Schweitzer tells Homeland Security to eff itself on Real ID

The Montana governor says his state will neither try to comply with nor seek an extension to get in compliance with the federal ID law and a teen apparently being framed for allegedly taking part.

He’s asking other resistant states to join him, and already has an alternative to Real ID in mind:

Schweitzer wants Congress to step up and pass alternative legislation that would stop Real ID and re-instate a commission that was working on driver's license rules before the REAL ID Act was slipped into must-pass defense legislation in 2005. …

Schweitzer's letter went out to the governors of Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington.

Unfortunately, allegedly conservative Texas is not among the rebel states. Gov. Rick Perry’s probably getting more money from Bracewell, Giuliani to accept it.

Meanwhile, DHS excuses on the need for Real ID claim it will help in the fight against meth dealers buying pseudoephedrine and even help in the crackdown on teen smoking.

Texas to reject REAL ID, despite two years of hypocrisy behind it

State Rep. Joe Corte is leading the charge to opt Texas out of REAL ID, the federal driver’s license law which is both an unfunded mandate and a massive data-mining exercise.

The former apparently bothers Corte. But, the latter didn’t two years ago, when he backed legislation expanding state biometric data gathering — as a ramp-up for REAL ID. Problem is, Gov. Perry’s own data mining program, ostensibly for state homeland security, is now wind-drafting in the powers of Corte’s 2005 bill.