[Active-l] (NEWS) (ACTION ITEM) Dept. of Homeland Security to implement internal passport system

[Dara (R'ykandar Korra'ti)]

CNN.com carried the news, but downplayed it in the headline; "Federal  
ID plan raises privacy concerns." ( http://edition.cnn.com/2007/ 
POLITICS/08/16/real.id/index.html )

No.

"Federal ID plan implements internal passport" is the correct  
headline. Quoting the article:

	(CNN) -- 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.

	[...]

	More than half the nation's state legislatures have passed symbolic  
legislation denouncing the plan, and some have penned bills expressly  
forbidding compliance.

	[...]

	The cards would be mandatory for all "federal purposes," which  
include boarding an airplane or walking into a federal building,  
nuclear facility or national park, Homeland Security Secretary  
Michael Chertoff told the National Conference of State Legislatures  
last week. Citizens in states that don't comply with the new rules  
will have to use passports for federal purposes.

	"For terrorists, travel documents are like weapons," Chertoff said.  
"We do have a right and an obligation to see that those licenses  
reflect the identity of the person who's presenting it."

Read Mr. Chertoff's commentary _real carefully_ there, will you?  
"Travel documents are like weapons." Relocating without government  
authority is a bomb waiting to go off.

Those of you not familiar with the history of the Soviet Union may  
not be familiar with the concept of the internal passport." The  
"internal passport" was the document set you needed in order to move  
about within the country, get jobs - really, do anything. But key to  
this was controlling mobility. Most of the Soviet sphere had them, or  
variations on them, inherited from the old Czarist imperial era,  
though initially condemned and dropped by the Communist revolution.  
They were reimplemented during the Russian Civil War and never, ever  
dropped; they were a great way to control the population, since you  
couldn't move, rent, etc., without them.

( Suggested reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passport_system_of_the_Soviet_Union
http://www.momentmag.com/Exclusive/2007/2007-08/200708-Essay.html )

Now we have cabinet ministers saying that surprise! We're  
implementing that here.

Yes, some of you will say, I'm overreacting. NO, I'M FUCKING WELL  
NOT. Yes, you can still drive across a state border without one. But  
have you tried, say, renting without showing photo ID lately? You  
can't. Well, you can, but it's illegal. It's not policy: it's law.  
It's part of "immigration reform" law, passed a few years ago. Right  
now, that ID requirement can mean all sorts of things, such a a state  
identification card. Or a student card. Or a driver's license.

Tomorrow, it can mean Federal ID only. Like, say, a passport. Or an  
_internal_ passport.

Our state, I'm proud to say, is one of the states which have passed  
bills banning implementation. Obviously, this is payback, intended to  
whip the states into compliance with the new system. As Mr. Chertoff  
said:

	"This is not a mandate," Chertoff said. "A state doesn't have to do  
this, but if the state doesn't have -- at the end of the day, at the  
end of the deadline -- Real ID-compliant licenses then the state  
cannot expect that those licenses will be accepted for federal  
purposes."

"It's not a mandate, but we'll beat you down good and proper if you  
don't go along." I'll be telling my legislators not to back off,  
under any terms. I recommend you do this too. Because seriously -  
_fuck_ this.

Work at the state level, people. We won't hear much against this from  
Congress; they're too busy making things worse. State governments  
will have to fight it.