Sorry. Downsize has to streamline its sign-up procedure. I went through the whole drill, then I was asked to start over. I don't have the patience. My senators are confirmed socialists anyway......

National ID cards seem to become a popular trend. Over here (.nl) it is now mandatory to carry ID as well. Cops cannot just go around and ask for it, but the whole point is good intent cannot be trusted endlessly.

The most disturbing part to me, is that it isn't too hard to find actual details about the REAL ID ACT on government websites i.e it's a "real" thing, but for the life of me can't find a single article in any major/mainstream news sources about it (oh wait... I found *one* form NPR). Neither about it's passing the house last Thursday or the possible vote on it today.

In England... during the process of law making do they have they same procedure where as they slip what would be an unpopular/controversial bill into other bills that save Children, feed the hungry, support the troops etc..?

No. But there are a couple of similarly dangerous tendencies here: the ragbag act (usually something to do with Criminal Justice) where dozens of disparate tinkering measures are shoved in with a couple of high profile popular themes and get through barely examined; and "framework" legislation, where parliament gives the executive wide power to make substantive law through regulation.

The American approach derives from the fact that your legislators will actually vote the way that suits them (and their backers maybe) if they understand the measures, so the Bills have to be made unreadable and filled with poison pills. Ours is driven by the exigencies of the party system and media attention in the first case, and the constitutional possiblilty of avoiding scrutiny altogether in the second.