More on our second REAL-ID victory

(from Vicki Simons)

Today [Yesterday], my husband Mike and I were joined by dozens of citizen activists from all over South Carolina at the State House in Columbia, where we waited for and then heard Governor Sanford announce his decision regarding REAL ID, the segue to a national ID card. The E-Release that had been sent out by the Governor's office on Friday indicated that he would be making the announcement in his office. As it turned out, there were so many citizen activists assembled that the decision was made to set up a podium in the lobby between the Governor's and Lt. Governor's offices. This in and of itself was a victory. The lobby was full of press and people.

Some of us wondered what the Governor would say, being as how he waited until the very last day upon which an extension on the deadline to comply with REAL ID could be filed. However, the Governor exceeded our expectations in a number of ways. Here are some of what I consider to be the highlights:

1. He did not and will not file an extension on the deadline to comply with Real ID, based on state law.
2. He referred to his oath of office (which you may know many elected officials forget once they get sworn into office).
3. He correctly identified our nation as a "republic" (not the wrong word "democracy" that many elected officials use).
4. He addressed the right issues in the right order, first of all speaking about liberty, then moving to the "unfunded mandate" handed down to states by the federal government. (I learned that the federal government planned to pay for only 2% of the costs while the remaining 98% would be foisted on the states and taxpayers. Of course, whether from state or federal sources, taxpayers would be paying for 100% of this monstrosity.)
5. He spoke of "drawing a line in the sand" against the federal government. Now, if only Congress would understand Amendment 10 to the U.S. Constitution!
6. He humbly and respectfully submitted his plan, in direct contrast to the rather fiery statement from the Governor of Montana, who told the feds "where" they could go.
7. He outlined the security aspects that the State of South Carolina already has in place on obtaining driver's licenses. He contrasted South Carolina's security requirements with those of other states.
8. He correctly stated that Real ID had not been debated on the federal level and that this issue needed to be "debated, not dictated." He said Real ID was poor public policy for a number of reasons and had numerous loopholes.
9. He spoke about the invasions of privacy that had already taken place in numerous settings, including looking at info on the three presidential candidates. He said that instead of personal information being spread out over 50 states, Real ID would consolidate this info into one place, raising gigantic privacy concerns.

You may also wish to see:

Governor Sanford Responds to Real ID Issue
http://www.scgovernor.com/news/releases/mar_08/3-31-2008.htm

Real ID letter to DHS (PDF)
http://www.scgovernor.com/NR/rdonlyres/8EA29AE1-B84F-443E-B54A-3626FE5DEF57/0/Letterf033108RealIDletterDHS.PDF

Real ID Requirements: Does South Carolina Comply (PDF)
http://www.scgovernor.com/NR/rdonlyres/D2246B46-815F-40E2-AAE5-F04CCD4EBCD0/0/Real_ID_requirements.pdf

The only downside to today's announcement was that, in the Governor's words, our state legislators got "nervous" to the point of pushing through non-binding resolutions, asking the Governor to file an extension. I'm still not through getting to the bottom of that.

Also, now that the Governor has made this decision, we need to work on contacting our Congressmen and Senators in Washington and press them to look again at Real ID. I want for this ill-conceived piece of legislation to be completely repealed!

Although I'm sure there are more, news articles on this announcement may be found on:
http://www.goupstate.com/article/20080331/NEWS/808574656/1051/NEWS01
http://www.wltx.com/sports/story.aspx?storyid=60337
http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080331/NEWS01/80331003/-1/rss
http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080331/NEWS/80331056/-1/rss

All in all, I consider what happened today to be a complete victory for South Carolinians from the standpoints of freedom, liberty, privacy, civil liberties and taxpayer advocacy. Those of us who worked so hard on getting the bill passed into law had a reunion and celebrated over lunch afterwards.

Thanks for every contact you made with the Governor's office on this issue. Now it's time to send Governor Sanford a "thank you" note for his principled stand against REAL ID. His contact info is online here:
http://www.scgovernor.com/contact/

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Vicki Simons