UnReal ID
When provisions get attached to "must-pass" legislation, they usually stink to high heaven and would never pass alone. The latest of these gems is the "Real ID" Act, attached to the bill appropriating funds for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I don't know about you, but I'm thinking that having to dig up my birth certificate, show it and my Social Security number to a low-wage DMV clerk, and get my fingerprints taken, all to be digitized and held in a nationally-accessible database for years, is maybe not the best response to the fact that a couple of the 9/11 hijackers had false driver's licenses.
All the hijackers entered this country legally, but a couple had overstayed their visas before they applied for driver's licenses. In some "if only" right-wing fantasy, the Real ID provisions might have kept 2 of the 19 off the flights, had they been stupid enough to wait, instead of getting licenses while their documents were still valid.
Forgive me if I suspect the real motive behind this has something to do with "dealing with all them Mekskins."
It's especially galling to know that my personal information is going to be required by the State at the same time that we seem to be loosening immigration controls on the country the 9/11 hijackers actually came from.
Also tucked away in the bill is the hideous language giving the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to ignore all existing laws in order to build barriers and roads, something I blogged about months ago. (This stuff just keeps floating to the surface of the cesspool.) It also monkeys with little things like habeas corpus, and makes it harder to get asylum in this country, while broadening the definition of "supporting" terrorist activities. Sweet.
Ironically, in a bill that also includes funding for tsunami relief, there is no money appropriated to the states who will have to be picking up the tab for setting up all these systems. Because, after all, what's the fun of imposing a police state if you have to actually pony up the cash yourself?
I don't know about you, but I'm thinking that having to dig up my birth certificate, show it and my Social Security number to a low-wage DMV clerk, and get my fingerprints taken, all to be digitized and held in a nationally-accessible database for years, is maybe not the best response to the fact that a couple of the 9/11 hijackers had false driver's licenses.
All the hijackers entered this country legally, but a couple had overstayed their visas before they applied for driver's licenses. In some "if only" right-wing fantasy, the Real ID provisions might have kept 2 of the 19 off the flights, had they been stupid enough to wait, instead of getting licenses while their documents were still valid.
Forgive me if I suspect the real motive behind this has something to do with "dealing with all them Mekskins."
It's especially galling to know that my personal information is going to be required by the State at the same time that we seem to be loosening immigration controls on the country the 9/11 hijackers actually came from.
RIYADH, 4 May 2005 - US Ambassador James C. Oberwetter says changes in the US visa process would ease travel between the States and Saudi Arabia. ...Seems to me, if we were really trying to close the security loopholes that allowed 9/11, preventing all Saudis from entering the country, and expelling the ones who are here, would be (hypothetically) at least 9.5 times as effective as this Real ID system. And I, a law-abiding, but privacy-conscious, native-born citizen, wouldn't have to sacrifice any of my personal data to the scrutiny of the government. (Can you say identity theft?) Also, I think I might like to see them straighten out the no-fly list system, and the whole Arabic-names-thing, before we let them have more database access to my personal data. (Maybe it's just the fact that security experts say that this ID won't make us any safer has biased me.)
"Last week's visit by Crown Prince Abdullah to the United States has given a major boost to the bilateral relations," said Oberwetter. "I am very satisfied with the outcome of the royal visit," he said, referring to the joint communique issued after the talks held by Crown Prince Abdullah and the US President George W. Bush.
Also tucked away in the bill is the hideous language giving the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to ignore all existing laws in order to build barriers and roads, something I blogged about months ago. (This stuff just keeps floating to the surface of the cesspool.) It also monkeys with little things like habeas corpus, and makes it harder to get asylum in this country, while broadening the definition of "supporting" terrorist activities. Sweet.
Ironically, in a bill that also includes funding for tsunami relief, there is no money appropriated to the states who will have to be picking up the tab for setting up all these systems. Because, after all, what's the fun of imposing a police state if you have to actually pony up the cash yourself?
posted by Paul at 11:31 AM |
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