Anchorage Daily News

Orwellian talk to the contrary, the REAL ID Act does give the United States its first national identification card. And it will create a national database of information about more than 240 million Americans.

Last week, Michael Chertoff, secretary of Homeland Security, unveiled revised rules for the REAL ID Act, which bombed beyond the Beltway after its passage in 2005. Seventeen states passed resolutions protesting it or prohibiting compliance. So Homeland Security tried to sweeten the deal by granting delays, slashing costs by a claimed 73 percent and exempting Americans 50 and older from carrying federally approved driver's licenses until 2017.

Red flag, citizens. If you can't peddle an idea without a fire sale and years of delay, it's probably not a good idea.

REAL ID requires the states to issue driver's licenses that comply with more rigorous federal rules for checking personal data and that have three layers of technical security to make counterfeiting harder. The law also requires each state database to connect with other state databases and federal databases so that information can be shared and checked.

By 2014, states would have to issue REAL ID licenses to all drivers born after Dec. 1, 1964. States could choose from a menu of high-tech safeguards to include in the card.

Last week's sweeteners came with a warning. Mr. Chertoff said the time for discussion and debate is over. States now must seek waivers for more time to comply with the act, or their licenses won't be valid ID for boarding airplanes or entering federal buildings.

And yet he claims the states aren't being coerced.

There remain two fundamental problems with REAL ID.

• Americans have long and wisely rejected any sort of national identification card, particularly one that could be used to restrict our free passage among the states or collect information about us. REAL ID -- or any American's lack of REAL ID -- would do both.

Americans for generations have conceded the need for a reasonably functioning government to have certain information about us. Social Security requires it. Federal loans require it. So do military service and the census. Justice and security sometimes require it. We bear, sometimes with clenched teeth, the intrusion of baggage and body searches to board airplanes.

But Americans also have maintained that the ordinary commerce, relationships and comings and goings of law-abiding citizens are none of Uncle Sam's business.

With REAL ID, such could become an increasingly routine part of Uncle Sam's business.

• Critics point out that REAL ID would not make us safer. It would not have stopped Timothy McVeigh, a homegrown terrorist, nor would it guarantee the apprehension of foreign-born terrorists like those who carried out the attacks of 9/11. It might provide a limited tool against illegal immigration, and, Mr. Chertoff argues, identity theft. But tech trackers insist shared databases would increase opportunities for ID theft and other information hacking -- not to mention government-sanctioned invasions of privacy.

Paranoia? No, just knowledge of current events, given the Bush administration's determination to tap Americans' communications with no court oversight and no accountability.

If the states want to tighten their rules for driver's licenses and ID verification, fine. Some of the checks required by REAL ID are being done now -- Alaska, for example, double-checks given Social Security numbers.

And few Americans would have any problem with states sharing information with one another and the feds -- given just cause for doing so.

We want law enforcement on any level to have the means to protect us and catch the bad guys before they strike. That calls for precision, not a universal net that restricts our freedoms and threatens our privacy.

REAL ID doesn't need tweaking or more time. It needs repeal.

BOTTOM LINE: Homeland Security gives ground on cost and time, but REAL ID is a bad deal at any price, at any time.

Winter biker

Meet Nick Hardigg, winter bicycle commuter.

Age: "Still in his 30s" (but not for long).

Married, no kids. His wife is also a bike commuter.

Lives in: Turnagain.

Works in: Downtown.

Route: Coastal Trail to Second Avenue, then uphill.

Bike: A Marin hybrid (not a mountain bike; not a street bike), with studded tires. "It's not heavy and it's fast. You don't need some fat balloon tire to get around."

Typical winter riding outfit: Multiple layers, rain pants, rain jacket, face mask, wool mittens.

This is his second winter in Anchorage commuting on bike. He's used to cold weather -- he did four years with the National Park Service in Denali.

Advantages: Doesn't need to belong to a health club -- commuting is his daily exercise. He and his wife get by with just one car. That saves thousands of dollars a year.

Disadvantages: When it snows so much during the day he can't pedal the bike. Riding to work through unpacked snow, he may get to the office sweating like a horse, and there is no shower there.

Moose encounters: "I see one every three weeks or so on the Coastal Trail. Generally they move out of way."

Near death experiences with Anchorage drivers: None so far. His bike has "nice, powerful blinkers" and he just added a strobe light to be seen more easily.

Take away message: "I can't believe how easy it is. It's relaxing. I hate traffic. It's just fun."

-- Matt Zencey

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