Database was a dirty word yesterday at a rally to oppose New Hampshire's participation in a national identification card system that would digitally catalog personal information.

More than 100 people - some dressed as Nazis, others wearing three-cornered hats - gathered on the State House lawn. Though the group's political leanings spanned the spectrum, they agreed that the system is a bad idea, citing identity theft, Big Brother and the violation of the United States Constitution.

"We have to decide . . . if we're going to stand by like sheep as they brand us," said Carol Shea-Porter, a Rochester Democrat (who was not in costume) running for Congress against Republican Jeb Bradley.

Known as Real ID, the card system would require motor vehicle officials to more thoroughly screen people applying for driver's licenses, issue licenses that contain anti-fraud precautions such as computer chips, and create a database with digital copies of drivers' birth certificates and other identifying documents. Anyone flying on an airplane, opening a bank account or entering a federal building would need to have the national ID card or a passport.

Congress passed the Real ID Act last year, and New Hampshire and Kentucky were offered $3 million grants to test the program. All states must comply by 2008.

But the New Hampshire House voted last month to refuse to do so, calling the program "contrary and repugnant" to the Constitution. Now it's up to the Senate to decide whether to take the federal grant money and overhaul the state's licensing system or not.

At yesterday's rally, speakers urged the Senate to buck the new law, comparing the United States to Nazi Germany and warning against everything from a police state to the start of the apocalypse. Tim DeBenedictis, of Wakefield, was one of a handful of people with stickers bearing the number "666" stuck to their foreheads.

DeBenedictis, a member of the Constitution Party, said Real ID is a precursor to the "mark of the beast" told of in the Bible, where every man must have "666" on his hand or forehead to buy or sell anything.

The Rev. Garrett Lear, known as "the Patriot Pastor" for his knowledge of the Constitution and colonial dress, praised those who wore the stickers and said he was ashamed that more Christians hadn't showed up. He told the crowd the Real ID system is contrary to the liberty-for-all wishes of the founding fathers, many of whom were Christian.

"Thanks be to God that the House voted" against Real ID, he said.

Katherine Albrecht, a consumer advocate and leader of the anti-Real ID movement, read a chapter from her book, Spychips, about how the government plans to track people through product ID tags. Albrecht of Nashua said that in the wrong hands, a national identification system could have disastrous effects.

It's like "putting a noose around your neck and hoping the government doesn't pull the rope," she said. "You could think you're giving the rope to Mother Theresa but find yourself looking into the eyes of Adolf Hitler."

To illustrate that point, Lauren Canario and Jim Johnson of Winchester, members of the Free State Project, dressed in Nazi beige and stood watch over a mock guard shack at the edge of the lawn. To pass through the fake gate to the free popcorn stand and rally ahead, passersby had to say "F U."

"You can't get by without cursing the Nazis," said Canario, who was holding a sign that read "Say Yahvol to Real ID."

Rep. Elbert Bicknell, a Deerfield Republican who also spoke at the rally, called Real ID an unfunded mandate similar to special education and the No Child Left Behind Act. He said the identification system won't help protect our borders from illegal immigrants or terrorists, but will take away our privacy. Americans shouldn't have to sacrifice their freedoms for "what those butchers did to us" on Sept. 11, 2001, he added. (next page »)