i'm not sure what just happened, but i'm a little scared

apparently, the REAL ID Act was snuck into the bill that passed through congress today that was primarily a war provisions bill. now, i'm not one of those who gets all paranoid about stuff like this usually, but the way it was handled (tacked into a bill that was sure to pass, and without any discussion or debate about the bill which was shot down last year), the fact that it's a national mandate that the states will be forced to fund, and the fact that it gives the secretary of homeland security freedom from all federal, state, and local laws (though supposedly only when it comes to erecting national barriers at borders) and that without any judicial review, just makes my head spin. not to mention the fact that the general consensus is that it probably won't do what it was aimed at doing (improving national security) and if it leads to the national ID card as many think it will, may actually make ID theft a whole lot easier. I'm not very politically savvy, so i'm not going to try to make my own pathetic analysis of what's happened here, but if you're interested at all, i'd read up on it. i'm not all hyped up thinking this is going to turn the US into a police state, but i just hate the way this was quietly snuck through. i know i probably sound insanely naive, but i just can't believe this is the way our government works. if anyone who actually reads this blog has a more solid or correct understanding of what's going on with this bill, please, enlighten this poor political amateur.