Slashdot Mirror
Going to Yosemite? Get Your Passport Ready!
rev_media writes to tell us that CNN has a few updates to the Real ID act currently facing legislators. The Real ID acts mandates all states to begin issuing federal IDs to all citizens by 2008. Costs could be as much at $14 billion, but only 40 million are currently allocated. Several states have passed legislation expressly forbidding participation in the program, while others seem to be all for it. The IDs will be required for access to all federal areas including flights, state parks and federal buildings. People in states refusing to comply will need to show passports even for domestic flights.
"What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to be governed by surprise, to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believe that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. " ~ an anonymous German Professor from 'They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1939-1945', by Milton Mayer
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
If they require a passport to do some of those things like fly or enter public buildings, that will signifigantly impact poor people.
My passport cost me 97 dollars last time I got one, and not everyone has that kind of money lying around
Every Swiss home has an assault rifle, and it's expected to be operational. Also every man is expected to be proficient with those weapons.
Funny thing though: you don't hear much about Swiss terrorists and their crime rates are extremely low...
Most the military takes what it does very seriously. Then there are the political officers. In the months before 9/11, the Cheney administration changed the procedure so that NORAD had to get permission from the Secretary of Defense before they could intercept an off-course airplane. Before the civilian air traffic controllers & NORAD did the intercept thing on a regular basis.
But wait, we don't believe in conspiracies here. Hmm.
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com
Arguably, certain terrorists view Islamist theocracy as the only legitimate form of government. That would not be a very free state.
Sure, they would start with Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. They've tried, and are even succeeding in some cases.
But the major thing they hate is our support for dictators in the Middle East that block their efforts towards establishing new theocratic states, either by democratic vote or by coup. The U.S., even though it's "committed to democracy", would rather have a friendly dictator in place than a democratically elected government that rejects the USA. This can be a messy argument (is a theocratic state truly free? etc.)
-Stu