shovel snow off their walks. In its most coveted form, the license is proof of age--or of fraud, as the case may be. In college, for example, I was not Amanda Ripley from New Jersey; I was Amanda Jones from California. I lived on Yellowbrick Road and looked suspiciously joyful in the photo, which was taken in the dorm room of an unsavory character to whom I had paid $40.
Congress is expected this week to reinterpret the driver's license yet again. The license will never, of course, be called a national ID card, which evokes jackboots and imperial forces in the minds of many Americans. But the new law would make it function a lot like a national ID that comes in 50 varieties. To begin with, states would have to ensure that everyone who gets an official license is in the U.S. legally. Nine states do not have that requirement, and not all the others verify the authenticity of the immigration documents that they demand. The new law would also mandate certain standard details on licenses, including a digital photo (about 20 states still use regular photos glued in place). And it would require that states store all that information, along with residents' driving histories and points, in a database that every other state could access.
The bill's supporters say it would not establish a national ID card, since no one has to get a driver's license or state ID. That's correct. Such documents are useful only if you need to drive, fly, cash checks, apply for certain jobs or enter federal buildings. If you are a wealthy recluse with liquid assets, it doesn't concern you.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1059044,00.html#ixzz1K5PqSlaL

Although countries from France to Singapore have accepted national IDs, the U.S. remains resistant. Never mind that daily movements and decisions are already quite traceable, thanks to Social Security numbers, credit cards, cell phones and toll-booth smart cards. Never mind that 6 out of 10 Americans have been fingerprinted for one reason or another and that 13 states have biometric requirements (like fingerprints) for getting driver's licenses. No one can force us to carry a unified ID card (yet). --Reported by Perry Bacon Jr., Brian Bennett and Viveca Novak/ Washington

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1059044,00.html#ixzz1K5PxLDEn

Related articles

• Revamping Your Driver's License (time.com)
• When FG/LP Bring In National ID Cards - Will There Be Any Hope For Humanity? (politics.ie)
• Under new bill, illegal immigrants would be allowed driver's licenses (bendbulletin.com)
• Deluxe Leather Business Card Case with ID Window & Credit Card Holder (execgiftsblog.com)
• The travel function policy on national eID in the European Union (silicontrust.wordpress.com)
• Obama Pushes Chinese-Style Internet ID System (terryolgin.wordpress.com)
• How Much Is Your Wallet Worth? (mydsny.wordpress.com)
• Carl Lewis shows valid NJ driver's license (sfgate.com)
• Tenn. AG: Voter ID requirement unconstitutional (knoxnews.com)
• How can I be sure to pass the CA drivers license test? (ask.metafilter.com)

States Facing Financial Doomsday as Debts Mount

clipped from www.foxbusiness.com That’s not some apocalyptic bumper sticker. It’s the learned opinion of numerous financial experts when describing the budget crises facing a number of U.S. states, notably Illinois, California and New Jersey. “This is an unprecedented crisis,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, an influential Illinois-based tax and fiscal policy research group. While a General Motors-style bankruptcy is off the table – states are prohibited by law from filing for protection from their debtors – the alternative is no less alarming. It’s already happening in Illinois, Msall said, where the state has reneged on payments promised to public colleges, and those colleges in turn have threatened 20% tuition increases. In other words, the money needed to keep insolvent states running at some minimum operational level will have to come from somewhere.     California, the largest state in the U.S., spends $17 billion each year on government employee pensions and health care,

Related articles by Zemanta

• Illinois' Financial Meltdown (chicagoist.com)
• $1 Trillion Pension Gap is 'Daunting' Bill to States (businessweek.com)
• Illinois Budget Crisis 2010: Civic Federation Says Only Big Tax Hikes Can Fix 'Horrific' Budget Problems (huffingtonpost.com)
• California Court of Appeals Upholds Proposition 14 Language (More Good News for Independent Voters) (themoderatevoice.com)
• N.J. Senate Passes Measures to Close Pension Deficit (Update2) (businessweek.com)
• My Case for New Jersey Being Number One | $103 Billion Shortfall (gloucestercitynews.net)

Obama to spell out new healthcare plan

clipped from news.yahoo.com WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is expected to publish his healthcare plan as early as Sunday or Monday, combining features of the two Democratic bills passed by the Senate and House of Representatives, congressional aides and healthcare advocates said on Friday. The administration's bill will aim to jump-start the stalled healthcare overhaul and comes just days ahead of a planned televised White House summit with congressional Republicans, who are calling on Democrats to scrap the bills and start over with a far less sweeping proposal. Democrats are struggling to push healthcare legislation over the finish line in the face of sagging public support and solid Republican opposition bolstered by recent election victories in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey. "The president is going to craft what he thinks is a good bill. It's not going to be a perfect bill but it's going to be a good bill,"

Related articles by Zemanta

• Comment: Could incumbents be at risk in 2010 elections? (cnn.com)
• Obama Intends to Reveal His Healthcare Bill (minx.cc)
• Obama firm on healthcare reform (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Obama tells Democrats to keep faith (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Barack Obama faces mid-term humiliation after Senate exodus (telegraph.co.uk)

Blizzards pound snowbound Mid-Atlantic to New York

clipped from news.yahoo.com WASHINGTON – Snow, wind and slush hounded eastern commuters Wednesday as blizzard warnings from Baltimore to New York City heralded the second major storm in a region already blanketed by historic weekend snowfalls More than 10 inches of new snow fell before dawn in parts of Maryland that had received up to 30 inches just a few days earlier. Plows and salt spreaders fought heavy snow in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where the flakes briefly turned to rain to make a slushy mix. Heavy snow collapsed part of the roof and a wall at a Smithsonian Institution storage building in Suitland, Md. Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said they don't believe there was any damage to artifacts from the National Air and Space Museum, but officials were unable to go inside because the building is unstable. "My brain is a little frozen," he said.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Round 2: Blizzards hit Mid-Atlantic to New York (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Regional Recap, February 5, 2010 (eyeonannapolis.net)
• Worst Snowstorm in history paralyzes Washington DC and eastern US (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Snow Piles up, Paralyzing Nation's Capital (abcnews.go.com)
• Snowpocalypse 2.0: second large storm batters US east coast (telegraph.co.uk)

Brown: Mass. victory sends very powerful message - Yahoo! News

• Brown: Mass. victory sends 'very powerful message' - Yahoo! News

  "BOSTON – Republican Scott Brown, fresh from a stunning Massachusetts Senate victory that shook the power balance on Capitol Hill, declared Wednesday that his election had sent a "very powerful message" that voters are weary of backroom deals and Washington business-as-usual. Democrats scrambled to explain the loss, which imperils President Barack Obama's agenda for health care and other hard-fought domestic issues. Republicans greeted their victory with clear glee. "The president ought to take this as a message to recalibrate how he wants to govern, and if he wants to govern from the middle we'll meet him there," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Obama said the Massachusetts vote reflected the mood around the country. "People are angry, and they're frustrated," he said in an interview with ABC News. Democrats still exercise majority control over both the House and Senate. But Tuesday's GOP upset to win the seat long held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy — following Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey last fall for gubernatorial seats that had been held by Democrats — signals challenges for Democratic prospects in midterm elections this year. Even when the economy is not bad, the party holding the White House historically loses seats in midterms. "If there's anybody in this building that doesn't tell you they are more worried about elections today, you should absolutely slap them," Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri told reporters at the Capitol. "Of course everybody is more worried about elections. Are you kidding? It's what this place thrives on." Brown, in his first meeting with reporters after the special election, portrayed his victory as less a referendum on Obama or the president's health care proposal and more of a sign that people are tired of Washington politics and dealmaking. He said his victory sends "a very powerful message that business-as-usual is just not going to be the way we do it." "I think it's important that we hit the ground running," B

  tags: Government, Politics, Brown, Healthcare, Republican, Victory, News, message', Mass

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Brown: Mass. Victory Sends "Very Powerful Message' (abcnews.go.com)
• Dems reeling, soul-searching after Mass. loss (msnbc.msn.com)
• Crisis for Obama as Republicans take Massachusetts (newstatesman.com)