Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act.
–source
Texas hasn’t had a whole lot to say about the Real ID Act, aside from complaining about how expensive it is going to be, how uncertain the security of the database network is going to be, and how impossible it is going to be to get 16 million drivers to come into the DMV with three forms of ID to get the new Real ID cards over a mere five year period. OK, I guess maybe Texas has been saying quite a bit about it, but I haven’t heard too much about whether or not we, as a state, are planning to defy the federal act or not. The most recent things I have read about it indicate Texas is not happy about it on many levels, don’t want to fund it, and will likely not be supporting it. That can always change, of course.
I don’t care one way or the other, and that doesn’t mean I am willing to get a passport simply to travel domestically on airplanes or to picnic in national parks. Those would just become two more things I don’t get to do … not that I do them now (or at least not terribly frequently), but I could. Personally, I see requiring me to obtain a passport to fly within the US or eat in a park to be a diminishing of my rights as a citizen, particularly the but about the national parks. Some of my tax dollars go to those parks (not enough by a long shot, I am sure), and therefore to deny me access to them, due to my lack of a passport (something not a requirement of citizenship — just like having an ID card or drivers license) is inherently wrong.
Ron Paul seems to agree with me on the citizenship issue:
Houston Congressman Ron Paul (R) was one of the few in Congress who voted against this idea, two years ago. He said the feds may call Real ID a voluntary system, but he claims it’s not voluntary at all. He claims any state that does not take part would turn its citizens into what he calls “non-persons.”
–source
Either Texas will decide to go along with Real ID or not. If they do, I will have slightly more hassle the next time I renew my license and can then fly freely and picnic wherever I like. If not, my driving life will go on as usual, and I just won’t ever fly anywhere again or visit any national parks … and griping about it endlessly.
So after a few moments this morning when I thought maybe there was still hope for the USA, I am now back to thinking the USA is freaking doomed. At the very least, it isn’t the country I grew up in anymore, that is for certain.
“Real ID” oh, so that’s what the guy who came up with “New Coke” is doing these days.
If I recall, didn’t we fight a cold war to keep the Red Oppressors of Freedom from the door all based on “In the West, no one can come up to you in the streets and say, ‘Papers, Please.’” I’m sure we did. In the Hunt for Red October, when they are defecting with the submarine, doesn’t the First Officer ask the Captain, “Will they let you travel from state to state in a mobilehome?” Well, not so much Yurggy, maybe you should defect somewhere’s else.
My gods, lots of countries have managed constant attacks by people who insisted on political change with IED’s, the Spanish, the Indians, the French, the British, they have all lost thousands of lives to these issues and not repressed their people — okay the Brit’s have put a camera on everybody, but still you can move around as you wish and be who you are and have your lunch in a park.
It’s a fundamental. People who share the suffrage are no longer equal in the society if they must surrender a freedom to the government. Those who stand for their freedom are dis-enfranchised. In Marxist Theory, that’s the first step towards creating a revolution to overthrow the repressive regime. Considering your history, this isn’t going to be pretty.
So, when we write the history, do we say that the new world project ended not at the hands of Marx and Mao and the billions that adhered to them, but to a single skinny man who fought and won one battle with the USA and then sat back and watched the whole house of cards fall under it’s jackboots?
…more, but less in the commentary vein over at mcdonnell.org.nz
Orbbo, it continues to break my heart what your homeland is going through.
I am not getting a passport so I can go into a national god-damned park. Without one, my access to Big Bend, Padre island, LBJ Park (where I grew up) and the freaking damn ALAMO would be denied. I, an American and a Texan could not go to the Alamo!!! Such freaking bullshit. Freedom, indeed.
In a few years, we’ll even need a passport to walk across the border to Mexico or Canada, not because those countries require them of us, but because ours does … to get back in. Oh yes, you can leave without one, but don’t think you can walk right back in, you silly American citizen!
When the day comes I get a passport, it will be because I am actually leaving the country to go far, far away … not to travel in my own country and go to my own national parks. Screw that. And once I leave, I don’t know that I will be coming back.
I don’t see enough people upset about all the crap that is going on here. No one is getting irate, because it’s just a little thing here and a little thing there. Well, taken altogether and on the whole, it is adding up to huge losses of freedoms and rights, and no one is going to notice until it is far too late.
One of my acquaintances said she’d start worrying about freedom of speech when The Daily Show was taken off the air for lampooning the government. Well, baby … by the time that happens, we are totally screwed and living in a fascist state. The time to stop it is before it happens, and it’s already happening.
Gods, this Real ID thing pisses me off. Papers please, indeed, right?
Relax, people! There’s not going to be any effective national ID system anytime soon, even though we certainly have the capacity to implement one. This is just more grandstanding by the White House aimed at simpleton voters still checking under the bed for Arabs. The Feds don’t even want to spend any money on this current scheme; just have the states certify that they follow proper procedure. It’s as likely to succeed as No Child Left Behind or any other government ‘concept’ program. Where I live the Motor Vehicle clerks are always getting caught selling licenses at $500 each out the back door after hours to illegals who don’t know that they can simply come through the front door and get them legitimately, since New Mexico doesn’t care where you’re from or in what language your birth certificate is written. Although a true, encrypted ID card would be a boon to law enforcement, the criminaloid business people who already violate the federal law each and every day fabricating phony Social Security numbers for employees, falsifying EOE reports, hiding reportable earnings in Zurich, committing all manner of contract fraud, would never allow such a thing. Then there are the public schools that over-report enrollment, National Guard units that carry phantom soldiers, and similar situations where revenue-sharing is based on headcount. This ID thing would be like turning on the kitchen lights at three in the morning, and your typical fat bureaucrat prefers not having to run and hide. Americans are just too fat, lazy and selfish to ever succeed at fascism, if that’s a saving grace.
I certainly hope this falls apart. I suspect it fell apart when the first states that decided it was a crock legislated against it. It will only work the way the government says it will work if everyone does it, otherwise it’s just another clusterf*ck (post pending on why).
You are right about it being like turning on the kitchen light at three in the morning, and I hope you are also right about Americans being too lazy for fascism. Only time will tell, I guess. All I know is, I am not going to play the game. No one is going to tell me I have to have a passport to visit the god-damned Alamo. That’s not just un-American, is un-Texan!