While most Americans bow sheepishly at the altar of the Bush Administration's War on Terror, the fine people of New Hampshire have been keeping their eyes on the freedoms promised by our Founding Fathers - so they're taking to the streets dressed as Nazis to protest national I.D. cards.
Karl Beisel is among those fighting this ham-fisted attempt to secure America's internal borders.
"If a state doesn't comply with Real I.D.," he says, "its residents risk being forced to purchase passports just to drive in other states or enter federal facilities. Thus, it reveals itself to be a Soviet-style internal passport."
Real I.D., the brainchild Republican Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner, was tacked onto an $82 million spending bill for the war in Iraq that was passed last May. It requires that by 2008 every American will have to have a federally-approved form of identification to get on a plane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments or do any kind of business with the federal government.
If any state were to fail to comply with the standards established by the Department of Homeland Security, their I.D. would no longer be recognized at many places, including airports, federal buildings and nuclear plants.
People from such states would effectively be treated as foreigners in their own country.
In New Hampshire, where the state motto is "Live free or die," people are outraged.
New Hampshire Republican Rep. Neal Kurk borrowed from Patrick Henry's famous "Liberty" speech in addressing his colleagues.
"The war on our civil liberties is actually begun," he declared. "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?"
Kurk's speech proceeded a vote on New Hampshire's House bill 1582 "prohibiting New Hampshire from participating in a national identification card system."
The bill passed by a vote of 217 to 84 in favor and now awaits a vote in the state Senate.
Hoping to maintain awareness of the bill, some wore "666" on their foreheads, comparing Real I.D. to the mark of the beast, based on ancient disinformation about the bible's bizarre Book of Revelation.
Jim Johnson and Lauren Canario set up a Nazi checkpoint last week in Concord to give folks a taste of what may lie ahead.
Canario says Real I.D. "sounds a lot like the old Nazi movies, and we just wanted to illustrate that."
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