Exclusive: Why You Should Boycott the State of Maine
Peter Gadiel


Author: Peter Gadiel

Date Published: 2007-03-01



 

 

The REAL ID Act must be ratified by all the States for America to be secure in knowing that we will never have a repeat of 9/11, with terrorists using fraudulent drivers’ licenses to carry out their mass murder.  FSM Contributing Editor Peter Gadiel explains how the ACLU duped Maine into offering terror-friendly drivers’ licenses, making all of us terrifyingly unsafe.

 

Why You Should Boycott the State of Maine

 

By Peter Gadiel

 

 

The state of Maine relies heavily on the tourism industry to pay its bills.  As such, the State’s license plates describe it as “Vacationland,” and an advertising campaign at one time promoted this on billboards in the Northeast that played on the Post Office abbreviation of the State’s name: ME.  Thus the message along highways was “SKI ME.” “HIKE ME.” “FISH ME.” “SWIM ME.”” SAIL ME…and so forth.  Recent action, however, by the Maine legislature suggests that far more appropriate phrases for its license plates and the State motto are “FOOL ME.”

 

Maine’s Legislature earned the title as America’s Most Gullible when it passed a resolution calling on Congress to repeal the REAL ID Act, spurred on by false information about the Act which was fed to them by the ACLU.   The evidence of their gullibility is in the wording of the resolution, for it uses the same phrases and phony figures that the ACLU uses in its anti-REAL ID propaganda.  To see how the ACLU made a fool out of ME, let’s review the falsehoods spread by the ACLU, and then compare them to the way ME’s legislators regurgitated them.

 

Text below in blue is copied from the ACLU website at http://www.realnightmare.org/

Text below in red is copied from the Maine Legislature’s Joint Resolution (SP 113) adopted 1/25/07

 

ACLU:  REAL ID mandates “a national driver’s license”

Maine Resolution REAL ID Act “mandates a… national driver's license”

 

ACLU:   “It’s a national identity system…internal passport used to track and control individuals’ movements and activities…databases” 

Maine Resolution: It’s a “national database” “and invasion of privacy…”

 

ACLU:   REAL ID will result in “Increased security and ID-theft risks.”

Maine Resolution: REAL ID “will invite theft of identity”

 

ACLU:  “Partial Cost Estimate for Real ID: $11 billion.” 

Maine Resolution: REAL ID “will cost Maine taxpayers approximately $185 million.”

 

ACLU: REAL ID will mean “long lines, and bureaucratic nightmares for individuals”

Maine Resolution: “REAL ID Act of 2005 will impose inconveniences”

 

ACLU:  REAL ID “will not be effective against terrorism…identity-based security is not an effective way to stop terrorism.”

Maine Resolution:  REAL ID will bring no “attendant benefit such as protections from terrorism”

 

 

Not only are these claims entirely false, they’re laughably false.  No matter, ME’s legislators swallowed them whole.

 

It’s worth looking at what the role the ACLU has played in creating and selling this disinformation campaign regarding secure driver’s licenses just five months after the 9/11 attacks, while the ruins of the World Trade Center were still warm.  The 9/11 hijackers provided a deadly example of what would-be terrorists and criminals can do with authentic U.S. drivers’ licenses. ACLU leaders correctly anticipated that America would act to prevent future terrorists from obtaining U.S. licenses.  They realized that it would be impossible to deny licenses to terrorists and violent felons from other countries if all applicants were required to provide verifiable proof of their true identity.  But, if proof of identity were to be required of all applicants, then illegal aliens would also no longer be able to acquire U.S. driver’s licenses.  After all, as the ACLU and all its allies in the pro-illegal alien lobby admit, illegal aliens are “undocumented.”

 

Thus, the ACLU had to make a choice: either it could come down on the side of securing America from terrorist attacks, OR, it could make sure that all illegal aliens, terrorists, violent felons…anyone…could continue to acquire American drivers’ licenses. The ACLU, being what it is, jumped fully into preserving licenses for illegals and undermining anti-terrorism efforts and has held that posture ever since.

 

The ACLU’s war against secure licenses was first spelled out by Barry Steinhardt in a February 10, 2002, speech to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, in which he laid out the ACLU strategy of disinformation it has followed ever since. These lies have been used to battle the REAL ID Act both before and after it was passed. And now the members of the ME legislature have collectively allowed themselves to be embarrassed.   

 

REAL ID does NOT require you to carry your license, except when you’re driving a car on a public road; does NOT allow police officers to “demand your papers,” unless of course you are involved in a traffic stop, or are questioned in relation to a crime.  It does not create an internal passport, and it does not create a “national database.”  It does NOT require or authorize states to obtain any personal information about you which is not related to your ability to drive.  It does not authorize any sort of “radio chip” in the licenses.  It does not take away licensing power from the States.

 

And directly contrary to the outright lie claimed by the ACLU, REAL ID will REDUCE identity theft because it will be much more difficult for anyone to pretend to be you and get an ID in your name.

 

If you think that what happens at the eastern edge of the nation is of no particular consequence to the rest of us, consider this:  On the morning of September 11, 2001, Mohammed Atta and several of his fellow mass murders boarded their first flight of the day at the Portland, Maine, International Airport.

 

So indeed, what happens in Maine is important to the rest of the country.  Maine’s legislature is aiding and abetting the ACLU’S efforts to make sure the next Mohammed Atta will be able to obtain a license in any state that chooses to give him one.  Currently the list of states actually engaged in such lax practices is surprisingly large, due in part to the power of the ACLU and the rest of the illegal alien lobby.  The list of states still giving licenses to illegal aliens and the unknown foreign terrorists and violent felons among them includes Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, Maryland and of course Maine.

 

As a result of Maine’s utterly irresponsible actions, maybe the rest of us who do actually care about preventing more mass terrorism should create our own slogan for State of Maine:  BOYCOTT ME.

 

 

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Peter Gadiel is the President of the 9/11 Families For a Secure America.

 

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